What "man jobs" have you done today?
- Thread starter jaybee
- Start date
I forgot I made this thread. Wow. It's huge. Going to spent some time reading it and then add some content myself. Since I made this thread I've done too much to list including a house move. Pretty poor on my part as didn't take many photos. 
Anyone had any experience with Howdens? I hear conflicting info as to whether they will only deal with the trade or not. I want to get a kitchen cabinet door, an end panel, some edge stripping and some worktop to match what our kitchen already has when we moved in. Do I need to find someone with a trade account? I hear the prices for trade literally go down by more than half of their "normal" advertised brochure prices often.
Anyone had any experience with Howdens? I hear conflicting info as to whether they will only deal with the trade or not. I want to get a kitchen cabinet door, an end panel, some edge stripping and some worktop to match what our kitchen already has when we moved in. Do I need to find someone with a trade account? I hear the prices for trade literally go down by more than half of their "normal" advertised brochure prices often.
Associate
Bought kitchen from them about a year ago. I think they will only deal with trade still, luckily there are a few builder in the family. Prices were discounted by more than 4/5 from book as a guidline, but it seems each location negotiates their margin separately. You can try and create and accont though.
I forgot I made this thread. Wow. It's huge. Going to spent some time reading it and then add some content myself. Since I made this thread I've done too much to list including a house move. Pretty poor on my part as didn't take many photos.
Anyone had any experience with Howdens? I hear conflicting info as to whether they will only deal with the trade or not. I want to get a kitchen cabinet door, an end panel, some edge stripping and some worktop to match what our kitchen already has when we moved in. Do I need to find someone with a trade account? I hear the prices for trade literally go down by more than half of their "normal" advertised brochure prices often.
They'll only deal with trade but will likely have a builder or someone they can suggest who will let you use their account for a few %. Otherwise it's easy to get an account, something like a letterhead or business card will do normally and they are super easy to knock up online.
Generally speaking they don't publish RRP prices to the public and even a first time builder would get between 40% and 60% off the RRP that they list on their system. My builder who uses them a bit but not massively (maybe 3-5 kitchens a year) had around 70% off most things. Once all the 'discounts' are taken into account I found they priced up very similarly to DIYKitchens so if you look at them online you can roughly work prices. You can negotiate and they'll add a better discount - we had our quote with around 70% and made noises about elsewhere and DIYKitchens and they took another few % off to get it down. I've heard of some accounts getting 80-90% off. It's all a bit smoke a mirrors but if you know a builder or chippy that you get on with ask to use their account, if not make up some details and get an account and as a last resort ask the branch for the details of a builder and explain to the guy what you want to do and you'll cut him a few % for the use of the account.
Soldato
Worst part of it for me was as i am painting (day off cos of the rain showers) and its over an existing orange paint finish I wish i had done a base coat of black first prior to the grey finish that I'm looking for as I have to apply at least two coats and probably three in some places!
Thanks guys, not sure where to start with this though. I don't know how old the kitchen is. I would say within the last 5 years but I don't know really. Could be ten years old. It looks good and I want to get the same worktop and cupboard finish to match but I don't have any paper work for it at all. I have managed to see a couple of codes on the underside of one of the pieces of worktop and on a leftover door (too small though this one as it's for a slim cupboard). I literally don't even know what to describe the colour as, but from a quick google I think it might be a "cashmere". Kind of like a cream/grey/sand colour wood. EDIT: TO be clear the existing one is a howdens one as I saw it written somewhere on a piece of it lol.
I only want to make a little single floor level wide cupboard and small worktop area in a corner to house a tumble dryer and hide it away. I can do the work myself. I don't even need to build the cabinet inards so to speak, I just want to use battens on a back and side wall to mount the worktop to, and on the far right side it will be supported by the matching end panel, which is essentially a piece of wood with the front vertical face edged nicely. Then I basically need a cupboard door to also match and possibly a single piece of wood for the hinges to mount to on the left side and hey presto, a matched cupboard with worktop top, for the tumble dryer to hide in on the other side of the kitchen. I don't care too much for the worktop not to match the age of the old one massively, since I will probably at some point end up sanding them all back and refinishing to all match as the other ones are quire marked in places.
Wonder what the shortest length of worktop would be?
Wonder if our kitchen style and finish is already discontinued.
Perhaps I will try to make an account. So once I get an account, do I get a login and can checkout online?
I only want to make a little single floor level wide cupboard and small worktop area in a corner to house a tumble dryer and hide it away. I can do the work myself. I don't even need to build the cabinet inards so to speak, I just want to use battens on a back and side wall to mount the worktop to, and on the far right side it will be supported by the matching end panel, which is essentially a piece of wood with the front vertical face edged nicely. Then I basically need a cupboard door to also match and possibly a single piece of wood for the hinges to mount to on the left side and hey presto, a matched cupboard with worktop top, for the tumble dryer to hide in on the other side of the kitchen. I don't care too much for the worktop not to match the age of the old one massively, since I will probably at some point end up sanding them all back and refinishing to all match as the other ones are quire marked in places.
Wonder what the shortest length of worktop would be?
Wonder if our kitchen style and finish is already discontinued.
Perhaps I will try to make an account. So once I get an account, do I get a login and can checkout online?
I've got some cuprinol silver copse to go on top of an old green cuprinol finish on our fence. I was hoping a single coat with a brush would do it. I'm not sure I can use a spray gun since we have plants and stuff in the way and some of the spots are really tight to get into.
Soldato
Probably the summer. Not got the budget for everything so doing it bit by bit... so that's the main constraint
Yeah planning on putting 85mm PIR in the walls, 150mm in the floor (to raise it) and i'm not sure about the roof yet. I'd like 150mm PIR in there too but i'll have no head height. So likely a combination of PIR and multifoil / rockwool above.
Soldato
Well I used pic in Gd so put here also.
Little Wildlife pond in a quiet corner , improvised lining material for big one, cheap ebay moulded one for little one, water will flow over drift wood waterfall when solar pumps set up.
Taking a fair while for water to clear, but anyway mostly free materials , only took an afternoon to do but needs finishing touches
Little Wildlife pond in a quiet corner , improvised lining material for big one, cheap ebay moulded one for little one, water will flow over drift wood waterfall when solar pumps set up.
Taking a fair while for water to clear, but anyway mostly free materials , only took an afternoon to do but needs finishing touches
Associate
- Joined
- 4 Jun 2020
- Posts
- 2,401
^ They dont make gardens like that anymore
Most are smaller than the house now.
I rake all day and I rake all night! Dead lawn will eventually have some life.
Gotta get all the compacted gravel tilled.
Most are smaller than the house now.
I rake all day and I rake all night! Dead lawn will eventually have some life.
Gotta get all the compacted gravel tilled.
Not today but over the past few weeks :
After living in this house for just over 2 years and not really using the side garden (apart from to dump stuff) I finally got around to sorting out an area for the kids to play.
Before - The Dump
Cleared the rubbish into a skip and got a mini digger in to take out some excess soil, assist in retaining wall, then level up again stone/ballast
Compact ballast down with a whacker
Get in 8 tonnes of grit sand to level and compact again (unfortunately by hand as the digger had gone again)
Start laying down weed suppressant fabric (not an easy job on your own (15mx4m sheets) in strong winds)
Then start laying the artificial grass (1 14mx4m roll and 1 13mx4m roll - very heavy)
Grass 90% done, about 1.2 million u shaped pins and 1000 6" nails. Still needs some trimming around the edges.
Also a small bit of decking.
Also as you will see in a few of the images, built 14 planter boxes from Decking boards, mainly to grow a bit of a privacy barrier between myself and the neighbour
After living in this house for just over 2 years and not really using the side garden (apart from to dump stuff) I finally got around to sorting out an area for the kids to play.
Before - The Dump
Cleared the rubbish into a skip and got a mini digger in to take out some excess soil, assist in retaining wall, then level up again stone/ballast
Compact ballast down with a whacker
Get in 8 tonnes of grit sand to level and compact again (unfortunately by hand as the digger had gone again)
Start laying down weed suppressant fabric (not an easy job on your own (15mx4m sheets) in strong winds)
Then start laying the artificial grass (1 14mx4m roll and 1 13mx4m roll - very heavy)
Grass 90% done, about 1.2 million u shaped pins and 1000 6" nails. Still needs some trimming around the edges.
Also a small bit of decking.
Also as you will see in a few of the images, built 14 planter boxes from Decking boards, mainly to grow a bit of a privacy barrier between myself and the neighbour
Soldato
Nice transformation !
Associate
very nice! well done! looks lovely
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Mar 2013
- Posts
- 7,113
You've been a bit busy then
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Soldato
How much higher is it than the original ground -Don't think I would be very happy if I was your neighbour with the french doors.
Is that your fence all along that boundry.
Barring that it's a job well done.
Is that your fence all along that boundry.
Barring that it's a job well done.
It's almost a foot lower on my house side and about 1.5-2 foot higher on his side and yeah he isn't happy.
It's awkward, as I understand why he isn't happy, but we live on a hill and every other house is like this. It was a choice of a garden we could get good use of and upsetting the neighbour, or a hill that we never use.
I did off to put some trellis on top of the fence using something like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15388062...431&customid=153880621963_159912&toolid=11000
But he informed me that it was his dance and didn't want me to touch it.
As I say, I understand why he isn't happy but at the end of the day I have to do what's best for my family.
It's awkward, as I understand why he isn't happy, but we live on a hill and every other house is like this. It was a choice of a garden we could get good use of and upsetting the neighbour, or a hill that we never use.
I did off to put some trellis on top of the fence using something like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15388062...431&customid=153880621963_159912&toolid=11000
But he informed me that it was his dance and didn't want me to touch it.
As I say, I understand why he isn't happy but at the end of the day I have to do what's best for my family.
Caporegime
It's probably that high anyway, old house used to practically look down on our rear neighbours garden purely due to the way the plots where