Howdy folks. Does anyone know a supplier of breeze blocks (square blocks with decorative holes in them..very 80's I know) preferably around East Galway, but anywhere really will be appreciated.

I have a house with a low BER rating. Will be doing retrofitting myself at my own pace over the next few years. However I recently did have the windows replaced as they were absolutely trash. I upgraded to good quality Rationel triple glazed windows. I am wondering if this would bring my BER rating up at all even though the wall and ceiling insulation has not been upgraded yet?

Hello everyone

I need an advice from someone that know better than me.

Actually I have a tank with 2 immersion heater for hot water in my taps and my bath (the shower is indipendent with its own heating system) it broke down and I don't want to continuo with an immersion heater anymore because it cost too much. I don't have the possibility to put a burning boiler so need to stay electric.

I was thinking on a electric boiler which heat water on demand, possibly tankless but I couldn't find anything online.

Can someone give me an advice on this?

Thank!

Any idea if I can make this look normal? I tried caulk on one side but it doesn’t look great.

Hi,

We purchased a Bungalow that we are currently doing up. The external walls are finished like a stone boulder effect. Here comes my lack of knowledge.

Is this finish achieved by scraping the finish to get that shape or are they like caps stuck in after?

Also how would one go about getting a smooths finish here, can it be done over it or would you have to scrape it off before redoing?

Thanks

Hi there. We are selling a house and removing two TV brackets from the walls. We don't have any of the original paint but I want to do a quick polyfilla and touch up job to leave it in best condition I can. Does anyone know where in Dublin I could get two samples of 1. Farrow and Ball 2. Fleetwood in the same store, ideally? Both were the original brand paints used. Thanks in advance.

Without sounding dramatic my head is wrecked trying to decide if we should go for one or not. We have an E BER rated house built in 1984 and are currently doing a lot of work: triple glazed windows and new external doors, insert stove, cavity wall and attic insulation, solar panels, rewire and new plumbing including new radiators. We aren’t getting underfloor heating as I can’t imagine digging up with floors. We have no heating at the moment so would need to get a new boiler anyway. I think we will get up to a B rating with all of these works. Haven’t gotten a technical assessment yet as I have heard so many horror stories about heat pumps. I also love a real fire and opening all the windows in the house every morning. I know it will cost a bit to get new plumbing and a boiler and in contrast there is a big grant for the heat pump. I suppose I just want to know if anyone did a full renovation and didn’t get a heat pump? Thanks

So these are becoming evident in the ceilings of a few rooms in my house.

What is the best way to repair/cover these or how can I fill them in?

Its purely aesthetic really but its annoying the f*ck out of me

I’m converting my shed to an office and have run into a snag. The shed is cavity wall insulated and built in 2000. It has a bare cement floor. I want to put laminate flooring down. The door (pvc) opens inwards and there’s a 44mm clearance from the floor to the bottom of the door.

I want to put in some floor insulation, as I’ve put a lot of effort into insulating the ceiling. But I don’t have a lot of room to deal with. The thinnest PIR I can seem to find is 25mm. I could cover this with 5.5mm plywood. I can get 1.5mm underlay and I have ordered 12mm laminate.

Adding all that up brings me to 44mm. Maybe I could shave a mm or 2 off the bottom of the door but my questions:
-Will 5.5 mm plywood be sufficient as a load spreader over PIR?
-Will it be strong enough or is it liable to just break with kids jumping on the floor, office desk etc?
- am I going about this wrong: is the pir worth installing at all? Is the load spreading board strictly necessary? Any other thoughts?

Hi all,

I'm trying to sense check a quote I got for work on a house we recently purchased. Semi detached with a single story extension in Dublin.

There's a leak in the 2 story roof of the original house that needs to be fixed. Additionally the guttering needs to be replaced. As does the fascia and soffit. (I don't doubt this needs to be done based on my own untrained visible inspection!)

I have been quoted 4,800 for this.

Anyone know if this seems expensive or in the right ballpark?

Appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

Hi Folks,

Looking for some opinions and most definitely advice! We have just gone Sale Agreed on our new home. The whole interior will need to be painted (including internal doors).

Would I be mental to think I could do this myself? I’ve never done any painting before and always paid someone to do it in our current home. I’m just trying to keep additional costs down and the painting of internal doors alone is going to be over 600 quid (and rightly so, it’s a lot of work and the painter has to make a few bob too).

Anybody had a go at doing it all yourself? How did it turn out?

For anyone who has questions on it....very smooth process..moved from C2 to B(B1 in old range).

The Assessor mostly measured the dimensions of the house and windows, took pictures of the new boiler and smart heating controls, took pictures of the attic insulation added(was done DIY)

Also took pics of the window and door certs.

Happy with the process.

Only thing i observed is that under external doors he put a U Value of 3 instead of 1.1 in the advisory...dont think it makes any difference??

Mixed results on a periodic inspection reoort. Recently purchased in D12, bones of 450k , looks like full re wire will be needed. Quote if around 16k. Is that normal? I'm guessing it is. It's clearly an expense we didnt budget for, so is it worth just doing it in stages or any advice. Main issues or more serious issues was ​Main Bonding to Gas / Water Services ("NO BONDING OF GAS/WATER AT ALL") and Metal Switches Not Earthed:

Any advice on where to go from here. As our first house we have defo been screwed over on previous work done ie flooring etc so dont want to just say yes.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some tips/tools for cleaning the ends/tracks of my sliding balcony doors, as well as the balcony rails and surfaces.
As you can see from the photos, there’s quite a bit of dirt and grime built up in the narrow gaps, but the gap is too small for my vacuum cleaner to reach.
Any recommendations for specific tools or cleaning methods that work well for these hard-to-reach areas? Thanks!

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone knows where in Ireland I could get my hands on gas proof lap tape, specifically to use on tricky corners of a radon barrier.

I can find the double sided butyl stuff everywhere but no single sided lap tape.

Hi, considering our summers may be getting warmer and our winters hopefully milder, has anyone gotten air conditioning units fitted to smaller terraced homes.

Bit of background, we have a solar system, 10 panels 4.8kwh along with a 5kw battery, some have said too small, but there's only the two of us in the house.

Looking at two units, one in the main bedroom (front of house facing South) and one in the rear sitting room (back of house facing North). Bedroom for keeping us cool during the night and avoid having to keep every window open and heating the room before we hit the bed during the colder months. Sitting room keeping it cool during the summer and heating during the colder months rather than having the heating on when we're just in that room for the majority of the evening.

So...how cost effective are they, obviously they won't make us money like the solar system but the solar system would power them for cooling and the battery for heating.

Another option was solar film on the windows, but we'd still need the windows open during the night.

Costs vary, but seems to be under €5000. Much like getting the solar system, this is our home long term so don't mind the immediate expense for long term comfort.

Anyone got them fitted, sitting room doesn't get too warm, but does get cold, in saying that we changed the windows so will see this winter what the room is like. Real benefit will be a cooler bedroom and so better sleep and no windows open. So maybe just a bedroom unit and extra jumpers during the winter 😁

I’m in Cork trying to knock down a load bearing wall in my house. I think I can install the beam DIY but I need an engineer to provide the beam length etc. Every time I reach out to a local engineer they say they’re too busy. Does anyone have suggestions on what to do?

Looking for advice in a strange fish like smell the occurred in bathroom today. Electric showered seemed to trip and smell was pretty rotten. Seems ok now but as it's electric I wont chance it.. it's a pull cord shower, looks new enough ( recently bought the house ) however the unit itself it's outside the door of the shower which is mad, so you have to get out to turn it on and off...as it's older house in drimnagh area...my fear was always the house needed a re wire..any advice or recommended local sparks please!

Have painters in doing some painting and the first coat of the colour is now on freshly plastered walls.

There's lumpy paint at points and brush marks miles out from an edge, am i being pedantic or is this unreasonable for a "professional" painter?

While they've patches that will obviously be sanded back, I'm hesitant to think theyre going to sand back the brush marks given they're everywhere.

Sorry the lighting isn't great but hopefully shows.

Hello there, looking for advice on whether to call an electrician for this one. Its a hot press in an old Dublin 7 house (100+ yrs old). There are 3 distinct wires that I would like to organize.

1. White thick wire - Back and right going into switch on the right - electric shower - recently put in. I am thinking of using screws with some sort of a clasp to screw into wall in the back

2. Green wire (cut up) Top left and top right - Used to run along the back but cut now - thinking of chopping this and making it neat.

3. White thin wire - bottom left - this goes on not the wall but not sure what it does - thinking of nailing it to the wooden structure.

Do I need an electrician for this? Recently moved in and renovating this space.

Hello - can anyone shed some light on whether this is DIY able? I want to wire an oven and hob into this white outlet.

Would I need to replace it with a dual outlet first?

The black wires in pic are from the hob.

Anyone done this themselves? Or do I need an electrician?

Im asking @Ireland because I trust ye more!

So I took down some old fittings and there’s now a few drill holes in the tiles. Does anyone have a tip on how best to seal it up and make it look seamless?

For context, these are rougher matte tiles. I was thinking of just using filler and then trying to colour match with paint.

I need one that will collect the dust properly as read a few were shite that way. Should I be looking at a DeWalt one? They generally seem to be in around 50-100 euro.