Richard Greenland

Last week I covered the effect of porous bathroom and kitchen tiles on your silicone, buying second-hand kitchens, keeping pipes hidden but accessible, and keeping window glass ventilated from inside. This week I’ll discuss fans and cooker hoods.

You can spend over £500 on a cooker hood if you really want, and yes more expensive hoods may be more powerful, but they all do a similar job, so for anything other than a very high-end flat, why would you? I got a perfectly good stainless steel one for £45 from Ikea. With fans on the other hand, I believe in spending a bit more money. Vent Axia are near-bulletproof and go on forever. My father has two in his house dating from the late 1970s. They get used every day and have never failed.

cooker hood vent before passing through hole in bathroom wall (top right)

The crucial thing with hoods, if you can, is to throw away the charcoal filter that comes with them and vent them properly to the outside. Filters quickly clog with grease and need replacement every 3 months or so. Are you or your tenants really going to do that? Yet if it gets neglected airborne particles will form greasy deposits on all the interior surfaces in the flat and stain your paintwork. Venting cookers can be tricky, particularly in London flats where the cooker may not be on an outside wall. But it’s even more worth it when you consider that building regulations will accept only a 100 mm vent if directly above the cooker in a hood. Otherwise, they will require a much larger and more expensive 150 mm vent, even if it’s very close to the cooker.

While we’re on vents, if you’re using cheap builders then I strongly suggest you check they do actually vent the flues to the outside. A landlord friend’s tenants were complaining that the roof was leaking. He couldn’t understand as it was a brand new conversion to flats, and the building inspector had just signed off all the work. As soon as I went into the loft I could see there was a problem. Everything was wringing wet and covered in a film of blue-grey mould. Water was dripping through the kitchen ceiling. The cause? Condensation! The builders had vented both the kitchen and bathroom fans directly into the loft. As soon as the warm damp air hit the cold roof, it condensed out and soaked everything. Because building inspectors don’t normally even go into lofts (grrrr!) he hadn’t seen the botch they’d made. I sorted the problem in a few hours with some flexible ducting, four long jubilee clips, and two special flue tiles which fit onto the roof. It beggars belief that anyone calling themselves a builder would do anything so crass, but I guess some people don’t care about repeat business. Also some landlords cut corners when they really shouldn’t, but often you get what you pay for.

I’ll consider different types of taps next week.

Richard Greenland

In the last post I talked about how appropriate choice of sink could have a bearing on the longevity of your worktops. Now I’m going to consider kitchen cabinet units. Actually there’s really not much choice with these as all the major manufacturers make them of melamine (plastic) coated chipboard, either 15mm or 18mm thick. You can pay more for 18mm but it’s still basically the same low-quality material which is very susceptible to water damage. The other difference is that a few (notably Ikea) make units with no service gap at the back. This is great if you have smooth walls with no surface-running pipes or wires, as it allows your tenants an extra 10cm of storage space within, but they can be a problem to fit otherwise. Also Ikea units don’t go together quite like other types, so your carpenter may grumble unless he’s done them before. Howden’s also offer a great trade-only service and can be very competitive on price, for inexpensive kitchens that look classy.

Of course the alternative is a bespoke kitchen but since these can come to the price of a decent executive car, strictly for very high-end flats only!

Adel birch unit being installed

With the doors you have a choice of solid wood or veneered MDF board. I always go for solid wood as it is much more durable – nothing expands in water like MDF! My flats are all newly converted so I’m fitting Ikea cabinets for the extra space, with Adel solid birch doors. They are light and contemporary and look great with black or grey granite.

I fit pelmets below the wall units to cover the low-voltage underlighting. I don’t fit cornice as I think it’s unnecessary. Again I like Ikea because they use a real wood veneer on the moulded MDF, not printed plastic which feels cheap and is very hard to work with.

With the plinths (kickers) below the floor units, it’s important to fit the plastic track underneath which should come with them, to protect them from water damage when the floor is washed. I like to get a spare bit to protect the end panels too, or at least spread clear silicone sealant underneath them to water-seal the wood.

I’ve run out of space to talk about taps, but hope to discuss the different types, and maybe cooker hoods too next week.

Richard Greenland

Last week I talked about the advantages of wetrooms for minimising maintenance costs in rented flats. This week I’m moving onto kitchens.

One of the most troublesome items in any kitchen is the worktop. Formica/ chipboard worktops are temporary at best, and not always cheap either. Water will inevitably penetrate around the sink, and nothing swells like chipboard when it gets wet. Soon it becomes a soggy mess with costly replacement inevitable a few short years down the line. Yet most people fit Formica/chipboard as a matter of course, without considering the many alternatives. These include resin composite materials which look similar to Formica but are far superior. Other options are slate, stainless steel, wood, glass, and lino or tiles on boilproof plywood. Large 60 cm square tiles on plywood with a hardwood edging offer a highly durable and inexpensive alternative worktop which looks classy. Worktop tiles need grouting with epoxy resin grout – never cement based grouts which crack and stain. Wooden worktops scratch easily, and may become mildewed behind the sink, unless teak, which is all but unobtainable unless reclaimed. I have also heard of worktops manufactured from recycled plastic and glass. The glass is a really striking turquoise.

Granite being fitted

Personally I prefer to fit neutral-coloured granite in my own flats, which is not necessarily as expensive as people assume. The worktop pictured and another almost the same size across the room came to £240 in total, new from a reclamation yard in Devon. Not bad for a permanent job which positively exudes quality and class, and can be re-fitted even if the cabinets beneath need replacement. The supplier offers a strictly no-frills service with a choice of just three colours, has a muddy dog in a muddy yard, and I had to collect and fit it myself.

On the other hand, for higher-end flats, you can have the full service from many internet-based suppliers, with drainer grooves, polished cutouts for undermounted sinks, and upstands at the back so no need to tile behind. I did that in the flat upstairs from the one shown, when I thought I was going to sell. This was a much more costly purchase, but it looks great.

It’s important to remember that lighter-coloured granite needs sealing against stains with a silicone based sealer.

That about raps it up for worktops. Next week I’ll consider sinks. The choice of sink can have major implications for the longevity of your worktops, particularly if you still insist upon using Formica/chipboard!

Richard Greenland

Last week I discussed grouting tiles in kitchens and bathrooms, this week I’ll look at wetrooms, as I consider them (in the right place) to be a low-cost and low-maintenance bathroom that is also a great selling (and renting) point for any flat. Everyone loves a wetroom, tenants included. They are stylish, you can splosh around as much as you like, they are dead easy to clean with the shower nozzle, and if any appliance leaks the water has no-where to go but down the plughole! Also there is no up-front expenditure on a shower tray or cubicle, so they can be cheaper to install than a conventional bathroom. They are the norm in Asian countries where people live in concrete apartment blocks – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shower tray in Thailand. They are also great on the ground floor anywhere – provided it is concrete.

wetroom nearing completion

This is where their limitations apply. I do NOT recommend fitting them with wooden floors. Wood is liable to humidity and thermal movement relative to masonry walls and this is very difficult to seal in a way which truly inspires confidence. Concrete is rigid and even if your tiling leaks, good concrete will not saturate the poor folks living in the flat below. I was once asked to fit a wetroom in a very up-market flat in a Georgian terrace in Clifton, Bristol. Against my better judgement I agreed (always up for new knowledge!) What a disaster! We used a system based on flexible matting and multiple layers of adhesive and flooring. It worked in the end, but cost-effective? – No!

If you have space you can also put the washing machine in an ante-room off the wetroom (needs to be separate to keep water off the electrics). I am doing this with my most recent flat conversion – the bathroom is in what was once a large porch, and the washing machine is in an attached ante-room under the stairs. If the machine leaks the water will run along the floor which slopes imperceptibly towards the wetroom and drains out of the trap.

Whilst on washing machines, they are probably the biggest cause of domestic water damage and it is important to consider where they are sited, particularly in blocks of multiple flats. If (when??) they leak, where will the water go? The washing machine in my first floor flat is sited above the entrance-hall for the ground floor flat. OK, not great if it leaks. But the hallway isn’t a ‘lived-in’ part of the flat, so much better there than over a bedroom or the kitchen! Also fire regs dictate that there is a separate entrance round the back, so the flat would still be usable while we replaced carpets etc.

I think I’ve about covered bathrooms now (if anyone reading has any questions please feel free to ask). Next week I’ll tackle kitchens, probably the second-most troublesome room when it comes to maintenance in rented flats.