All your Homebase are belong to... you! / The House 'n' Home Thread. - The Bear and Badger

MattyJ

You've re-shankled the findomatom right? Definitely do that

cockbeard

poprock wrote:

As Unlikely said, the inspections are pretty cursory. I’ve even heard stories of (really crap) surveyors staying in their car and just looking at the house from the street.

That's actually a certain level of service called literally a "drive-past" they also do a mega fuck tonne of valuations without even having the office doing what they call a "DV" digital viewing I think, but could be wrong, only worked for them since April

You have to ask who employed the surveyor and how much information did they want?? I could probably get you guys discount on surveyors fees but best in mind there a big difference between giving a round valuation and inspecting a property for an actual mortgage when there's liability at stake

regmcfly

MattyJ wrote:

You've re-shankled the findomatom right? Definitely do that

Finkled it last month so its fully caboodled

tigersgogrrr

Fully? Don't know about that mate. /sucks teeth

regmcfly

Can always get the dinksmith to take it back a ping or two

poprock

cockbeard wrote:

That's actually a certain level of service called literally a "drive-past" …

That’s interesting.

I don’t know how seriously the home report is taken in England. What do you reckon? Just a legal requirement, or something people pay a lot of attention to?

Because of the way property sales work up here, the valuation on the home report is super-important. As well as being the value your mortgage is calculated against, it also sets a baseline which people are expected to pay over and above. Depending on the market at the time, anything from 5% over to 30% over.

Unlikely

Yeah, we paid shitloads over valuation because we wanted the house. The flat we sold went for under valuation but the wee lad who valued it didn't factor in the local economic situation at the time. No regrets but "valuation" is a very flimsy guide to what a property will go for.

Lord_Griff

2/10

[Deleted User]

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

If you need any help with the vetting then just pm.

So we had a guy out yesterday. Rhys from Holmes and Landscaping services

https://www.facebook.com/HolmesLandscaping/

Spent an hour with me and I really liked him. He's booked until late October and should be getting the quote to me next week.

How would you go about vetting them?

kestla

Hello all. Absolute banger of a question coming up...

Does anyone have any recommendations for white, interior wood paint?

Preferably matte/satin, but most importantly is the desire to try and get things done in one coat and without streaks.

Will be used for doors and door frames etc and ideally it will paint on existing, as we won't have time to sand or strip the doors back.

poprock

Mrs Poprock only uses Farrow & Ball, which is probably no use to you whatsoever … definitely not for an easy one-coat solution.

poprock

Double post.

Funkstain

One coat? No sanding? On top of old crappy paint? My recommendation is non monsieur

LivDiv

Dunno if its true for satin/matte but certainly when I gloss wood I only ever buy spirit based paint.
Water based take a stupid amount of coats and runs everywhere.

kestla

poprock wrote:

Mrs Poprock only uses Farrow & Ball, which is probably no use to you whatsoever … definitely not for an easy one-coat solution.

I'm a fan of F&B (btw great documentary on C5 a few weeks back on their history, which is worth a look) but unnecessarily lavish for our needs.

Basically, we just want to refresh the wood to a presentable standard for selling the place.

@Funk the condition of the surface is fine, we just want to brighten it up as not been painted for several years, and when we come to refreshing the walls, the wood will look yellow in comparison.

We recently repainted the wood in another property, and it came out fine, the only problem we had was the first paint we tried left streaks but coverage was fine. The second one we used was better, but needed two coats. Hence my desire to find something in between.

@Liv that's handy to know, because the one we had did seem a but watery.

Funkstain

Ok ok if it has to be one coat on non sanded wood then Solvent based paint as liv says is probably your only choice BUT it’s a bitch to use (much harder to clean up so make sure you tape very well; brushes need solvent to clean em; wear clothes you don’t give a shit about etc)

At least a quick sand down of surfaces will really help paint adhesion but sanding is almost the worst job of diy so get your gist

Funkstain

For simple brightening up jobs dulux trade is fine especially in white shades and much cheaper than your F&B or whatever (white is white innit), satinwood should work fine with bright white

Funkstain

This shit: https://www.screwfix.com/p/dulux-trade-satinwood-paint-pure-brilliant-white-1ltr/13081

poprock

kestla wrote:

I'm a fan of F&B (btw great documentary on C5 a few weeks back on their history, which is worth a look)

We saw that, purely by luck (turned on the telly and it was just starting) - it was a lot more interesting than you’d guess, eh?

kestla

poprock wrote:

kestla wrote:

I'm a fan of F&B (btw great documentary on C5 a few weeks back on their history, which is worth a look)

We saw that, purely by luck (turned on the telly and it was just starting) - it was a lot more interesting than you’d guess, eh?

It was, and an effective advert too, as the wife was suddenly talking about getting one of their consultants out to advise us on colour schemes. Had to nip that idea in the bud!

Thanks for the suggestions @Funk. We're quite desperate to move out of where we are atm, and between both working full time and having a 4 year old home for the summer, time is in short supply, so trying to cut corners where we can.

yourfavouriteuncle

MyNamesKrisG wrote:

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

If you need any help with the vetting then just pm.

So we had a guy out yesterday. Rhys from Holmes and Landscaping services

https://www.facebook.com/HolmesLandscaping/

Spent an hour with me and I really liked him. He's booked until late October and should be getting the quote to me next week.

How would you go about vetting them?

I mean his facebook page seems pretty full of completed jobs so he’s obviously installing a fair amount of stuff.

What’s he providing you with prior to work? A rough plan? A vague notion of “new fence here, bit of a patio there”? Or are you getting a full scale plan, itemised job list etc?

If you haven’t already, I’d certainly ask him how he would be laying any paving and what materials and fixing methods he’d be using, including pointing? Where he gets his turf from (there’s a dodgy as fuck company in your area who produce stuff I wouldn’t touch but are popular with people who cut all the corners). Ideally you’d want samples of every material he’s intending to use prior to him even breaking ground, fencing panels included.

I guess it depends on what your expectations of the finished product are and your aspirations beforehand too. It looks to me that he can do the basics well enough and that’s maybe good enough for 80% of people. In the nicest possible way, we aren’t really in that market so i think it’d be a bit unfair of me to comment on what he’s producing.

You seem to like him though and that’s a really important part of this whole thing. If you can get on well and you have trust in him then that’s a big first hurdle overcome.

[Deleted User]

Cheers Unc. I'm seeing him again on Wednesday and should get the quote a couple of days later, so I'll ask those questions. Who is the dodgy turf company?

I took a liking to him because he spent a good amount of time explaining how my father-in-law RIP had fucked up haha. For example, the current patio being at the same level as the damp coursing. He also kept suggesting ways I could cut my own costs and didn't really need him to do.

[Deleted User]

(I know where he gets his paving from, because I was there a week ago looking at samples)

hylian_elf

Garden services are in and chopping down 80% of our foliage in the garden. Kinda makes me feel sad to see some of it go, but we need the space for an outbuilding/gym type thing and also our own preferred trees/plants.

poprock

We’ve got to chop down our wildflower meadow this month, which is going to feel a bit crap - lots of it is still in bloom and looking lovely - but like you’re saying, it’s necessary. Gotta cut it back at this time of year to make it grow well again next year.

poprock

I swithered over whether to put this in the house or garden thread.

There are hundreds of wasps on our deck. Hundreds. The past couple of days they’ve been crawling all over it and now there’s an absolute shit-ton of them. They’re sleepy, useless, just crawling around. Even being blown around by the wind and just tumbling across the top of the deck. But there’s so many of them I can’t let the dog out – don’t want him being stung.

I know August is the end of their lifecycle but I’m a bit concerned they might be looking for a new nest site, so I need to do something about it tonight. Maybe spray the deck down with something wasps don’t like - washing-up liquid or vinegar perhaps …

I think blasting them with the pressure washer might be overkill. Don’t want to piss them off and start making them aggressive. Still … it’s another option.

Wookienopants

Set fire to the deck.

The Daddy

Don’t wasps tend to get a bit drunk in autumn and are more likely to sting?

Paul the sparky

Wookienopants wrote:

Set fire to the deck.

Definitely my first thought

poprock

Not the best idea, given the deck is connected to the house. But I see where you’re both coming from.

I already killed a nest of wasps under the deck last month, so I reckon this lazy lot are thinking of moving in to the ruins of it.

The Daddy wrote:

Don’t wasps tend to get a bit drunk in autumn and are more likely to sting?

Sort of, yeah. As I understand it they’ve done their job for the year and have no reason to live any more. There’ll be a queen somewhere already going into hibernation. I think they’re only more likely to sting because us humans are more likely to disturb/annoy/swat them. Generally wasps sting to defend themselves. The problem is that one sting sends out pheromones that attract all the other wasps and rile them up. So one sting turns into lots.

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