Quick update: The three bedrooms and landing were spray painted. Not entirely convinced it saved labour and have to factor in purchase of spray painter and used double the amount of emulsion. Plus felt guilty not using my regular decorator :( We have now started work downstairs. At the rear of the house (see plan posted previously) was a bedroom and dining room. Decided to take out the wall between the two to make the two rooms into open plan kitchen/ diner. Unfortunately the ceiling came down when the wall was taken out so additional work required to rebuild and plaster. When renovating always expect the unexpected! Although it cost several extra days in labour to make good, there was a saving in electricians time as he didn't have to scrabble around in the roof void to fit the new wiring! Ceiling and all walls in new room have been plastered and kitchen units fitted. Really pleased with the Dove Grey Shaker units with copper handles from Howdens. Had the cupboard handles fitted horizontally so they can line up with the handle on the integrated dishwasher (still to be installed) as well as the drawer handles. Dithered about a gas hob as I think people prefer (?) but went for an induction hob in the end as sits level with the worktop also thought safer as hob had to be sited into the breakfast bar. A lovely wooden beam (over hob) had been boxed in so we have pulled off the old plaster- it will be sanded down eventually. Next job; stripping out the old kitchen at the front of the house......

Hi Tani, I have an ikea kitchen. I wanted wood doors and nothing traditional and ikea did oak doors that I liked. What swung it for me was reading about how many architects use ikea. One thing I know is that they use very good designers, so their stuff tends to be 'clever'. You do have to construct the carcasses and some fitters don't like this. What is good is that the carcasses hang off a steel rail. This is attached to the wall and then all of the cupboards hang in a straight line and then the feet are adjusted at the front. My carpenter adjusted my units as he was fitting them, even reducing the depth at times, so the whole thing was bespoke. The other thing is that they are much bigger. They go much nearer to the floor and the kick plates are virtually invisible, this looks more contemporary. They are deeper to so you can't get a standard off the shelf worktop. I paid the same for the fitting as the cost of the units, in my opinion it's all about the fitting. Most carpenter use Howdens as they have accounts and it's familiar to them. I also saved money by using a thin layer of quartz over moisture resistant MDF (a bit like an engineered floor). Whole thing was 16K including removing a load bearing wall, plastering, electrics, kitchen everything.

Hi belz2000, I’m no expert on acoustics, as we normally work with acoustic consultants on larger projects with acoustics requirements, but I write here things I know from my previous experience dealing with acoustics issues in residential and educational buildings. The Building Regulations requires ‘internal floors provide reasonable resistance to sound’. It could be complied if the performance is as defined in the Approved Document Part E ‘Resistance to the passage of sound’. The performance is defined as follows. New-builds: 45dB minimum for airborne sound insulation and 62dB maximum for impact sound insulation. Conversions: 43dB minimum for airborne sound insulation and 64dB maximum for impact sound insulation. It might well be the case that your school conversion housing doesn’t meet this requirement, so the first question would be that if you could take a legal route to rectify the problem. Again, I’m no legal expert, so you need to speak to a legal professional for this. Assuming you and the owner of the flat above are leaseholders, if the party floor structure is defective, is it really your neighbour’s fault? You wrote that your neighbour upstairs had been to court over this (on what basis?), and also wrote about ‘useless’ freehold and ‘the company who fitted it are complete crooks.’ So is it the case that a recent internal renovation work by the upstair resident caused the impact sound issue and you have already pursued routes negotiating with these parties with no luck? I’m not really getting the whole picture of what’s happening from your post above. You seem to be trying to reduce the impact sound by adding more materials on your side only, but as far as I know it’s not effective in principle because Air-borne sound and impact sound behave differently. Air-borne sound could be reduced well with dense and heavy materials separating two spaces, but impact (solid-borne) sounds would pass through these materials without much reduction. The two standard remedies for impact sound is to deal with the sound source floor from above. The first is to change the floor material to something softer. Carpet finish would reduce the energy of the impact sound, for example. The second way is to make a floating floor. Even the floor finish of your upstair flat is something harder than carpet, like timber flooring or some harder sheet materials, if there is a shock absorbing material under separating the floor structure below from the finish material without any bridging then it is effective. There are several products available for achieving this depending on the floor finishes. Unfortunately, both of these methods need to be done from above the floor in your neighbour’s flat. We had several cases where there was no access to existing flats below, as these were extensions upwards. We had to design non-standard floor buildups much thicker than usual. We have no previous cases where acoustic treatment needed to be applied from floor below only, but we could help you to investigate it. It would probably be a combination of insulation, resilient bars and acoustic boards. From here it’s a case by case basis to propose an appropriate construction buildup and details depending on the specific details of the current floor. You could contact us if you would like to discuss this further.

Hi Heather, Thank you for sharing your project, particularly love your choice of flooring, it will look beautiful. A few further design pointers for you: Starting Point: Select your doors and hardware first, then search for skirting which might have a feature you can pull out to compliment the doors and hardware, see image below from UK Howdens – see the stepping effect on the skirting board replicated within the door trim? (these are the types of small but effective details interior designers look out for) Painting Oak: As suggested by the Houzz community – we also would avoid overpainting Oak, it is an expensive material and is designed to showcase its own natural beauty without the need for a painted coating. Flooring Selection: The beautiful flooring you have already selected will be the main focal point throughout – especially the herringbone pattern and natural graining in the wood, framing your door with a similar wood might cause a boxed in effect within the spaces. If you are looking to achieve a framing effect this could easily be done within the flooring – see border image within flooring below: Door Handles: Door handles are a very clever way to extend your interior design style theme – down to the finest details you have accurately already captured the mid-century modern feel with your chosen selection of matt black, think about the shape you are opting for in addition. Skirting Sizes: - In terms of sizes: it would be at your personal discression, it also worth noting that the current size is encased in a colour that does not showcase the grooved design. The average height for skirting boards throughout the UK is 145mm (approximately 6 inches). When it comes to choosing the height for your skirting, it comes down to personal preference. We have found that our most popular sizes range from 120mm (approximately 5 inches) up to 220mm (approximately 9 inches). Start by measuring your current skirting and mark out the difference between what is currently there and the size of designs you like. The image below features the higher version with similar flooring you have selected. Opting for plain white skirting to showcase your flooring, doors and any additional accessories you plan on implementing would be our best guidance, simplicity is key when it comes to skirting boards. Please keep us posted with your project outcomes. Warm and best wishes Team SPEAK