Replace Door and Frame

Dinas Powys again this time replace a front door in an older cottage.

The door and frame were rotten at the base and no cill meant frequent driving rain under the door.

Finished (Damm no knocker)

Repairing the frame would normally have been a matter of simply scarfing in new section but when I obtained the price for a made to measure door at £600 I sat back and thought again.

A Wickes double glazed compound hardwood door and frame came to under £300.

By chiselling off the moulded door stop on the original frame and cutting down the new hardwood frame section by 20mm each side I was able to fit the new frame within the old frame complete with it's hardwood cill.

The old door frame was 25mm out of level, no wonder the door 'fell' open all the time. 

Matching the Blue paint to the outside of the house was a simple matter of taking a lump of door in to the supplier.

Here is the new door with all the original furniture taken from the old door, that letter box is huge!

Next job hack off the render over the DPC and create a bell mouth drip and a french drain.   

More elevated decking and stairs.

This was a large job undertaken with help although I controlled both the constructional and aesthetic designs.

From this picture one can imagine the bank that we cantilevered the main deck over. By using oversized and long timbers with supports we gained over two metres of usable space across the whole garden.

We suggested glass panel to afford an unrestricted view of the greenery where possible and developed our own mounting system. Unusual to see in timber.

The harsh effect sometimes experienced with decking was minimised by including a large curved front edge and by keeping the deck level low, by excavating into the lawn, a step is not needed; the deck flows from the grass.

Westbourne Road, Penarth

The rear garden fence were somewhat damaged by tree growth and the wall by ivy.

The client wanted to install a gate as well as make repairs to the wall. We decided to utilise the existing fence material where possible and add to it using new boards and fabricate a gate to match rather than buy one.

Here is the scene before we started (although we did gain access by sawing the fence)

This is now the finished view.

Note that the fence is now the correct way around as it was previously installed incorrectly and any one wishing to gain access could have used the handy cross members.....     DOH!
  

Cyncoed Road - new gates

Client required traditional solid gates to allow children to play safely and provide security.

Gates were specified, ordered to size and installed with a view to minimise the intrusion to the entrance which obviously allows vehicular access.

Installation took one day which included taking up and reinstating brick paviours.

Posts were sunk very tight to the laurels either side and the eventual entrance was effectively larger thanks to the trimming of the loose laurel during installation.

A very pleasing finish and totally in character...........   Another happy client!

Cloakroom improvements - Dinas Powys

Sink in the middle of the wall.
Huge landscape mirror 

Limited space behind door.

The first few pictures show the main problem with the layout in this extension cloakroom on a smaller Victorian house. With the door opening in as it needed to there was no way we could get the washing machine is, or was there? 

By taking a large chunk out of the dry lining we gained the 2" that we needed to fit a washing machine in behind the door and by moving the sink over created a better space altogether. 

Then by chopping a few inches off the existing mirror and turning it "portrait" we actually made the room looked higher.

Finished off by making a cupboard unit over the washing machine to house the washing powder loo rolls and al the other odds and ends that found there way into this space.

Decoration

Client required various rooms decorating including Kitchen Bedroom and bathroom most of which were an extreme change of colour requiring filling first and then a few coats.

Also this feature wall in foiled wallpaper...

  

Interesting.... 100 year old wall been vandalised.

This should be fun...?

Local Vandals / Drunks, found a weakness!

The budleia growing in the wall had weakened more than was
apparent and this much came off rather too easily. 

After removing all the rubble and sealing the top the coping stones
were arranged and replaced and 'haunched' to weather proof.

Only had two near misses as I stood back to view the ongoing work...!!

Frank

(via hTC)