DIY and shit

So at the minute we are pretty much gutting the house from top to bottom.

I had an electrician in today.  We had two plug sockets attached to skirting boards that needed lifting and embedding int he wall.  One which was knackered so needed replacing and one new on as there was only one in the small bedroom.  Plus when he was doing one of them apparently the earth wire had a fault and the wore needed to be replaced.  In total the bill came to 330 quid.  Does anyone know if this is reasonable as im absolutely shite with things like this.

He has also quoted 50 quid to change a light fitting as long as itbis a straight swap and no issues.

Ill be glad when its all done!!!!

y2johnny wrote:So at the minute we are pretty much gutting the house from top to bottom.

I had an electrician in today.  We had two plug sockets attached to skirting boards that needed lifting and embedding int he wall.  One which was knackered so needed replacing and one new on as there was only one in the small bedroom.  Plus when he was doing one of them apparently the earth wire had a fault and the wore needed to be replaced.  In total the bill came to 330 quid.  Does anyone know if this is reasonable as im absolutely shite with things like this.

He has also quoted 50 quid to change a light fitting as long as itbis a straight swap and no issues.

Ill be glad when its all done!!!!

My sister just had a full re-wire of a 4 bedroom 1930's semi for £1700.

£330 sounds a lot of cash for not a lot of work.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

y2johnny wrote:So at the minute we are pretty much gutting the house from top to bottom.

I had an electrician in today.  We had two plug sockets attached to skirting boards that needed lifting and embedding int he wall.  One which was knackered so needed replacing and one new on as there was only one in the small bedroom.  Plus when he was doing one of them apparently the earth wire had a fault and the wore needed to be replaced.  In total the bill came to 330 quid.  Does anyone know if this is reasonable as im absolutely shite with things like this.

He has also quoted 50 quid to change a light fitting as long as itbis a straight swap and no issues.

Ill be glad when its all done!!!!

My sister just had a full re-wire of a 4 bedroom 1930's semi for £1700.

£330 sounds a lot of cash for not a lot of work.

It does sound a lot but he was here 5 hours.  My problem is i just dont know how much these things are supposed to cost.  The main thing that needed doing was the roof and luckily we knew a roofer so that was ok.  Now the main thing is plastering and we have found a good one as he has done one room already.  (Only another 6 to go!) But it is just all the little bits that add up, having radiators took off etc.

Im doing all the prep work work like taking down the horrible false ceilings that were in and stripping the woodchip (did i mention i fooking hate woodchip) of every wall and doing countless tip runs.

The missus does the decorating and i get the best job of the lot.............putting up the furniture 

Seems a lot, £50 to change a light fitting! Which is just a straight swap, is this not something you can do?

y2johnny wrote:So at the minute we are pretty much gutting the house from top to bottom.

I had an electrician in today.  We had two plug sockets attached to skirting boards that needed lifting and embedding int he wall.  One which was knackered so needed replacing and one new on as there was only one in the small bedroom.  Plus when he was doing one of them apparently the earth wire had a fault and the wore needed to be replaced.  In total the bill came to 330 quid.  Does anyone know if this is reasonable as im absolutely shite with things like this.

He has also quoted 50 quid to change a light fitting as long as itbis a straight swap and no issues.

Ill be glad when its all done!!!!

It all depends on how long it took him to find the fault to be honest.

I think 50 quid to replace a light fitting on a like for like basis is quite a lot.

I would have done these things myself to save money although I feel you may not have the confidence or knowledge to do it yourself.

What you could do with the light fitting is inspect how the wiring is connected and then go and have a look at the stuff in B&Q and wire it up the same.

You have a useful camera on that phone.

You can get a consumer unit replaced for around that price you have paid today and a full house rewire is roughly a grand to give you an idea mate.

karlypants wrote:
I would have done these things myself to save money although I feel you may not have the confidence or knowledge to do it yourself.

He thinks he's better than you Johnny.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

karlypants wrote:
I would have done these things myself to save money although I feel you may not have the confidence or knowledge to do it yourself.

He thinks he's better than you Johnny.

Stop twisting what I say!

He probably is. I wouldn't trust my self to do it.  Not since i was nailing down a floor board and went through a gas pipe.

y2johnny wrote:He probably is. I wouldn't trust my self to do it.  Not since i was nailing down a floor board and went through a gas pipe.

I hope you got National Grid out to fix it for free!

Of course. Got a few squeeky pipes at the minute. Might do it again

y2johnny wrote:He probably is. I wouldn't trust my self to do it.  Not since i was nailing down a floor board and went through a gas pipe.

That's easy done. I've known plumbers do that!

Soul Kitchen wrote:

y2johnny wrote:He probably is. I wouldn't trust my self to do it.  Not since i was nailing down a floor board and went through a gas pipe.

That's easy done. I've known plumbers do that!

Today im only in stoke.  Here now waiting for the guys to turn up.  Should be home for tenish and will be back on to stripping wallpaper and hopefully taking down a false wooden wall. 

I love demolishing stuff!

y2johnny wrote:

Soul Kitchen wrote:

y2johnny wrote:He probably is. I wouldn't trust my self to do it.  Not since i was nailing down a floor board and went through a gas pipe.

That's easy done. I've known plumbers do that!

Today im only in stoke.  Here now waiting for the guys to turn up.  Should be home for tenish and will be back on to stripping wallpaper and hopefully taking down a false wooden wall. 

I love demolishing stuff!

I remember years ago stripping woodchip off the walls at my parents house, it hadn't been touched in years only to paint over it and by the time we came to strip it off it had about 10 layers of paint on it and was an absolute nightmare, so good luck with that one!

Woodchip is the worst thing ever to get off. Did 2 rooms once and it took bloody ages.

I'm going to have to do some work at my mums soon and she has this shite on her ceiling in one of the bedroom.

I'm going to overboard the ceiling with plasterboard and have it skimmed.

She can think again if I am spending an eternity trying to get that off the ceiling.

You have to score it with a pair of scissors/knife in little diamond shapes and then wet it, then use a steamer, it is awful stuff.

Or napalm.

whatsgoingon wrote:

y2johnny wrote:

Soul Kitchen wrote:

y2johnny wrote:He probably is. I wouldn't trust my self to do it.  Not since i was nailing down a floor board and went through a gas pipe.

That's easy done. I've known plumbers do that!

Today im only in stoke.  Here now waiting for the guys to turn up.  Should be home for tenish and will be back on to stripping wallpaper and hopefully taking down a false wooden wall. 

I love demolishing stuff!

I remember years ago stripping woodchip off the walls at my parents house, it hadn't been touched in years only to paint over it and by the time we came to strip it off it had about 10 layers of paint on it and was an absolute nightmare, so good luck with that one!

I had the same in mine and my first wife's first house. What made it even worse was the colours they'd painted the living room. Two walls were burnt orange, one was scarlet, one was lemon yellow and the ceiling (also woodchip) was purple. The rest of the house was equally bad, like the previous tenant had used free testers from DIY shops in whatever colour they could get. Even with a steamer and three of us working 12 hour days on stripping that stuff it took us the better part of a week to completely strip a fairly small two bedroom house. There were a stupid number of layers of paint especially in the hallway and stairwell. By the time it was all done I was ready to kill anyone who even hinted that "woodchip's tough and easy to clean if you paint it with Silk Emulsion (my then mother in law carped on in those words for weeks). I have never even looked at woodchip without feeling a burning hate deep in my soul ever since.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:

whatsgoingon wrote:

y2johnny wrote:

Soul Kitchen wrote:

y2johnny wrote:He probably is. I wouldn't trust my self to do it.  Not since i was nailing down a floor board and went through a gas pipe.

That's easy done. I've known plumbers do that!

Today im only in stoke.  Here now waiting for the guys to turn up.  Should be home for tenish and will be back on to stripping wallpaper and hopefully taking down a false wooden wall. 

I love demolishing stuff!

I remember years ago stripping woodchip off the walls at my parents house, it hadn't been touched in years only to paint over it and by the time we came to strip it off it had about 10 layers of paint on it and was an absolute nightmare, so good luck with that one!

I had the same in mine and my first wife's first house. What made it even worse was the colours they'd painted the living room. Two walls were burnt orange, one was scarlet, one was lemon yellow and the ceiling (also woodchip) was purple. The rest of the house was equally bad, like the previous tenant had used free testers from DIY shops in whatever colour they could get. Even with a steamer and three of us working 12 hour days on stripping that stuff it took us the better part of a week to completely strip a fairly small two bedroom house. There were a stupid number of layers of paint especially in the hallway and stairwell. By the time it was all done I was ready to kill anyone who even hinted that "woodchip's tough and easy to clean if you paint it with Silk Emulsion (my then mother in law carped on in those words for weeks). I have never even looked at woodchip without feeling a burning hate deep in my soul ever since.

Had to laugh we had exactly the same experience, but how can you hold a grudge against something immortalised by the great Jarvis Cocker

"you're house was very small
with woodchip on the walls
but when I came round to call,
you didn't notice me at all"

so I think we should start a bring back woodchip campaign, with a strapline of "fuck you anaglypta"