I had the most bizarre interaction this evening. A plumber popped round for a quote for a couple of things in my ensuite. I agreed with the pricing. Cool.

Then he proceeded to measure the length of my bath. He says out-loud to my husband length is 700! Thats a really small bath!

I didn’t register the measurement and just said back. Yes it is a small bath. He goes its not standard size where did you get it? 700 is so small. I was like wait. 700 is 70 cm it cant be 700 can you show me. He then got OFFENDED but showed me him measuring and I checked the measurement.

The measurement was 1.7m so 1700. I said this and he said ‘i use a measuring tape everyday. Why you trying to tell me I dont know how to measure.” I was hoping we could laugh it off and I said its late in the day and you probably had a long one but it is 1700. He argued it was 700. And was getting visibly angry. I was baffled. And started to feel uncomfortable.

I sat down. Let the men do the talking. Hes saying to my husband im wrong. Im fucking fuming. Then he came to me and says not all measuring tapes are the same. Ok??! But 700 is still nowhere NEAR 1700. So even if they are different you’re still wrong.

Anyway he tries to conclude that he meant the bath panel is 700 but the bath is 1700?! What?! How is the length of the bath 1700. But I should order a bath panel thats 700 in length?!

He was very rude and I had to ask him to leave. Twice.

Husband in dog house for not sticking up for wife. And petting ego of man who cannot measure.

Wife now turning to Reddit to vent. May need future DIY Advice on how to fit bath panel.

I understand now why people DIY.

We wanted a guest room that could sleep a family of 4, or several kids for a sleepover etc. what better motivation than friends coming in 2 weeks. It’s about 90% of the way there, but it’s functional in time for the weeks.

1) Nearly finished
2) Estate agent pic (we’ve used it as box storage for the last year)
3) The floor was 30mm lower than the rest of the attic conversion
4) 12mm ply + 18mm osb board fixed that
5) This whole project is based on 2 Hemnes Daybeds. We’ve had 1 for 10 years, and picked up another for £32. Started to build them in on either side of the room.
6) more building in and testing the trundle bed
7) no matter how straight a wall looks, it isn’t. We thought the ceilings were ok, until I put the backs in. But a quick scribe later fixed that.
8) wallpapering and the beginnings of the storage cupboard can be seen
9)a fully pulled out bed (this is when we realised that our daybeds were different revisions and so slightly different sizes, a few modifications had to be done)
10-end) finishing touches and we’re ready for guests!

Still need to paint the drawers, finish skirting, panelling on cupboard doors

Wondering the Best ways to isolate and make it look decent?

Recently moved into a new house and there's an old electric car charging cable that's just hanging out with duct tape on the end. It is turned off at the fuse box but I don't like the way it's just hanging around. We're not likely to be getting an electric car anytime soon, but also want to preserve the cable so it doesn't get damaged by water ingress.

To me it looks a little high as I'm guessing it would need a drip loop? but also don't want a box that high up. Is there anyway around this without it looking daft and still be usable in the future?

Thanks for any advise!

The main bedroom in this house is a loft room and the house was built with this really awkward storage cupboard. Its too deep and has headroom above the door. Apologies its currently stuffed with clothes so ive used an Ikea design tool to visualize the inside, A Kallax box for scale..

Roughly 75.5x103cm and 176cm height.

I cant fathom what they were thinking with this.. Its too deep to reach to the back, its awkwardly off the ground, there is a gap above the door.. Help

UPDATE: The paint is Dulux Emerald Glade as people keep asking.

Hi all, apologies if this isn’t the right subreddit, but I have very limited construction/DIY experience, and seeking advice on whether to worry or not!

Our new build is currently under construction, and they have just recently finished the brickwork. The pictures show cracks in the two downstairs front-facing window lintels. Other than just visually, will these cracks cause structural issues that we ought to be flagging as a priority?

Thanks for any and all help.

Okay so I don’t want to call a locksmith because the locks are technically fine. It looks like the door is at an angle, so the lock isn’t going into the latch as it doesn’t align (the deadbolt as well).

It seems like if the lock was just a few millimetres higher, it would go in just fine.

What I’m trying to figure out is what the root problem is. The hinges on the door are all secure, and can’t be screwed in any tighter than they are. The lock also seems to be secure.

Has the door warped, or is it the door frame that’s come out of place? Does it need new hinges?

Sorry if this a dumb question but I literally know nothing about DIY. The door frame seems fine but I just don’t know. Any help on what the root cause of the problem would be very much appreciated 🙏

I’m trying to identify the brand and exact blue colour of this paint tin from a photograph taken around three years ago.
The paint was used on a metal roller shutter at my shop in Birmingham. Unfortunately, the tin was left behind by the previous owner, so I don’t know where it was purchased.
The shutter has recently been vandalised with graffiti, and I’d like to buy the same paint to touch up the affected area rather than repaint the entire shutter.
Does anyone recognise the red, white and blue packaging, particularly the large lettering on the front?
Even identifying the manufacturer would be a massive help. Thanks!

I’ve excavated an area in my front garden, essentially it’s a slopped parking area leaving down to my driveway. The soil is hard clay, it has quite a decent fall.

My retaining wall has a French drain behind so minimum amount of water should be coming from retained soil.

I waited for a dry couple of days last week, laid terram1000, and a biaxial geogrid. I then got 5tons of MOT Type 1 Dolomite, laid circa 80mm uncompacted, and compacted with a plate weighing about 57kg.

It’s been crap weather, but by no means torrential rain, and the images are the result.

It’s a sloppy mud like mess, boots go straight through it, hardly any area is hard.

Where have I gone wrong, stone, subsoil, lack of compacted/low weight compactor, or all of the above?

I’m absolutely at my wits end with this project.

Edit: I have suspected that it has too many fines, because it almost looked like piles of sand, but I’ve seen ‘Dolomite’ before and it looked similar, it was sold as MOT type 1 to 803 spec, but I’m skeptical.

Also worth noting, I’m planning to put another layer on, this was the first layer.

Worst customer service in ages. A screen that doesn't open and leaks is not refundable because "the manufacturer says it is working as expected" nm the tanked tiling job it's ruined because there are now holes drilled in the wrong place

They told me to f off in corporate speak.

So here I am moaning

Avoid

Hi all,

Looking for some advice, we have had an IKEA kitchen installed by a third party carpenter. He's done a few jobs for us before so I trust his work

All went well other than the work tops which have 1 joint in where the meeting of the joint doesn't line up very well and the joint is very visible.

I have pointed this out to the carpenter who has said as there is not a full support underneath for the worktop the joint is going to be visible.

My questions are

1. Has the work top been fitted well enough?

2. What options do I have to get the joint hidden (carpenter hasn't really given us an option and we don't want to just accept the bad finish)

Any advice would be much appreciated 🙏

Just moved into first house and sneaked a peek of the promised land under the floor. Could it really be?

I am in the process of buying a new build house through a housing association. The house was handed over from miller homes to the HA in May.

I asked if I could get an independent snagger pre-completion as to be honest i havent a clue what im looking for and I would rather pay for peace of mind - i explained that to the representative. This was their response...

'___ don’t have an issue with you arranging your own snagger but we will not be undertaking any works that maybe identified as we have our own Clerk Of Works who goes through quality checks prior to handover.

If you still want to go ahead it will be at your own cost and not down to ___ to pay for a professional snagger. (Not sure why she put this obviously the HA wouldnt have to pay??)

Anything which is not a major issue will be picked up at 12 months defects inspection.'

edit **im not holding up the sale. I am still in the enquiry phase and there's no chain since its a new build

would I pull out over the grass? - absolutely not

this was more to show the email and defect process with the HA and gauge people's thoughts**

I had all three toilets (x2 upstairs and x1 downstairs) done recently after buying the house.

While no issues with the two toilets upstairs, downstairs we are noticing that sometimes it smells a lot (even without using it much).

We recently noticed that the odour came 15/20 mins after we flushed, there was no odour before, but only game 15/20 mins after flushing, some sort of rotten egg gas type odour...

Everything seems sealed up and we don't see any water or anywhere anything could escape.

Can anyone help me understand what it could be or what sort of checks I can do?

I tried to check the level of water before and after flush and it's pretty much the same.

Attached some photos (apologies for the quality)

Self leveling concrete over the Minton tiles then they put wood flooring down throughout the entire hallway which is huge - this was taken last year and I gave up and put the floor back but I think about it every day

Looking at buying a property. This was my main concern. I have a few ideas as to the cause. I've got a survey booked but looking for some opinions to put my mind to rest a little. I know the survey will make things out to be worse than they are for their own protection. There is a dpc below the level of efflorescence. The attached fence looks wet.

Hi all. My cellar window is in poor condition on the stack and needs rebuilding. The window itself is on some sort of false hinge system on a piece of lead flashing. Is my best idea to prop up the window itself on the hinge, rebuild the stack and then seal the window to the top of the stack? I’m a total novice in bricklaying so any advice is really appreciated!

My bathroom walls were covered in a mixture of shiny paint, weird MDF panels, glue and textured wallpaper. All this has been hell to remove and further fucked up the already damaged plaster underneath. What’s the most sanity-preserving, cost effective and long lasting solution for this?

The panels and wallpaper are gone but the shiny paint remains. It’s flaky in parts so I scraped off what I could and tried sanding it down but it’s absolutely soul destroying and I really can’t be fucked. There’s heaps of cracks and dinks to fill in but the old paint is my biggest nemesis. Do I really have to spend my life sanding it all, or get it fully plastered over?? Is there a magic product that might help smooth things over or should I just suck it up and start fresh?

I'm assuming this won't be covered by warrantee. But I've never seen a kitchen to this before and a toaster feels a pretty normal thing to have under a counter. Am I just being stupid or should I expect better of my kitchen

Any way I can fix this?

Cracks getting bigger, noticed a mouse nibbled hole behind it, can i just cut it out and fill it in? Is it connected to electrics? I don't actually know what it is, assumed an old alarm set up?

I have decorators caulk, pulled the box just now and the bottom fell off, looked like a spider made it's home in there, not sure if that tells you it's safe or not.

Any advice? Don't fancy mice falling in. Thanks :)

I work in an artist studio in a crumbling Victorian building and a pretty bad leak has developed in my studio through big cracks in the plaster. It's a co-op building with no money and no landlord responsibility to repair, we do all the maintenance ourselves, and safe to say none of us knows what we're doing here. Please be kind!

There are a load of bumps on the roof where the roofing material goes over bolts, and those bumps have cracks in them. Til now, we have regularly sprayed or painted an 'emergency roof repair' waterproofing product over those cracks and the leaks have stopped. But this is no longer working, and this summer this huge bit of roof melted off the bricks. We can't lift it back up. I assume this is why the repair on the cracked bumps hasn't stopped the leak, but maybe they're also still leaking, I have no idea how to know where exactly it's coming from.

So... is there anything we can do to help reduce or stop the leak, given that none of us has any expertise, and the budget is about £150 for materials. Some kind of giant rubber sheet? A tarp? Paint the entire area of bricks and melted roof with the stupid mastic?

For your amusement I have included images of the kinds of cracks that are all over the roof that we are filling with mastic, and images of our previous beautiful repairs on the 'cracked bumps'. And the current drip-diverter I have rigged up in my studio that collects a couple inches of water from every rain.

In theory we're getting funding to replace the roof in 1-2 years, but right now I'm hoping for any way to stop/reduce the leak so my ceiling doesn't fall down. Please help DIY experts!

I am an artist, but I am attempting something that I have not done before. I have done mural treatments on plenty of ceilings, but I've always painted directly on the plaster or drywall. I'm getting a little old to be on a scaffolding. One of my customers has asked me to do a scroll and floral treatment and the four corners of a ceiling in one of her rooms. Keep in mind that she had trim installed on the ceiling as a"frame" for this treatment. I was thinking I would do the painting on four panels on the Wallrock Fibreliner Smooth Lining Paper
I'm curious if anyone has done this before and if you have a recommendation for success. My plan was to create a panel that is slightly bigger than the design. I would then paint that the same color as the ceiling and then put that up. Any suggestions for how to do this would be very appreciated. The painting is not a problem, but the technical part of applying this product to a ceiling is new to me. Thank you in advance.

Holy crumble Batman