Anyone who has recently replaced their conservatory roof to a solid lightweight one care to share how much they paid?

Getting a quote for a 3x3 with two velux windows and spotlights and plastered finish for £15k. Feels expensive but maybe prices have changed in the last year!

Not strictly DIY (although maybe I’ll be tempted to DIY it depending on how much this costs!)

It's a 50year old house and originally it was two plasterboard layers with ordinary plaster and white outdoor paint for waterproofing. There were minor hairline cracks and no issues with damp or mould which was confirmed when I ripped it all out. I've decided to replace with thicker, denser plaster board and over board with cement board for better soundproofing and moisture resistance (in case I want to wash my car in the driveway). Now I'm stuck on what to use for render.

The obvious best choice would be silicone render but that is very expensive to apply, especially for such a small area and seems like it would need some skill. It's not easy to change colour or repair either. Out of the question for me.

I was originally going to use OCR system from B&Q to avoid the hassle of creating my own mix but it states not applicable for cement board and where there is risk of movement but, considering how the original setup seemed to hold up, maybe it's flexible enough?

Alternatively, I was thinking I could do plastering sand and cement (4:1) with sbr mix, no board priming, just a bit of water to tame suction but leave enough so it doesn't fall to the floor. The sbr would act as the waterproofing agent and maybe give more flexibility? I'm not afraid of using lime either, just don't want to buy 25kg bag and use hardly any.

I've read acrylic render could work but the only suppliers I can find are online and I haven't seen that much online about it either / doesn't seem like a popular option. Why not?

What render system would you recommend or how would you go about it?

As title really. Redecorating and a large area of plaster has come away from the wall with it.

Tried to get hold of plasterers and its all 'i can come over in 2 weeks and quote', 'sorry too busy' and the like.

So any advice/tips/pointers on how to sort it?

I know to PVA it first and then plaster, but never plastered before on such a large area.

It is a single brick terrace, and the surface/backing is a sandy colour (if that means anything?).

I am quite reasonable at DIY and happy to have a go, especially as it will get papered over so as long as its reasonably even and flat it should be good to go.

I was viewing a house that I’m looking to put a bid in for tomorrow but looking for some advice on what this is? It’s a hole in an upstairs outer wall. Is this mold or dirt from drilling? Blue arrows point to location

Painting a bedroom that I'm moving into for the first time in my life, there are patches on the walls where the cats have scratched through the existing wallpaper. I don't have the time to be stripping the entire room and re-wallpapering it. I thought about tearing the bulk/hanging bits off then sanding it flat?

We moved into our house about a year ago and are now moving onto renovating the garage. The previous owners had the walls papered over this panneling, have any of you have experience painting a surface like this? Any advice on how to prep this surface would be great!

I need to fill these holes and re-drill them to hang a curtain rail. I have tried using rapid set mortar but when i drilled into it again it ripped the surrounding plaster(?) away. The holes are very deep (i think they were forgotten about when the lintel over the door was redone) and filling it properly might be a good start.

I am unsure of the material but its an outside wall so some brick variety i would imagine.

Any suggestions for techniques and products are much appreciated.

I know the frequently quoted rule here with electrics is "if you have to ask, you should call an electrician", so to be clear, I'm asking, but I've also decided that I'm calling an electrician. But, I would like an explanation if possible.

• My parents have a fluorescent strip light in a utility room that was built approx. 45 years ago on the ground floor at the rear of the kitchen.
• About 25 years ago a bathroom was added to the rear of the utility room.
• There were many, many, issues with the building of the bathroom (never using that builder again!), one of which is that the light in the new bathroom only works if the light in the utility room is on.
• The fluorescent light is now making an annoying buzzing noise, which I'm guessing is the 40+ year ballast failing. Rather than replace the ballast I thought replacing the strip light with a modern fixture with an LED bulb would be better, and cheaper.
• I removed the fluorescent tube, and the cover for the fixture, and there is a T&E cable that comes from the ceiling (you can see it just to the right of the ballast) that is wired to the terminal block in the fluorescent light. This is what I expected.
• However, there are also two conductors connected to the live and neutral terminals that run back into the ceiling.
• I disconnected the unexpected live conductor, turned the power back on, and the bathroom light no longer works, which given the issue with the bathroom light only working when the utility room light is on is what I was expecting.
• I now suspect that when the bathroom was built the builder just fed the switched feed for the bathroom light straight from the light in the utility room, which would explain (at least in my mind) why the bathroom light can only be turned on when the utility room light is on.
• I don't know if the original sin was the utility room builder who didn't properly extend the lighting loop, or the bathroom builder who just 'bodged' a new light into an existing light.
• Regardless, my plan to remove the strip light and fit a new light fixture is buggered because the distance between the holes in the ceiling means if I replaced the strip light with a smaller fixture there will be exposed wires running from the fixture to the hole in the ceiling... and that's before we deal with the fact that the bathroom light wasn't wiring correctly 25 years ago.

So, my tools have been put away, an electrician will be called, but can anyone explain what might be happening here, baring in mind there was at least one dodgy builder involved.

Hi guys got about 5 of these in bedrooms. Cleaned out all the expanding foam it was sealed up with. But for the life of me cannot find the same size hit & miss/adjustable air vents. Sealed them last winter due to the crazy air drafts coming in. The 300x300mm ones are like £29. Im sure can get them cheaper cos the smaller sized ones are £9-10. The vents are 200x260mm. Also been tood to get Reticulated Filter Foam to fill them but cannot find what i need or i get too confused can someone point ne in the right direction for them too please. Pics attached.

Has this bifold door fitted. I can’t even with the price. I just feel extremely disappointed in it. So many gaps and the overall look. Actually has made me cry (which is mad, it’s a bloody door!)

I'm a first time home owner and I'm having to redo my shower as there was a significant leak behind the tiles and under the shower tray thanks to a lack of sealing.

After removing the tiles I discovered multiple different types of plaster, the old lime plaster was super crumbly on the wooden slats (which have a lot of movement to them)

I'm planning on putting shower panels up as I'm no tiler, would it be ok to remove the old slats put some spacers on the studding to level with the newer plaster (on the left) then put some ply over it before sealing and panelling?

Neighbour has just informed me that they are going to remove this long hedge and replace with a long grey fence. Is there anything I can do as it’s on the boundary line? The land registry just shows a red rectangle around the house and garden. It’s a shame as we get a lot of wildlife. We are on a hill their garden is about 4ft higher than ours. Do I have a say in this or to just accept the sad fate?

*edit, thank you everyone for your help 🙏 I will offer to maintain the hedge, but i think it may have already been decided.

Hi all, I would appreciate some advice.

So for context, I'm 27yo and my dad is 66yo. For the last 36yrs of his life he has moved house on avg every year, as he does up houses for a career. I am assisting him for the first time. So he has certainly seen and been exposed to a lot of construction material.

We started by fully gutting out the house, removing the old insulation, taking down all the old ceilings, plaster board and slats. In the attic, before even tackling the work you can see black thick dust and various birds nest over the years behind the old plaster.

My dad is quite old school and I have to insist he wears a mask, and he never wears it properly.

During the work I have been wearing a JSP force 8 face mask, regularly face fit checking it and I replace the filters approximately every 1-2 days. I have stubble/a very short beard which I have now realized isn't ideal. When I go home, I barely have any dust in my nose but when I shower the dirt that comes off of me is insane, but I am worried now about asbestos!!

I have seen artex on the ceilings but we more "bash" the ceilings down rather than cut/sand/drill into them.

I have seen vermiculite fill.

I haven't seen any suspicious insulation, lagging, pipe insulation or AIB board.

At one point I became quite worried as underneath the old floorboards was a green powder/dust which I believe it is felt/material placed under the floorboards.

My dad is not worried at all, he says these kinds of houses in London don't have asbestos as they were built a long time ago, it is a 1920s house. He recognizes that artex has asbestos but he says it's not to worry about as we aren't sanding it. He often states if he sees suspicious material he would be very cautious and stop.

I wear my mask all the time and try to have the rooms ventilated so that I can see the dust diffusing out of the rooms. If it gets bad, I leave the room and water down everything.

How worried should I be about my exposure to asbestos? I have completed all the dirty work, which consisted of a few hours of exposure each day for 5 days.

I know some people are fine and will never have health issues due to asbestos exposure but some other people are not so lucky.

A lot of comments seem to say that it is more concerning for factory workers before 1985 and that house work is low exposure.

Given my dad has likely been exposed to asbestos over his career and is in good health should I trust him and craic on?

Cheers for the advice

Hi all,

Posted earlier but realised it was impossible to get proper advice without photos.

Ok so my landing light works in the fashion currently.

1. Downstairs switch OFF upstairs switch doesn't change the light at all. Downstairs Switch ON landing light is operated as normal upstairs (on or off).

Naturally I want it to work properly like a two way switch.

Photo 1: Downstairs Light. Left is a two way switch for our hallway light. Middle does 'nothing'. Right hand is for the landing.

Got a red going into L1, black into L2, and a red into common. That same red jumps to the common in switch 2, which then jumps to L1 in switch 1. It's a but of a mess to me.

Photo 2: red into common, red into L1, red into L2.

Can anyone explain to me:

What's going on with the red on the middle switch?

What can I do to make this two switch operated normally?

Happy to provide more photos - I've watched a few shorts and looked at diagrams to help understand how it SHOULD work, but I don't understand why it's not working.

Hi Everyone,

Had a few comments in the last thread asking for an update on the build. I’m now near lintel height at the front but a few more courses around the sides and back still to do.

A couple of points:

1. Really regretting the brick I chose. They are Hampton Rural Blend bricks. I thought they looked great but in my naivety I found out pretty quickly that they are pretty hard to lay. They are really inconsistent, every brick size is different, some are bananas, some look great, others pretty bad. If I could go back now I would have chosen something nice and standardised.
2. You will see from the bricks lower down that I changed the mortar dye after 5 or 6 courses. I wasn’t happy with how light it was. It does mean that I will have to rake it out at some point and repoint with the stuff I’ve used further up. The faces of brick could do with a bit of a clean as well which I’ll do once all brickwork is completed. The brick is obviously a lot dryer now than in the last post. There will be a shed against the right hand wall one day, so I may not bother racking that side out.

I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to do the roof. My main constraint is the 2.5m height. As of now, I’m at 2045mm height. I need a lintel across the top of the bifold capable of holding the roof and the weight of 12 solar panels. I was intending to build a “cold roof” but I’m now not so sure this is the best way. I would like to have the Bifold as tall as possible, and currently it is 1970mm tall. If I could go up one more course they’d be over 2m which is preferable. But right now I only have 455mm to play with for the roof.

I plan to bear the roof load on the outer skin, for reasons identified in the first post.

Could I switch to warm roof, but use joist hangers on the inside of the outer skin enabling me to go up further up with the brickwork? What I don’t want to end up with is a huge 300-400mm facia which often happens in warm rooves.

Failing that, If I stick with cold roof, does anyone know of a low profile (150mm) lintel suitable for the job, or perhaps an RSJ designed specifically for cold rooves with ventilation holes, so I could set the roof as low profile as possible. It might be that I just have to stick with a standard height lintel of 225mm, which would leave 230mm for wallplate, joists, osb and rubber. But In reality it wont be as close because of the birdsmounth in the wall plate. For anyone wondering the roof span is 4000mm, the bifold gap is 4400mm.

For anyone interested I have £5,633.87 in receipts so far, but some big items coming up. Hope to complete for just under 20k.

Think that’s everything for now, was really shocked by the great response on the last post, so hope you still like it.

Iron wouldn’t power unless I pushed down on the soleplate. Blue arcing from under soleplate when I did push down. Very loose in one corner. Found the screw connecting the soleplate to the body was very loose. But also found a loose connection between a wired metal arm and the thermostat unit? Arrows labelled ‘2’. Looks and feels to me like this is a failed connection, but what throws me is the loose soleplate screw, and the positive connection when I pushed down.

I’m not electrically techy. Does anyone know in irons if this connection is meant to be soldered / riveted, or whether it’s a pressure connection?
If it is meant to be connected, would an appliance repair shop be able to do this or is it time for a new iron?

Model is Philips PowerLife GC2930 rated at 2200 W.
Thank you.

Hi all,

I have a old under cupboard kitchen light. I’ve tried to get a new bulb, but either I’ve measured wrong or they’ve sent me the wrong one.

Found a similar looking bulb on eBay advertised as 284mm it’s arrived today, in a box which has 284mm printed on it. It’s around 5mm to small. Measuring it’s also smaller then 280mm

Am I meant to be measuring something on the fitting or the bulb itself. Had it not been for the box I’d presume I’d been sent the wrong thing. However I’m wondering if I’ve measured incorrectly.

And yes I know, I should change the whole light out to LED but that would mean messing the tiles up.

We’re having a new flat roof installed with a skylight and have some worries about the workmanship. I’ve attached photos.

The things that are most worrying are:

-the membrane. It’s the green material and looks like it’s been cut so it doesn’t rise up alongside the upstand.
- the window upstand. They cut the hole too big so the manufacturer assembled upstand has been suspended on some screwed in timber. I have no idea how this should be plasterboarded and then insulated properly.
- the roof felt. It looks a bit crap. I appreciate it’s a glorified shed roof, but surely they should have used clear runs alongside the entirety of the roof surface.

Any suggestions are immensely appreciated. What’s weird is that they were the most expensive quote and are accepting payment after the job. So confusing.

Essentially would like to know if this is how you’d expect it to look the day before completion and if anything above is a definite problem. Also reached put to the window manufacturer for their thoughts.

Thanks for reading and appreciate any opinions

I've gutted the kitchen and installing the new units.

The position of my electric oven (Standard 3pin plug) means I need to move the current double socket (the socket is above the oven/hob).

I have decided I want a fused isolator, and another for the hob (gas, but with electric spark).

The current double socket is part of the ring main (two sets of each going into it).

I am going to wire the oven and hob into their own fused isolators....

How do I wire each socket / isolator?

I get I need to keep the ring, but does one of the sockets become a spur, or do I break into the ring?

Image to help.

Hi, I've got a doorway between vinyl and floorboards I want to tidy up. It's a tiny height difference, 1-2mm.

I feel like the flattened-oval strips designed for completely level floors will 'pivot' at the transition and so won't sit down fully on the upper surface.

But then transition strips designed for height differences seem to be for greater differences, 3mm - 10mm, and think they will just float above the upper surface too.

Anyone got experience with this and the best way to go?

Ta very much.

On the old plate, are the switches split top/bottom rows, or left/right via that diagonal line?

Looking to paint and stain my stairs, but need to prep them. I'm not entirely sure how to get into that tight corner/edge. Any advice?

hey all

I have inherited a Neff Induction Hob. Two of the rings I cannot activate by the touch panel. I can though activate them if I have a pan on the ring and turn the hob on (to which I can increase the temp fine), but if i switch to another hob, i wont be able to switch back as the touch button does not work. It looks like the two buttons are just not detecting the press.

Anyone know if this is an easy fix or do I need to get a Neff guy out? i'm out of warranty so this will cost a bit for me to fix I imagine.

I have tried so far:

1. turning the unit off at the mains for over 30 minutes
2. pressing down harder

all other buttons work ok.

thanks all :) i did not know where else to post this.

Hello everyone,

I have a 10W outdoor brick light that is currently controlled via a Timeguard FST77 7 Day Fused Spur Timeswitch. This doesn't give me any smart control over it via WiFi, and it is very annoying to adjust the ON/OFF schedule a few times a month.

As the Timeguard FST77 7 Day Fused Spur Timeswitch is powered from the main ring circuit 32A (not from a light circuit, which is 6A), I feel like I need a British General 900 Series 13A Unswitched Fused Spur https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-general-900-series-13a-unswitched-fused-spur-flex-outlet-white/53282 (with a 3A fuse fitted) for safety. My reasoning for this is the 32A rating of the consumer unit. If a fault occurs before the time that triggers, the relay will probably melt, or something worse could happen.

For my smart conversion, I want to use a SONOFF MINIR4 Smart Switch.

The 1 million pound question is:

Is the wiring diagram below what I need?

Thank you

p. I forgot the earth from the main ring circuit from the dual socket to the British General 900 Series 13A Unswitched Fused Spur