Soldato
This looks like a stunning project (and budget!). Really great to see. I'm renovating a property at the moment. After it was gutted you really notice how much of an improvement every little thing you do is.
Dubai Villa Renovation
- Thread starter ronski
- Start date
Man of Honour
Looking forward to seeing the kitchen. How much more work have you got?
Thanks mate - you are right every little thing seems like a huge step forward.
@Cosimo - The builders estimate is completion end of February. Most of the large jobs are done in terms of building type works. I think by the end of next week we will be into installing the bathrooms and also some electrical works lights/tv cables before finally tiling the bathrooms and installing the kitchen.
Speaking of kitchens - I have just ordered all the kitchen appliances (Siemens throughout) and now need a little sit down.
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Thanks mate - you are right it is epic. I couldn't resist not opening it up so I can use it for a couple of months before the move. I also manage to get it for what I consider a great price in the sales here (a shade under 3k sterling).
Associate
Cheers for the local insight. First time i log into ocuk in a week or so and the banner jogged my memory that i wanted to know about the bloke with the dubai villa
Thanks guys!
Been back over to the villa and have agreed the master bathroom and kitchen designs. The wife wants a wine cooler - so I have to go shopping again. The other thing left to get in the kitchen are the two sink and taps which are getting a little tricky to track down due to various stock issues. Tomorrow I will walk through with the sparky the position of the down lighters and finalize the moving of a number of sockets and light switches.
The other thing that is teed up for next week is the installation of Ubiquity Networks Unifi Pro's through the house. Three access points downstairs, three upstairs and a further two on the exterior of the house that will cover the rear and side garden (where the shed is).
Me and my mate were doing some rough wireless coverage testing - he stood with his iPhone 5 in hotspot mode and I walked around the house with wifi analyzer on my android. Quite amusing really.
Anyway, what we found out that the guest room with the separate stair case will need a dedicated access point as will the master bedroom. It is amazing how the reinforced concrete walls just kill the wifi signal (admitted the iphone is hardly the best in class hotspot). The plus side is there is basically no neighbouring wifi signals intruding into the house and just a little in the rear garden.
Been back over to the villa and have agreed the master bathroom and kitchen designs. The wife wants a wine cooler - so I have to go shopping again. The other thing left to get in the kitchen are the two sink and taps which are getting a little tricky to track down due to various stock issues. Tomorrow I will walk through with the sparky the position of the down lighters and finalize the moving of a number of sockets and light switches.
The other thing that is teed up for next week is the installation of Ubiquity Networks Unifi Pro's through the house. Three access points downstairs, three upstairs and a further two on the exterior of the house that will cover the rear and side garden (where the shed is).
Me and my mate were doing some rough wireless coverage testing - he stood with his iPhone 5 in hotspot mode and I walked around the house with wifi analyzer on my android. Quite amusing really.
Anyway, what we found out that the guest room with the separate stair case will need a dedicated access point as will the master bedroom. It is amazing how the reinforced concrete walls just kill the wifi signal (admitted the iphone is hardly the best in class hotspot). The plus side is there is basically no neighbouring wifi signals intruding into the house and just a little in the rear garden.
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Living in England it seems strange to see a project like this not having underfloor heating, the joys of the desert. Those tiles must be a dream and a nightmare to work with as well. Get the floor covered in no time but hefting them about, cutting them and just generally trying to avoid chipping them must cause paranoia. Certainly would have done in me when I fitted bathrooms.
I have to admit to wondering the other day if I should be putting underfloor heating then I remembered that it is the middle of winter here and 20c at night...
As for the large tiles - yes the guys have been saying it has been very difficult to work with and that working with marble tiles would have been easier. As a result I have had to buy a stack more due to a high wastage count.
Soldato
Bet you can't wait to get them all cleaned up to see what they look like. i'd be worried about them getting scratched with all the dust and debris getting trampled about, but i'd imagine they can be polished up if that was the case.
Ouch! That would be way too hot for me. I'm too hot if my room is any more than 16c. I do love the sunshine, just wish it didnt come with the heat lol.
Ouch! That would be way too hot for me. I'm too hot if my room is any more than 16c. I do love the sunshine, just wish it didnt come with the heat lol.
Absolutely. it is killing me not to be able to see the shiny effect on the tiles. There is so much going on in the villa that almost instantly when you wipe something down it is soon covered in another fine coat of dust. As for getting scratches - yep can try polishing them out but if its bad I will be having the builder relay any damaged tiles. He has actually changed at least 3 already as he was not happy with the finish of the tile (he is a great guy with a realeye for detail)
That's a lot of APs but you've sort of done a site survey so you're probably in the best place to made a decision. I'd be surprised if you can't put the APs upstairs only and provide a decent signal to the lower floor that way, but if your floors are concrete slab then yeah give up on that idea and put a bunch in.
Are you running the controller locally or up on Azure?
Are you running the controller locally or up on Azure?
Agreed it is a lot of APs in a house - the floors are as you say concrete slab. In the end I just don't want to have to go back and add them in later if I am getting dead spots. The original plan was 4 APs in the house but after the mini survey I added in a couple more.
I will run the controller software locally from my iMac - that system is left on all the time so will suffice. I hope I have picked right with the Uniquity gear - the other choice was Engenius EAP 350
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You'll be very happy with the UniFi - I've used Aerohive, Meraki and Ubiquiti before and would have no trouble recommending UniFi if the other two options look a bit expensive. I wouldn't buy APs that are 2.4GHz only any more which rules out the EnGenius.
I'd also recommend running v3 of the controller from the outset - it's labelled Beta but it is far from it, and it enables better roaming between access points rather than a client trying to stick to one for as long as it can see signal, something that will be important to you as you have quite a dense deployment.
I'd also recommend running v3 of the controller from the outset - it's labelled Beta but it is far from it, and it enables better roaming between access points rather than a client trying to stick to one for as long as it can see signal, something that will be important to you as you have quite a dense deployment.
Also if you think you're having interference issues (any wifi analyser will show you this - you're looking for multiple APs in the same frequencies showing you a good signal) then just fiddle with the TX power, UniFi lets you turn it down which I imagine you will need to do if it doesn't adjust it for you. Reliable Wi-Fi isn't about having a massive radio and huge TX power.
With the start of the working week I had to get over to the villa today to meet with the networking contractor. So we could decide on the exact location of the Access Points. The cable runs were then marked out so the building contractor can cut out the channels in the walls and chase the cables in.
It was nice to see the Ubiquity Gear arrive (still missing one Outdoor AP)
After all the research I couldn't resist cracking opening one of the boxes to have a quick peek at the Access Point and I reckon they will look very smart in the house
The electric fixtures also arrived today. It's a lot of gear when you are replacing every single switch/plug and data socket in the house:
It was a busy down at the Villa today with over 18 guys on site today! Looking a bit like parking lot outside the house:
So today they have completed the tiling downstairs and have also completed 3 out of the 5 bedrooms. Once the bedrooms are done work can commence on the bathrooms.
It was nice to see the Ubiquity Gear arrive (still missing one Outdoor AP)
After all the research I couldn't resist cracking opening one of the boxes to have a quick peek at the Access Point and I reckon they will look very smart in the house
The electric fixtures also arrived today. It's a lot of gear when you are replacing every single switch/plug and data socket in the house:
It was a busy down at the Villa today with over 18 guys on site today! Looking a bit like parking lot outside the house:
So today they have completed the tiling downstairs and have also completed 3 out of the 5 bedrooms. Once the bedrooms are done work can commence on the bathrooms.
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