Rich

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Hi Peter Welcome to The DIY Forum... Hopefully you can get the help you need. What projects are you working on currently?

Thanks for the pictures DIYNovice, the problem makes more sense now seeing it close up.. :-) What wood are those doors made of? Hardwood by any chance? That grainy lumpy affect is often caused by painting onto sticky surfaces, where the first coat isn't dry yet, but isn't wet enough to smooth itself out if you go over it again. What I would do in this situation is remove the door, take it outside and go at it with a small palm sander and some mildly abrasive paper, like a 120 grit, then a 600 grit to smooth it off, until its 100% smooth and flat. Then wash it off with sugar soap, then take it somewhere as dust-free as possible and paint 1 coat on and leave for 24hrs. If it comes out great, then apply a second coat straight on top only if needed. So if there are no uneven or see-through parts, then 1 coat is fine. If it does need a second coat, be sure to wipe the surface down of any dust that settles, as it gets into the paint, depends where you live too, because busy roads create a lot of dust and dirt in the air. (This is just being pedantic I know, but lots of small gains add up to a nicer finish) The key to a good finish is in the preparation :-)

Incompetent & Highly unprofessional. So we hired him to replace our entire garden fence as it was wrecked.. Here is how it went.. DAY 1. (Of what he said was going to take 2 days) Gets here just before 9am and he is asking me "Is your wife home, we could fucking murder a cuppa tea", this is before he has even done anything. The repeated requests for tea really pissed us off. Was amazed he even managed to unload the van on day 1 for the constant very lengthy tea breaks. He gets approx half way down the garden, and the first 8 panels are pissed, not straight and the concrete posts are NOT cemented in, they are just wobbling, but the holes have been filled in with soil and lumps of broken concrete. We made it crystal clear to him that he is welcome to take down/remove anything that is in his way, as there were 2 bushes extremely close to the fence. This was half-arsedly done by hacking down the bushes, then fencing around where the bush was, He left by 2pm. DAY 2. Again arrived just before 9, I told him NOT to bother my wife for tea as she was incredibly busy video conferencing with 20 people at once, most of the day, which, but he ignored this and made sure he got his tea breaks. (I had to go to work for the rest of the day) So I get home to find he had buggered off shortly after 1pm, had still not cemented the concrete posts in, the fence now had 12 panels in, and was even more pissed. It seems a string line is not within his skill-set. So I sent him a text telling him to bring postcrete and use it! He phones me and when I asked why he didn't install the fence even remotely STRAIGHT, his response was "Just following the old fence". Seriously? I then asked him why he had used NO cement on all but 2 posts, he claimed he did, yet I was staring at the hole in the ground, which I was able to dig back out with my foot! I actually dug 2 posts back up with his shovel, looking for the cement, never did find any. Told him I was seriously not happy and I just wanted him to do the job properly, "I should have to tell you how to use concrete and water!" DAY 3, I have now had to cancel all lessons for the day to supervise this incompetent dinosaur, as he clearly cannot be trusted. First thing he says to me in the morning is "Make us a fucking cuppa tea mate". I literally had to tell him "Would you dare to repeat that?" Oddly enough, he did, so I had to tell him to his face "How about you get this f***ing job finished and watch your mouth" Yet another half day's sloppy work, bad manners and wandering about with his trousers undone. I actually stand next to him and his sidekick watching them, and 4 times had to ask them to use the Postcrete correctly and stop mixing it with soil. This was met with "We've always done this, we been doing this for years" His manners and language are pathetic! He seems to think my garden is his toilet, yet walks around with his trousers undone, constantly fiddling with himself, with EVERY second word being "F***". The moaning and complaining from him is just depressing, nobody wants to hear him constantly complaining, swearing and bitching about everything. Finally end of day 3, I have now lost a days wages in having to supervise this Muppet, and when its time to pay, he wants full price? I had to make it crystal clear to him and TELL him that I am deducting my losses for his incompetence. Not once did he offer an apology, no sign of any embarrassment from him for doing sch a god awful job, or for having to have me telling him to do it right repeatedly. He really was convinced there was nothing wrong and he had done a cracking job! He seems extremely stuck in the 1970's, both in attitude, work ethics, morals and tardiness. Would never employ him again, nor recommend. Even my neighbour wanted some work done and changed his mind after chatting to the guy. He really has no clue about how to treat customers or do an actual full days work and zero self discipline to do anything properly.

Hiya Will That really is odd. Do you have any bigger photos, possibly HD resolution and close ups? Have you got a PH meter at all and a moisture detector? It is possible, whilst a longshot, that the wood may be dry to the touch, yet moist from behind. Are there any sources of water inside the wall or under that floor? Whats the black stuff on the floor, all around that corner piece? It looks like the floor has gone black too? Also, how far apart are these 2 instances in the property? Are these pictures either side of the same wall or at opposite ends of the building?

Hi Gabrielle Is the existing carpet all 1 piece, in which I mean, will you have to cut the carpet to remove it? I assume the answer will be yes, as most stair carpet is done in sections of 3 to 4 steps at a time. The piece of carpet on the riser (The horizontal piece that starts step 2 should be tacked in place already, however, something like this could be installed to give it a finish and stop it from fraying: https://www.toolstation.com/shop/Ironmongery/d170/Metal+Edging/sd3009/Carpet+Edging/p15813