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Hi RF Lighting, thanks for that. Can you suggest any reasonable dimmable drivers and dimmer switches? I have had a look on the usual auction site and the dimmable drivers seem to be at least 4 times the price of normal drivers!? The Dimmer switch on the wall was going to be a 2 gang...

Hi all, I have come to this forum as I am struggling to find an answer to some questions I have about LED strips/ribbon lights. I am looking to use LED ribbon as under counter lighting in my kitchen and also on top of a couple of beams in my sitting room for some soft lighting in the...

Hi all, I hope that you will be able to help me with a decision I have to make about what blocks to use for the construction of two large extensions to my home. Our extensions will be cavity wall in block and render to match the existing house and a white rendered finish is a condition...

Hi all, I am in the middle of a renovation of my 1900 little cottage and all the ceiling joists and rafters etc are now exposed. It is a brick cottage with concrete ground floor, so not a lot of wood around but quite a few people have said I should get all the wood treated as a precautionary...

Hi all, I just thought I would come back and give an update as I took the shed down yesterday. I opted for the nailbar option, so got all suited and booted, had the mask on etc and set to work. On the roof the nails came out quite well using the nail bar, with only a few parts of...

Hi all, thanks for the comments. Jeds and Woody, just to clarify with you both, when you both say there should be little reason why, in theory, there should only be a small delay between putting plans in and starting work, do you mean putting our planning application in or are you...

I / our Architect did not suggest that a builder should work without any drawings. The reason I am going down the building notice route rather than the building regs application route is an issue of timing and being able to make progress much quicker to take advantage of the summer(!?) weather...

Hi Woody, We have used an architect to help us draw up plans for the new extension which requires planning permission. We then had the choice of filling out a building regs application once our planning decision comes back, but the added time would push us quite far back in to the autumn...

Hi DevilDamo, Yes I think you are probably right in terms of the fee basis, but the local borough council officer seems to want us to submit two notices, so even for the same overall project value the fees work out higher (£60k project on one application works out at about £1500 I think but...

Hi, We are at the stage of giving a building notice on our project (refurb of single storey rear extension and old house, plus addition of 150m3 2 storey side extension) and are torn between using the council or a private company. Has anyone else got experience of the pro's and con's of...

Hi ^Woody^, Do you dampen the surface with water when you have done this in the past as well? I'm not disagreeing with your comments above as I have absolutely no experience of working with asbestos (well, knowingly anyway!), but (bear with me on this one) a lot of the advice on the internet...

I'm not sure that would help me avoid breaking the panels up! Although it probably is the quickest way....

Thanks for the advice. Do you have any links to these tools as I tried to google them but couldn't really find what I think you mean? Cheers.

Hi all, I have a corrugated asbestos shed which I need to remove from my garden. I know about all the safety aspects and am well prepared with respirator masks, paper suits and wellies etc, and I also know that my local council tip will accept the asbestos, but I have a question over what is...

Hi everyone, I am hoping that someone may have some advice regarding the various incentive schemes that are in place as I am getting very confused the more I read! We have bought an old farm cottage that needs renovating and extending. I have been researching two areas of...

The figure differs from lender to lender and can change. Some allow 25%, some allow only 10%, some allow only on single storey elements of a house and some just refuse full stop. Our concern was improving it so that it is acceptable to most mainstream mortgages. You are quite right about it...

Hi Tony, There are two walls that are 4.5inch brick, the side and the rear wall. My post here only really asked about the side wall as this is the wall that would become internal with our extension. You are right, the side extension will be built using a cavity wall construction. I...

Hi again Woody, okay so localised damp can be rising damp then. That suggests that it either the floor doesn't have a DPM or it is damaged then I guess. Either way, it looks like we might have to lift the concrete to install/replace the DPM. I think we would lose too much head room if we...

Hi woody, I have just responded to two other posts about the extension and why we are considering strengthening the wall, so I hope they explain what is going on. With regard to the underpinning, it is not the foundation of the wall that has been called in to question by the mortgage...

Hi, No, the wall is currently the external side wall of this semi detached property. The extension we are planning would be on the side of the house, currently just paty of the garden, and will have a large lounge room downstairs and an extra bedroom upstairs. So from the roadside as you...