Recent content by clairelouisecook

Our house is made of soft old bricks which do take in water and blow,due to the age of the house we have no foundations; the house is build on chalk with a slate damp course. The previous owner pebbledashed the building which we have taken off and intend to re-render to the old slate damp...

I have exposed my joists which are 4" x 2" joists in the kitchen/hall which seem to be either 16" or 17" apart. I intend to put a wooden enginneered floor down on 18mm ply on part of the floor and tile again laid on 18mm ply on another bit of the floor. Are my joists too far apart such that I...

Here is a picture of the problem. As I hope you can see there is rot in the under panel of the window and word work therefore we need to understand how we should remove this panel it seems to be attached to something further inside, but I am not sure how a window is constructed. These windows...

I need to repair/replace the wooden piece above a ground floor bay window which is partly rotten. It is a 1920's house and the window has a typical curved lip above the window - wooden structure as far as I can tell covered in render. The piece that is rotten is horizontal, like a soffit under...

sorry to be ignorant but does the frame stop mean that the door depth is 15/20mm as I am trying to understand if I need to get a new door architrave on the doors as well as what fire door I need to buy. Thanks for your help.

I understand that I need a firedoor bwteeen my garage and the house. On the side of the garage there must be a 100mm step to prevent any fuel leaking in to the house and a closure and strudent strip on the door. Does the fire door need to be for one hour burning ie a 55mm door? Anything else...

Richard thanks so much. Building control have been in on everything and we are using a Fensa company for windows and will get plasterer to plaster reveal. Any tips on cutting the cavity closures and I guess just make sure the screws are screwed in well so as not to unsettle the window.

The window company will be fitting the windows not the door. We have changed the size of some windows in an old part of the building and the builder has fbricked up the space with block work so the aperture is the right size, but not put anything in the cavity. We also have windows and doors...

Our builder has built our window and doors apertures, but not covered the cavity. Before our windows and doors are fitted should I fit the premade cavity closures to the window and door apertures. How do we fit these and what do we need to be aware of i.e. not damaging any damp proof...

We are having an extension and a rewire. The sparkey has said that as we have a solid floor on part of the old house between the new position of the fuse box and the extension it is fine to drop wires from the ceiling vertically for sockets. I am unsure about this as I always thought they...

We are working on a 1920's house with no foundations. The house is having an extension with the front of the house being knocked through and steels sitting on piers supporting the existing house. Building control have suggested dry packing the piers rather than wet filling the pier void. What...

Please could someone confirm where the capping goes with lathe and plaster walls as the capping is deeper than the lathe and plaster which sits on wattle. Do you need to break through the first stage of the wattle and nail to the back of the the wattle as I understand that the cable can not...

Thanks my electrician when I mentioned it said it was ok to put in the wire in the cavity of the wall he will be corrected tomorrow and will be using capping!