Ask the experts Your questions answered
I’d love a freestanding cast-iron bath but I’m not sure the floor in my bathroom would be strong enough to support it. How would I find out?
Most houses built in the 1980s and onwards have upper floors constructed from traditional wooden floor joists. These are covered with green moistureresistant chipboard flooring in 2400mm x 600mm tongue and groove sheets. Older houses – pre-1980s – have wooden floor joists covered with pine floorboards. Both floor systems are normally strong enough to support the weight of a cast-iron bath filled with water, and a person.
If you’re concerned about the strength of the floor you could ask a professional to check and reinforce it for you. Or, if you’re proficient at DIY, you could try strengthening it yourself. Here’s how: Start by removing the skirting and then the floorboards or sheet flooring. To strengthen the floor, work out roughly where the bath feet will stand and fix some extra noggins between the joists to stiffen the structure by carefully cutting from a minimum 150mm x 50mm piece of timber, a piece of wood for each of the joists. This should be a millimetre or two longer than the space to ensure a tight fit. Next drill a pilot hole and fix the wood with screws. Because of the risk of movement, discard the pine flooring and replace with 18mm WBP plywood screwed to the joists at 150mm spacings. The floor is now strong and solid and ready for tiling and your new cast-iron bath!
Loans have never been as cheap as they are right now thanks to low interest rates and price wars between competitors. It’s tempting to plunge right in and grab the best offer you can. However, while some personal loans might look fantastic at first glance, check very carefully what’s on offer before committing to anything and remember a few rules.
Firstly, borrow as little as possible for the shortest time possible. While borrowing for longer periods spreads the debt and lowers monthly repayments, it will substantially increase the interest you’ll repay. So if you borrow £10,000 at seven per cent over three years, the interest will cost £1,100. Borrow the same amount spread over 10 years and the interest charge is more than three times the amount at £3,900.
Depending on the amount you need to borrow, you could use a credit card. Most won’t give you much more than £5,000, provided you have a good credit score, but you may be able to get a 0 per cent deal for a set period of up to 30 months. This is a great option, as long as you’re disciplined enough to repay the amount in that time. It helps if your kitchen fitter takes credit cards, but it’s also possible to transfer the cash from your card straight into the bank, for a fee, if you get a specialist money transfer card.
Remortgaging is an option, but there’s a big ‘buyer beware’ here. I’d always encourage anyone to regularly check they’re on a good mortgage rate – after all, if you shop around to make sure you get the cheapest products elsewhere, it makes sense to do so with a financial commitment like a mortgage.
However, adding a nonhousing debt to your mortgage to pay for something like a kitchen can be expensive in the long term because of the length of time it takes to pay it off. For example, borrowing £1,000 at five per cent over 20 years is more than twice as expensive as 10 per cent over five years.
As with any big financial commitment, it’s worth doing your research and knowing the total cost involved for the full period of any cash advance.