The Home Improvements Thread (2)

[Sideshow Bob]

Why are freestanding house dwellers not allowed to answer..? Your question has got nothing to do with how large your erf is..

What you should be asking yourself is the following:

How safe are my belongings in the garden from both would be thieves and mother nature..
If the answer is: not very safe, well then you are going to a storage unit..

Thanks. I was avoiding typical mybb answers like 'Can't you keep it in your 31st spare room? LOL

Yeah, thieves is not a problem but rain could be and will see if tarp is enough for 6-8 days, otherwise storage unit is the way.

 

[derp90]

Does anyone have a rough idea of what vinyl/laminate flooring would cost installed for around 150m2? I guess a mid-range one, not super cheap and bad quality, but fairly decent.

Currently it's a mix of tiles and carpets.

Also, how do they install it in for example, a kitchen? Do they have to take out all the cupboards to install the floor underneath?

 

[Sideshow Bob]

Debating whether to have full length (up to ceiling) cupboards in the garage. Reason being if there is a space, I will keep something there and it will look messy over time. Might as well keep stuff inside the cupboards and cover it up.

Does anyone have full length cupboards in garage? Any issues ?

 

[WAslayer]

Does anyone have a rough idea of what vinyl/laminate flooring would cost installed for around 150m2? I guess a mid-range one, not super cheap and bad quality, but fairly decent.

Currently it's a mix of tiles and carpets.

Also, how do they install it in for example, a kitchen? Do they have to take out all the cupboards to install the floor underneath?

Laminate on the mid-upper range is 330-430 per SQM.. installation, assuming the floor is already good, 85 per SQM(from the place we are looking at using).. this does not include underlay which is required..

Somewhere there is cupboards, you would typically install up to the cupboard edges.. if the cupboards can be easily removed, you could do that and install floor underneath, however, this will raise the cupboards by the height of the laminate floor thickness and underlay, which could have other consequences..

 

[The_Mowgs]

Is it possible to fix a situation where the shower mixer is extremely sensitive to change? There is about 1cm of play to either burn your tits off or freeze to death. This mixer wastes a lot of water trying to get the temperature right for the kids to shower.

Also, same bathroom. The hot water takes a long time to come out even though the geyser is close to the shower head. The plumbing for that bathroom has been replaced with those new white pipes, not sure what its called. Will it make a difference if I insulate that hot water pipe with that insulation that looks like a black pool noodle?

 

[Tinuva]

Is it possible to fix a situation where the shower mixer is extremely sensitive to change? There is about 1cm of play to either burn your tits off or freeze to death. This mixer wastes a lot of water trying to get the temperature right for the kids to shower.

Also, same bathroom. The hot water takes a long time to come out even though the geyser is close to the shower head. The plumbing for that bathroom has been replaced with those new white pipes, not sure what its called. Will it make a difference if I insulate that hot water pipe with that insulation that looks like a black pool noodle?

Fixing the sensitivity between hot/warm on a mixer tap, is to lower the max temperature your geyser heat the water too. Many plumbers just set it to the max of 75. I always have to get it set down to 60 degrees and then the sensitivity is decent without being too cold.

 

[WAslayer]

Is it possible to fix a situation where the shower mixer is extremely sensitive to change? There is about 1cm of play to either burn your tits off or freeze to death. This mixer wastes a lot of water trying to get the temperature right for the kids to shower.

Also, same bathroom. The hot water takes a long time to come out even though the geyser is close to the shower head. The plumbing for that bathroom has been replaced with those new white pipes, not sure what its called. Will it make a difference if I insulate that hot water pipe with that insulation that looks like a black pool noodle?

Yes, get a new mixer..

As for the hot water taking a long time, if you have fairly low pressure coming from the geyser, that would contribute, along with standing water in the pipe getting cold.. insulation would help to some extent..

Also, polycop, the white pipes you have, aren't very good and I hope you haven't had that plastered into your walls..

 

[Mosgi]

Does anyone have a rough idea of what vinyl/laminate flooring would cost installed for around 150m2? I guess a mid-range one, not super cheap and bad quality, but fairly decent.

Currently it's a mix of tiles and carpets.

Also, how do they install it in for example, a kitchen? Do they have to take out all the cupboards to install the floor underneath?

Had bought the material for a vinyl floor install so went through the whole process of quotes. 100sqm

I needed to screed the floor smooth which raised the costs a little. I had a quote for R8k for screeding and another R5k to install. The place I bought material from was R23k to install added to R20k for the actual vinyl, so R43k.

The quote for laminate which we eventually went with (claimed to be water resistant, had water get through during heavy Rains and low and behold floor warped) was R43k after discount(5%). Wish I’d gone for the vinyl to be honest, and it’s worth noting that we didn’t have a perfectly level floor & ideally should have self levelling screeded, with a couple of now bouncy points.

Still have the new unused material in the garage for 100sqm but won’t use it since all floors are now done. Selling it for R16500 (R21500) if you buy from Airloom.

 

[qscwbt]

Does anyone have a rough idea of what vinyl/laminate flooring would cost installed for around 150m2? I guess a mid-range one, not super cheap and bad quality, but fairly decent.

Currently it's a mix of tiles and carpets.

Also, how do they install it in for example, a kitchen? Do they have to take out all the cupboards to install the floor underneath?

Bit more complicated. Depending on requirement;
Stick down vinyl, can be used in kitchen and bathrooms and not affected by water. You dont need expansion joints. this stuff is tough as nails. You do need to self level the floor and if you have moisture you need a barrier. No underfelt required. they also come in different wear layers depending on traffic

Clic in vinyl need expansion joints. easier to fit but not as durable. dont like water or heavy furniture as it needs to move. Also come in differnt wear layers. product is more expensive but cheaper to install.

Laminate is wood or composite wood. dont like water easy to install and not price to badly.


if you want good prices pm me.
We have warehouses in jhb kzn and durbs.

 

[qscwbt]

Is it possible to fix a situation where the shower mixer is extremely sensitive to change? There is about 1cm of play to either burn your tits off or freeze to death. This mixer wastes a lot of water trying to get the temperature right for the kids to shower.

Also, same bathroom. The hot water takes a long time to come out even though the geyser is close to the shower head. The plumbing for that bathroom has been replaced with those new white pipes, not sure what its called. Will it make a difference if I insulate that hot water pipe with that insulation that looks like a black pool noodle?

Hi . There is a possibility that you do not have balanced pressure.

A mixer requires balanced pressure to function properly. On older houses they use to put a pressure relieve valve before the geyser. So hot water is constant but your cold water would fluctuate with municipal pressure.

regulation was changed to have a pressure relieve valve on your incoming water line. This give you blanced pressure between hot and cold.

Second issue could be that your mixer is faulty with the ceramic disk in the cartridge damaged.

 

[WAslayer]

Had bought the material for a vinyl floor install so went through the whole process of quotes. 100sqm

I needed to screed the floor smooth which raised the costs a little. I had a quote for R8k for screeding and another R5k to install. The place I bought material from was R23k to install added to R20k for the actual vinyl, so R43k.

The quote for laminate which we eventually went with (claimed to be water resistant, had water get through during heavy Rains and low and behold floor warped) was R43k after discount(5%). Wish I’d gone for the vinyl to be honest, and it’s worth noting that we didn’t have a perfectly level floor & ideally should have self levelling screeded, with a couple of now bouncy points.

Still have the new unused material in the garage for 100sqm but won’t use it since all floors are now done. Selling it for R16500 (R21500) if you buy from Airloom.

Water resistant laminate is just that, water resistant.. it's not impervious to floods, the water resistance comes from the top of the floor and for better quality laminate, the joints.. the moment you have water finding its way underneath the laminate, it doesn't matter how water resistant it is, you are going to have a bad time..

 

[howardb]

Debating whether to have full length (up to ceiling) cupboards in the garage. Reason being if there is a space, I will keep something there and it will look messy over time. Might as well keep stuff inside the cupboards and cover it up.

Does anyone have full length cupboards in garage? Any issues ?

Although it's only one cupboard, we installed this when we renovated the spare bedroom. Didn't want to chuck them as they were still good, so I put them in the garage space behind the entrance door to the house.
Works well imo.

Excuse the mess and clutter, busy re-arranging everything and clearing out

 

[Sideshow Bob]

Although it's only one cupboard, we installed this when we renovated the spare bedroom. Didn't want to chuck them as they were still good, so I put them in the garage space behind the entrance door to the house.
Works well imo.

Excuse the mess and clutter, busy re-arranging everything and clearing out

Thanks, got carpenter taking measurements and he says he has done full length installations in our complex already. Nothing wrong in that really.

You think that is a mess & clutter ? I won't post my garage pics.

 

[howardb]

Thanks, got carpenter taking measurements and he says he has done full length installations in our complex already. Nothing wrong in that really.

You think that is a mess & clutter ? I won't post my garage pics.

Cool.
Ha ha, you haven't seen the rest of the garage!

 

[piranha786]

What is you guys view on those granite type kitchen zinks vs the normal stainless steel ones? Budget around 4-6k for Franke / SMEG, not sure about any others

 

[xrapidx]

What is you guys view on those granite type kitchen zinks vs the normal stainless steel ones? Budget around 4-6k for Franke / SMEG, not sure about any others

We have the smeg sink in an our island - not a fan of smeg - but the sink is the only in our house that hasn't need the plug and trap replaced (also not a fan of Franke, had shitty service from them when my geyser blew)

 

[xrapidx]

Need to paint the house again, also need to replace the shitty gutters with the aluminium ones. What order should I do it in?

I'm thinking of removing all the plastic gutters, getting the house painted - and then having the gutters done before winter.

 

[Mista_Mobsta]

Bit more complicated. Depending on requirement;
Stick down vinyl, can be used in kitchen and bathrooms and not affected by water. You dont need expansion joints. this stuff is tough as nails. You do need to self level the floor and if you have moisture you need a barrier. No underfelt required. they also come in different wear layers depending on traffic

Clic in vinyl need expansion joints. easier to fit but not as durable. dont like water or heavy furniture as it needs to move. Also come in differnt wear layers. product is more expensive but cheaper to install.

Laminate is wood or composite wood. dont like water easy to install and not price to badly.


if you want good prices pm me.
We have warehouses in jhb kzn and durbs.

Re the Vinyl

I am looking to replace entire house walkways & kitchen, currently tiled, with Vinyl. Will it be better to rip out the current tiles, screed and install or can I install on top of the current tiles?

 

[piranha786]

We have the smeg sink in an our island - not a fan of smeg - but the sink is the only in our house that hasn't need the plug and trap replaced (also not a fan of Franke, had shitty service from them when my geyser blew)

The normal stainless steel zink?

 

[maumau]

Awesome service from Hansgrohe.

Before putting my house on the market I removed 3 x Hansgrohe Clubmaster shower heads and replaced them with not-so-expensive ones.

Now in the new place one of the Clubmasters doesn't rotate so well and Hansgrohe sent a service man the next day FREE OF CHARGE to assess it.

Shower heads are about 7 years old.