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Posts Tagged ‘height<’
Posted in Handyman Services on Sep 24
There are several different models and designs when it comes to bathroom cabinets, so if you are tired of your old one, you’ll have plenty to choose from. Mr-Skill stresses the fact that bathrooms and kitchens tend to sell properties, so any enhancements you make can only improve the outlook. In this article, we deal with mounting a handsome double-mirrored cabinet above your hand basin, and it will look very elegant too.
What You’ll Need: 
- The cabinet – most come as knockdown kits
- Tape measure
- Pencil for marking
- Paper template
- Screws, plugs and screwdriver
- Drill and bit
- Spirit level
Better to play safe than sorry, so if you don’t have the skills or confidence for this job, rather get a bathroom fitting quote. You can find a bathroom fitter right here on Mr-Skill, just remember to ask for the best price.
Decide on Position 
Having assembled your purchase using the manufacturers instruction, decide where you want the cabinet. In the case of our mirrored-door cabinet, centring it neatly above the bathroom hand basin is a good position. Make up a template of the back of the cupboard, and use this for precise positioning and marking. Check the tiled surface onto which you will be screwing the new cabinet – ideally, you should anchor the cupboard with four screws, one close to each corner. Be careful not to drill anywhere near water pipes, and preferably align your screw holes to the grout line.
Mock it up
One of our regular London bathroom fitters advises that it is always best for two people to hold the cabinet in its final position before drilling the holes. Get the family to agree with the location, and the height needs to be such that you can see your reflection without bending or stretching your neck.
Up She Goes!
Once you have marked your holes on the back of the cupboard, drill through the back section using a carpentry bit. Offer up the cabinet to its final position on the wall and use the pencil to mark the holes on the wall, via the holes already made on the back of the cupboard. Make a final check for correct alignment using your spirit level. Use the right masonry bit for drilling your wall holes to the correct depth, then place the plastic plugs in the holes. Ask someone to help hold the cabinet while you locate the four screws through the cupboard backing. Mr-Skill says that if you have reached this point without any incidents, you can chant these words: Mirror, mirror on the wall.
Tags: align, batroom fitting quote, cabinets, Carpentry, cupboard, find a bathroom fitter, fitting, hand basin, height, holes, location, london bathroom fitter, masonry, pencil, plugs, screwdriver, screws, skills, tape measure, template
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Did you know that the roots of trees can sometimes spread to 2½ times a tree’s height, and that the moisture they draw out from clayey soil can cause the earth to heave? Miss the point of this and plant a tree close by your house, and you’re inviting cracking and subsidence. Rather Find a Landscaper on Mr-Skill who knows what they are talking about.
 If you have heaving clay, and like to garden around your your house then the following may prove useful:
- Avoid the problem in the first place by NOT planting strongly-growing trees like poplars, oaks and willows near to buildings. Plant shy-growing flowering shrubs instead. These may not get tall enough to foul your gutters either.
- If you inherit a tree that’s not grown too big already, then you could try what some London Gardeners still call pollarding. This involves pruning it back annually to keep it smaller. Remember, there’s a ratio between tree height and the spread of roots.
- Don’t leap out of the starting blocks and get a Gardener Quote to chop a tree down the moment you spot subsidence.
 Trees take a long time to grow, and the problem could be the clay itself. An alternative could be to cut the roots back, and see whether this helps first.
- If all else fails and you are forced to cut down a tree, then seek advice from your local council first, because it might be listed and require permission to remove. Chop down deciduous trees in wintertime when the sap is low. You’ll find the job far easier when there are no leaves.
Chopping down a tree sometimes seems like an attack on nature, and the birds that nest there. Don’t try to do the job yourself because tree-felling is definitely dangerous. Use a Gardener on Mr-Skill instead. And finally, please do plant a suitable replacement tree further down the garden.
Tags: Building, chop, chop down, clay, crack, dangerous, earth, fell, find a landscaper, flower, Garden, gardener quote, ground, grow, gutter, heave, height, house, london gardeners, oak, plant, pollard, poplar, prune, ratio, root, shrub, shy, small, soil, spread, subsidence, tall, tree, vigorous, wall, willow, winter
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Posted in Bricklaying on Jan 09
Sometimes we come across customers trying to crack walnuts with large sledgehammers. By this, we mean people trying to turn a rowing boat into an ocean liner. Take simple brick paving jobs, for example. If it’s not a heavy traffic area you could even do the job yourself, thereby avoiding the  need for a London Bricklayer or other specialist.
- Obtain a supply of decent quality bricks. By this we mean a product that’s well baked through, reasonably rectangular, and of a pleasing appearance too. Don’t be put off if the colour varies though. In fact, variety can be a large part of the charm.
- Mark out the path or patio and excavate to twice the thickness of the bricks laid flat. Remove any roots you find. Lay a plastic sheet in the hole to discourage weeds. Mix dry cement powder with two-thirds of the soil dug out, in proportions of four parts earth to one part cement. DO NOT MOISTEN this mixture. Mother Nature will do it for you.
- Compact this mixture back into the hole until it is level, and one brick’s height below the ground. Sprinkle fine dry sand evenly over it to about half an inch thick. Lay the bricks in whatever pattern
 you prefer, tapping these down firmly with a rubber mallet, and adding / removing sand as necessary to create a level effect.
- Fill any gaps with brick pieces. Use a hammer and chisel NOT AN ANGLE GRINDER to cut these down to size, and remember to wear thick gloves. Finally, excavate a frame all around the paved area the width of a single brick. Mix all the remaining earth with dry cement powder – in a ratio of three parts to one this time – and tamp it back in. The mixture will harden naturally over time. Cut away any surplus plastic sheet.
How that for service from Mr-Skill? There’s no need to ask us for Bricklaying Quotes if you’d like to do a job like this yourself. Should you decide that you’ve got better things to do though, we can help you Find a Bricklayer working in your area, and We Won’t Charge you a Penny for this service either.
Tags: brick, bricklaying quotes, cement, chisel, colour, compact, depth, earth, find a bricklayer, ground, hammer, harden, height, job, london bricklayer, mallett, naturally, path, patio, paving, piece, plastic, proportion, root, sand, sheet, soil, tamp, thick, traffic, weed
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Gutters are important. They keep the rainwater away from windows and foundations, and generally protect our homes. A well-laid line of guttering makes a design statement too. All the more reason to follow these simple steps, and keep our gutters in good shape:
 Keep Them Clean. Remove accumulated leaves from your gutters at the beginning of every rainy season to prevent moss developing that leads to stoppages. While you’re up there, give them a wipe-down too. If you don’t have a ladder long enough, you can Find a Roofer right here.
- Check the Downpipes. An overflowing gutter is the sign of a blocked downpipe. Sometimes you can clear it by pushing down a garden hose turned on full blast. If not, you will need a length of stout wire to work around the bend.
- Straighten Sagging Gutters. Gutters are supported by a line of brackets that are set to the correct slope. When a gutter sags, it may either need clipping back into the bracket, or the bracket may need to be re-attached.
 Waterproof Leaking Joints. If a gutter joint starts leaking it’s often simpler to re-seal the joint, than to take the whole run down. Clean the affected area scrupulously, before attaching a piece of membrane with a water-proofing medium across the joint.
Is this the first time that you visited Mr-Skill? If so then welcome to our website! Our service extends to introducing tradespeople of all kinds to customers, from London Roofers to Carpenters in Scotland. Oh, and by the way it’s absolutely free to all our customers too. How’s that for a brilliant idea.
Tags: attach, bend, bracket, care, clean, clip, dizzy, downpipe, find a roofer, foundation, gutter, Guttering, height, hose, infirm, joint, ladder, leak, leaves, london roofers, maintain, membrane, moss, overflow, rainwater, remove, roofing quote, safe, safety, sag, seal, slope, stoppage, straight, waterproof, wipe, wire
Posted in Roofing, Gutters & Drainage | Comments Off
Posted in General Building on Oct 15
Before you Find a Builder to complement your house with a perfect garden wall you really ought to choose the design yourself. This is because a boundary wall along a street is the ultimate statement of the owner’s taste, and hence a personal decision.  Here are some ideas to get you going. The comments are our personal feelings, not the final word on the subject!
• The first decision needed is the height of your garden wall, which has a great deal to do with why you are building it in the first place. If you require privacy the wall will be far higher than if you are defining the street line in a garden suburb. There will be council regulations that control height too.
• Your next choice is probably the materials to use. Here you are guided by several considerations. These include the style of your own house, the prevailing vernacular in the neighborhood, and the magnitude of Builder’s Quotes that you can afford. Cost is not the only consideration though. A first impression from the street can influence the value of a home enormously.
•  Where possible avoid a monotonous run of wall. There are various techniques to use. These include staggered heights, curved effects and inset sections. Experienced London Builders often recommend incorporating a herbaceous feature here and there. That’s because Mother Nature does not work in straight lines, and neither ought you to.
When you know exactly what you require it’s time to get competitive quotes. May I suggest you include Mr-Skill in this? They have a large number of Rated Builders available to work in every Postcode, and their unique bidding system ensures attractive bids.
They are also well-versed in design alternatives, and will be delighted to help you to choose the best design.
Tags: bid, boundary, Builders Quotes, cost, council, curve, decision, define, design, feature, find a builder, Garden, height, herbacious, house, inset, london builders, material, monotonous, perfect, privacy, rated, regulation, stagger, statement, street, style, taste, technique, vernacular, wall
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Posted in Bricklaying on Aug 12
Most brick walls are finished off with some or other kind of capping, which is called coping in the trades. While the main purpose of this is to prevent water seeping into the structure, coping also often provides a decorative feature too. Coping may be pitched or flat according to the tastes of the designer.  The most important thing of all though is to ensure that the coping is at least an inch wider that the finished wall, and preferably an extra inch wider in total too. This is to prevent capillary action dripping off the surface onto the wall itself.
Do you need to Find a Bricklayer on Mr-Skill to lay coping for you? Perhaps not, if you are reasonably skilful and have the right tools. But definitely, if the wall is high or if the site is dangerous in other ways.
o Span a suitable length of builders twine along the wall at a height above it equal to the coping plus the settled bed of mortal. This is a critical factor for success, so take your time. Mark the approximate position of each coping stone, to determine where to start and where to site the filler piece.
o Mix sufficient mortar, but not more than you can use in one hour. Lay a generous bed of it along the top  of the wall, starting at one end and one and half times the length of a single coping stone. Make regular slashes in it to help your work bed down nicely.
o Set the first coping stone in place remembering to obey the level of the builders twine. Immediately check your levels in both directions and adjust where necessary. Continue on the same basis without worrying too much about filling in the grouting. This is often easier the following day when the stones have settled. London Bricklayers invariably like do this the same day though, because they do not want to have to come back again.
This really is a simple job, provided you have the time and patience, and a straight eye too. If you lack one or more of these, then why not Ask Mr-Skill for Bricklaying Quotes instead. Our tradesmen are competent and pleasant enough to work with, and their rates are really keen.
Tags: bed, brick, bricklaying quotes, cap, capillary, capping, competent, coping, dangerous, decorative, filler, find a bricklayer, finish, grout, height, high, lay, level, london bricklayer, mix, mortar, patience, rate, seep, set, settle, skill, slash, straight eye, time, tool, top, twine, wall, water, wide
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