The DIY/Doing up house Thread (aka My house is falling down)

Because unless they have a basic callout charge they'll never be able to stay in business. That said I had a gas fitter round a while back to disconnect a gas fire, he turned up with his apprentice, stayed for 20mins then went off to get a suitable valve, 20mins later he turned up for another 20mins and finished the job, charged £70. Can't complain.

Last aerial bloke we had got absolutely covered in shite crawling about under our house, not to mention climbing up to the chimney with just a ladder - no fear! I didn't begrudge him that day.

A while back I asked around - online and off - for advice on laying wooden flooring. Got a bunch of advice, all of it different, and most warning of the woe to befall me if I failed to follow the correct method. I once asked a corner of the internet for the correct mortar mix for a patch of internal render - I think that one caused divorces.

Anyway, so we put in new flooring, admire the end result (not finished painting the skirting boards) and pretend it was fitted in exactly the method to which you subscribe and using your preferred materials:

If you want to see how it was done so you can see how wrong we did it, read on. First the before shot, guessing the carpet is at least 30 years old:

Pulled up old carpet & removed skirting boards - don't like those scotia mouldings covering expansion gaps, would prefer the skirting boards do that, allowing a clean transition between wall & floor. Sunk some protruding nails, fixed more securely a couple of loose boards and sanded flat a section that had cupped a bit, otherwise the subfloor wasn't in bad shape for ~70 years old:

Notched under door frames as khanivor suggested yonks back - i do sometimes listen:

Which turned out to be good advice, could slide flooring under rather than cut fiddly profiles. And yep, I done goofed cutting the carpet threshold strips, going to get the carpet fitters to do these properly when we get the remaining carpets done:

Midway - it's a full floating install, tongues glued into grooves but floor isn't fixed to subfloor and is free to expand/contract. 3mm underlay/barrier:

14mm engineered wood, 11mm of that is ply, 3mm oak. Realistically never going to be sanded, by us at least, but could take one sanding if desired (at cost of bevel edge & brushed texture). Oiled finish rather than lacquer - lacquer would defintely be harder wearing but looks tattier when it does acquire scratches wheras oil can - if you squint - look "characterful". Brushed finish essentially gives a slight texture, again to better incorporate scratches as character and also less slippy - as hilarious as high velocity cats losing purchase and power sliding round corners are, eventually the RSPCA starts asking questions about the dents in the radiators.

Tongue & groove versus "click" fitting was an odd one. Everywhere we read suggested click fixings were the DIY choice, tongue and groove the professional option - and I really think that's the wrong way round. Click would definitely be quicker as you're not applying glue or waiting for it to cure, and time is money for the professional, but tongue and groove was definitely much easier than I was expecting because it allowed repeated dry fitting - test fit a board sans glue, trim it to size, fit it again, repeat as many times as necessary before finally glueing - I'm not sure click systems would make that process as easy. Secondly, most of the click samples we looked at gave cause for concern as to the longevity or robustness of the click profile.

Took 3 & 1/2 days, though not full days - first was spent removing old carpet & skirting, filling the more egregious holes in the baseboard plaster, reparing the subfloor. Second day we did half the floor & cordoned it off for a day while glue cured. Third day the remaining half of the floor, and the following day fixed the skirting boards.

Used this stuff: www.directwoodflooring.co.uk/studio-natural-oak-brushed-oiled-engineered-wood-flooring.html - from local showroom.