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Why are things so awkward?

TheCatWoman

My nieghbour wants to buy a house and I'm helping him with the process of viewings, dealing with estate agents, negotiation etc. He's seen the house he wants but theres a major structural problem, a broken lintel above a big picture window, the window is in two parts an upper and a lower one. I've got the measurements of the size and I've been trying to get some idea of how much a replacement window will cost as it's cracked all the way through due to the broken lintel, but when I go to replacement window sites and try and put the dimensions of the window in, they say it's too big. So I guess we're going to have to go to a local window supplier and have a look and get some idea of the prices. I know a couple of local builders who I can get a ball park figure for replacing the window from. One of the problems is that the house seems to have been built in feet and inches and all the window compainies want mm, of course I did in cm's and its really difficult to find some conversions. The other thing I want is some idea of how much kitchen cupboard door and drawer fronts will cost, again there are plenty of sites but none seem to give measurements or allow you enter any?

Is this me being thick again, or is there actually a problem with these sites? With so much being online these days I thought it would fairly simple to get an idea of prices, but no, it seems back to one size fits no one.

Parents
  • TheCatWoman said:
    I thought it would fairly simple to get an idea of prices, but no, it seems back to one size fits no one

    Everything now has to be metric by law I believe so you will need to measure the windows in mm and use this when doing the quotes.

    If there is a window that is a few cm smaller in either dimension then you can still use this - there will be some packing shims used to make up the difference in size and the gap will get filled with expanding foam first then cement.

    With the lintel being cracked it will need to be replaced which is a serious job unfortunately as it bears the weight of the bickwork above it plus the roof / joists etc. You will find this is a specialised job as supports need to be cut into the brickwork above so they can safely chisel out the old lintel and replace it.

    TheCatWoman said:
    The other thing I want is some idea of how much kitchen cupboard door and drawer fronts will cost,

    Kitchen cabinets have been standard metric sizes for about 30 years now so if they are from within this timeframe then you should be able to get like for like replacement from any of the big resellers. It is is older then you will probably need a custom made set, or replace the whole lot - probably much the same cost.

    One thing to be wary of when changing kitchen unit doors as I have found is that the holes for the hinges often do not line up with the previous ones so a bit of re-driling holes for the hinges will sometimes be needed.

Reply
  • TheCatWoman said:
    I thought it would fairly simple to get an idea of prices, but no, it seems back to one size fits no one

    Everything now has to be metric by law I believe so you will need to measure the windows in mm and use this when doing the quotes.

    If there is a window that is a few cm smaller in either dimension then you can still use this - there will be some packing shims used to make up the difference in size and the gap will get filled with expanding foam first then cement.

    With the lintel being cracked it will need to be replaced which is a serious job unfortunately as it bears the weight of the bickwork above it plus the roof / joists etc. You will find this is a specialised job as supports need to be cut into the brickwork above so they can safely chisel out the old lintel and replace it.

    TheCatWoman said:
    The other thing I want is some idea of how much kitchen cupboard door and drawer fronts will cost,

    Kitchen cabinets have been standard metric sizes for about 30 years now so if they are from within this timeframe then you should be able to get like for like replacement from any of the big resellers. It is is older then you will probably need a custom made set, or replace the whole lot - probably much the same cost.

    One thing to be wary of when changing kitchen unit doors as I have found is that the holes for the hinges often do not line up with the previous ones so a bit of re-driling holes for the hinges will sometimes be needed.

Children
  • in reply to Iain

    I need a ball park figure for the window as well as the lintel because the window will need to be replaced as it's broken from the pressure of the broken lintel. As it's a bungalow my fear is that there will be problems with the roof.

    Thing is Iain here is the boonies, the land of cowboy builders and farmers who think they can do anything, many things here are a mix of imperial and metric. At least this place dosent' have some of the built in redundancies I've found in other Welsh houses, like a gas boiler that gives instant hot water, feeding into an imersion tank and apparently this is normal because "you need an airing cupboard".