r/HomeImprovementUK

We’re turning our attic room into a spare room. As it’s on the third floor.

It’s usually boiling in the summer and cold in the winter, although we’ve never had the heating on up there as we didn’t really use the room.

I went above it today into the roof space to move the light fitting and noticed there was no insulation.

I only have access to half of the room (highlighted in red) which is what you can see in the photos of the attic space.

So I have some questions:

1. Is it worth insulating it using wool in between the joists? As I don’t have access to the remaining part of the roof.

2. what are all the parts of plaster? On the left hand side? I’ve started to tidy them up but wondered where they’ve come from.

Thanks

Moved into a fixer upper last year and started to plan on what we want to change. One of the big things is the stairs, as you can see they are dated and in need of a revamp.

However, I’m not sure how to approach it, here are a few things;
- the space under the stairs has a radiator. Ideally that wouldn’t be there but it’s the only one in the hall and to move it across the room we’ve been quoted £700/800+ VAT. Concerned if we do it will eat into the hall space too much.

- Updating the stairs and landing. We have a 5 month old, and right now before he is moving I want to make sure these aren’t climbable. Also want to give them a modern look as well. Still have the carpet in the middle (change it) but looking into filling those holes and doing something with the sides. Would it be cheaper to just replace the whole thing though?

- landing railings. Same with the stairs themselves, just need updating.

We like the look of last photo, but as this is our first time doing anything of this scale, unsure as to how to get from gross old stairs to nice looking ones.

Hi all, first-time homeowner, and I'm getting some plastering done at the end of the month. I'm removing the 1960s coving to give a clean finish to the walls.

When removing the coving, I've found so many problems with the space behind it. Loose bits of plaster, chunks of old brick and plaster coming off with the double 2-inch nails, and the worst was the room I just did today. It looks like it leads to the wall to the neighbours (semi-detached) and is a direct gap to the attic (i can see and touch insulation). It's brick, and it looks like there's some wood placed between the brickwork which is attached to the wood that was attached to the coving that I broke when pulling the coving off. I put an image in which shows how the wood usually sits behind the coving between the plasterboard and ceiling (pic 3 - on the right is the wood that remained).

A few questions

• Is this OK to leave for the plasterer? They assured me that behind the coving it will be a mess, but this is an inch+ deep and a 2-3 inches tall of filling to do where the small piece of wood was that got pulled out
• Should I re-fill with wood (the same way it was before, that the coving was attached to)
  • If so, how do I do this? I'm guessing I can just nail it into the bits of wood there - but is there anything I should know/check to see why this wood broke and the other didn't?
• Is it OK that this was broken? Is this wood important, or have I fucked up and will I need to get a builder in to check this? Dumb question I'm sure, as I don't think coving is structurally important, but I don't want any problems going forward as this house has been problem after problem
• Is it OK to breathe any the space after cleaning? This is my office, and I've not covered it, but will there be any problems for the few weeks ahead of the plastering job to sit here 10+ hours a day?

Any help would be appreciated. I wasn't sure what to flair, so I did building as this seemed beyond a bit of polyfill

Finally, there was what seemed like old soot behind much of this. There is an old covered chimney on the left between two rooms. I'm unsure if this is soot, black mould (ancient) or we did have a boreworm infestation that we got treated (it was not due to damp I was told by the specialist, and the attic has remained damp free so far in the 6 months i've been here). Google suggests this could be boreworm droppings. It's chalky and leaves a black smear like charcoal would. If it is mould, is it likely to be just really old?

Hi all, long time reddit reader brand new to posting so apologies if I've got something wrong.

My wife kept her original house and kept it as a buy to let. We're begining to explore the idea of moving back to it and becoming (very nearly) mortgage free 😍. It's got a garage built on that at the back is a little short of being flush with the rear of the house so I'm hoping to fix that with a small extension to make the flow work. Next to the garage at the other side of the perimeter fence is a public entry that is gated. I've begun to mess around with ai and it seems like a good idea. It's on the north west of England and willing to go to £75k to get the place sorted, future proof and turn it into our forever home. I'll be able to get some lads in I know to help with plumbing and doing any manual dirty work. I'm hoping to do a full rewire, any plumbing upgrades needed, kitchen, decorating (I've got a mate for that), hopefully I'd like to modernise the outside with rendering and renewing facials. I'd also hopefully like a house battery and hopefully solar panels. SORRY TO GO ON.

Anyway I've included some pics. Am I being realistic for this budget if I get some lads in and help myself? To be honest I'd like to come in under that budget.

Ps. OBVIOUSLY some of the pics are ai and it's gone a bit rogue but you get the idea. Any advice greatly appreciated. This ain't my forte at all and I'm at the very begining

Thanks in advance

Morning everyone!

I’ve been stressing all night to the point i woke up from my sleep at 4AM at my wits end on what to do.

For context, a couple days ago I went down a journey on replacing my roof for a classic 1930s semi-detached home.

Following the advice on here, I opted to preserve the heritage of the house and decided to get these beautiful clay tiles.

The roofer in the space of a day alongside 3 other workers - threw out my old roof and put up the new one. He’s coming tomorrow supposedly for just the gutters.

The problem is, after the roofer left for the day yesterday I went up to check the work and saw some gaps between these tiles and they’re scaring me big time. Im scared its been messed up or even worse, the tiles themselves arent good?

I would REALLY appreciate any advice to bring my mind at ease.

Thanks all.

Looking for ideas to optimise the first-floor layout of our 1930s semi.

We were trying to make it a 4-bed, but Bedroom 2 in this proposal is too narrow.

I’m open to moving/removing load-bearing walls if needed, especially as we’re already opening up downstairs anyway.

Would you try to make this a 4-bed, or keep it as a good-size 3-bed?

my outbuilding ceiling looks like its coming down.

I've bought a new place 8-9 months back and my outbuilding containing consumer unit looks like this.

How quickly should I fix this ceiling which is constantly damp when there is no rain?

How much will this cost to be done by a tradesman, Im in west midlands?

Hello! We recently bought a home and noticed that our external garden wall has a bit of a gnarly crack.

What do we do here?

I'm thinking we need to ideally.

1. Remove the tree to take the weight off the wall

2. Get a bricklayer to connect the wall somehow?

I'm guessing this is something we should try and fix quickly, the tree seems to have been there on this very wall since about 2007.

I’ve a damp basement. Only one wall is exposed to damp soil (the rear has an extension, the front is above ground level, and the other side is another house).

I’m doing the usual things… air bricks, dehumidifying etc. I’m looking at lowering the ground by the side. I’ve dug down 4-5 bricks and have got to clay. There’s a natural drop off to the land towards the front of the house, so easy to direct water along and away into the drain. I’m considering whether I should

A) dig down further
B) fill with gravel and a French drain type setup
C) install a plastic drainage channel at the bottom of the trench (underneath current waste pipes)
D) put anything on the wall itself
(Or all of these/none of these)

At a later date I may lower the whole ground level - but unlikely in the short term.

Fairly sure I’ve got a way to the foundations - basement floor is 1.5 or so m further down from where I’ve dug to.

I've discovered what appears to be an old window in the wall between my dining room and bathroom, and I'd like to convert it into a doorway. At the moment, the bathroom opens directly into the kitchen, so relocating the door would make for a much better layout.

The house is a Victorian terrace, so I'm assuming the wall is solid brick. As this would originally have been an external wall, I also assume there's a lintel above the existing window opening.

If that's the case, and the new door will be the same width or narrower than the existing window opening, what's the best way to remove the brickwork beneath the window? Would hiring a large masonry saw be the best option, or is it simply a case of using a demolition hammer or sledgehammer?

Hi everybody, looking for some advice regarding this and what to do about it. This is the hip rafter in our house. Obviously, this needs fixing. My questions are, can this be repaired in situ by sistering or epoxy or some other method, or is it a better idea to replace the entire beam? And, which trade is best to contact to get this sorted out? Or should we just report to insurance and let them deal with it? Thanks in advance for any help offered.

They say woodchip wallpaper hides a multitude of sins and oh boy were they right.

We found some water damage / cold bridging causing the old plaster to fail and had to strip this away in order to replaster. In doing so, the plasterer found that the water ingress has caused the lintel to rot away, he said the rot seemed to stretch to about halfway along the window.

I've included a photo of this area from the outside as well as what the all looked like before stripping out the plaster. The outside photo was during a rainy day, and looks dry to me so I presume this historic leak was resolved some time ago, but given the damage to the stone I presume it was happening for quite a while.

I spoke to construction company that said this might cost around 8-10k to fix, which sounds truly insane to me. It is a (B) listed building in Edinburgh, so I believe the repair should be "like for like" but even then I can't fathom how this would cost that much as a recent first time buyer. This is a top floor flat, so only the roof above this window.

I'm trying to gather some additional quotes, but wanted to find out if that first indicative cost was insane to begin with.