r/HomeImprovementUK

Hello

We recently had a 2nd viewing on a property and as they were leading us to the back of the property we noticed a staircase crack from the brick work

Surprise there isn’t more awareness about this whole farce ongoing considering most flats in this area have no gas what so ever and are all hooked up with electric water heaters.

Electric water heater supplies hot taps shower bath etc. It’s recommended to time the water boil between suppliers off peak cheap rates, and off peak time chunk varies between suppliers.

Scottish power off peak 12- 5am GMT

To my surprise despite the country moving to Britain summer time I predictably moved my water heater forwards 1 hour as expected. Only to now discover this was detrimental as Scottish powers off peak time chunk remains frozen on GMT Greenwich mean time all year round 365 days a year.

Have now had to move the water heater back an hour to accommodate the billing system.

Wondering how many people are paying the more expensive full day rate during BST as they are moving heaters forwards not realising the smart meter and billing system remains locked on GMT. 1 hour a day of daytime peak rate is adding up I suppose.

Anyway most flats in city centre Liverpool are now electric only.

I am fairly switched on to this type of stuff. Opens my mind to how many people don’t realise they May be accidentally paying an hour of daytime peak rate.

If programmed correctly and used correctly on the right tariff i firmly believe the electric water heater can be the equivalent price or sometime less expensive than gas.

4.5 kWh is what my water heater uses overnight for a full next day of hot water showers and washing. (No baths) had a lot of experimenting and reducing the boil time down in increments of 15 minutes per night until we would run out and discover the tolerance this way.

radiators are disconnected from it totally separate electric units.

https://i.ibb.co/5h5rbGB8/IMG-9914.jpg

Hi All,

Firstly, apologies if this is not the right place to ask this question. I wasn't sure where best to take it.

I live on the top floor of a c.1970's two floor block of flats. I've noticed recently that this chalky white residue has begun to develop on the inner brickwork of my north facing balcony. It start off on just a couple of bricks but seems to be slowly spreading.

Does anyone know what this residue might be, if it's any cause for concern, and how best to manage/remove it?

Thanks

Hi all,

Just trying to figure out if parking could be added to my house and if so where do I start to get permission and what contractor would I need to contact to complete a job like this?

I’ve tried to draw on the picture what I’m prosing. My back garden is backing onto a culdesac which has a tiny grass’s verge until you get to our back garden. I presume a strong retaining wall would have to be built but is it eve possible? It could a lot of value to our house if we had parking would it be worth it? Thanks for the help!

I was wondering where you’d put the stairs for a potential loft conversion. I could afford to lose the third bedroom. Unfortunately moving house isn’t an option so trying to make it as suitable as possible for our needs and upstairs really lacks storage space currently so would like to create a master bedroom with dormer.

We have had asbestos floor tiles removed and it has left the concrete floor. I want to use self levelling compound on the floor, but I feel some holes may be too big to do that just yet.

On top of that the concrete was damp around the French door and thinking of putting a DPC. I’ve never dealt with this type of issue before and would like any advice in what I should do and in what order. Eg fill holes, DPC and then self levelling?