What are the small details that give a quality finish?

[dazwalsh]

All colour matching door thresholds, door handles, hinges, light fittings, curtain rails. Nothing worse than a nice brushed steel curtain rail but the owners have retained the ageing gold coloured victorian style handle on the interior door.

[sandman77]

One of the biggest things for me is the paint finish on the woodwork. It has already been mentioned but make sure you sand back the old (multiple layers of) gloss paint to a nice smooth finish before you put fresh paint on.

Pipes that come out of the floor and feed the radiators - make sure they are clean, straight and vertical.
Replace your radiator valves for nice new ones that have no paint splashed all over them.
Dont skimp on anything that you touch - switches, sockets, handles
Good quality solid internal doors - not those crappy hollow 6 panel doors from the diy shed
Remove all traces of laminate flooring and Lino.
Skirting boards are cheap - easier to replace than sand down 40 years worth of paint.

If you are not good at DIY get a pro to do the above.

[B17NNS]

sandman77 said:

Pipes that come out of the floor and feed the radiators - make sure they are clean, straight and vertical.

Good point. I tend to do them in chrome plated copper where possible.



If you're stuck with copper then 'snappit' covers are a decent solution instead of yellowing paint. Available in white and chrome.

http://www.screwfix.com/search?search=snapit

[8-P]

B17NNS said:

Good point. I tend to do them in chrome plated copper where possible.



If you're stuck with copper then 'snappit' covers are a decent solution instead of yellowing paint. Available in white and chrome.

http://www.screwfix.com/search?search=snapit

Nice touch / tip

[Cheib]

8-P said:

B17NNS said:

Good point. I tend to do them in chrome plated copper where possible.



If you're stuck with copper then 'snappit' covers are a decent solution instead of yellowing paint. Available in white and chrome.

http://www.screwfix.com/search?search=snapit

Nice touch / tip

Even better they shouldn't come out of the floor at all....ideally they should come out of the wall just below the radiator. Expensive to do if you're not doing a full refurb but if you're moving radiators etc it's worth it. It's a minor detail but it looks cleaner.

[Accelebrate]

Cheib said:

Even better they shouldn't come out of the floor at all....ideally they should come out of the wall just below the radiator. Expensive to do if you're not doing a full refurb but if you're moving radiators etc it's worth it. It's a minor detail but it looks cleaner.

Agreed. I'm not a fan of those plastic covers that hide where the pipe emerges from the floor/wall either, an accurately cut hole looks much better IMHO.

[bobtail4x4]

Im not a fan of rotten broken floorboards

[mikeiow]

bobtail4x4 said:

Im not a fan of rotten broken floorboards

LOL!

If you use laminate - & I am personally a fan of quickstep having had ours down for over 9 years now! - add a *white* small 'shaped' quadrant to the skirting so the quadrant looks like it is part of the skirting.
I've seen so many where there is a quarter circle of pine sitting over what might otherwise look quite nice 'oak' laminate.....& they always look bodge.

Changing all door handles is a good shout: we had crappy 'gold' handles throughout, and changed them all to ones that are mostly chrome with brushed chrome handle piece, looks MUCH nicer, freshens the whole house up. Make sure you get ones that fit easily, don't make too much work for yourself!

[Gingerbread Man]

mikeiow said:

If you use laminate - & I am personally a fan of quickstep having had ours down for over 9 years now! - add a *white* small 'shaped' quadrant to the skirting so the quadrant looks like it is part of the skirting.
I've seen so many where there is a quarter circle of pine sitting over what might otherwise look quite nice 'oak' laminate.....& they always look bodge.

No, just whip the floorboards skirting boards off. End of on that topic for me. Quadrant should die.

Edited by Gingerbread Man on Thursday 21st September 07:43

[AshBurrows]

Well painted skirting and framework. Most people do it so bloody badly.
Then stuff like switches, sockets and smoke detectors that looks attractive.
Door handles and light fittings too.

Would be a good thread actually, just "nice stuff for a house." I'm struggling to find smoke detectors currently. Nest ones look okay I guess. But of course primary function is saving life.

[GIYess]

Don't you just love yellowing smoke detectors! It might be a bit divisive but plaster coving can really smarten a room up if done carefully. I went off it but recently my parents have put it up in a couple of rooms (in a modern house) and it really looks crisp when painted white.

[B17NNS]

Gingerbread Man said:

No, just whip the floorboards off. End of on that topic for me. Quadrant should die.

Assume you meant skirting boards . Agreed. 100%.

I've seen £7m2 laminate with new skirting that looked like a perfectly respectable floor.

I've also seen some stunning £70m2 engineered walnut with beading that just looked cheap, amateur and nasty.

[Gingerbread Man]

B17NNS said:

Gingerbread Man said:

No, just whip the floorboards off. End of on that topic for me. Quadrant should die.

Assume you meant skirting boards . Agreed. 100%.

I've seen £7m2 laminate with new skirting that looked like a perfectly respectable floor.

I've also seen some stunning £70m2 engineered walnut with beading that just looked cheap, amateur and nasty.

Correct in all you say. I often love the square cuts around architrave.

[B17NNS]

Gingerbread Man said:

Correct in all you say. I often love the square cuts around architrave.

Ah, yes. A smear of badly applied poorly matching silicone will solve that

[B17NNS]

Decent mastic work...

Easy to get right with a fugi/fugenboy kit. Looks awful when done badly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vjTxTFL-k0

[stanwan]

Cheib said:

Floors being level when you go from one surface to another...door thresholds etc. Easy to skimp on and hard to get right. Wonky light switches drive me mad!

I am also a big believer in the quality of things like taps and door handles...good ones are expensive but to me it makes a big difference.

I'd always. be wary of a tiled floor threshold being the same level as the rest of the floor finishes. It isn't impossible, but unless done properly, can mean there is no proper prep and that tiles have been applied to bare subfloor.

Unless the floor has been stripped back to joists and had new WBP plywood fitted, its likely the owner has skimped on pep.

[Gingerbread Man]

B17NNS said:

Decent mastic work...

Easy to get right with a fugi/fugenboy kit. Looks awful when done badly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vjTxTFL-k0

They're spot on aren't they.

[B17NNS]

Gingerbread Man said:

They're spot on aren't they.

Brilliant bits of kit

[8-P]

Gingerbread Man said:

They're spot on aren't they.

I have something similar, have to say the results you get are precision, I felt quite smug when Id finished my bathroom.