We’ve just had Taj Mahal quartzite installed in our kitchen, feeling pretty underwhelmed with the finish.

The stone itself is great but the joins, corners, large filler and finish around the sink especially aren’t the best ...

Appreciate that natural stone will never be perfect, but we were expecting it to be a bit more smick.

Is it fair to ask the installers to fix all the imperfections? (The installers seemed pretty slack - they left the stone out in the rain for days in our garden after it was delivered)

And generally, how do you rate our chances of realistic fixes given we obviously can’t move the stone?

Cheers

**not actually tradies FYI - hackers. Lots of tradies I’ve spoken to said this is a problem at the moment. Note: no tradies actually did anything wrong here.

Has this happened to anyone else?

So I was booking in some renovations on my yard and getting a new fence with my neighbours. Got the email address off an old invoice for someone who had done work for me before on my other fences. Got an email back the next day and then spent a few months back and forward, quotes and deposits and dates locked in. The date comes and no one turns up and so I called them on the second day. They haven’t booked in my fence, they haven’t heard of my fence and that email was hacked and reported 3 years before (but apparently my email still went somewhere and didn’t bounce!). So whoever was replying to me used the original guys name (outlook shows the name who the emails are from) and has basically spent 4 months scamming me and my neighbours. You can only see the email address if you actually click on things and then only one letter is different. I called the bank and made a report with the police. Is there a chance we get our money back? It was a while ago before we obviously realised, it was a legitimate email address I emailed from a past invoice, and I have met this guy previously and dealt with him before. So all the bank checks weren’t helpful when I was transferring money. And now we know we’ve been scammed there are signs. I spend so much time making fun of old people clicking on things on the internet and giving away all the details. I’d better not do that again. So all up the 3 of us have lost about $6000. Any chance of getting money back?

i don’t know if this is the right group to ask this question but asking anyways -

Without doing anything structurally (ie. can’t change the roof or add walls, windows etc etc )and keeping budget pretty tight, genuinely what could i do to the front of my house to make it more appealing to look at?

(absolutely hate the pots and ornaments, they were originally placed with the idea the shrubs would get big enough to give privacy in the front rooms, didn’t really work, lol.)

I had a fence replaced back in August 25 after I purchased the property due to the old one waving in the wind and being in poor condition.

I waited from memory over 6 months to stain the fence at the time I noticed some small splits in the middle of a few palings, i wasn’t happy with it but thought maybe it’s just normal and wasn’t worth chasing up. Fast forward to now and the splits seem to be getting worse. Seems kinda pointless paying over 1.5k for a small fence and half of the palings are splitting in the middle when the one from the 80’s had no issues like this.

i’ve googled it and seems like it could it could of been overdriving the nails? I really cannot deal with a defensive business right now so wanting to see if others think it’s valid to follow up for them to replace the 5 palings.

We had the windows replaced, removed the old wood panelling and textured wallpaper, and had the walls smoothed out over a year ago. Recently, we’ve started noticing cracks around quite a few windows and doors, some diagonal and others horizontal.
They showed up over the Summer.
Please help!

Just want to really give a shout out to Builders Discount Warehouse at Brendale in Brisbane

Currently redoing my bathroom / laundry/ toilet

After ordering a laundry sink and toilet online, to which the wrong model toilet was delivered

Ordered an extended height one , extra 20cm at bowl, have a medical condition

And a normal height turned up, quick phone call and everything was sorted in that one call

Thank you Ashlee and her team

Hi all,
I’ve just purchased an apartment (1965-ish build) and noticing an increase of flies as the weather gets a bit warmer, I have one of these in every corner of my place and some of them are not covered with fly screen…
Before I look into getting someone out to redo the fly screen from the inside, is it worth me patching them up instead? Is there any purpose for them? I have seen one other post stating they are for gas heaters etc but I don’t have anything like that anyway..

Thank you!

Any ideas on what to do with this unused space?
Currently renovating area by area and this up next. Already have a spot for the clothesline by the way. Sort of want to be somewhat functional and not just wasted space. Haven’t looked into it but though a sauna down there could be cool if it fit.

Apologies for the photo quality, but based on my switchboard how do you identify if it is suitable for a split system installation without needing to upgrade the switch board? I believe we are currently on a single phase power.

This is for an investment property with ducted gas heating. My two considerations are:

1. Install a single RCAC in the main lounge room only - roughly 3.5kW

2. Bite the bullet and install splits in all living areas and bedrooms (heating and cooling) - rough estimate is 16–22 kW

Appreciate any advice.

Everyone was really helpful on my last post, so I’m back again haha.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to remove the six bricks that were used as support columns for the old bathtub?

I’ve tried using an SDS hammer with a chisel bit and a multi-tool to loosen it up but haven’t had much luck getting them to budge. Might have to try an angle grinder with a diamond blade, but any suggestions before I go down that route?

Regarding the mortar on the toilet waste and vent pipes am I right in thinking I’ll just have to carefully chip it away by hand to avoid damaging the pipes?

Lastly, I want to remove the old built-in vanity but wanted to get some opinions on whether it could potentially be structural, particularly whether it might be supporting the window above it?

I requested the original building plans from the council, and there’s nothing indicating that it is. My gut says it’s fine to remove, but I’m still a little sceptical and would rather double-check before ripping it out.

On a side note, it amazes me that these old buildings are still structurally sound, considering how much of the “load-bearing” walls were cut into for plumbing etc. Feels like half the walls are missing at this point lol.

Any advice would be appreciated :)

Thank you!!!

Hi team, please be kind! 😂

I’m the kind of woman who likes to give things a go herself (i am also a civil engineer, not a builder).

I’m currently unemployed, so I decided it was the perfect time to tackle my shower. It’s not leaking (yet!), but I noticed some gaps in the silicone and the floor grout.

I’ve almost removed all the silicone where the floor meets the wall, and I figured I should regrout the floor before applying new silicone.

In the meantime, I’m showering at the gym. 🤣

But before I start scraping out the old grout, I’ve come across this little plastic thingy.

Do I need to remove it before regrouting, or should I leave it alone?

Please help a DIY woman out! 🙏😂

Hello everyone, I asked AI for help with this but he keeps telling me he needs to know what material this benchtop is made of. I think it's engineered stone? Can you guys help me? This stain happened over months because I had a mat on there where I put the plates, cutlery etc after washing it. I think the bench absorbed the paint? So far I tried domestos power foam, ajax antiviral and sugar soap.

Any ideas on what to do with this unused space?
Currently renovating area by area and this up next. Already have a spot for the clothesline by the way. Sort of want to be somewhat functional and not just wasted space. Haven’t looked into it but though a sauna down there could be cool if it fit.

Hi all,

Maybe this isn't the right forum but I'm interested in perspectives and maybe just writing this will help me work things out.

We had some electrical work done at our house from a good looking company with lots of high (5*) Google reviews etc.

I asked for a rep to come out as it was reasonably complicated in my mind and wanted a scope on what was possible and what was not. It's about 6 power points. Three are replacements three are new ones. The other work is swapping out LED downlights for new ones and swapping out batton fixtures for LED oyster lights.

The rep arrive, nice guy, good communicator, in is early 20's. We work stuff out and he takes pictures, takes notes etc.

He writes back a quote by email and I go through it. Most of is its not what we discussed. I correct the PDF, send it back. He resends it to me. Still not right. I send corrected back.

Job goes to the next section and they send out the job. It's wrong and resend what we wanted with no adjustments from what we first asked for.

On install day the guys show up. One guy in his mid 20's in in charge and the other two are apprentices.

Lead guy starts asking what we want installed and where. I say 'haven't you got that already?' Apparently he needs to check with us first. The power is off and I can't access my past emails on my phone. A lot of the power points are installed with the wrong modules. When the lead guy is installing the first down light, the hole saw skips and it tears the ceiling around it. He's clearly frustrated by it and trying to play it down as well. He ends up patching, sanding and painting and it looks shit in the right light. To me, the LED downlights are way overpowered. We had 45W there before and these are something a lot brighter and glary.

Where they placed the large LED oysters in the bathrooms each they have somehow damaged the ceiling and had to paint wide swaths around it. I don't fathom how that could have happened. The paints are different as types and stand out when you walk into the bathroom and look up in any direction.

Further to that, the next day I see the laminate bathroom counter is badly scratched with about 8 zig-zags 30cm wide. They seem to have placed a toolbox on it and twisted and twisted or something. I have no idea how much force that would have been needed to do such a thing.

What should I do for recourse?

My wife is feeling like she wants to play this down and let it go. We have two power points that are not the right ones we wanted and (superficial?) damage to the house.

Hey all, my old cooktop decided to keep the largest circle permanently on (while we were away...) so I want to replace it.

The problem is all of the brands of similarly sized cooktops have slightly bigger depth (front to back), width is fine (in fact slightly more that required).

I got a Bosch cooktop and it needs extra 3-4mm in depth to go fully in to sit flush to the surface.

What are the options to shaving 3-4mm from the front edge of the cut-out in engineered stone?

I read there is a ban in NSW around engineered stone since 2024.

If anyone can suggest options for filling in the 2 notches on the right, it would also be great.

I would appreciate any recommendations of the companies that deal with engineered stone for adequate price.

Thanks!

A good example of something as simple as a light fitting failing Australian Standards and the implications of that.

People have some good experiences with this type of stuff, YMMV, my personal risk threshold is that if it takes 240v it doesn't come from a random online store or even Amazon unless it's a manufacturer that meets Aus Standards.

Hi, we just had aircon split system installed and there is an awkwardly located hole in the wall about 7-10cm across where the pipes run to the external unit. The gap between the hole and the AC is only just over 1cm quite hard to reach properly.

What's the best way to seal it up to stop insects coming inside? Can I use expandable foam spray for this?

Hi everyone,

I accidentally left a burn mark on the table and was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to fix it or at least make it less noticeable.

We’re moving out at the end of this month, so I’d really appreciate any advice or recommendations!

Thanks so much in advance!

Friends unit. Should she be worried?

Thankyou

I keep seeing videos of ikea hacks - starting with Billy bookshelves or other ikea carcasses and doing custom paints and fittings to make them look like built ins. Thinking about doing this for a built in bookshelf look and maybe wardrobes.

Grateful for advice, tips, warnings from anyone who's done this? Thanks!