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Deliberately flooding your house will never not be slightly unsettling.
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Oct 3, 2017 18:04
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I was waiting to see it all pour away into a hidden basement.
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Oct 3, 2017 18:33
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I've decided to go with a floating engineered oak floor downstairs and probably the same in the upstairs hallway. Got some samples on order! In the meantime the boiler is on order and arriving next week, the builder is sick so my temporary stairs won't go in on Monday as planned but no big deal. Also starting some very tentative conversations with gardeners, so far I've had ballpark estimates anywhere from 10 to 45 thousand pounds.
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Oct 6, 2017 17:09
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Jaded Burnout posted:45 thousand pounds. What the gently caress are you planning?
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Oct 6, 2017 21:58
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Building an upside down model of the house in a pit and topping it with glass like an old 3D engine doing reflective surfaces.
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Oct 6, 2017 22:24
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cakesmith handyman posted:What the gently caress are you planning? I know right! These are very tentative enquiries so right now all I've told them is the square metreage. I ain't goin with Mr 45 Grand. I've had another guy round and he was much more sensible in terms of suggesting coming back when all the building work is finished and the current mass of greenery has died off so we can get a better look. He also lives round the corner LIKE EVERY TRADE IN THIS drat PROJECT it's ridiculous.
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Oct 7, 2017 05:51
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Took a wander around upstairs. Getting there.         
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Oct 9, 2017 16:46
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Big day today, the bifolds went in.               Guess what the window fitter did to both my keys while showing me how it worked?  Bifolds: £4,720 Total cost: £137,615.24
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Oct 9, 2017 16:54
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Those bi-folds look amazing! That's a pretty good price you got, considering the amount of glass and steel in them (those frames look heavy duty).Jaded Burnout posted:I've decided to go with a floating engineered oak floor downstairs and probably the same in the upstairs hallway. Got some samples on order! How are you going with getting quotes? We're in the middle of looking at flooring for a small apartment renovation and it's been weird. We're still in process of getting the construction drawings done so all the flooring places are like...come to us when you're a month out from actually getting the floors done. I get that they need to see the sub-floor to quote accurately but I mean, come on, how else is a person supposed to go around getting a ballpark quote ahead of the whole drat project.
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Oct 13, 2017 00:47
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Leng posted:Those bi-folds look amazing! That's a pretty good price you got, considering the amount of glass and steel in them (those frames look heavy duty). Aluminium I think, but yeah. They cost 150% of all the windows upstairs but those were upvc. Leng posted:How are you going with getting quotes? We're in the middle of looking at flooring for a small apartment renovation and it's been weird. We're still in process of getting the construction drawings done so all the flooring places are like...come to us when you're a month out from actually getting the floors done. I get that they need to see the sub-floor to quote accurately but I mean, come on, how else is a person supposed to go around getting a ballpark quote ahead of the whole drat project. I've actually changed my mind again back to stone tile downstairs, the wood floor just isn't going to work against all the other wood trims etc. As for quotes, most trades I've found will have a standard square metre estimate, which can usually be found online. For example extensions are ballparked at £1,200.00/sqm, tiling at £40/sqm etc. For the floating floor I was just going to fit it myself since it's not a complicated or irreversible process, so the only cost was materials which is easy enough to do by the square metre on flooring supply websites. Not sure if you're in the UK but there's also some "how much does thing X cost to get done" websites which have been accurate enough for guesswork.
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Oct 13, 2017 04:29
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Holy poo poo why did I not know dust doors are a thing before sanding floorboards in my house. Both my spare rooms look like budget coke dens.
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Oct 14, 2017 23:21
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THE RAGGY posted:Holy poo poo why did I not know dust doors are a thing before sanding floorboards in my house. Both my spare rooms look like budget coke dens. These along with a laser measure are must haves for renovations IMO. In other news, it's a boiler!  It's the wrong boiler. And the wrong flue. The flue isn't even for the right boiler.
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Oct 19, 2017 14:59
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Lol I would have stayed somewhere else for the three days that the concrete was settling.
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Oct 20, 2017 00:17
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Yeah so would I, but I've already expended a lot of goodwill in that department and I'm running low on cash. I'll likely save that for when the tiles are setting in that same area, if it comes to it.
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Oct 20, 2017 04:27
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Speaking of that floor, I knew the place was a little damp but I didn't know quite how much. I put some engineered wood floor samples down 10 days ago and picked them up today. This is what the underside looks like.  That label wasn't blank.
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Oct 20, 2017 09:27
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Oh yeah actually concrete needs months to cure properly. A big cause of mold in modern houses is because people (construction companies) are in too much of a hurry. When we built our house we didn't install floors until it had dried 4-5 months with a dehumidifier running the whole time and also the floor heating set high. We also measured the moisture levels until they where low enough.
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Oct 20, 2017 10:00
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This is an anhydrite screed so it's crystalline rather than concrete. It cures in a max of 7 days but takes a while longer to dry out because it's pumped in rather than laid like concrete. It'll be a couple of months before I put tiles on top anyway so we've plenty of time to dry it out. The underfloor heating is getting commissioned as soon as we have the right boiler so that will help.
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Oct 20, 2017 12:37
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That is some scary growth in 10 days.Jaded Burnout posted:As for quotes, most trades I've found will have a standard square metre estimate, which can usually be found online. For example extensions are ballparked at £1,200.00/sqm, tiling at £40/sqm etc. We ended up deciding on luxury vinyl plank because of the waterproof and easy cleaning aspect. The high end products which are baby safe run about $50-70/sqm AUD supplied and ~$120/sqm installed. The annoying variable is that those ballparks are all based on caveats on how level the floor is (something like 2mm across 4-5 sqm) and then they charge you $$$$$ extra if they need to level the subfloor. I've heard that there are self-levelling compounds that could be used instead? I'm having trouble understanding why levelling costs so much if there's magical self-levelling products that can get you about the same result (or is the self-levelling product a lie?). On the floating floor bit: finding stuff that can be installed on stairs was surprisingly annoying. Many products I came across just didn't have stair-compatible accessories (e.g. stair noses). So we're pretty much picking the products by process of elimination. I'm in Australia so the main price comparison websites I have to work with are these (posting for any other Australian goons): https://www.homeimprovementpages.com.au/c/cost https://www.archicentreaustralia.com.au/resources/cost-guide/ https://www.archicentreaustralia.com.au/resources/cost-calculator/ - this is actually really good to start with if you're at the beginning of the project
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Oct 20, 2017 13:45
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Leng posted:The annoying variable is that those ballparks are all based on caveats on how level the floor is (something like 2mm across 4-5 sqm) and then they charge you $$$$$ extra if they need to level the subfloor. I've heard that there are self-levelling compounds that could be used instead? I'm having trouble understanding why levelling costs so much if there's magical self-levelling products that can get you about the same result (or is the self-levelling product a lie?). Not sure about levelling issues since the new floor is poured so it levels itself through surface tension (rather than concrete which is more stodgy and doesn't necessarily settle flat). The tiler did mention that he could deal with small levelling issues but I didn't need to discuss further. You can certainly put on a self-levelling skim but I don't know whether you can have one that's integrated into your adhesive or whatever. Leng posted:On the floating floor bit: finding stuff that can be installed on stairs was surprisingly annoying. Many products I came across just didn't have stair-compatible accessories (e.g. stair noses). So we're pretty much picking the products by process of elimination. Do you mean around stairs or on stairs? If around you cut 'em to fit, if on, well I need all new stairs anyway so I'm just going to get them finished in wood I like.
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Oct 20, 2017 13:52
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Leng posted:I've heard that there are self-levelling compounds that could be used instead? I'm having trouble understanding why levelling costs so much if there's magical self-levelling products that can get you about the same result (or is the self-levelling product a lie?). I laid down a bunch of self-leveling compound when I installed some laminate, and it's a fairly labor-intensive process. You've got to mark out all the low spots, clean the poo poo out of the floor, mix 40lb bags of compound in 5 gallon buckets, and carefully spread it and feather it into the low spots.
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Oct 20, 2017 14:26
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GODDAMN 83% HUMIDITY IN MY HOUSE ON A SUNNY DAY WTF Dehumidifier is now in full effect.
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Oct 20, 2017 16:23
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Jaded Burnout posted:This is an anhydrite screed so it's crystalline rather than concrete. It cures in a max of 7 days but takes a while longer to dry out because it's pumped in rather than laid like concrete. Whatever you do make sure your tiler knows what hes doing with Anhydrite. I work in the tiling industry and trust me, nothing has the potential to gently caress up more than an Anhydrite screed. Depending on the depth, it will probably be at least 3 months before the screed is dry enough to tile, and then it will need scrabbling and priming correctly before hand. Other than that, its cool seeing the progress you're making
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Oct 20, 2017 19:34
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lorddazron posted:Whatever you do make sure your tiler knows what hes doing with Anhydrite. I work in the tiling industry and trust me, nothing has the potential to gently caress up more than an Anhydrite screed. Depending on the depth, it will probably be at least 3 months before the screed is dry enough to tile, and then it will need scrabbling and priming correctly before hand. Thanks for the tips! I've had two tilers round so far, one is happy to admit he's not done one before so he's happy to tile once its been prepped. The other guy definitely talks the talk, claims to have done many before and I believe him. They're offering a full service; sanding (which I'll probably do myself), priming, matting, tiling, and sealing. They gave me a quote split into sand / prep / tile so I can pick and choose based on various quotes, which works for me. The rule of thumb I've heard is 1 day per mm to fully dry, which puts us around early December, which fits with my finances. Might wind up being January anyway because schedules and christmas and such. Edit; specifically (inc VAT): The tiler posted:Removal of screed laitance using sanding machines and vacuums - £480 He mentioned he'd be using an anhydrite-specific adhesive between the screed and the decoupler matting, I don't know what percentage coverage but not 100%, then normal flexible adhesive on top of the matting. Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Oct 20, 2017 |
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Oct 20, 2017 20:15
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n0tqu1tesane posted:I laid down a bunch of self-leveling compound when I installed some laminate, and it's a fairly labor-intensive process. You've got to mark out all the low spots, clean the poo poo out of the floor, mix 40lb bags of compound in 5 gallon buckets, and carefully spread it and feather it into the low spots. Also the self-leveling material is pretty expensive per-bag as well. I swear we used like half a pallet of it leveling the floor in our house.
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Oct 20, 2017 23:18
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LA Noire or Resident Evil puzzle?
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Oct 27, 2017 16:50
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Jaded Burnout posted:Thanks for the tips! Cool. Go with guy number 2 and let him sand it. Renting the equipment aint cheap, and it aint no normal sanding. The amount of dust for one, will be unreal. Ive seen floors where its produced 4 bin bags full of dust(and over a similar sized area as yours). Besides, its all in the prep, and this guy sounds like he knows what hes doing.
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Oct 28, 2017 15:01
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lorddazron posted:Cool. Go with guy number 2 and let him sand it. Renting the equipment aint cheap, and it aint no normal sanding. The amount of dust for one, will be unreal. Ive seen floors where its produced 4 bin bags full of dust(and over a similar sized area as yours). Besides, its all in the prep, and this guy sounds like he knows what hes doing. Local rental place does a weekend floor and edge sander pack for around 90 quid, surely that plus a day or so of my time and some respirator type things, can't be *that* difficult? I'm going to have to seal parts of the place myself whoever does the work. Am I that far off base?
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Oct 28, 2017 16:27
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It's always longer and always worse than you think going in.* *applies to all diy
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Oct 28, 2017 16:44
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Oh I believe you, but I'm running a little dry on budget now. I'll see how I feel come December when the floor is dry enough to proceed.
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Oct 28, 2017 16:49
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Jaded Burnout posted:Local rental place does a weekend floor and edge sander pack for around 90 quid, surely that plus a day or so of my time and some respirator type things, can't be *that* difficult? I'm going to have to seal parts of the place myself whoever does the work. Am I that far off base? Does that include a dust collection system? You really want a proper one(NOT a shopvac, they don't do poo poo for concrete dust) and a respirator. With just a respirator you will go through a bunch of filters and will never get all the dust cleaned up from everywhere. Also, have you run floor Sanders before? It's not much fun and they can be a bit of handful depending on the type. I have done diy projects like this before, but I also did commercial flooring for a few years, so I have a pretty good idea what I am doing.
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Oct 28, 2017 16:51
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slurry_curry posted:Does that include a dust collection system? You really want a proper one(NOT a shopvac, they don't do poo poo for concrete dust) and a respirator. With just a respirator you will go through a bunch of filters and will never get all the dust cleaned up from everywhere. These are the baseline rental thingers: https://www.hss.com/hire/p/floor-and-edge-sander-hire-pack I've never done floor sanding so I'm open to being steered away by those with experience, just seems expensive for slowly pushing a thing in a line for a while and changing out bags every so often. Worth mentioning that this place has been covered in dust of all kinds, from concrete to plaster to brick to god knows what else, so it wouldn't be the first time. Other than one room (which I'll need to seal anyway) everywhere else is either prepped for dust or covered in it already.
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Oct 28, 2017 16:55
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Jaded Burnout posted:These are the baseline rental thingers: https://www.hss.com/hire/p/floor-and-edge-sander-hire-pack Thats not even close to the right type of sander. Last time i saw one it came on a pallet and was rigged to use 3 phase power. The shop refit i was overseeing didnt have 3 phase power through the mains (like most domestic property as well) and the floor guys had to hire a diesel generator instead. The amount of dust produced is unreal. The collection device they were using (again delivered on a euro pallet and roughly 6 ft tall) backfired while they were working. You couldnt see more than 3 ft in front of you (in an industrial unit about 5000 sq ft) and i had to manually hoover it all up after they helpfully handed me back the keys and said "theres been an issue". Trust me, dont do it yourself. You will burn that sander out that you linked from HSS and i dont think you can hire the right type that easily. If money is tight, throw down some laminate until you can afford it.
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Oct 29, 2017 20:30
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Gotcha. I'll pay a guy. Money isn't "do a different flooring" tight, it's just "critically consider the value of things before spending" tight. Sounds like this one isn't worth the trouble.
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Oct 29, 2017 20:35
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Yea, those are for wood floors, not cement. Almost harder to use since it's really easy to let it sit in one place too long and make a low spot. You need a diamond grinding stone for cement. And yea, the dust collection systems is needed, especially since inhaling cement dust is not good for you. Hell, even having done the work in the past, I would still hire someone else to do it. Especially if your walls are done. I have done some damage to walls with floor grinders. If they decide to grab, good luck holding onto it.
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Oct 29, 2017 20:52
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slurry_curry posted:Yea, those are for wood floors, not cement. Almost harder to use since it's really easy to let it sit in one place too long and make a low spot. The floor's calcium sulfate rather than cement; you can take the laitance off with a thumbnail. But yeah sounds like it's not worth the effort of doing it myself.
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Oct 29, 2017 21:01
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Final plaster happened in the hallway the other week.  Looking nice in the sun  Looking less good, unfinished roof is a bit leaky   And the still very damp floor is doing bad things to the plaster in the kitchen  However.. the correct boiler arrived!  Same  While that was being fitted let's talk about a small fuckup by the builder.  The third loop is the one which covers the screed floor. The builder decided to use the loop itself to fill it so it didn't crush under the screed, rather than the manifold fill points. OK, whatever, but he left the main loop disconnected when the screed went down and didn't secure it. So the screed pulled down the slack and then cured over the top of it. Nice work, idiot.  Fortunately we had some of these connectors lying around so the boiler fitter and I chopped and patched it.  The problem with this install is there's so much boilerplate  A hole  Needs some protection for a few days until the fitter can come back   We had some trouble fitting the boiler; for some reason it wasn't settling down properly on its hooks. I measured the limits of the hangers and put a mark on the wall where the top of the boiler should be, but it was 10mm too high. Turns out this bolt head was getting hung up on the hanger plate, you can see the dark black scratches in the second photo:   Some twiddling..  Replace the bolt with something low profile  There we go!  The debugging wasn't quite finished, and the fitter wound up replacing a part unnecessarily before we figured out the physics of the issue (which was a mixer control limiting flow back to the tank filler)  Poor shamed part  But we have a functioning boiler! 
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Nov 5, 2017 21:51
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Not functioning heat, mind you, because a) the pump isn't wired into anything and the sparky isn't due back for weeks, b) the loops all need flushing to clear out the air So I guess I'm doing it myself. Went to B&Q, picked up some 3-core flex, a plug, a mains-safe screwdriver, two 3/4" BSP hoses, and a headlamp because it's now 7pm and dark and there's no lights in my house. Dug out my side cutters. Thanks to the headlamp all these photos look like they were taken during a ghost hunt.    Cable cut to size, plug wired on. Crack open the pump (fuckin' star bolts, glad I had some bits for that on my impact driver) and take out the flex connector.  Wire it on to the cable.  Hook that motherfucker up and bolt it back down.  Time to flush the lines. Hook up one hose (red) from the cold mains supply to the fill port, and another hose (blue) from the drain port and chuck it out the door.  Following manufacturer's instructions (some after-dark f.lux colouration)  mmmpphf  It all worked! So I've been increasing the temperature at the manifold 5ºC each day and it's now at 55º, so despite it being 1ºC outside right now I've got windows open and I've switched back to my summer duvet because it's 20º in here. Once the pipework's been at 55 for 24 hours I can take it down somewhat but the humidity has been as expected off the chain as the water starts coming out of the floor. For the first couple of days I ran the dehumidifiers but it turns out that it's SO humid in here that despite it actually raining outside it's still drier out there than in here, so today I had the bifold doors open and what would be a cold breeze blowing through, but for the intense heating this place now has. Frankly it's baller to not be cold anymore, but there can be too much of a good thing. B&Q bits: £35.73 Total spent so far: £137,650.97
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Nov 5, 2017 22:11
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Your house has a lot of bricks. You could probably take half those bricks out, replace the missing parts with wood framing, and build a second, half brick, half wood home. Think of all those homeless people that don't have homes because you have all the bricks!
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Nov 6, 2017 06:13
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Mahnarch posted:Your house has a lot of bricks. Welcome to UK house construction! If OP's house is anything like mine, it will nearly all be brick built. Pretty much every single internal and external wall is the same!
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Nov 6, 2017 20:34
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Mahnarch posted:Your house has a lot of bricks. lorddazron posted:Welcome to UK house construction! If OP's house is anything like mine, it will nearly all be brick built. Pretty much every single internal and external wall is the same! Not quite anymore but yes it certainly was that way when we started. Double-skinned external brick walls and single-skin internal brick walls, though due to the extensions a number of external walls are now internal. We've taken out and (sometimes) replaced a lot of internal walls, especially the previously-external ones to save space, and the replacements have been studwork. The new external walls are still double-skinned though and the same size as the old ones, the only difference is that they're done in dense block instead of brick and the wall ties are thin steel wires instead of thick iron rods. Dense block lives up to its name (I've had to drill through it, it's tougher than brick) but otherwise the only difference is it's faster to build with because each block is the same size as four bricks plus mortar. External wall studwork is definitely something alien to the UK.
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Nov 7, 2017 04:51
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