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Put your mattress on a pallet/futon platform to get some airflow.
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Dec 5, 2017 01:00
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peanut posted:Put your mattress on a pallet/futon platform to get some airflow. Yeah I understand how to keep mattresses healthy but this was a specific situation and it happened very fast. All my living arrangements are fluid and subject to change at any time, this particular configuration wound up with the mattress on plastic sheeting during a period of damp, and with the head too close to an open fireplace which dumped the damp and mould in between the sheeting and the mattress. I'm now in a different room upstairs without the sheeting and away from sources of damp, plus I have heating now which I didn't at the time, so the new mattress will do fine. This one is toast. It took maybe a month to be destroyed. I'll be keeping a closer eye on the new one until such a time as I can sort out real furniture for it.
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Dec 5, 2017 07:50
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Jaded Burnout posted:Sure, but bear in mind it's literally the simplest thing that did what I personally needed, and is completely untested and unsupported. I can share it via PM if you like since it's hosted on my personal github and I don't want to make it too trivial to link this account to that. That'd be fantastic! We're a ways off from starting but I've been slowly working on building out the budget/cash flow forecasts so this would be great. We were also looking at mattresses today - have the online mattress start ups cropped up everywhere in the UK also? There's so many in the US and Australia that I was skeptical. Then one of them got a partnership with a major department store for demo floor space so we went in to try it. Our current mattress feels like a cloud but somehow this one felt like an even better cloud. I am pretty sure we're going to end up getting a new mattress.
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Dec 5, 2017 12:16
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Leng posted:That'd be fantastic! We're a ways off from starting but I've been slowly working on building out the budget/cash flow forecasts so this would be great. It seems I cannot PM you. Leng posted:We were also looking at mattresses today - have the online mattress start ups cropped up everywhere in the UK also? There's so many in the US and Australia that I was skeptical. Then one of them got a partnership with a major department store for demo floor space so we went in to try it. Our current mattress feels like a cloud but somehow this one felt like an even better cloud. I am pretty sure we're going to end up getting a new mattress. They have, yes. The last two I've had have been high end pocket sprung mattresses and they're good. This is my first foray into memory foam and other non-traditional styles. The UK company doing the rounds is called eve, pretty much equivalent to the one I keep hearing about in ads on US podcasts.
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Dec 5, 2017 12:44
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Mattress chat - I'm not sure how much of a crossover there is into the UK with availability and stuff but http://www.sleeplikethedead.com is a good mattress comparison site. Tells you the pros/cons of each kind of mattress and then relies on user reviews. Great site. I used it to decide on a memory foam mattress sold on amazon (Zinus 12") that compared very well and I was so impressed with it for the price that we got two more for my kids. I like it a lot and it cost like $240 for a king size, which is just plain absurd. dreesemonkey fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Dec 5, 2017 |
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Dec 5, 2017 14:45
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dreesemonkey posted:Mattress chat - I'm not sure how much of a crossover there is into the UK with availability and stuff but https://www.sleeplikethedead.com is a good mattress comparison site. Tells you the pros/cons of each kind of mattress and then relies on user reviews. Great site. Is that the wrong URL? It redirects to a new age site.
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Dec 5, 2017 15:55
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Jaded Burnout posted:Is that the wrong URL? It redirects to a new age site. Hmmm, maybe without the s in [url]https://?[/url] http://www.sleeplikethedead.com/
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Dec 5, 2017 16:16
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I carted these tiles in today (69 boxes, nice) and it was Unpleasant. Install begins Monday and will take a crew 4 days. In the meantime I've been prepping one of the upstairs rooms for painting. I'm real tired of sanding inside corners. Builder continues work on the downstairs bathroom while his crew finish up plastering some window walls which were left undone until the windows were replaced.
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Dec 8, 2017 20:25
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When i was doing my place, i started with polyfilla and moaned to my friend about how poo poo it is to sand and how it takes so long. He told me to buy a bag of this, and i have not looked back. So much easier to work with: http://www.diy.com/departments/gyproc-easi-filler-multipurpose-filler-5kg/143939_BQ.prd
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Dec 9, 2017 04:57
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cakesmith handyman posted:The lamp may well be plugged into a 60A circuit but remember the plug for the lamp is appropriately fused at anywhere from 13A down to 1A depending. Yeah, but there’s still 60A on the mains side of the appliance fuse if the plug comes out of the wall a bit, and having seen the excitement that happens when something conductive and thin falls over those terminals (in this case, a .9mm mig wire offcut and a 15A circuit) it just seems stupid. Sure, the 20A breaker tripped, but not before the wire between the terminals disappeared and set the plug on fire.
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Dec 9, 2017 07:48
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Ahdinko posted:When i was doing my place, i started with polyfilla and moaned to my friend about how poo poo it is to sand and how it takes so long. I'm working with a couple of more specialised polycell fillers that don't seem too bad, but the annoying part so far is cleaning up the plaster itself in the corners. I've ordered a cheap small power sander so let's see how that goes next week. Ferremit posted:Yeah, but there’s still 60A on the mains side of the appliance fuse if the plug comes out of the wall a bit, and having seen the excitement that happens when something conductive and thin falls over those terminals (in this case, a .9mm mig wire offcut and a 15A circuit) it just seems stupid. Sure, the 20A breaker tripped, but not before the wire between the terminals disappeared and set the plug on fire. This is true, though bear in mind the differences in UK plugs to US ones. All our plugs have an earth pin likely to deflect that sort of thing, and the sockets grip the pins so they actually require some force to remove. They also have quite a lot of shielding plastic to stop you touching the pins unless it's a full finger's width away from the wall. The only way you'd get a situation like that is by not quite seating it correctly in the socket which is possible, but you really have to be specific with it because there's a lever in the earth hole that opens gates on live and neutral when the plug is inserted. All in all it's very low probability. I've seen improperly seated plugs a few times in 30+ years, I've never seen or heard of a cross-pin short.
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Dec 9, 2017 08:08
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Yeah here in AU the active and neutral are the top two pins. Newer plugs have coatings over the pins to insulate then if they’re hanging out a bit but there are HEAPS of older ones that don’t
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Dec 9, 2017 09:18
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I thought I'd spend some of the weekend skimming knocks and patches in the plaster but by the time I'd finished splodging the one room I've been starting with my eyes were aching and something in my head rebelled. So I guess I sit around for a bit and do nothing. I guess that's not the worst thing in the world, I'm pretty busy usually. I'm trying to quiet the part of my mind that won't rest without an acceptable solution to every potential problem. In this particular case it's the utility room, which is currently home to a washing machine, a giant bundle of network cables, and a temporary toilet, and yet it is being tiled along with the rest of the ground floor next week. I need to delegate responsibility for figuring that out to the tilers who need to work around them and the builder who put it there, but releasing control of a project I'm invested in is very hard for me, even if it's just mentally coming up with a backup solution so I know everything will be OK.
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Dec 9, 2017 11:55
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Jaded Burnout posted:I'm trying to quiet the part of my mind that won't rest without an acceptable solution to every potential problem. In this particular case it's the utility room, which is currently home to a washing machine, a giant bundle of network cables, and a temporary toilet, and yet it is being tiled along with the rest of the ground floor next week. Can you not just skip that area and either DIY or pay someone to come back and do it later? Hell, your tiling contractor might be willing to just come back and do that part later if it's just one room.
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Dec 9, 2017 14:50
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Coasterphreak posted:Can you not just skip that area and either DIY or pay someone to come back and do it later? Hell, your tiling contractor might be willing to just come back and do that part later if it's just one room. Very possibly, I'll talk it over with the tiler on Monday. It's less that it's insurmountable than I have trouble not trying to surmount it myself.
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Dec 9, 2017 14:59
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dreesemonkey posted:Mattress chat - I'm not sure how much of a crossover there is into the UK with availability and stuff but http://www.sleeplikethedead.com is a good mattress comparison site. Tells you the pros/cons of each kind of mattress and then relies on user reviews. Great site. I was looking at the Zinus last night... Does it get super hot at night?
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Dec 9, 2017 18:52
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spinst posted:I was looking at the Zinus last night... Does it get super hot at night? In my limited experience with sleeping on different beds, I would say it's no worse (maybe slightly better) than my old mattress that had a pillow top, that was also something I was concerned about. I'm a pretty picky sleeper and if were warm all the time I would not be able to sleep. I could see maybe if you were coming from an innerspring mattress with no kind of topper on it it may be comparatively more warm, but again it's not like sleeping in an oven or anything.
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Dec 11, 2017 13:01
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So there's a thing that happens with trades in the UK, maybe it's elsewhere too. Tilers were supposed to show up at 8am today, this is a time they picked. 09:22 I get a text from a subcontractor saying he's broken down, and awaiting recovery. Broken down on route from where? Already 90 minutes late. This is of course bullshit, the broken down van is the grandmother's funeral of trade excuses. 12:35 I get another text, still awaiting recovery! Amazing that he must've broken down before 8 and yet is still waiting over 4 hours later. So, yeah, they've obviously overrun on another job and are hoping they can pad out today with excuses while they wrap up.
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Dec 11, 2017 13:54
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Usually only the builder has to feel that stress. Next time you gut and rebuild a house, live somewhere else during the construction period XD
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Dec 11, 2017 14:04
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peanut posted:Usually only the builder has to feel that stress. Next time you gut and rebuild a house, live somewhere else during the construction period XD It's a fair thought and I would do that, but not for that reason. I've been at this long enough now that I'm not too bothered by it, I just wish they'd be honest. If I'd done this through the builder then it'd cost more for his cut and I'd be in the same boat.
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Dec 11, 2017 14:46
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Jaded Burnout posted:So there's a thing that happens with trades in the UK, maybe it's elsewhere too. Other than it being very annoying is there any issue with them starting a day late? I only ask as getting steamed over it isn't worth your bother if it doesn't mess up your schedule. Even if you catch them in a lie, it will only hurt the working relationship. Breathe deep, remind yourself it's getting near the end and then go put the kettle on.
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Dec 11, 2017 17:30
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Indolent Bastard posted:Other than it being very annoying is there any issue with them starting a day late? This is why I wish they'd just tell me. I mean, breaking any schedule without notice causes problems because they're not the only trade on this job and there's coordination to be done. As to the actual work impacting things, well, I can't start putting together my temporary kitchen until the flooring is in, and it also pushes off other things like stairs (which require a finished floor height measurement) and downstairs bathroom (which needs to match tiling levels). Even beyond that it's the fact that immediately, straight out of the gate I can't trust them. If they said "sorry we're going to be a day late" I can work with that, but faking it means I've no idea when they *will* be on the job, they could keep faking for a week if they wanted to, and it lowers my trust in everything else. They won't be getting rage, I've no rage left for this, I'm just weary of it. They'll get some dry sarcasm at best.  btw surprising no-one here I got a text at 16:30 (aka builder hometime) saying he's going to drop off his gear, which he has dutifully done. I don't remember who in this thread mentioned the giant sanding tools typically used but this guy rolled up in an estate and dropped off: 1x vacuum cleaner 1x extension reel 1x hand detail sander 1x hand orbital sander For 55sqm in one day. Fair enough mate.
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Dec 11, 2017 18:11
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Jaded Burnout posted:This is why I wish they'd just tell me. I mean, breaking any schedule without notice causes problems because they're not the only trade on this job and there's coordination to be done. As to the actual work impacting things, well, I can't start putting together my temporary kitchen until the flooring is in, and it also pushes off other things like stairs (which require a finished floor height measurement) and downstairs bathroom (which needs to match tiling levels). That would be me. There is no chance that guy is going to sand that floor adequately using those tools in that length of time. Is he the same guy doing the tiling as well? Basically, the top layer needs to be laitance (dust) free and not have any loose bits. Also it should be moisture tested as well and should have a moisture content of less than 0.5%. He should ideally have a digital hygrometer to do the test. If he doesnt then hes chancing his luck and in the weather weve just had, i wouldnt take the risk. Remember any fuckups later down the line are down to him to rectify at his cost. If he trys to say any different, thats how its seen legally. The other side of that is that its a huge ballache trying to get money from a tradesman who doesnt want to pay. Its all done through county court as its a civil matter and these guys usually just shut up shop and start trading under a slightly different name instead. Good luck!
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Dec 11, 2017 21:16
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lorddazron posted:That would be me. There is no chance that guy is going to sand that floor adequately using those tools in that length of time. Is he the same guy doing the tiling as well? Yeah, I'm very much skeptical but I've also not paid anything yet so we'll see how it goes. This is someone who "works for" the guy I got the original quote from. Whether he'll be involved in the tiling or not I don't know, but 3 people will be doing the matting/tiling, apparently. The original quote did mention proper moisture testing so we'll see where we get to with that. Thanks for giving a baseline number there.
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Dec 11, 2017 21:26
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lorddazron posted:That would be me. There is no chance that guy is going to sand that floor adequately using those tools in that length of time. Guy just showed up with a floor belt sander from HSS. You know, one of the ones I was thinking of using but got waved off. "We thought we should hire a big one". Yeah mate, I thought that too.
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Dec 12, 2017 09:34
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Jaded Burnout posted:Guy just showed up with a floor belt sander from HSS. You know, one of the ones I was thinking of using but got waved off. "We thought we should hire a big one". Yeah mate, I thought that too. Ha. Id just let him crack on with it at this point. Never heard of any professional trying to sand a screeded floor using a wood floor sander. Who knows? It may work. I doubt it, but it will be interesting when he burns it out!
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Dec 12, 2017 14:11
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lorddazron posted:Ha. Id just let him crack on with it at this point. Never heard of any professional trying to sand a screeded floor using a wood floor sander. Who knows? It may work. I doubt it, but it will be interesting when he burns it out! My general builder just walked his crew out on account of not wanting to breathe the dust, he seems a little paranoid about this stuff given how little they care about plaster dust. I got the guy to go get a proper dust extractor and some plastic sheeting to seal off the rest of the site, other than that he can get on with it. He returned with a proper respirator though. Oh and you were right before, he's already dug a couple of big divots with it. "this is my first time using one of these", he says.
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Dec 12, 2017 14:51
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Jaded Burnout posted:My general builder just walked his crew out on account of not wanting to breathe the dust, he seems a little paranoid about this stuff given how little they care about plaster dust. Getting some real Frank Spencer vibes here.
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Dec 12, 2017 18:50
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Jaded Burnout posted:My general builder just walked his crew out on account of not wanting to breathe the dust, he seems a little paranoid about this stuff given how little they care about plaster dust. Fire his rear end before he ruins your floor more.
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Dec 12, 2017 20:31
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Magnus Praeda posted:Fire his rear end before he ruins your floor more. Yea, get that idiot off the job site before you have to re-pour the whole thing. You can probably get away with a bit of self leveling cement to fix what he has done so far. The other team was right to GTFO, cement dust is bad news and there is a good reason why proper dust collection systems are super expensive.
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Dec 12, 2017 20:37
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Thanks for the advice but much as with every other time that's been the suggestion: no, it's more complicated than that. But thanks.
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Dec 12, 2017 20:40
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Smoothed things out with the tilers and builders and we're back on track. I checked the adhesive they're using and confirmed their story that it's fine for filling small divots, and negotiated timing for everyone to have the access they need. In other news I had a 7x7ft mattress delivered. This is a good thing. Turns out, though, doorways are 6 foot 6.
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Dec 13, 2017 11:53
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Jaded Burnout posted:It seems I cannot PM you. Huh. I just remembered I don't have plat. Oh well! Your recent reporting of events (the floor sanding, oh dear) makes me even gladder that we decided to get our architect to manage the whole thing. I was a little skeptical before because the dollars look significant at the beginning but I can see why that might be penny wise pound foolish. How much of your own time would you say you are putting into this to research things and stay on top of everything? Went back to page 1 to check if you had already answered this but couldn't find it - what was your experience in getting builder quotes back and trying to compare them? We just got 2 quotes back for our apartment renovation. One came in at $89k, the other came in at $189k. Both of them totally ignored the instructions from the architect in terms of submitting their quotes on a line by line basis. First guy did a line by line quote but didn't use the line items the architect requested so we are immensely confused about what lines like "carpentry - $12,000" entail. Second guy sent in a two-page document that gave an overview of exactly what works would be carried out under what headings but then gave one number in total so we have no idea what a reduction in scope would do in terms of the costs to build. We're now trying to get a third builder to quote in order to figure out whether the first guy missed a bunch of stuff or whether the second guy is just way out for whatever reason... Jaded Burnout posted:In other news I had a 7x7ft mattress delivered. This is a good thing. Turns out, though, doorways are 6 foot 6. Did you have to fold the mattress to squish it through?!
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Dec 13, 2017 12:18
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Leng posted:Huh. I just remembered I don't have plat. Oh well! Ya got an email? Leng posted:Your recent reporting of events (the floor sanding, oh dear) makes me even gladder that we decided to get our architect to manage the whole thing. I was a little skeptical before because the dollars look significant at the beginning but I can see why that might be penny wise pound foolish. How much of your own time would you say you are putting into this to research things and stay on top of everything? My architect didn't offer that, but tbh would it help? How do you know your architect is doing it right? Can you hand over minute to minute decision making to them? I don't think I could. Project management of this thing has felt a lot like a second job. If I wasn't on site working from home every day there's no way I could do it, I'd have to have a real independent project manager doing daily site visits. There's so many things where what's in your head and the builder's head don't match even when it's written down, honest mistakes happen and someone needs to catch it before it's too late or figure out a solution if it is too late. For example, the builders missed running a couple of speaker cables and have now plastered the wall they're supposed to run behind. How are we going to deal with that? We have some possibilities but still, someone has to discuss it and figure it out. There's constant day to day negotiation and I'd say a minimum of two hours a day are taken up by it, probably more in terms of lost productivity to my client, but we don't talk about that. Leng posted:Went back to page 1 to check if you had already answered this but couldn't find it - what was your experience in getting builder quotes back and trying to compare them? We just got 2 quotes back for our apartment renovation. One came in at $89k, the other came in at $189k. To be honest it didn't get that far. I spoke with 4 builders, one I didn't like his attitude, another I liked but he was a solo guy and I didn't think he was up to it. Third guy seemed OK but turns out he subcontracts certain things to the fourth guy who was recommended by my architect. I didn't really have much expertise to verify him but he checked out OK on checkatrade.com and I did my own rough price estimate based on internet sources and it came out about the same. He also did a single number quote and I discussed shuffling the cost around but tbh I wasn't going to not do any of it, it was more about when than whether. I could also refer to my independent costing to get an idea of where the money was going. If you want to do the line item thing I'd go back to your builders and ask again for the cost broken down, and that you unfortunately won't be accepting bids without that breakdown. Paperwork is something all trades I've encountered hate and they probably just didn't want to do it or forgot about the requirement by the time they got round to doing it, plus it's easier for them to buffer costs if it's more vague. Getting quotes sucks. Leng posted:Did you have to fold the mattress to squish it through?! Somewhat! Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 12:38 on Dec 13, 2017 |
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Dec 13, 2017 12:35
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Just found out my electrician's surname is Watts. Can't make this poo poo up. The other one's surname is Woodgate, and yet he doesn't do garden fencing 
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Dec 14, 2017 18:48
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I haven't done a photo post in a while so here we go. Prepping walls for painting  This is pretty glorious in the mornings  Out goes old mattress, so sad  In comes new mattress, laptop for scale  Decoupling mat being laid. This is the last layer before the tiles go down.   This is the tile pattern I'm going for  Wasn't super happy to find someone had used my microwave as a step to get out of a store room, and the builder wasn't either as it was probably one of his guys and he has Principles about such things, so it's being replaced  And this evening I put the first coat of paint on the first wall in the first room   More rooms have lights and power, including the remote control veluxes (including the big one above). Oh and my new fence and gate went in. No pictures of that because it's too dark. New fence and gate: £650 Total spend so far: £140,721.96
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Dec 15, 2017 20:34
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This is a lovely thread, thank you very much. Despite your explanations and photos I remained mostly confused by everything that happens. Turns out building a house might be quite hard. But in particular most recently why do the floors need sanding if they are getting tiled over anyway? Maybe I have the wrong end of the stick and thats a different bit of floor that is being left exposed as polished concrete?
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Dec 17, 2017 21:26
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NotJustANumber99 posted:Despite your explanations and photos I remained mostly confused by everything that happens. I'm happy to answer any questions. NotJustANumber99 posted:But in particular most recently why do the floors need sanding if they are getting tiled over anyway? Maybe I have the wrong end of the stick and thats a different bit of floor that is being left exposed as polished concrete? So screed is a kind of fine concrete and is usually used for floors like this because it's not as lumpy. But it still has to be dumped in and spread out which is difficult to do well and time consuming and hard. So someone invented a different kind which is the consistence of milkshake and can be pumped in. Because it's liquid it self-levels unlike a concretey mix which needs manually spreading out. These anhydrite screeds have a few drawbacks, one is that it involves introducing a lot of water into the house, hence my adventures dehumidifying. The second is that a crystalline structure called laitance forms on the surface as it sets (cures) which needs removing before it can be tiled because a) it's weak and b) it reacts chemically with the tile adhesive and fucks it right up, hence the sanding. You can see this structure forming in the day-by-day closeup photos of the screed surface. Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Dec 17, 2017 |
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Dec 17, 2017 21:45
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Ah Ok. Cool, science, nuff said. But yeah that clears that up. I've got a floor to tile in the upcoming future and I was just thinking er... why is that guy over there doing it like that?
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Dec 17, 2017 21:49
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If it helps the matting they've put down is optional and is designed to decouple the tiles from the subfloor so any movement in the subfloor won't transfer to the tiles. This is most relevant for the underfloor heating since the subfloor will be expanding and contracting some, and I'd prefer not to crack my grout. It's optional even with the underfloor heating and definitely not necessary normally.
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Dec 17, 2017 21:52
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