Solutions | KH Field Notes

What you can actually use from this page

Solutions here are not product pitches. They are the situations readers bring to us most often, and the way we work through them on site, in the workshop, or at the kitchen table with a quote sheet.

Pricing a job you can finish

Walk through a tiling quote line by line: adhesive for a wonky screed, cutting waste on diagonal layouts, travel across Johannesburg traffic. The point is a number that still leaves room to do the work properly.

Read the Midrand bathroom refit breakdown

Tools that hold up in winter

Batteries left overnight in an unheated bakkie, chucks full of grit, gearboxes after a season of decking and roof sheets. We test on real jobs, not in a showroom, and report what wore out first.

Damp before it spreads

Rising damp or a leaking downpipe? A hose test and a moisture reading usually settle it. Then the repair sequence: strip, treat, dry, render, paint. Painting over it only buys a season.

Suppliers worth the drive

How to check an aluminium supplier before you commit: stock on the floor, cut tolerances, delivery windows, and whether they answer the phone when a profile arrives bent.

Loads that stay legal

Bakkie weights, axle limits and the paperwork that keeps you out of trouble between the yard and the site. Practical notes for foremen who load their own vehicles.

Getting paid on time

Invoicing clients who pay late: deposit terms, progress claims, and the follow-up wording that works without burning the relationship. Written from the workshop side of the desk.

Looking for a specific situation instead of a general topic? Browse the use cases or send your job photos and questions to the editor at info@kh-demo.com.

What these solutions look like on an actual site

Three situations we keep running into: a quote that quietly loses money, a tool that quits in July, and a damp wall that gets painted over twice before anyone reads it properly. Each one below shows the problem, the work, and what the reader ends up with.

Pricing a tiling job that holds together

A Midrand bathroom refit costed line by line: adhesive for a wonky screed, cutting waste on a diagonal layout, travel across town. The reader gets a quote structure they can reuse and a clear idea of when to walk away.

A drill that survives a Highveld winter

Three 18V drills after a season of decking, roof sheets and workshop assembly. Battery behaviour overnight in an unheated bakkie, chuck wear, and what repairs actually came to in rand.

Damp traced before the plaster goes back on

Rising damp or a leaking downpipe? A hose test, moisture readings, then the repair sequence: strip, treat, dry, render. Plus the signs that call for an engineer instead of a handyman.

Every write-up comes from a job that was actually done, with photos taken on site and material lists kept in rand. If a method only works on a showroom floor, it does not make it into the notes.

How to read these scenarios

The situations on this page come from real jobs around Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Before you match one to your own site, a few ground rules keep expectations honest.

Scenarios, not fixed packages

Each example describes a situation and the outcome we worked towards. It is not a menu item you order as-is. Substrate condition, access, load-shedding and travel distance all shift the plan.

Costs shown are job records

Where material lists appear, they reflect what a specific job actually used, recorded at the time. Supplier pricing moves, so treat those figures as a reference point for your own quote, not a current rate.

What we do not cover

Structural engineering sign-off, electrical COC issuance and municipal plan approval sit outside this work. When a job needs a registered professional, we say so rather than improvise around it.

Photos and reader notes

Images come from jobs we attended or from readers who sent their own. If a photo is a reader submission, the caption says so. We do not stage site conditions to make a repair look simpler than it was.

Regional differences matter

Coastal humidity in Durban, Highveld winter cold and Cape Town's winter rain each change how materials behave and how long a repair needs to dry. A method that works inland may need a different curing window on the coast. Check the region noted on each scenario before applying it to your own site.

Why site crews keep coming back to these notes

There is no shortage of trade advice online. Most of it is written by people who have never stood on a wet screed at 6am in Benoni. What we publish comes from jobs that were actually quoted, built and paid for, with the mistakes left in.

Numbers from real quotes

Material lists in rand, labour days per square metre, and the contingency lines that saved a job when the substrate turned out worse than the site visit suggested. Nothing is rounded up to look tidy.

Tools tested past the warranty

Drills, mixers and saws get written up after a full season of decking, roofing and workshop use. We note what failed first, what a repair cost, and whether the same model is worth buying again.

Guest notes from the trades

Electricians, plumbers and cabinetmakers write in with the details that only show up on site: how a supplier actually handles a short delivery, or why a client's payment run slips past month end.

How this differs from a supplier blog

Brand blogs exist to move stock. Ours exists to answer the question a foreman asks at 7am: will this hold, and what does it cost me if it does not. That means naming the jobs where a cheaper material worked fine, and the ones where it did not.

Where the trust comes from

Every post is tied to a specific site, a specific suburb and a specific problem. If a reader sends in photos from their own job, we work the answer into a follow-up post rather than a private reply, so the next crew finds it.

Start with the scenarios readers send in most: common job situations or a costed tiling breakdown.