The Home Improvements Thread (2)

[Tabac]

Damn, I see now that vinyl has increased in price in general. I always thought it was typically the cheaper option.

For a kitchen, would you say vinyl or laminate (assuming none of the more labour intensive options like screed is possible)?

We've been looking to redo our kitchen with laminate (have some in our home offices already) but worried about wear and water resistance in the kitchen area...

Reading all the above info from users - Nope. Not laminated where there's a possibility of it getting wet. So even the main bedroom is out of bounds.

 

[WAslayer]

Damn, I see now that vinyl has increased in price in general. I always thought it was typically the cheaper option.

For a kitchen, would you say vinyl or laminate (assuming none of the more labour intensive options like screed is possible)?

We've been looking to redo our kitchen with laminate (have some in our home offices already) but worried about wear and water resistance in the kitchen area...

Laminate in a kitchen is not the best of ideas, even vinyl I would be against.. vinyl, while more water resistant, does not take kindly to things falling on it, especially sharp things.. make nice gouges when that happens..

 

[hj2k_x]

Laminate in a kitchen is not the best of ideas, even vinyl I would be against.. vinyl, while more water resistant, does not take kindly to things falling on it, especially sharp things.. make nice gouges when that happens..

Ya that is how I remember vinyl from back in the days... It was popular because it was cheap and you could lay it down yourself. Figured the new stuff might be better / longer lasting.

 

[hj2k_x]

Reading all the above info from users - Nope. Not laminated where there's a possibility of it getting wet. So even the main bedroom is out of bounds.

Indeed. It will definitely get when in our kitchen. Little people plus 2 cats. No way that thing is staying completely dry.

 

[WAslayer]

Ya that is how I remember vinyl from back in the days... It was popular because it was cheap and you could lay it down yourself. Figured the new stuff might be better / longer lasting.

You may be confused with that thin rolls of stuff you just lay down.. think it was called linoleum or something.. that was utter crap and still is..

Vinyl is miles and miles and miles better and long lasting.. can't even compare the two.. however, it's not impervious to shard objects falling, which a kitchen has a lot of.. it gouges easily..

 

[hj2k_x]

You may be confused with that thin rolls of stuff you just lay down.. think it was called linoleum or something.. that was utter crap and still is..

Vinyl is miles and miles and miles better and long lasting.. can't even compare the two.. however, it's not impervious to shard objects falling, which a kitchen has a lot of.. it gouges easily..

Yes, yes you might be right. I think I'm thinking of lino not vinyl.

Bleak if neither vinyl nor laminate is suitable for a kitchen. That only leaves more labour intensive and expensive options...

 

[WAslayer]

Yes, yes you might be right. I think I'm thinking of lino not vinyl.

Bleak if neither vinyl nor laminate is suitable for a kitchen. That only leaves more labour intensive and expensive options...

You might get extremely durable laminate and vinyl that will last a long time against the abuse a kitchen floor sees but, you are definitely going to pay for it.. more so than for an excellent quality tile..

 

[The_Mowgs]

Pics of your vinyl floors ? Price ?

My semen barrels are blocked off. No babies pi$$ing on my floors.

Price was a special price from a forum member but not close to R399, more R200 a square or something.

 

[SAguy]

Cheapest at CTM R399 a square. Fokit.

Our vinyl flooring was R500/m2, excluding fitment, skirtings and underlay
And then it get wrecked by the builder multiple times, had to rescreep the floor twice, replace multiple skirtings, etc...

Eventually the floors probably cost me about R1200/m2... clawed back a bit from the builder but he eventually ran out of money and we booted him off site.

Imagine the tile I could have had for R1200/m2.

 

[ElixirCoder]

Do you not have a lot of green algae? And therefore need a lot of chemicals / pool cleaning to keep the pool blue?

Yes the algae can get out of hand at that heat if you’re not on top of things. We just use some extra chlorine as needed

 

[ElixirCoder]

Yea they make amazing stuff. Mind showing your fireplace?

Sorry I forgot to post the pics. Here ya go:

 

[ElixirCoder]

Our vinyl flooring was R500/m2, excluding fitment, skirtings and underlay
And then it get wrecked by the builder multiple times, had to rescreep the floor twice, replace multiple skirtings, etc...

Eventually the floors probably cost me about R1200/m2... clawed back a bit from the builder but he eventually ran out of money and we booted him off site.

Imagine the tile I could have had for R1200/m2.

We installed engineered wood for R1200 a square and couldn’t be happier. Weirdly if the wood gets a bit scratched or warn it looks a bit more natural. Laminate getting scratched looks like laminate that got scratched

 

[W@P]

Sorry I forgot to post the pics. Here ya go:

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Looks legit

 

[akescpt]

Howsit. Couldn’t get the multi port open last night. Before I apply more pressure. Does the circled thing on the pic have anything to do with it?

I have sand stuck in there I suspect so I can’t change to a different function at the moment.

Edit. New filter

I have this brown powder residue at the bottom of the pool. We vacuumed the last batch away last night. Refilled the pool a bit. Now it’s back. Might have to get it tested. Need to make sure it’s not dangerous.

So I suspect the water source. Has anybody seen this before?

 

[TedLasso]

Yep.

It requires more maintenance and being careful with spills, heavy furniture etc though. And at the price depending on the area size it may just be worth it to rather put in a bit more and go for a wood look tile...

Or vinyl. That stuff is indestructible in a way. 50% of my house with vinyl (incl laminate) and other 50% wood laminate. The vinyl stuff is just so much better (and quiet). It's wonderful sound absorbing material in my opinion.

And nice to walk Barefoot even in Joburg winters

 

[TedLasso]

It's 2 weeks pain and then you live pretty much care free. With vinyl it's less disruption but then you spend years being paranoid...

I definitely am not paranoid about my vinyl floors , they just amazing. Wooden laminate on other the hand, always worried.

And I have young kids dragging crap across the floor

 

[The_Mowgs]

Howsit. Couldn’t get the multi port open last night. Before I apply more pressure. Does the circled thing on the pic have anything to do with it?

I have sand stuck in there I suspect so I can’t change to a different function at the moment.

Edit. New filter

I have this brown powder residue at the bottom of the pool. We vacuumed the last batch away last night. Refilled the pool a bit. Now it’s back. Might have to get it tested. Need to make sure it’s not dangerous.

So I suspect the water source. Has anybody seen this before?

No it doesn't. Remove the screws of the multiport, remove and clean it. Grease the seal and reseat it and put the multiport back on.

The residue is most likely dust from the new sand in the filter. If its the size of sand then it could be that on of the fingers inside of the filter was damaged during filling of the filter.

You could add a white hth sparkle it cube in the weir and let it run for 12 hours and then backwash and rinse again.

 

[maumau]

So I bought the house with this POS composite deck. It's 5 years old and FUBAR. The substructure started collapsing and the composite planks started to perish and break in places.

During the 5 years, I have replaced some of the wooden substructures here and there and finally, I had enough and replaced it with concrete and on top of the concrete, they put a Cemcrete screed. Here are some before and after.

I am very happy with the end result.

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Magnificent house, love how all the rooms open onto the garden and the lack of burglar bars makes the setting so free.

I think we'll all be in living in secure lifestyle estates in a decade or so.

 

[W@P]

Magnificent house, love how all the rooms open onto the garden and the lack of burglar bars makes the setting so free.

I think we'll all be in living in secure lifestyle estates in a decade or so.

Thank you, yes the design makes it a bit difficult to put any sort of security barriers in place. Will also ruin the look.

 

[rodga]

Need to replace my pool filter.
Any negatives when replacing a 2 bag pool filter with a 3 bag one? Besides the extra bag of sand?

I think my pool is about 15000l. So tiny, but the 3 bag filter is on promo and cheaper than the 2 bag lol