Recent content by sys_daw

When I bought a new house some years ago I remember that the downstairs floors were covered in a black substance, almost solid tar like. Does anyone know what this is and what its primary use is for? Also, in my current house, which is around 200 years old, I notice that the floor is cold. Is...

Our upstairs ceilings are a mix of modern plasterboard and traditional lathe and plaster. In the loft we have a mix of blanket insulation and what appears to be wood shavings and cork?! Whatever it is, it is small pieces of material. Anyway, I would like to remove everything that is up in the...

Hi All, I took the skirting boards off and noticed that the plaster did not go all the way to the floor, there was a gap between the plaster and the floor. So I got two surveyors in and both confirmed that it was rising damp. Great. Options are to have the walls tanked or injected but...

Hi Dave, I've uploaded two pictures, one that shows the section of the wall that is affected and the other shows the "bubbling" of the plaster/paint work.

Hi Dave, I believe that the floors are solid but will have to double check. Not sure what cold bridging is but the walls would have been plastered around 4/5 years ago and the problem only started occurring last year - not sure if that helps. I will try and take some photos and post them...

Hi Andy, On the other side of one of the walls is the kitchen which will obviously vary in temperature throughout the day. The other wall has a study on the other side which is normally a steady warm temperature.

My house has been extended over the years by previous owners so that now three of my interior walls were originally the exterior walls. Last year I noticed that at the bottom of one of these walls the paint/plaster had started blistering. The affected area rises to no more than 2 inches above...

Thanks Big-All, I'll have a look at the frame later and try removing the stop.

Hi Scrit, It is an internal door frame. We currently have batten style doors and we would like to change them for solid pine doors because they have all warped and no longer close. However, looking at the the way the door frames have been constructed it is apparent that normal size doors...

How difficult is it to build a new door frame and how would I go about doing it?