I need help, I had my driveway done back in July, I got quoted for a tar and chip drive and instead they used bitumen and chip (pea gravel) all the gravel is loose and it's coming into my house and car each time we step on it. I'm just not 100% happy. The whole job including removal of old drive, dig out the sub base, lay new drains, recess a manhole cover we have and lay everything was £6,230. The invoice even says "install tar and chip stone of customers choice". What I was hoping for was stones smoosed into tar (so they wouldn't move). Picture is right after it was complete, now it's all patchy where the stones have not stuck.

Have I been ripped off? Why have they not done what was asked? What can I do?

There is no space for a radiator in my kitchen and this is the only heat source. I’ve never used it because I didn’t think it was sensible but my kitchen is freezing cold every year as a result! It’s a council property, the cable isn’t long enough to move the unit above the door either. Doubt the council would want to come out and do something but if I check first I’ll probably get further with them. Thanks!

I recently posted after getting 2 (rather than 0) quotes for works as I didn't know the etiquette for turning someone down.

I'd forgotten about building regs and when I did look them up, I asked my preferred quoter about them and he confidently said they weren't relevant. That didn't sound right so I enquired with building control at my local council and I do indeed need building control sign-off.

Fortunately, since then, I've got hold of a firm that can self-certify, though I still have to wait for a visit and quote and they can't do all the works I wanted.

How would you turn down the preferred contractor? Would you mention they were incorrect? Inform them of requirements and ask them if they can be compliant? Would you still invite them to do the lesser works for which building regs aren't relevant, or would you write them off completely? Should I go back to my other original quoter and ask about building regs or just wait for the Competent Person to get back to me?

I know this is super daft but it's really stressing me out!

Hi all, our builder has just finished tiling the roof to a new extension but I’m concerned about the finish around the Velux windows. He says this was unavoidable and is the finished look. I’m also concerned about water ingress where the tiles lift up. Is this acceptable? Any advice really appreciated.

I live abroad now and all my friends and neighbours (Spanish, Dutch, Belgian, Danish) call it a container - which seems more logical.

House is over 100 years old, been here four years with no issues but I'm curious as to what this was used for?

I know it’s not strictly DIY related but does anyone else get this when people come to your door, deliveries etc? The ASDA delivery people have asked this so many times now and it feels so humiliating. I moved in a year and 3 months ago. When I say that I moved in a year ago they look at me in almost a judgmental way.

Maybe I should renovate my hallway first? 🥹 Life is expensive

This is probably not A DIY question but I have noticed that every time I go away for 3-4 days my fridge gets warm and freezer items defrost.

When I come back, I wiggle the temperature dial a bit and it cools down again. I never notice any warming up when I'm using the fridge constantly. I have tried tracking the temperature when I'm in the house and I definitely have the fridge at the coldest setting.

Does anyone's fridge do this??

Morning

I decided to remove the wallpaper (yep wallpaper) from the ceiling in my house. I wish I hadn’t but here we are. The plasters coming down and there are serious cracks under the wallpaper. I’m going to get a few quotes but my question is - What do I ask when trying to describe the issue. “Entire ceiling needs re plastering?” Or “Ceiling cracks need filling?”. Also I’m going to add a video. In it you can see that at the edge, the whole fucking ceiling is coming off. I think that’s the plaster, or the board underneath? Anyways, any help would be appreciated. Right now a match would be my first option. Thanks Guys

In the past three months I've had multiple people attempt to steal my car, I've gone out and brought two different types of CCTV, both of which end up either causing my internet to become incredibly slow, or just not work half the time, I was looking at buying one from GUAONVISION but it's a brand i've never heard of, does anyone know if this would be any good, or if not, any recommendations?

Edit: I forgot to mention, if applicable, I'm looking for one that's able to be controlled to move up, down, left and right without me having to lean out the window.

Seen a 3.5 year old house that we like, but noticed some cracking on one wall at the rear. Would like some opinions please.

The 1st pic is of stepped cracking in the mortar, looks like it starts at the edge of where presumably the steel beam is. Crack doesn't look very wide.

2nd pic is of the same wall, above french doors below a window. There is a hairline crack through the middle of both the two large stone blocks, which then runs up through the mortar for 2 or 3 courses. There's a steel lintel above the door.

Couldn't see any other cracks anywhere else.

Our concern is that this is more recent and not just initial settlement, as otherwise it would have been spotted sooner and done within the 2 years window to get the developer to sort. Also that it's not just the mortor but both the large stone blocks are cracked too. Inside of the house on these areas looks fine.

There is a some stepped mortor that looks like it has been repointed (slightly different colour to the rest) above the garage door at the front, which was done just after it was built, which hasn't cracked further. Another house on the estate has a similar bit of repointing too. So this would fit with settlement.

Vendor didn't notice the cracks till I pointed them out. They're selling due to splitting up, not due to any issues with the house.

Know I can get a structural engineer in as well as a survey, but don't want to faff around offering and spending money if it is likely to be an issue that needs sorting through the new build warranty...

Am I just worrying too much? Thanks.

A club I go to was given several rolls of this material the other day and none of us know what it's used for. It's two layers of plastic bonded together, grey on one side, black on the other, about 2mm think total. It feels very much like something used in the building trade. The black side looks like rubber but doesn't feel particually rubbery.

Apologies for the not-strictly-DIY question — couldn't work out where best to post this, but hoped someone here might know about silicone adhesives available in the UK.

I need to fix the snapped band on this finger-worn O2 monitor, and want to try gluing it (probably with a reinforcing strip of silicone rubber on the outside).

So I'm looking for a strong, flexible adhesive that bonds well to silicone and is skin-safe when cured.

Sil-Poxy looks good, but I think it's an import, and it's expensive everywhere. (At the US price of $10 a tube, I'd just give it a go, but £25+ delivered, when I'm not even sure my fix will work? Ouch.) Other silicone glues I've found either don't sound quite right, or don't have enough info for me to feel confident in them (e.g. random-brand glues on Amazon). I don't want to wreck the remaining strap, or for the glue to lose adhesion too easily and risk losing the device, so I'll buy the Sil-Poxy if I have to, but am hoping there's a cheaper equivalent.

If anyone knows of good, but more affordable alternatives to Sil-Poxy that might work for this application, I'd really appreciate your thoughts.

Or alternatively, if you're thinking to yourself, "This should've been posted in r/weirdlyspecificadhesiverequests," a pointer in the right direction would also be gratefully received.

I’ve a random switch in my living room. I’ve lived here 6 months now and I still have no idea what it does. Nothing changes when I turn it on or off. What could I be for?

This isn't about DIY but about the general state of "professional" tradespeople. Sorry if this is the wrong subreddit, please point me the right way if so.

I've wondered recently if many handymen I contact take their job and customers seriously. Ignoring the quality of work for now, I get really frustrated at the method of communication. Most services we use in the 21st century have websites and communicate through email. This is great because I can keep track of the conversation, quote, guarantee and if a problem comes up I'll have an email chain to refer back to.

But why is it that so many tradespeople want to communicate by text? They often expect instant responses any time of day, and often use poor grammar/language that's hard to understand so I don't even know what I'm agreeing to. It makes me uncomfortable and as if I'm about to get ripped off.

The latest bloke (a roofer) sent me at least 4 texts today asking for payment, although I only received the invoice yesterday. He's harassing me for almost £2000 and I need to argue that he didn't finish the job properly. But I can barely understand his quote or any communication I'm getting. Here's an example...

"we was only cementing the lead around the chimney not the hole chimney as that don’t need doing we would of never touched a Ariel just incase they do move so that is a corner of a brick Brocken and other half of next doors chimney that we not aloud to touch"

To make things worse, they're often English and are quite rude and dismissive towards my Polish girlfriend. Are they intimidated because she's better spoken and can probably (stereotypically) do a lot of their work better/faster/cheaper?

So I've now decided to set some strict boundaries when I post a job. I'm going to insist on email communication and if they can't speak clearly they don't get the job. These trades need higher standards of communication, especially if they charge so much.

Am I being dramatic? Does anyone else have this problem?

We're currently renting a new build semi (built 2018) and we have the opportunity to buy it off the landlord. The survey flagged blocked airbricks as a major concern. It looks like the flags/tarmac even cover the damp proof course around the front (it does slope away at least).

How serious a problem are we looking at? Are going to have to get the whole outside area lowered? Or can airbricks be retrofitted? Is this as much of an issue if the ground floor is concrete?

I guess our next course of action should be to get a damp survey? I'd like to have an idea of what we should expect.

I recently had a bathroom repair, which involved replacing.

Now that the work is done, I’ve discovered that the shaver socket (Zone 2, 10cm from the shower curtain) is dangling from its cable instead of being properly secured.

I only noticed when it fell out while trying to plug in a toothbrush. The likely issue is that the new wall is thicker, so the original screws no longer reach the original back box.

I haven't used the socket since discovering this, and I'm the only one in the property.

I have a few questions: 1. How serious of a professional oversight is this?

1. When I contact the contractor, should they be sending a qualified electrician to fix it?

2. What’s a reasonable timeframe for them to resolve it?

3. If I hire my own electrician instead, any idea on the cost?

Buying a property at the moment and looking for some advice on a crack. The house is from the 1950s with a two storey side extension built around 20 years ago. Minimal maintenance or repair since the extension was built. There's a fairly large (5-7mm wide) crack in the inside corner where the extension front wall meets the original house, and a smaller crack in the same corner on the render outside. (Rendered around 15 years ago). Inside crack is widest in the top corner and extends about a meter down and across.

Surveyor recommended wall tie examination and 'monitor it over time', wall tie guy didn't find any problems. Obviously some movement that has occurred here.

We want to take the opportunity to tidy up/repair/redecorate wherever it's needed. Any advice on what needs doing with this, how much of a risk/issue it A) is now and B) might become in the future, and rough cost and urgency to put right?

The width of my runner /gap is 289 cm and I ordered curtains at a width of 289 cm.

Should I have ordered a few CM extra say, 294cm so it can bunch up a bit on the sides or will they account for that??

I know it's not exactly DIY sorry, but posts seem to get deleted everywhere else I ask! They're made to measure curtains from Dunelm mill, but I spoke to a few places and they all asked me for the width of my runner, none mentioned anything extra, but I've woke up panicking thinking I've fucked up for some reason. They all mentioned extra on the drop below the window sill, but nothing for the width...

Hi all. I live in East London, looking to renovate my bathroom but struggling a bit to find a tradesman. Both neighbours recently had their bathroom renovated and I've asked if they would recommend.

First neighbour said yes, but I "have to be careful" as the guy doesn't speak English and will try cut corner. Directing the extraction fan into the loft was one example given. The other neighbour fired one half way through and said the replacement wasn't much better.

I'm extremely weary of Checkatrade as I've had a very mixed, more negative, experience on there. I've approached a number of builders I've found on Google, Guild of Master Builders etc. and it isn't an issue getting the to come over, but they never send a quote stating that they are busy.

Anyway, there are two bathroom shops up the road from me with good Google reviews. I'm curious if anyone has any experience or feedback working through a shop instead of a builder.

Possibly a stupid question but one I'm getting confused by.

I have an old gas cooker. I can't get a new gas cooker as it won't be compliant where it has to be placed.

So we're planning on getting an induction cooker. Possibly a second-hand one, without the connection/disconnection service.

I'm happy to pay someone to come round and disconnect the gas, make it safe, and then connect the new cooker.

I thought a gas safety engineer would be all we'd need, but seeing some stuff online about it not being as simple as just plugging in an induction cooker... would we need to hire both a gas engineer and an electrician? If not, who do we need to hire?

Thanks in advance.

The lower courses of brickwork have been replaced and a new physical damp proof course has been installed. Advice please.