Extension thread 2021 - countdown to Christmas

[Callmejudith]

New thread for continued celebrating, moaning and commiserating

I’m sorry for those of you losing sleep; it’s bloody awful.

Standing on the screed this morning and the room looks fab though I feel like the ceiling height in some bits is pretty low. Nothing we can do about that though and once it’s painted white it’ll be better

Having spent several hours in the early hours trying to find somewhere to stay without success, my husband had text the project manager who was here at 7.30 so at least our floors have been relaid and he assures us we'll have hot water by the end of the day. 🤞

If anyone's got a bifold in, would you do me a weird favour and measure from the floor to the top of the door frame?

Anxiously waiting for main builder to turn up to discuss the issues here.

Happy birthday @Callmejudith

Hope it's a builder stress free day!

Thanks @StrongArm! The plasterers are in today which is great. The screed was dry enough to walk on this morning which astonished me!

We also cleared our front room which means there’s somewhere at least for the kitchen units to go on Friday

Out for boozy lunch with DH today I plan to get hammered and forget the whole building site malarkey

Builder has been out and is very 'trust me' about the floor. Plan is a combo of digging out humps and self leveller which will be feathered to the door. Am still dubious. But he's said I won't have a table that's on the wonk. The chap who will do the work will come look tomorrow so can repeat the conversation with him.

Boozy lunch is a fab idea.

@Indecisivelurcher sounds like he knows now it needs to be good enough so well done for raising it! I think you said you are using karndean which is much less extra depth than tiles etc so hopefully all will be good

I don’t understand why some of you (& others I follow on Instagram) have screed that seems to dry so quickly when I’ve been told a possible 7 weeks (1 week per 10ml of screed). They may add something that can speed it up but will still prob take about 3 weeks.

Is my screed super thick? Or do you all live in the California desert?!

Have a photo quiz for you, see if you know why I’m so excited by this:

@Indecisivelurcher I’d say keep reminding him!

Loads of plastering got done today. Tiler was due back tonight but the builder didn’t finish the floor in the wc properly argh.

I’m a bit concerned that I could smell something in the new WC bit, I’m not sure if it’s just because the toilet isn’t in there yet and therefore it’s a open pipe into the waste system. DS said the main bathroom also smelt so I think one of the builders probably did a huge shit. Delightful.

@Indecisivelurcher

If anyone's got a bifold in, would you do me a weird favour and measure from the floor to the top of the door frame?

Anxiously waiting for main builder to turn up to discuss the issues here.

Just measured ours and its 2060mm internally though that's from the screed so will be 26mm less when we put flooring in. We ordered a standard 2100mm so assume that's the full height externally including cill.

Happy Birthday @Callmejudith don't think you got hammered enough to forget about building malarkey for the evening!

@LivingInABuildingSite we could've got someone to screed using a fast drying screed mix but couldn't get him when needed him and we ended up getting ready mixed screed from a concrete company and the screeder they recommended did it so meant we couldn't add anything to it. He said standard curing time is 1mm per day (or 10mm per week) which would've been 6-7 weeks in our case. Whilst he couldn't recommend it he said lots of his clients wait 3 weeks before flooring. It's been 5 weeks for us now and it seems pretty dry and we've had a dehumidifier running to help speed things up.

Sorry trying to figure out photo, is it the cable running through wall, or opening for bifolds?

We started mist coating our walls and hoping to start fitting kitchen from weekend. Bit frustrating as I've had to start going back into office 2 days a week so not really having the time to fit in little bits of painting whilst 2yo DD is at nursery so relying on DH to do it when he finishes work.

Happy birthday @Callmejudith. Hope you've enjoyed some cake today and happy thoughts that next year you'll have a finished house and a place to have an amazing party 🥳

I spoke to our builder about our screed and he said it's a week between it going down and the tiles get laid. Wondering what magic makes it quicker than the time mentioned below. I'm moving back in 7 weeks today 👏 Not considering any further delay 😂

Happy birthday @callmejudith 🎂

It’s a cable running through the front wall of the side extension so I can have external sockets for….. 🥁 Christmas lights! 🎄😂

I love having lights up but trailing wires through the letterbox or out of windows was always such a pain.

Thinking about it, I might get them to run some for an outside socket upstairs on the small balcony at the front as I put lights up there too.

We had our two loft windows measured yesterday. 5 week lead time. I hope it doesn't turn out to be any longer. Windows guy mentioned that one of two main glass furnaces in the country closed down for a refurb for a long time which has led to the delays in the market.

We also ordered the veluxes and it seems to be that they too had many roof windows out of stock. Especially the polyurethane frame ones. We ended up ordering the painted frame ones. Don't know about the quality of these so we shall have to see. The merchant We ordered from had a comment on their website mentioning that there a 20 working day lead time for velux. In the meantime, we have holes in our roof for them. Hope our Carpenter can weatherproof them properly for now.

@PoshWatchShitShoes I'm sorry for the rubbish news. I feel you on that front. Our first issue cropped up yesterday when plumber suggested the waste pipe from the loft should drop down into our bedroom besides the chimney breast and out the wall to the drains. This means having uneven alcoves with boxing in the pipe. Our bedroom is the only decorated room in this house so we loath having to do this. We tried to get the plumber to run the waste through the chimney itself as it's redundant but he was adamant it cant be done. However, having had a chat with our neighbour opposite, he mentioned that our chimneys have a separate flue which ours looked like it is voided all the way to the bottom so a nice easy run. Chimney is redundant. I will be insisting on this as it seems to a sticking point with plumber at the moment. I just need to remind myself that he will try to do the least amount of work yet I will be left with tonnes of making to complete in a room we hoped not to touch. It is costing us over £10k for the bathroom work which I feel at the very least I should have my preferences explored. We shall have to pay a grounds work person to the prepare the waste manhole, etc from outside. This is an extra cost that we hadn't quote thought through.

The good news, the rest of the loft is looking great. Hopefully plumber will finish 1st fix this week. Then electrician next week. Hoping for roofer next week too to start on the dormer tiling.

Thank you @RebelGeek76 that's useful, I didn't know the standard height either.

Happy Birthday for yesterday @Callmejudith!

We’ve had first fix electrics done now. I think we’ve gone ott on lights and sockets but it’s hard to decide how we are going to use each area. . The roof is still not finished but it’s getting there.

Flooring places we went to ( Amtico specifically) said screed would take months to dry but our builders say it will be quicker. I suspect the flooring place is following the rules to the letter whereas our builders are probably cutting corners. As long as we don’t get issues I don’t care and I’m guessing since most people don’t wait months before laying their flooring it must be ok?

Our screed won't be fully dry so the flooring company are putting down a membrane liner of some sort to allow them to lay the floor sooner, it's called a DPM.

Just heading to site meeting 🙈🙉 I'm going to ask about screed again!! Really interested to know how it will work and when it will be dry!!!

Belated happy birthday @Callmejudith; I hope you had an enjoyable lunch with your husband.
All go here this morning- 7 contractors and we have hot water🥳🥳!

I just caught the plumber making a massive bloody mistake!! He'd done all the first fix for master bedroom radiators... There wouldn't have been any space for me to hang curtains. Thank fuck I showed up when I did 🤦🏼‍♀️

@PoshWatchShitShoes

I just caught the plumber making a massive bloody mistake!! He'd done all the first fix for master bedroom radiators... There wouldn't have been any space for me to hang curtains. Thank fuck I showed up when I did 🤦🏼‍♀️

Heck!!!

Just looking to order radiators here and have a disagreement with dh on the style. We are having modern style vertical radiators in our new extension, which is open kitchen into a modern dining and family room. We also need a replacement rad in in our living room, which has a comfy boho type vibe with wood burner, house plants, bright rug. House is 1947 ex council mid terrace. Dh wants a more vintage style rad (remind me of old schools) but I'm saying they are more for victorian period houses (plus will get dusty in between bars). Aibu? Equally unsure about going super modern though.

@Indecisivelurcher I think I've gone for the ones your husband likes. Our house is similar age. I don't think they are trying to be Edwardian/Victorian etc, as there's a modern edge to the curve and they're not ornate.

They are a lot more expensive than standard panel radiators though, but do look beautiful. I'm having mine spray painted to match the wall colours in each room.

I actually bought cheaper normal rads for the playroom, but now seeing them next to the other ones, I'm sending them back and buying the more expensive ones 🙈

OK, fancy ones it is! I do think a basic one would be a let down in some way.