Handyman Service in Chadwell Heath

Every interwar semi in RM6 has the same cupboard under the stairs, and in most of them it is doing the same job: swallowing coats, a vacuum cleaner, a folded pushchair and a carrier bag of things nobody can name. The space is generous by the standards of the house. It is simply the wrong shape for shelves bought off a shelf.

The shape it actually is

Under a straight flight the ceiling of the cupboard falls away along a diagonal, so usable height runs from full standing at the door to nothing at the far end. Where the stairs turn, there is a deep triangular pocket at the back that is almost unreachable without crawling. Setting the space out means deciding what belongs in each band of height before any timber is cut: tall and narrow at the front for an ironing board and a vacuum, deep shelves at chest height, and the low tail of the space kept for boxed items on a shallow tray that pulls out rather than for anything that has to be reached over.

Scribing to the underside of the flight

The diagonal is rarely a clean line. Treads and risers show through the plaster as a stepped profile, and the plaster itself wanders. Shelf ends and any vertical division are scribed to that profile rather than cut to a measured angle, taking the shape off with a profile gauge or a card template. Battens carrying the shelves are fixed into the studwork or the masonry wall alongside, found with a detector rather than guessed, because a shelf loaded with tools and paint tins will find out a plasterboard fixing quickly.

What has to stay reachable

This cupboard is usually where the consumer unit lives, sometimes with a meter beside it and occasionally the stopcock. None of it may be boxed in permanently or buried behind stacked boxes. Anything built in front of a unit is made removable without tools, and a clear working space is left in front of the board so it can be reached in the dark in a hurry. It is worth labelling the stopcock while the cupboard is empty, since it is the one moment anybody will see it.

Light changes how the space is used

A cupboard without light stays a dumping ground however well it is fitted out, because nothing at the back is ever found. A battery unit with a movement sensor is the quickest answer and needs no alteration to the wiring, while a permanent fitting on a switch is better where the cupboard is being used daily. Either way the fitting goes high on the side wall rather than on the sloping soffit, where it is shaded by the top shelf.

Air, and the smell that comes back

Under a staircase on an external wall, with a solid wall behind and a door that is shut all day, air does not move. Coats put away damp and boots left wet keep the space at a moisture level nothing recovers from, and after a winter the contents smell of it. Leaving a gap at the top and bottom of the door, keeping shelves clear of the outside wall and drying things before they go in makes the difference. Where the plaster on that wall has already darkened and spotting has spread onto stored items, the surface needs treating rather than wiping, and that is dealt with by Fantastic Services.

What else is living under there

The void beside the staircase string connects to the space under a suspended floor in many of these houses, which makes the cupboard a convenient way in from under the floorboards for mice. Droppings in the corners, or chewed corners on a cardboard box, are the giveaway. Sealing the obvious gaps helps, but clearing an established problem is a matter for our team in the area.

How the job is arranged

The cupboard needs emptying before the visit, which is usually the hardest part of the whole exercise, and a decision made in advance about what the space is really for. Timber and fixings are chosen once the interior has been seen, since no two of these cupboards measure the same, and the work is charged against the time on site. Where the hall has recently been replastered, the dust settles in every stored item and clearing it is separate work covered by after builders cleaning team in Romford. The same houses a few streets east are served by our handyman service in Collier Row, and smaller items noticed on the same visit come under trusted minor repairs.