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Show us yer house and house-related meddlings

I like Colin, who just left, with his little notebook. Quiet and non-salesmanish, let’s see, showed me technical drawings which i cant read, he will send quotations for timber and a ‘composite’ which apparently impersonates timber quite well, when painted.
He used to be a joiner before getting into the manufacturing of doors in his factory, 30 years that's been going apparently so can't be that shit.
 
teuchter said:
I think Accoya is very likely a good choice because it's something produced under controlled conditions and there's some way of tracing back to test certificates and things like that which you can be reasonably confident apply to the actual stuff your window is made of. This is unlike simply specifying by timber species, because there are still all sorts of unknowns like has it been seasoned or dried properly and so on.

With your windows, did they offer you some kind of warranty either for the whole product, or for the Accoya wood itself?
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No. I probably should have done more on that front to be honest, but this job was done on trust, largely based on how long they've been in business. I think most of their work is commercial rather than individual domestic which makes installations like ours a bit of an outlier, although I'm not sure. I verified that the product is as specified and made of the stuff it should be, and that's about it.
 
Funny how it goes, i'm actually a bit excited now about the idea of getting a new, functioning door.
If it opens and closes properly from outside as well as in, not only will i feel better when (one day in the future) i'm away from home, but also it could be the way in to the house when you've got muddy boots on, which is a bit of a boring problem at the moment (front door straight into living room).
 
bimble said:
Funny how it goes, i'm actually a bit excited now about the idea of getting a new, functioning door.
If it opens and closes properly from outside as well as in, not only will i feel better when (one day in the future) i'm away from home, but also it could be the way in to the house when you've got muddy boots on, which is a bit of a boring problem at the moment (front door straight into living room).
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I can very much see that. My backdoor broke (lol) and I couldn't find anyone to fix it so hot a quote to throw all my savings at it and one of the plusses would have been it having a handle on the outside. In the end I found someone to fix the current heap but I couldn't have afforded the bi-folds that would have made the biggest difference and it turns out when the housing association replaced the lot we'd have had to join in so not worth investing.
 
Not exactly on topic, but I was wondering when everyone has trades people in how well do they make good any collateral damage they cause? Have they been good at telling you what they will and won't do as part of the job?

I've recently had someone in to replace and relocate my boiler. We discussed where the new boiler would go, how they would handle connecting up to the existing pipework and what I was going to do with the space where the old one was located. The quote was a little higher than I expected but on reflection I thought that would be because of the extra work resolving all the linked issues surrounding the relocation. They did the work very quickly which I was please about but when they said they were just tidying up ready to leave I had a look at what they'd done. They hadn't done anything to the hole where the old flue went out through the wall other than stuffing newspaper in it. I asked them what they were going to do about the hole and was told they'd put a piece of board over the inside. I reminded them that I was going to put an open backed shelving unit against the wall so they said they'd sort it out. They'd also made holes in the ceiling where the pipes went up into the loft but made no attempt to seal the holes. When I checked again they'd plastered the inside but after they'd left I realised they'd still left newspaper stuffed in the hole on the outside. Also, as I discovered in the high winds a couple of week's later, they hadn't secured the tiles on the roof properly around the new flue. They did come back and fix that though.

By contrast, I have an electrician I've used numerous times and he always make good any damage resulting from the work he's undertaken. If he anticipates any issues we resolve them before he starts, If anything odd crops up during his work he'll talk to me about the best way to resolve it including offering to retile part of the kitchen where he realised he couldn't do the work without damaging several tiles.

So I was wondering how well other people have faired in knowing exactly what trades people will and won't do and whether my expectations are too high. Do I need to spend more time getting them to confirm exactly what they will be doing and what I'll have to sort out for myself afterwards?
 
I think you've answered your own question - yes you do. Discuss what making good will or won't be done and make sure it's mentioned in writing in the quote if possible. Might be quite reasonable for them to say that they won't do certain things - might be outside of their skills - just need to be clear at the outset. This kind of thing is important when comparing quotes too - a cheaper quote might seem better value until you realise it doesn't include things that other quotes do.
 
Well, today has been fun.

For a while now, on and off, there's been a faint smell of gas in our hallway, porch and outside our front door. It comes and goes. We also had pretty much the same thing when we lived two doors down. The last two days it's been a bit more noticeable again, still nothing major.

Today after some deliberation I decided I would phone it in and get it investigated. Cadent came out very quickly, about 30 minutes, and spent three hours investigating with a detecting wand that went off a bit, but they struggled a bit as it didn't make total sense. Also for a while evacuation (to where?) loomed. Eventually they found there was a pipe running along the side of the house, doing a 90 degree turn under the driveway and then supplying next door and possibly our old house. So now there is a big hole outside our front door. On Monday they will have to dig up the drive and who knows what else - hopefully much of it can be lined with plastic inside the existing pipe, but not all of it.

That's hundred-plus year old pipework for you I guess.
 
Allegedly it's all going to be put back together, but yeah. The drive is lumpy as fuck anyway so they can dig it all up if they like.
 
bimble said:
I've collected 6 different door quotes now, and the most recent one is Acoya, and its £5,565.83 . Without installation. :eek:
Still waiting for Colin to send over his quote, Colin is my great hope.
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Colin's come through, as i knew he would. He's the second cheapest out of all of them (its under 3k incl installation and a new frame and step bit which) but his doors are not ugly and they come with a 10 year guarantee so i think its a goer.
 
Carpet is coming on Saturday for front room, I am desperate enough to try to measure for blinds again tonight, despite being knackered, after giving up nearly a fortnight ago, when we were both too knackered, but it keeps getting kicked down the road and it'll be 2-3 weeks until they arrive and then godknowshowlong until my husband is suddenly in the right frame of mind to actually fit them and I realllly want the room to be finished. Although it will at least be usable from Saturday (blinds being mostly decorative and not that likely to be actually be pulled down much)
 
So, carpet went into what was formerly 'the crap room' (see below)

20210223_165349.jpg

View of it now from the other way (no blinds yet, finally fucking ordered them today, so 2-3 weeks for those)

20210320_195204.jpg

There will be a pic over the fireplace, more plants and more books on shelves as half are still at my parents'.
 
moonsi til said:
My partner built me some shoe storage into the space that was for a single bed in our new house. I will put a white curtain over. I have a lot of shoes so this will house half the collection!
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I need this! We have nowhere for shoe storage in the house but luckily have a decent sized porch. My trainers were fading in there so I’ve just bought a load of boxes with doors to stack and store in there.
Your shelves are lovely though. Very jealous. 😊
 
Looby said:
I need this! We have nowhere for shoe storage in the house but luckily have a decent sized porch. My trainers were fading in there so I’ve just bought a load of boxes with doors to stack and store in there.
Your shelves are lovely though. Very jealous. 😊
Click to expand...
I read that as you have a "decent sized pooch". I wouldn't fancy retrieving those. :eek: :D
 
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