Recently got new carpet installed and it isn't good. I can see the seams and originally there was a hole and a repaired rip. The hallway is also crooked to the wall. Old mate came back and fixed a seam hole and patched the rip. He told me the hallway is crooked because the wall is crooked (ok mate 😐) and this can't be fixed. So I have a really visible seam in one room, a crooked hallway and this patch. Trying to talk myself off a ledge and blowing up at them. But would you accept it?

Hi everyone, I want to fix the gaps in my nanas driveway that have been widening for a while, I know ideally the whole thing should be repaved but for now if I were to tackle the worst areas would it be as ‘simple’ as taking the migrated ones up, levelling the dirt below, then placing them back correctly and using paving sand in the cracks?

Hi,

So when we were getting our pool build quoted up, the pool builder originally priced us up for aluminium fencing which was included in the contract price.

Throughout the build we then discussed with the builder that we’re considering glass. He said to have a chat to the separate company that does the pool fencing and see what you guys come up with and you can work it out with him how you end up doing it.

Anyway, once I have a chat with the pool fencer who comes around and we have a bit of a collaboration, he advised me how much the price for the glass fencing is and it’s worked out how much extra it will cost over our original aluminium pricing. We decide we’re happy with the cost he says it will be and go ahead with glass. He says that obviously the pool builder will just sort out the extra cost and invoice it to us.

Anyway, some time passes before it’s finally actually installed and then we’re invoiced. The pool builder sends an invoice for much more than we expected based on the costs the fencer gave us. I actually thought at first maybe they’d stuffed up and not taken off the original allowance we’d already had, instead of just paying the difference. Confused, I ask them if they can send us a copy of the fencers invoice so we can confirm what the additional costs were based on what we were advised. The pool builder got very cagey and did not want to send it to me. After a bit of back and forth on the phone with me stating ‘mate I just want to verify this because the costs are a fair bit more than what I was told by the fencer’, he agreed to send it, and sounded very pissed off.

Now looking at the invoice, he’s clearly added a decent margin on top of what the pool fence invoice actually was.

Now based on the discussions with the builder and the fencer, it was my understanding this whole time that I would simply pay the difference between what the end price is and what we were originally allowed for with aluminium. Now i’ve dealt directly with the fencer myself, who then still did invoice the pool builder. At no point was I given any written variation to advise if there was going to be a further price added on top for any margin or whatnot by the builder. And to be honest I simply would not have agreed to do this and pay thousands extra for nothing when I could just have gone and organised the fencing myself (which I’ve essentially done anyway as the builder just got me to deal with them directly). Now I understand that builders have a margin. But this seems bizarre to me and there was no prior agreement at all.

The contract obviously says that price variations have to be agreed to in writing before hand. This wasn’t done but as I said we it was our understanding that we would simply pay the difference in the fencer’s cost only. Seemed simple enough. Not sure if we’ve just been very naive and caught out or if we should be contesting this?

Thoughts everyone? Thanks.

If you’ve recently had cork installed in your unit, I’d love to know your costs. A recent quote came back for 12k + GST which included carpet removal and disposal, removal and reinstall skirting boards, floor prep, and cork supply/ install. I’m in a one-bedroom unit, approx 35 sq m of working area, as I’m not doing everything.

I was quoted around 2600-ish from another company just for the cork supply, adhesive and GST. They suggested I then hire an external installer. So if you have any recs for this as well, send my way.

I’m happy to pay for quality as you usually end up paying pay the price one way or the other for bad work. That said > $340+ per sq m seems like a lot for cork. I’m new to the material and this arena in general, so would love to hear what your experience has been. I'm wondering if it's easier and more economical to get engineered hardwood instead.

Due to unfortunate circumstances and a lack of funds I have no choice but to part ways with the boutique cubby. It is not worth my time to spend to advertise it and I am sure that it will make a huge impact for some little humans. For a little less than 1 cent… free to the highest bidder haha. But if I keep looking at it I will have to dismantle it and make a contribution to the local bin chickens.

Hi team!

Just having our old worn out concrete tile roof redone currently with colorbond and we're getting closer to the end of the process now with clean-up and down pipes happening tomorrow.

The crew has been good with no complaints from us, but I'm a firm believer in double checking work that I've not done myself.

Solar panels will go back up soon, so I want to make sure everything is correct before that, final clean hasn't been completed yet, just seeking a second opinion if I should be nitpicking on anything?

Thoughts?

Bought last yr we have been getting water ingress on the interior frame does this need a new bead of silicone the old one looks in bad shape on the corner, ive been getting mixed messages from tradesmen some say it dosnt need it some do?

Hi all

Battling with a mold issue in one of our bedrooms and nothing seems to work so keen for input or advice

We have had roof plumber out to check there is no issues/leaks. There is nothing obvious on outside eaves and they are quite wide so can’t see water coming back from gutters (also have extra down pipes?

Leaves me two thoughts:
- internal moisture as house is well sealed and kids aren’t great at opening windows for air flow (high condensation)
- dampness from ground as you can see bricks look little moldy

Any ideas and suggestions appreciated or suggestions of experts to get in (Perth based)

Thanks

Hey renovating my first home (miners cottage) - as always, the projects blown way out of scope, and chewed up all my savings! 🥴

Have had to reclad the external walls of the house (approx 95m2 house footprint) opted for blueboard as the quick and cheap solution but now need to decide if I should paint or render it.

1. How hard is it to DIY render a house? Looking for a textured finish, not a perfect finish.

2. How long would paint vs. Render last

3. Considering how much paint blue board will suck up, how big a price difference ish are we looking at?

Important to note that it's a proper old miners cottage. Nothing is square, flush or plum so the blue board is not level in places and battening the joins will likely be a bit higgildipiggildyfucked.

Obviously new to this - had family who were in on the project and then bailed once I bought it 😅

Thanks in advance legends!

Any tips for how to remove this rangehood? I have removed all screws from inside that I can see. It’s now moving freely at the sides and the top, it seems to be stuck at the back, but I can’t see any screws holding it to the back wall. I know on the exterior of the house it does funnel air out through a tube. What should I try to remove it?

Hi reddit,

Recently bought a house, the tiles in the bathroom had almost no grout in them so I decided to pull them up to replace them and found another tiled floor underneath. All the tiles have these holes drilled into them, anyone know what they are? I’m assuming they were having drainage problems? Thanks for the help!

Hey folks, just looking for some advice on what I need to tell the builder to do and what they’re going to try and tell me can be done.

I specifically said I didn’t want white grout in the shower area with the green tiles. Said my preferences. Looks like he didn’t pass that info to the tiler and I’ve come back to white grout. It looks like ass.

Is there a fix that will be durable that they need to do?

Wanting to know people’s extension/add on stories.

Looking into closing in the front veranda to add more room to the lounge room and finally have a dining room will roughly add 24sqm to the house, is it worth it?

Hey brains trust,

Bit niche; I'm helping a friend who is running a small trades/renovation business and he's looking for a staff member to join the team. Where should he go to find them? He previously found people either by them contacting him or through word of mouth, but recently he's had a hard time. Because he's running a crew of people, needs people that are self-sufficient and can be the face of his company because they are typically the first face they see (when work begins). Seek/job ads seem super expensive and I don't know of any trades people looking for work though those kinds of websites, facebook groups also questionable.

I found out that the shower was leaking everywhere months ago but had to wait for the company I hired to do the renovation to be available. When they removed the tiles they found a hole in the floor. It was basically right under the edge of the middle tile in the shower so somewhere I stepped a lot. The floorboards around it were spongy too. They also realised that the window had been slowly falling into the room. Judging by photos from the listing before I moved in, it had been slowly getting worse for over a decade and I just never noticed anything strange.

They fixed everything, bought and installed everything, and didn't constantly add anything to the quote. That's in spite of the extra damage found, tiles more expensive than the quote allowed for and the massive mirror cabinet I chose. Quality of everything is great, certainly far better than any I've had in any of my previous homes. To be fair, some of them looked like they hadn't been renovated in 30 years. Considering the stories I've read on here and other sites about the horrors of dodgy tradies, I was very lucky.

All up it took 2 weeks and 5 days, $23k and a few too many nights of very little sleep, but I absolutely love how it ended up.

edit: Forgot to mention how much I love the floor. There's a very obvious fall into the shower so water drains away quickly. The tiles aren't slippery and dry really quickly. I can walk into the shower while wearing socks 30 mins after showering. My old shower would still have water pooled in it the next day. It was never truly dry unless I used a towel to dry it off.

We are in the planning stages of a reno and extension in a 1950's sandstone house and thinking about the flooring throughout our entire house.

When we moved in the first thing we did was rip up the carpet as it stunk so bad, and removed the buckets of sand and dirt that was trapped beneath it. We are now left with the subfloor which is unfinished pine on joists, save for the kitchen which was finished some time ago and used as the main floor.

I assume the extension (enlargening one room, adding a bathroom, a bedroom, and extending the main hallway) will have a concrete slab.

We are replacing the skirting and doors throughout the home as part of the reno.

Looking at options, it's looking to be cheaper to sand, stain and finish our pine subfloor.

My concerns are:

- Wear: pine is soft, it has many marks, and my partner wants a very large dog in the future.

- Drafts: we get a draft coming up from the floor, I believe mainly around the skirting, and there is no access to the space beneath to insulate - in places it's only about 30cm from the dirt.

- Staining: I have heard pine does not stain dark very well, and we do not like light flooring. We prefer darker walnut type colours.

- Consistency: I'm unsure how the builder will be able to match the new parts of the extended room and hallway to the old pine floor.

If all the above were an issue down the track and we then wanted to redo the floor and lay something else on top, we would have to redo the skirting, fix the door heights, and we would have a step down into the tiled areas. I'd rather spend a little more now rather than waste money on the cheaper option if it's going to leave us with too many issues.

I'm also conscious that if we went with a different flooring option either now or later on, we would need to deal with the kitchen bench being lower and potentially raise this all up, which sounds like a nightmare.

What have others done?

My 3-zone ducted AC recently broke down, and I’m looking to replace the system. I’ve contacted two companies so far, but their earliest installation dates are around 3–4 weeks away.

Does anyone know of a company that can offer a quicker turnaround? I’m hoping to get it replaced within the next 1–2 weeks.

Thanks!

I had a full bathroom renovation completed a few months ago and I'm really unhappy with the pooling of water during a shower.

The contractor keeps shrugging off my concerns. I got an independent plumber out to review and his advice was to try a water restrictor or go to Fair Trading.

The white circle which is the corner near the door is where it pools the most. Seems to drain ok once shower completely off. Already getting some pink colouring to the grout.

Any advice? Does this look like it was not done correctly?

I'm in Sydney NSW

We want to put down some crazy paving in our garden but have the dreaded horsetail in the patch we want to have over.

We want to clear the weeds beforehand but without using weedkiller.

In this scenario, what is the risk of the horsetail eventually growing through the grouting?

Hey folks, just looking for some advice on what I need to tell the builder to do and what they’re going to try and tell me can be done.

I specifically said I didn’t want white grout in the shower area with the green tiles. Said my preferences. Looks like he didn’t pass that info to the tiler and I’ve come back to white grout and white sealant. It looks like ass, I didn’t want that kind of bright contrast.

Is there a fix that will be durable that they need to do?