#433

I think the best course of action is to check/confirm a few things:

  • do you dry washing in this room?
  • do you have ventilation to this room (eg trickle vents in the windows, or leave the door open)?
  • has the room been plastered recently?
  • have you had the radiators on in the room?
  • have you had a look in the loft above the bedroom? Look for a lack of insulation, or water ingress through poor pointing/flashing, or lack of ventilation (there should be 25mm around the perimeter if the insulation is at ceiling joist level).
#434

Thank you.

  • do you dry washing in this room? No
  • do you have ventilation to this room (eg trickle vents in the windows, or leave the door open)? Door left open in the day
  • has the room been plastered recently? no (was surprised at the condensation in the porch after plastering and thought we were fucked but all gone now).
  • have you had the radiators on in the room? Not much. Maybe twice.
  • have you had a look in the loft above the bedroom? Look for a lack of insulation, or water ingress through poor pointing/flashing, or lack of ventilation (there should be 25mm around the perimeter if the insulation is at ceiling joist level). Yeah this is what needs to be looked at but the corner of the loft is not that accessible and as a BURMA I fear for the safety of myself and the house. I guess it is ok to chuck a six year old up there.
#435

Hi @marckee, a little update for you on the stopcock sitch.

I totally forgot to test it until Sunday morning, the day before the bathroom fitter was due to start.

Obviously I tried to turn it and it was completely solid.

I sprayed it with WD40 then read that that is the worst thing to do, as the issue is not rust or corrosion, it’s typically limescale within the tap. All I’d done was make it more slippery to handle.

But I waited ten minutes then tried it again with a pair of pliers. Got it to budge a fraction, then slowly worked it back and forth until it was running okay. It turned off the water.

My wife did not kill me, but it was looking very much like she would for a while.

#436

can you find that thread where it would be funny if a reply was to the post above it pls, i don’t know what to search for

#437

I tried to find it earlier as well, and couldn’t. I wanted to use it for this combo:

5 Likes
#438

:grinning: that’s exactly what i was going to post

1 Like
#439

:smiley:

Maybe @ma0sm knows?

#440
#441

What’s that green bird i just saw, a bit like the london ones but bigger?

#442

A Ring Necked Parakeet?

#443

Correct! Thanks. So pretty much the same thing, i guess.

#444

Hi @marckee. Long time; no asks.

Q1: What would be the name for this style of building?

Utilitarian is my best guess, but 🤷.

It seems to be (externally, at least) de rigueur round these parts lately. E.g. …

Q2: Is this a trend across the UK?

For what it’s worth, I’m kinda partial to it, when done well. Unfussy and better than the white render fad.

#445

The new stuff is known as New London Vernacular

It arose as a result of the London Housing Design Guide, written when Livingstone was mayor, but published in 2009, which set out standards much like the Parker Morris ones that Thatcher scrapped. Since then, the style and standards have spread to places like Cambridge (as that article notes, Accordia was an early high-profile example), and subsequent to that, the style (but not necessarily the standards) have spread to other cities in the UK.

As the article suggests, it’s heavily influenced by the Leslie Martin/Cambridge School of restrained, polite modernism that predated brutalism.

1 Like
#446

do regular shops sell nails with two sharp ends (that aren’t shaped like Cs) or should i snip the end off a nail and make my own?

#447

‘Blind nails’ aren’t really a thing in the UK, and as such, they’re expensive to order from overseas. It’s usually easier to whack a nail into one surface, then cut the end off with a bolt-cutter, if you have to do it.

1 Like
#448

Thanks i’ll do that

#449

Thanks.

Good summary article and links to further reading.

Typically and predictably depressing that (according to Wikipedia)

“The mandatory nature of the standards was ended by the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980, when the incoming Conservative government sought to reduce the cost of housing and, generally, public spending.”

right at the time when council house building was on the decline and right to buy came in. So the loosening of restrictions and reduced costs was presumably very much to the benefit of private housebuilders rather than councils?

#450

Of course. Council housing (and housing association housing after that) was built to much better space standards than private schemes, and still is across most of the country.

#451

@marckee i need an architect to design a small extension on my house. What do I do

#452

Do you though? If it’s a simple extension within permitted development rules then it might be better to use a builder’s designer.

If you want something more than that, then the RIAS (Scottish equivalent of the RIBA) has directories that you can use to narrow down your search.

https://www.rias.org.uk/for-the-public/practices