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Posts Tagged ‘gap<’
Posted in Bricklaying on Apr 09
Perhaps you are planning your first DIY bricklaying project and are not sure how many bricks to order. Begin by drawing a brick grid on a piece of board to make life easier, and ensure a professional brick course later. Brick grids are like a template for the correct alignment of one brick upon the other, and form an important part of the planning process before you start building.
Things You’ll Need
- Poster board
- Marker pen
- Ruler
If this sounds like too much hard work, why not consider getting a bricklaying quote from one of our many “brickies” right here on Mr-Skill.
Step 1 
Choose a pattern for your brick grid – you can select from one of many. The most popular is the running bond pattern, which results in a row of bricks all pointing in the same direction. Start laying the next row across half-the-brick length it is covering, as this achieves strength as well as unity.
The regular basket weave pattern is also quite popular. This involves placing two bricks adjacently to form a small square. Every other square laid in a given row, comprises two more bricks laid at right angles to the previous set. This results in a row consisting of alternate vertical and horizontal patterns. Keep in mind though that we are simply drawing the brick grid and not actually building the wall yet.
Step 2
First, sketch the outline of the proposed wall. You will need to use a scale that suits your board size. Now, draw a rectangle – which represents a similarly scaled brick at one bottom corner of your posterboard – don’t forget to use your ruler to connect the lines. In the UK, the standard brick size is 8½ inches by 4 inches by 2½ inches, and you’ll need to allow for the mortar too. Some people simply trace the outline around a scale-brick instead. 
Step 3
Continue outlining more bricks, moving across and upwards from your starting point. Keep in mind the grid pattern you have selected, and don’t forget to leave the appropriate gap for the mortar between each brick. When you’ve filled up all the available space, you can check to find out how many bricks you need to buy.
Expert Help
Even the best London bricklayer is charging lower rates these days because of the economic downturn. Why not save yourself a heap of trouble and find a bricklayer on Mr-Skill to do the job for you instead. They can buy the bricks a whole lot cheaper and could have the job done in a matter of days – while you get on with other things that you prefer.
Tags: basket weave, brick grid, brick size, bricklaying quote, find a bricklayer, gap, grid, london bricklayer, mortar, right angle, running bond, standard brick, template, UK brick size
Posted in Bricklaying | Comments Off
There’s nothing quite as annoying as having a badly-fitting outside door, especially on a winter’s day when there’s gale outside. It’s amazing how much harder central heating has to work, and what this costs. Don’t just sit back and accept this. Either Get Door Fitting Quotes on Mr-Skill, or have a crack at it yourself.
 Draught-Proofing Strips – The handiest solutions are the rolls of sticky-backed foam that hardware stores all sell. The upside is that the result is instantaneous. The downside is they soon wear out. At best, this is a cheap stop-gap measure.
Sealing Door Bottoms – Gaps at the bottom of doors are a common problem where tiles have replaced a thick-pile carpet. You could try a draught-excluder, although in my experience these don’t always work particularly well. My advice would be to Find a Door Fitter and ask them to attach a matching piece to the bottom of the door. That way the problem should go away, permanently.
While You’re At It - Check out other suspect areas by holding a burning candle near the letterbox and keyhole. Flaps and keyhole covers become sticky and it’s in human nature to adapt to almost anything. It could be an idea to check all the other doors and windows too. You never know what’s there until you look.
 Safety Warning – When I mentioned that I was writing this, my friend the London Door Fitter who hangs out in Charing Cross whistled sharply. I think I may have mentioned him before. Don’t make the place completely airtight, he grumbled. Air still needs to move around the house especially when your central heating and gas appliances are working.
This information comes to you with compliments of Mr-Skill. That’s the matchmaker website that connects customers with tradespeople. Use us with confidence anytime you like. We only recommend first-class craftspeople whose rates are reasonable too. You can trust them to get the job done properly.
Tags: airtight, appliance, bad, bottom, carpet, cheap, door, doot fitting quotes, draught, exclude, find a door fitter, fit, foam, gale, gap, heat, key, keyhole, letterbox, london door fitter, outside, roll, tile, window, winter
Posted in Window & Door Fitting | Comments Off
Posted in Tiling & Flooring on Jan 16
This one’s dead easy, although many people still don’t know the secret of how to do it properly. They end up balancing floor mosaics on a base of tile cement that thinks that it’s a bed of quicksand. You’ll might still Find a Tiler battling this way elsewhere too, although I should think not one from Mr-Skill.
 Lay the shower drain in place two tile thicknesses above the floor, and then construct the shower base around it using a single row of bricks laid flat. Think about the shower enclosure as you do. Your goal is to be able to position it symmetrically.
- Determine the fall you need. The simplest way is to measure up an existing shower, although I’ve always allowed a half-inch drop myself. Obtain a length of wood the thickness of the fall, by say one inch wide.
- Wrap the shower drain tightly in a piece of plastic sheet to prevent it from getting blocked. Lay pieces of the wood down flat around the inside of the shower base to create a frame. If this sounds too complicated, you could always Ask Mr-Skill to Arrange Tiling Quotes instead
- Obtain a supply of flooring screed. Combine this with cement in ratio of two-parts screed to one-part cement. Add water to create a moist but not runny mixture. Add a cup of bonding liquid too if you have some,
 so the mix will adhere really tightly to the base below and the tiles above.
- Wait fifteen minutes to allow the mixture to stiffen. Do not add more water. Trowel about half the screed you think you need into the shower base and smooth it out using a steel float and a flat piece of wood. Add more screed as needed
- Your goal is to slope the screed evenly between the strips of wood inside the shower base, and the floor slab two inches outside of the drain. Don’t panic if it isn’t perfect. You’ll be laying tiles over it after all.
- Three hours later, fidget out the strips of wood inside the shower base and fill in the gaps they leave behind with more screed. A week later, you could begin to tile!
This one of many tips I learned from London Tilers a thousand years ago when I was completing my apprenticeship. Some things never change, do they? Another consistent thing is the quality of service you’ll get from Mr-Skill.
Tags: adhere, base, bonding liquid, brick, cement, drain, drop, easy, enclosure, fall, find a tiler, float, floor, frame, gap, gradient, london tilers, mix, mixture, plastic sheet, ratio, screed, shower, shower enclosure, slab, slope, thickness, tile, tiler quotes, trowel, water, wood, wrap
Posted in Tiling & Flooring | Comments Off
More UK residents are adding the WOW-Factor to their homes every year, by replacing unsightly French Doors with Bi-Folding Doors in PVCu,  Timber or Aluminium. That’s because not only do they open all the way in glorious summer. They’re also among the snuggest fits available in winter too. And this gives you the best of both worlds when you need them.
While most people prefer to Find a Door Fitter on Mr-Skill to fit Bi-Folds to existing openings, the brave could possibly install these by themselves. If contemplating this yourself, please do offset the risks of inadvertent damage against the savings on the labour. The following are criteria you may like to consider when specifying Door Fitting Quotes instead
- Standard Sizes – If your opening is slightly oversized, consider lining it with appropriate material to take up the gap, and pre-empt requiring an expensive special order
 Slim Sightlines – How much clear vision will the frame sacrifice? You need to get as close to unobstructed as possible, albeit within constraints
- Thresholds – Do you require low-maintenance flush-fitted thresholds, or those recessed for outdoor weatherproofing?
- Locking – What level of security is wise? Locks are not all that expensive. Think ahead here – it could be time for an upgrade
The secret to a successfully trouble-free Bi-Fold Door installation – as any London Window Fitter knows – is a completely square and plumb installation. We cannot over-emphasise the need for this. If in any doubt at all of your ability to achieve this, why not rather seek Expert Advice instead? We’ll introduce you to a skilled and rated tradesperson, absolutely free to you.
Tags: aluminium, bi-fold, bi-folding, bifold, bifolding, clear, close, damage, door, door fitting quote, find a door filler, flush, gap, line, lining, lock, london window fitter, open, opening, outdoor, over-size, oversize, plumb, pvcu, saving, security, snug, square, threshold, timber, uPVC, vision, wide, window, wood
Posted in Window & Door Fitting | Comments Off
Posted in Plastering & Drywall on Dec 05
After a builder installs a window, or a window fitter replaces one, there’s usually a gap between the window and the wall on either side. Experienced London Plasterers know how to close this in with rendering. In this article though, we focus on a more modern  technique that uses strips of plasterboard instead
This job is nominally within the target range of anybody who is good with their hands. It does require a fair degree of patience though, and those with delicate chests might prefer to avoid doing it on account of dust. Should you decide to go ahead yourself, then these are the essential steps:
- Cut sufficient strips of plasterboard to complete the job. lf the gap is deep, consider using several layers of board as opposed to balancing a single one on large blobs of glue, and being able to finish off the job immediately. When discussing Plastering Quotes you receive on Mr-Skill with bidders, find out how they propose to the job too.
- Apply proprietary dry-wall adhesive to the brickwork on one side of the window. Push a
 plasterboard strip into place using a square edge and spirit level to keep it true.
- Add further layers of strips using the same proprietary dry-wall adhesive, until you have built up to the desired level and flush with the window frame.
- Repeat the process on the other side. Now you can add the angle beading where your work interfaces with the wall, tidy up generally and redecorate.
Of course the third method would be to Find a Plasterer on Mr-Skill, and get on with something else that you’d prefer to do instead. We select contractors with extra-special care, to make sure that each and every trades person we introduce is the best.
To benefit from their expertise and brilliantly lower prices, all you need to do is to Post Your Job for free!
Tags: adhesive, angle, angle beading, bead, brickwork, builder, decorate, dust, find a plasterer, finish, flush, gap, glue, layer, level, london plasterers, new, patience, plaster board, plasterboard, plastering quote, process, push, repeat, replace, square, strip, tidy, wall, window, window fitter
Posted in Plastering & Drywall | Comments Off
Posted in Tiling & Flooring on Sep 21
Wood-Effect laminate flooring has become popular in recent years, as folk discover how quickly they can change a room around, and how easy these floors are to keep clean too. But everything has its downsides and laminate flooring certainly is no exception. The only way to protect yourself from  problems is to Find a Floorer who does the job correctly in the first place.
• Peaking occurs when boards are too tight up against each other and the centres begin to bulge. This is almost invariably causde by a lack of free expansion space around the perimeter of the room, and can be corrected.
• Buckling and Warping are the result of water damage or moisture that could come from underground or might even be in the air. For this reason I have yet to meet a Flooring Firm in London who would consider laying laminate flooring in a bathroom, especially near a shower. Another possible cause of buckling and warping is the absence of an effective balancing substrate.
• Gapping between boards should not occur at all providing they are allowed to acclimatize before being laid. If they do open slightly under very cold conditions, the chances are that gaps will close as the room warms up again.
•  Mould and Mildew are warning signs of high humidity that ought to be carefully controlled, not simply cleaned away. The solution is to root cause the underlying problem and address it.
• Chipping on corners is a sign of abuse during installation. Make sure your Flooring Quote describes the manner in which the work will be done. If it mentions the use of a mallet and tapping block (which are unnecessary in the first place) move away and look again. If the damage happens subsequently, then I’m afraid you bought a poor quality floor.
Another way to avoid these hassles is to Find a Reputable Flooring Firm on Mr-Skill. That’s because we reference-check our tradespeople to make sure their lower prices do not come with loss of quality. How’s that for winning both ways.
Tags: avoid, board, buckle, bulge, cheap, chip, clean, cold, control, damp, expansion, find a flooring firm, floor, flooring firm in london, flooring quote, gap, humidity, laminate, mallet, mildew, moisture, mould, peaking, poor, price, problem, protect, quality, strip, substrate, tap, tight, warp, wood, wood effect
Posted in Tiling & Flooring | Comments Off
Posted in Carpentry & Joinery on Apr 25
Replacing a wooden outside or a wooden inside door is equally straightforward if you keep your head on straight and are reasonably handy. If neither of these requirements matches up to you though, then perhaps you need to Find a Handyman on Mr-Skill? Otherwise, this is how you go about it.
o Observe the old door carefully. Does it fit neatly? Or, on the other hand, do you need to alter the gap on one side or the other, or at the top or bottom? If so, measure up and make notes.
o Prop the old door fully open and wedge it underneath. Turn the hinge screws in the doorframe halfway out, budge the hinges loose, remove the screws completely and then remove the door to your workshop, or somewhere dry outside.
o Remove all the ironmongery from the old door. Lay it on top of the new door allowing the same spacing from left to right and from top to bottom. Trace a profile, make any adjustments you noted, and re-size the new door with a suitable saw. When done, sand down and mark where the hinges and lockset go.
o  With an assistant at the far side of the opening (to push the door open if it sticks) fit the new door loosely in the doorframe and make sure that everything lines up nicely. If the fit is good, then cut out for, and fit the lockset, and attach the hinges. If not, re-adjust the door first.
o With an assistant on the far side of the door, wedge it upright and half-open too. Attach the hinges to the doorframe. After you insert the lockset and fit the handles, you have a brand new door that should close perfectly.
The Carpenters at London based firm Excelsior Doors make it a matter of pride that each new door fits perfectly every time, or else the unfortunate carpenter must pay a round of drinks down at the local Pub. If you get it right yourself, then I reckon the very least that you deserve is a cup of tea and perhaps a biscuit.
Tags: adjust, attach, budge, carpenter quote, carpenters london, door, find a carpenter, find a joiner, fit, gap, handle, hinge, inside, internal, joiner london, joiner quote, lock, lockset, loose, mark, observe, outside, perfect, profile, prop, screw, space, wedge, wood
Posted in Carpentry & Joinery | Comments Off
Posted in Plastering & Drywall on Jan 27
Cornice (or coving as it is also called) is the stuff that neatens up the gap between the ceiling and the walls. While originally put in place to stop the dust from falling through and to seal out  cold as well, these days coving is an interior decorators delight in terms of the exciting modern designs available.
Coving can work loose or come away slightly leaving an ugly shadow line for a variety of reasons. Causes include a job not done well in the first place, slight ceiling movement beneath a poorly braced roof, somebody walking clumsily in the roof space, and even a foot pushed through by mistake. The right trade to call in is a plasterer. If the job is small enough you could attempt to do it yourself. If unsure, avoid a disaster and get a plasterer quote from Mr-Skill.
The hardest past of fitting a new piece of cornice is getting the mitred corners right. This is because after you study the ceiling the temptation is to put the coving in the mitre box the wrong way round. We recommend you practice with a piece of scrap before attempting the real thing.
Attaching a piece of cornice is a whole lot easier. The material is usually light-weight and easily attached with a product like no more nails or silicone. If it keeps on falling off attach it temporarily with a few panel pins, or some pieces of strong tape.  Re-attaching a heavy piece of coving is the plastering job London tradesmen know how to do best. May we suggest you leave it to the experts?
If you are comfortable standing on a ladder, then sealing the gap between the coving and the wall and ceiling could be well within your capabilities. Simply draw a bead of white all-purpose acrylic sealer along the joint and smooth off with a damp cloth. You could use a moistened finger too. Chances you might not even have to paint again.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But will you have the time to do the job? Save the hours for your favourite soccer team, watching soap operas on telly or visiting the pub. Find a plasterer instead on Mr-Skill.
Tags: acrylic sealer, attach, ceiling, cloth, cold, come away, corner, cornice, coving, decorate, dust, find a plasterer, finger, gap, ladder, loose, mitre, mitre box, no more nails, paint, panel pin, plasterer london, plasterer quote, plastering job London, plastering quote, shadow, silicone, tape, wall
Posted in Plastering & Drywall | Comments Off
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