Qs Lanre 👷🏾‍♂️

Planning to start your building project? Site your borehole at least 10 metres away from your soakaway and septic tank. Anything closer and wastewater can seep through the soil into your water source and you end up drinking what you flushed. Two extras most people never check. Depth matters as much as distance. A properly cased borehole draws from deep aquifers far below the contamination zone. A shallow one right next to a soakaway is a typhoid subscription. And think about the ground slope. Water moves downhill even under the soil, so keep the borehole on the higher side of the plot and let the soakaway sit below it, never the reverse. Plan both positions on paper before any digging starts. On a small plot, whoever digs first without planning decides where the other one suffers.

If your plasterers do not check wall corners with a square and press in metal corner beads, your carpenters and skirting board installers are going to suffer for it later.

Ceiling mounted rain showers Or Wall mounted rain

Whenever two different wall textures or colors meet at an inside corner, hold a wide putty knife flat against the finished wall to protect it while you sand the adjoining wall with a sanding block.

This is the ultimate side by side comparison of the right way and the wrong way to patch a plasterboard wall. Repair number 1 shows a proper solid fix, while Repair number 2 repeats the mistake of hanging the patch on paper tape with no solid backing behind it, which will easily cave in the moment anyone presses or leans against that spot.

By standard plasterboard repair rules, this trick of hanging a patch on sunken paper tape breaks two major rules: -There is no solid backing behind the hole to hold the patch firm - There is no tape across the front surface to stop the joint from cracking later.

Get the base render plumb first, meter the skim coat with a roller, and verify flatness under live raking light.

It looks simple and easy until you try to DIY.

I love how the metal mounting clips are cast right into the back of the panels.

Architectural cove lighting and downlights for wall skimming.

When you replace surface- mounted MDF or tile skirtings with a recessed aluminum shadow profile, furniture sits 100% flush against the wall and flush mounted doors integrate seamlessly into the partition plane.

If a doorway opening in the block wall is too big, always build and bolt a sturdy wooden frame inside it first to bring it down to the right size.

Waterproofing a foundation or underground wall from the outside is always much better than waterproofing it from the inside. That is because the weight of the underground water actually pushes the waterproof layer tighter against the concrete wall, instead of pushing through the wall and peeling the coating right off from behind. However, if you cut corners when preparing the bare concrete surface or ignore safety inside the deep trench, even the best waterproofing method becomes a dangerous and expensive failure waiting to happen.

Always mount your outdoor WPC panels, stone or fiber cement boards on rust proof vertical strips and leave small openings at the very top and bottom so trapped water can drain and air can flow right through to dry the wall out.

Kitchen renovations eat budgets fast if you don’t know where to draw the line. ​Here is the no-BS guide on where to SPEND and where to SAVE on your next kitchen remodel: ​1/ Handles & knobs: 💰 SAVE There are countless affordable hardware options on the market that look identical to the luxury ones. Plus, if you opt for sleek handleless cabinetry, you might not even need them at all. ​2/ Kitchen cabinetry: 💎 SPEND Put as much of your budget as you comfortably can into your cabinets. Stepping up to a higher price point is what unlocks noticeably better textures, superior materials, and richer color finishes that carry the whole room. ​3/ Countertop slabs vs Fabrication : 💰 SAVE (on the slab) You can easily find affordable marble slabs that look every bit as stunning as luxury slabs. Save your cash on the raw stone itself and funnel those savings directly into top tier fabrication. how the edges, seams and cutouts are crafted matters way more. ​4/ Kitchen faucets: 💰 SAVE A solid affordable faucet does the exact same job and looks just as sharp as a luxury designer faucet. There is zero reason to blow five figures just to turn the water on. ​5/ Appliance pulls: 💎 SPEND If you have panel ready (integrated) fridges and freezers, don't cheap out on the handles. Heavy, high end stone or solid metal appliance pulls feel incredible in your hand every day and elevate the entire kitchen.

Modern architecture has a serious problem. Most buildings today can’t breathe without a machine running 24/7.

Why do so many luxury bathrooms look terrible up close, even when the owner bought expensive imported porcelain tiles? Because local tilers try to cut those sharp 45 degree corner joints on rock hard porcelain by hand using a dry grinding machine without a guide, completely ignoring proper spacing and flatness rules. If a tiler doesn't own a 45 degree bevel cutting guide, diamond sanding pads to smooth out the cut edges, and proper diamond hole saws for the flush plate and pipe openings, do NOT let them near a hidden toilet cistern frame. Tell them to use a neat aluminum or brushed stainless steel corner trim instead.

Ever wondered why newly finished modern buildings suddenly get vertical reddish brown rust stains lined up in a neat grid? That happens when the hidden metal screws or nails underneath start rusting and that rust bleeds right through the plaster to stain the outside wall. Never let anyone use regular black drywall screws or cheap indoor zinc coated screws anywhere on an outside wall.

Never rely on silicone or cementitious grout to waterproof a shower bench or niche specify seamless pre-formed 3D tanking corners beneath the tile bed.