Well I have had a gander and indeed the strupid cow on the phone was right, channel 6 is the most popular, so instead of using it I have moved to channel 13, that gives me at least the upper sideband to channel 14 free but I'll have to share the lower side with everyone. 5GHz wise now that I look at it everyone is down sub channel 64 and there are not too many and I have now moved to channel 150 something I'm now got my laptop connected full strength from across the house so hopefully no lagging just to load pages anymore.
Indeed that is what I thought of 5GHz when it came out, perfect solution, another set of bands giving us more space but with the same power transmitter it will have much less range. Of course you do get problems where a wall alone can block a signal.
5 GHz isn't just about adding more bands. That in itself would alleviate the problem only for a short period of time, until market changes fill the voids with all kinds of internet connected devices. One thing that's different is that the bands do not overlap, like they do with 2.4 GHz. Neighbouring bands always interfere with 2.4 GHz, while 5 GHz bands have their own, neat space.
More important is that it has less penetrating strength, which you still seem to view as a downside, but which is a huge plus. You don't get problems because a wall can block a signal, you get less problems thanks to it, simply because all those interfering signals from neighbours and passers by will not invade your house as readily. You get much less pollution and contention in your home, and the only price you pay is having to plan your network slightly better than just plunking a router in a corner somewhere. Thinking 5 GHz is inferior because it gets more easily blocked by walls is misunderstanding its purpose.
By the way, have you tried setting the bands to automatic? That should have the gear pick the least contested band automatically. Obviously, when more devices in the area are set to this, you get a collective dance of infinite hopping, but that's just the way things are.