Recent content by Valderrama

Hello, We have a 1930s house whose walls were covered in terrible wallpaper! We have now stripped most of it and want to get the walls skimmed for a great finish. However, in the box room and in the hallways, there appears to be distemper paint above where the picture rails would have...

Reached the picture rail, or at least where the rail used to be. So, as that is free of this marking, I think it must be something to do with some old wallpaper or covering that was there before. If we're looking to paint the walls, should we try and get all of this off?

Yes, it's all over both of the sections that we have stripped so far. It comes off if you scrub hard with a dish scourer or cloth.

No signs of any peeling wallpaper or stains and it appeared to be put up really well - very neat and tidy. Wiped it over with bleach this evening but it didn't seem to be doing too much. Was using 1/4 thin bleach 3/4 water. Is that right?

We've recently moved into a new house and today decided to start stripping the wallpaper in our bedroom. The good news - there's only one layer of wallpaper and the walls looks nice and solid behind it. The bad news? There is what looks like a lot of mould/mildew. It looks like it was/is...

Our patio is in a pretty sorry state at the moment and I'm keen to try and make it look as good as I can. I have begun to rake out the old pointing as it's in a poor way. The slabs are very dirty and need to be cleaned. Is it best to clean these before or after repointing? I am worried...

Yes, he has said he will erect a tower scaffolding at the front remove approx. 8 slates from the roof, and pass the purlin through the gap into pre-punched holes in the roof and then migrate the rafters across. The roof space is boarded and so I guess walking boards aren't required? He...

Okay. So the second guy has been around and had a roof up on the ladder. He's quoted £240 inc VAT to replace the damaged purlin - that seems fine. With regards the roof and fixing the problem of water coming in and damaging the new purlin, he has quoted £350 to do the following; Supply...

Well, had a second guy come round to have a look and he was a lot less dramatic about it, that's for sure. He advised, as the other guy did, that the purlin was surprisingly thin (2 inches) for the roof. He's suggested the following; Make new holes in the walls either end, remove some...

Gonna do the sensible thing and get a second quote. It's too much money to risk. In the meantime do I need to worry about the roof collapsing?

The guy says that as the purlin has warped/bent from the support, it's not really viable/cheaper to bolt it as suggested. He said a major issue is getting timber that size into the roof.

Anyone have any idea if this is a good price? Any advice gratefully received! Thanks!

The guy that came to look at it said it didn't look like a great job had been made of the roof. He said the timbers were smaller than he'd expect and that the struts weren't ideal. Asked about bolting through the purlin and he said that that would have been an option but the bend and warping...

How urgent is the repair, ie do we have time to look into whether there is still an issue with the roof? The other purlin ends are fine.

Not entirely sure. I think it was a historic issue with the roof but am going to have a roofer check out the roof to see if there are any missing tiles. Can't think what else would have caused it? The wall is the wall between our house and next door.