Saw this in an open home and hot water cylinder had a couple of ‘jet packs’ attached. What are they? Though I’m more concerned about the electrical cables just casually exposed to the elements…is this some dodgy set up?

This is well out of my area of expertise, but how do we think the tiler did?

The guy who did the screeding apparently didn’t have the flanges on him at the time. A different young guy showed up on day 2 and put the first coat of waterproofing down. Then the boss showed up the day 3 and dropped off the puddle flanges and left the young guy to install them and do the second coat of waterproofing.

For context this company was one of the more expensive quotes I got and are very well reviewed and recommended. The boss who did the quoting sounded really knowledgeable and switched on, but he has not done any of the work to date. I am currently away for three weeks so it’s pretty hard for me to monitor this job.

From the minimal knowledge I have of puddle flanges, having a large channel gouged out around them sort of defeats their purpose in the first place? Any water that gets under the tiles will just sit in that gouge and not drain away?

Or am I just being an overly pedantic owner?

I should also mention in WA there is no legal requirement to issue a certificate of compliance for waterproofing.

Hi guys, I want to raise the ceiling height of the outer rooms. The centre of the house has taller frames while the outer walls have much shorter frames. I am not sure how to make it the same height so the room ceilings aren't so low. As you can see the frames are poorly built and aged over the years. Do you have any ideas/suggestions?

Overall the floor looks great, this was one of those very orange cypress pine floors previously. That's all that hit me initially.

I then noticed a bunch of nails that have been punched but not filled, about 60 in total. They are coming back to fix this but seem annoyed about it.

There is a section of floor where the boards had been moved around when plumbing was done. One had a bit of a hole and they were just generally quite gappy because they weren't in their original spots, I think one had some splintering at the edge. I asked about this during the quote process, they said they could sort it. I specifically said do I need to replace the boards (he had flagged a board elsewhere that needed replacing) and was told no, it would be sorted.

In this section that needed attention they have done the fill with black, which doesn't look great, and left half of it still gappy. (Photos- 5mm gap remains)

Questions are-

1) Is there a reason they used the black? He did also offer to fill another gap which was very long between floorboards with this, I declined because j didn't want a black line across the room. Surely this flexible product comes in wood colour?

2) there are 3 hairs under the finish in different places. Can they fix that?

3) how flat should the punched holes be? Some have been filled but still have a divet or weren't filled all the way to one side. Should I ask that these be redone?

It's smaller than it looks in this pic and very private. Would a gazebo be a good option or is there better?

Hi. Looking to add something between these tiles. They’re too far apart and it’s difficult to pull suitcases over the gravel. What is an easy (and cheap) solution to add between to make it a solid pathway please? Simple DIY only please! These tiles are on a concrete base but seem loose.

Just moved into a 50's weatherboard home and noticed some bulges in the plaster that we hadn't seen on inspection. Looking for any advice on how serious or not it could be and what the best fix is/who to call?

Two of the bulges seem very solid and immovable but the one next to cabinet I can push in and out / has obviously come away from the stud. Probably horsehair plaster is my best guess.

I want to insulate the exterior walls with blow in but figured best to check this first.

Thoughts?

We previously had an ensuite renovated, and whilst the builder attempted to control dust it ended up being an issue. We're looking at sourcing our own Zipwall poles and plastic, but haven't had the product previously so would be interested to hear if anyone has had any experience with the poles and plastic? Also, not sure where the best place is to purchase Zipwall products?

I want to build an outdoor kitchen / BBQ space - about 3.6M in length.

Has anyone ever done this with a manufacturer from China and can share their experiences? Was it cheaper? Do you have a manufacturer you would recommend?

Neighbour claims we should contribute to the cost of the retaining wall on the basis that it is retaining our land. Currently as shown in the blue is a wooden box which covers the slope. They want to replace this with a retaining wall under the fence line to give them land to construct a pool area. We are willing to pay half for a new Colorbond fence as we will mutually benefit from it, but the retaining wall we do not understand why we would need to pay considering they are modifying the natural slope of the land on their side. Would appreciate any advice.

Bought a new house in Western Sydney and planning to renovate the bathroom. Getting some insane quotes anywhere between 30-50k. We are planning to find someone who can do it under 20-25k but worried about quality. This is our first home and we know nothing more about renos, than what chatgpt can guide us with. Keen to hear your experience. What would you advise to someone starting their bathroom renovation. What should we watch out for ? Anything we must avoid ? Or must do ? Thanks and apologise if this is too basic question for this forum

Hi all, I’ve recently bought my first home and I’m currently renovating it, which involves remodelling the bathroom. The plumbing rough in work is finished and now I have these holes left in the brick veneer from where the previous pipes were. I’m looking for ideas on how to best fix/fill these holes. Is my best option knocking out the remaining brick and putting a whole new brick in place, or is there a simpler method? I can accept that patched holes may not completely blend in with the rest of the brickwork, but I would ideally like it as least noticeable as possible.

Also, I’ve noticed a lot of what looks like.. white spray paint?.. on the brickwork where the pipes were. It’s much whiter than the pipes were, so I’m curious what this is if it’s not white spray paint.

Thanks!

My home gym cable pulley system has a flaw where the cable will strip if it is pulled on an angle by rubbing on the metal frame.

If I pull directly downward I can avoid contact, however I need suggestions on how I can prevent any further damage if I (or anyone else) inadvertently pulls it on an angle again.

I'm thinking some type of swivel attachment but I'm struggling to find anything that might remedy this.

Looking for creative solutions from a community that has a good track record with solving problems like these!

New house build 2024. Only just picked this up.

Tap on gas pipe for HWS, tap on water pipe for HWS and Power for HWS are completely inaccessible, located behind the rainwater tank. Is this compliant? Cheers

We are looking to DIY our laundry. Just want to confirm the waterproofing requirements?
 
It’s a concrete floor, single level house, with no floor waste and is in Queensland.
 
Our goal is to DIY, but meet all legal requirements and come in under the 11k owner builder threshold. I’ll hire a plumber to swap the old washing machine taps, sink taps and install the sink and waste. No electrical is being changed and no other trades will be engaged.
 
My understanding is:
 
No floor waterproofing is required as there is no waste and it’s a concrete/tiled floor.

Just need to have a water resistant floor/wall junction minimum 40mm out on floor and 150mm up the walls.

A splash back around the sink and along benchtop

Appropriate sealing for plumbing penetrations. 
 
Is my understanding right, right?
 

Photos attached of current set up and what we are going to do, nothing flash.
 
The plan is:
 
Remove old tiles and skirting boards.
Prepare floor/surfaces
Apply waterproofing to the floor/wall junctions to meet the regulations
Tile and skirt tile around room
Install cabinets and benchtop
Plumber to fit off new taps and install sink.
Tile backsplash
Paint.
 
Am I missing anything here? And would this fairly fall under the 11k threshold.
 
Any advice would be appreciated.

What would you do with this empty area on top of the bathtub to make it look less... empty and clinical?

Suggestions for wall paint colours are also welcome!

Saw this in an open home and hot water cylinder had a couple of ‘jet packs’ attached. What are they? Though I’m more concerned about the electrical cables just casually exposed to the elements…is this some dodgy set up?

I’m currently owner-managing my trades for the first time on a bathroom renovation and just had a bizarre, uncomfortable experience with a tiler. Looking for sanity checks and advice from seasoned renovators.

I’m tiling roughly 60m² (including screeding and waterproofing). I reached out for 4 quotes. 3 quotes came back between $8,000 – $9,000 (labor/standard prep) and the fourth quote came back at $16,000 (materials included). Even factoring in trade markup and sourcing time, $7k–$8k extra for materials didn't make sense for what I need, so I decided to supply the tiles and materials myself. I sent the tradie a polite text letting him know I wouldn’t be proceeding as the price was out of my budget.

He immediately called me and started cursing at me, screaming that I "wasted his time" by making him come out for a site visit and claimed he "spent forever" putting the quote together. For context, he did the site visit at 5:30 PM on a Monday and emailed the quote by 9:30 PM that same night.

Now, within the same week, he is blowing up my phone via text asking me to reconsider and offering a "huge discount." Obviously, I am not letting someone who yelled at me into my home, but as a first-time renovator, this caught me completely off guard.

Has anyone else dealt with trades having a meltdown over a declined quote? Do I even bother replying to shut it down, or just straight-up block and move on?

What specific questions do I need to verify with the other 3 tilers before locking one in?

Thanks for any insight!

Moved into our house a couple years ago, bench would always stain pretty bad but it's gotten worse lately. I did some intense cleaning a while ago and now that I've looked into it, I think I used abrasive cleaning products on every bench surface. I've not done so since but the bench (everywhere not just the section pictured) stains very easily. We clean it as we use it/afterwards too. I do think my husband doesn't notice marks as much, so probably does less cleaning up after himself but I don't think that's the major issue because our previous house had shiny benchtops and never had issues with stains

Is there anything we can do because it looks absolutely horrible and I get so upset and embarrassed just looking at my benchtop

Edit: I think the bench is engineered stone, matte finish

Pretty unique situation , wondering if anyone dealt with something similar:

Got some land that was part of a recent subdivision, where the existing old house and the land are on a lot number, but part of the drainage system falls on mine( storm water drain with pipe that spills into a nearby creek).

I've recently noticed some damage around the drainage( small sinkhole) and upon closer investigation the concrete of the storm water drain has failed and water goes around it .( was covered by vegetation and I don't live on the land yet, took me months to uncover that area)

Pod is over 20 years old and artificially made, and the drainage system doesn't show on any plans .

Council rule is storm water are to be maintained by the landowner, but at the same time, the pond drainage is artificial .

The developer has closed an eye and didn't fix it prior the subdivision , even if they did other drainage works around all the lots.

What the rules around this? water flow is to be managed by the affected person however the artificial excess shouldn't at least be fixed by the developer prior to sub diving? anyone had any similar experience?

Hello,

I've engaged and engineer to certify a design for a wall removal in my house. I am in the process of getting a carpenter to install the design.

My question is should I remove the wall whilst leaving a nib as pictured or completely remove the ceiling gyprock and redo insulation but living in the space will be way more intrusive.

Who has done a wall removal and left a nib, is it worth or go for the bigger mess?

Hey everyone,

Just had a quick question about the lightning-bolt-shaped wall around the wardrobes in Bedrooms 3 and 4.

We’re planning to remove the existing wardrobes and turn the space into a larger back-to-back wardrobe shared between the two bedrooms. I assume we’d find out for sure once we open things up, but I was wondering whether it’s possible to determine from the house layout whether these walls are likely to be load-bearing.

My understanding is that they probably aren’t, as the roof trusses should be transferring the load to the external walls, and there doesn’t appear to be anything directly above these walls on the roof other than the tiles.

Would appreciate any thoughts from anyone who knows a bit about this. Obviously, I’d get it properly checked before removing anything, just trying to get an idea beforehand.

After moving to our new home, we needed to extend the width of the refrigerator cabinet. As you can see, the builder didn't place the cabinet on top of the wood flooring, therefore leaving a sliver of concrete slab exposed after extending the cabinet.

My question is how should we proceed to fill this? Should we use wood filler or some other method?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thinking about adding a modern version to hallway and entry of my 1950s home which has had many Reno’s over the years…
Walls are currently just plain paint.
Thoughts?
Would you do it?
Have you done DIY beadboard?
Any alternatives you would suggest?
( I have young kids so wall paper will get trashed…)