@townhouse-tara
Renovating a townhouse room by room — tiling, ceilings, paint. Trying to get the finishes right without redoing them.
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Older villa, original electrics. I've noticed the distribution board (the fuse box) is making a faint buzzing/humming sound, and when I put my hand near it the cover feels a bit w…
Our Hitachi split has stopped cooling properly and the timer light on the indoor unit is blinking — it flashes a few times, pauses, then repeats. There's no number on any display,…
Taking handover of a new villa soon and I'll do a snag walk before I sign. I know to check the obvious stuff (doors close, taps run, AC cools), but I'm told the finish and paint d…
The paint on our bathroom ceiling and the wall above the shower keeps bubbling and then peeling off in sheets. We've repainted it twice and it comes back within months. It's a win…
I can never tell when a handyman is fine versus when I actually need a proper licensed tradesperson in Dubai. For small jobs a handyman is quick and cheap, but I don't want to hav…
Our Arabian Ranches villa has a lot of built-in joinery, wardrobes, doors, cabinetry, and it's all looking tired now: worn finishes, some doors dropping, a few swollen edges. I do…
We've got Midea split ACs across a property and I want to maintain them properly rather than only calling someone when one fails. What's the realistic routine, how often to do the…
We're deciding whether to repaint our villa fully or just touch up the tired areas, and the advice we're getting is all over the place. How do you actually decide between a full r…
I want some custom open shelving and built-in storage joinery (display shelves, a media unit, some floating shelves). - What should I know before ordering custom shelving — materi…
We can hear footsteps and noise from the apartment above. - Can a gypsum/false ceiling actually soundproof against that, and what makes a ceiling block sound vs just look neat? -…
Across the villa the internal doors have tired hardware — squeaking/dropping hinges, loose or stiff handles, and a couple of locks that don't latch cleanly. - Is door hardware (hi…
We're doing up our townhouse and I want to wall-mount a 65-inch TV in the living room and a large heavy mirror in the hallway. Both walls are the hollow gypsum partition type — yo…
I've had two shelves and a wall cabinet come loose in my townhouse — one pulled a chunk of the wall with it. When I drilled, some spots felt solid and some felt hollow and crumbly…
Our villa's on the older side and we're heading into summer, when everything runs the AC flat out. I'd like a sensible electrical safety checklist to run through (or have someone…
Our Dubai Hills villa is only a few years old so it still looks fairly new, but the walls are starting to scuff and mark, especially the hallways and around the kids' rooms, and s…
We're in an Al Nahda tower running that district-cooling setup with the built-in units rather than normal split ACs, and a couple of rooms just lag while the rest are fine, the un…
We're in an Al Nahda tower and when the AC, oven and kettle are all going the breaker trips, and sometimes the lights dim for a second when the AC kicks in. It's a fairly full fla…
We're boarding out a bathroom and kitchen and someone mentioned moisture-resistant (green) gypsum board instead of standard. - What's the difference, where should moisture-resista…
I've had very different tiling quotes for the same room and I want to understand what actually drives tiling cost so I can compare fairly. - Beyond the tile itself, what makes a t…
I want a feature wall and I'm torn between wallpaper and paint. My worry is Dubai's humidity and AC — I've heard wallpaper can peel at the edges or grow mould behind it here. - Is…