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I was wondering what you do to 'fix' this? Essentially it is / was the back wall on a Victorian house and there has been historic subsidence. The wall is a 'stand alone' wall and would have been the back of the house, but at due to the subsistence has at some point dropped. The movement at its...

Been asked by a friend about omni-directional TV aerials. The situation is that their TV aerial is attached to the chimney and the redundant chimney stack is being taken down. There is no obvious other high place to put an aerial and putting it at the front of the house would mean a lot of...

I've pulled down the ceiling in the living room and what to put some insulation back up there before I put up a new plasterboard ceiling. Is it OK to put foil faced PIR boards between the joists as insulation? Ideally I would like to use something other than glass fibre as part of what is above...

This is a photo of damp in a living room in a Victorian house. The wall is an external wall. The house had the 1m hack-off, an injection DPC and replastered about 19 years ago. The horizontal line of the damp would be around where the old plaster meets the new plaster. I can't see anywhere...

I've got a flat roof which is slightly leaking after heavy rain. I would estimate that it was *refelted about six years ago and top coated / bitumened about three years. I've got up on the roof and had a good look and can't see any obvious holes or signs or blistering. It has detached itself...

So I have am getting lukewarm water in my shower, yet the water in the pipes right up to the mixer is hot as hell. I'm guessing that there is a valve of something sticking inside. Any tips on how I can unseize the valve? Or does anybody know if or how this can been taken to pieces? All I can...

I've got a 3 up, 3 down Victorian house which I'm going to shortly start updating room by room. It has GCH in the property. The radiators (I'm guessing) and copper microbore pipe system was fitted about 20 years ago. Initally it had a back-burner and a cylinder, but those were replaced with a...

Hi, I've got a Zanussi ZWD16270W1 with an E42 error code - "Problems with aperture of the door". It seems that this is usually due to a faulty door interlock, so bought and fitted a new one, but are still getting the same error message. There doesn't seem to anything wrong with the catch or...

I was wondering how you plumbers would get around this. I don't know the correct terms for each of the parts, so have uploaded a couple of images. This is the waste pipe on a roll top bath. Essentially there isn't enough of drop on the P trap, which means that waste pipe is catching on the...

I'm currently finished varnishing a floor with antique pine floor (water based) varnish, but 'the boss' now says that it is "too orange" and wants it to be a lighter shade. Is there any way to this? Wood bleach? A clear matt varnish on top? Or is the only solution either paint stripper or...

Hi, I’m in the process of redesigning my bathroom and have a few queries to help me finalise my plans. For the shower, I want it to be a wet room / walk-in shower style where the floor of the shower is level with the floor of the rest of the bathroom. The bathroom is an upstairs bathroom...

Hi all, I'm currently renovating the bedrooms in my Victorian house. I have removed the hearth tiles (and cast iron fireplace) and want to make good the hearth and relay the tiles and refit the cast iron fireplace. The fireplaces will be decorative only. The outer bits of the hearths...

Hi, I'm currently renovating a two up, two down terraced house and will be repiping the central heating throughout. It will feed 9 (Acova steel column) radiators and run off already installed (about 3 years old) Worcester combi boiler. I've just had a Plumber to come around to give me a...

Hi all, Thanks to all those who responded to my post about installing a network. I'm finally getting to the point where I can install the network and generally get the house back together. The network is a phone line into the house and this will then be connected to my router. Each one...

I'm in the process of renovating a house and have just finished off putting foil faced insulation board (Cellotex) under all of the rafters in the attic. I was planning to put my satellite multi-switch and terrestrial TV booster / distributor in the attic and cable running across the attic...

Hi all, I'm about to start to fit chip boarding to my loft (Victorian end terrace), I know that I have to leave a gap so that the chip board shouldn't touch the eaves (to allow air flow), but is there a recommended or minimum gap that is required? Similarly should there be a gap...

I've bought a Victorian 2 up 2 down which I am in the process of renovating. The mains fed central heating system has been altered and added to several times resulting in a hotch potch of different size and types of pipes with many joints and blanked off ends. The one good thing is that it had...

Hi all, Sorry, another ‘how much does it cost’ thread. I’m trying to get a feel for how much it costs to rewire a 2 / 3 bed terraced house (less the kitchen). The specification is pretty much as follows (basic white fittings) - 27 Double Sockets 12 Light Switches 8 Single Lights 1...

I’m currently in the process of renovating a house which needs all the plaster hacking off all the walls and total electrical rewire. As I having this work done, I thought that I would just as well bring the house up to a ‘well above average’ (I’m not talking ‘state of the art’) standard on the...

Hi all, I previously stripped the paint off the stairs of my previous Victorian house. I did it all in situ, using paint stripper, heat gun, sandpaper and lots and lots of time and graft! Anyway, I’ve moved onto house no. 2 (again a Victorian house) and want to strip the whole of the...