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The small room in our house has two cold walls in winter. The side that has a roof, and the front wall on one side of the window. The other side of the window and the remaining internal walls are warm. There’s a radiator under the window. The front of the house is NE facing. I’ve redecorated...

Walls were skimmed four months ago. Looked good. Decorator came to paint. Did undercoat. Looked fine. As it dried over weekend, there were hairline cracks appearing in the plaster. Decorator plans to fill/sand/paint but I’m concerned why they appeared in the first place, mainly to stop it...

Room has been lined with Erfurt 2000 lining paper. Narrow gaps between some of the strips as the paper has dried. I will paint over the lining paper with Matt emulsion. 1. Which filler product is best for this? 2. Paint with undercoat and then fill/sand/topcoat? Or fill/sand/undercoat/topcoat?

Redecorating a bedroom. The coving joints look a bit obvious. What’s the best thing to use to fill and smooth? Decorator’s caulk? Toupret filler? Something else? When I painted the lining paper, I used acrylic primer undercoat and did the coving in the same paint too. Any prep work other than...

Upstairs landing walls have been freshly skimmed ready for painting. SWMBO has decided one of the bedroom doors should open the other way. Easy enough. But now the lightswitch is behind the door so need to move it. When I’ve done it previously, I just hammer and bolster to chase out. My only...

Recently installed printed concrete patio. I’ve been staining some wood outside (used barrettine wood protective treatment). I didn’t notice some of the stain had splodged on to the ground. It’s now dried and pressure washing does nothing. The concrete has been sealed. The stain is oil/spirit...

I’m trying to remove wallpaper and then hopefully get a professional in to skim and paint. How do I reach the walls around the staircase? My ladders (6ft) aren’t long enough.

200x100x2400mm green oak sleepers. I need to plane off a tiny amount each surface . Makita DKP181 has 85mm wide planing blade. I was going to use the guide to plane Along the left and right edges of the timber, but what do I do with the 30mm in the centre. Just freehand?

I have some PVC garage floor tiles that I bought. I’m cutting the tiles for the edges. Jigsaw blade keeps wandering, even against a square edge. It gives a burred edge despite being a blade suitable for PVC. Circular saw works fine up until about halfway through the tile when it binds and kicks...

4.5m by 2.5m garage. Walls now painted white. I will have a small workbench area, otherwise mainly for storage. Currently lit by a single 13W LED bulb (equivalent to 100W) and it’s dim. I was looking at LED batten lights and also surface mounted lights like this >>one<< Overkill? I hate...

I’ve recently painted the garage walls in brilliant white. I thought it would be nice to paint the gas copper pipes in a contrasting noticeable colour eg red or yellow. Do I need to use a specific type of paint? Any prep work that’s needed?

I’ve bought some 100x200x2400 untreated oak sleepers. I will need to cut them to size. I have the DHS680 circular saw and was thinking of just doing shallow cuts on each side. Will it have enough power to cut through the oak? Or should I use another method?

Front porch was built some time after the house had been built. The brickwork inside has been painted white. I’m guessing some sort of masonary paint. It needs a refresh. Can I paint on top with big standard masonary paint or do I need any prep work?

I have a Festool CTL mini I extractor. The rubber nozzle fits well over the DBO180Z sander. But it doesn’t fit over the DTM51 nozzle. festool nozzle 35mm OD, 25mm ID Makita multitool 25mm ID, 30mm OD Any ideas for a suitable adapter?

There’s a small chunk of mortar missing from the brick work. I’d like to replace it. Which product will match the colour closest?

Window boards have had acrylic primer undercoat. I’m using Dulux Quick Drying water based Satinwood for next two coats. Despite using a wooster silvertip brush, there are brush marks in the first coat. Having done a bit of wetsanding on car paint years ago, I’m tempted to do the same. Sane or...

I removed a wall-mounted lamp from the porch. The remaining hole for the wire goes through to the other side (into the garage). What can I do to make a presentable finish before painting?

I’ve sanded down the window boards (ended up using a hot air gun and scraper, then sanded over). Need to fill some cracks and gaps. Will sand after that too. What should I use to clean the wood from dust after vacuuming? American sites talk about mineral spirits but in the UK we have white...

Now we’ve had new double glazing installed, the existing window boards look naff. I’ve started sanding down using 80/120 grit. There’s at least five different coloured layers before I reach bare wood. There are “hot spots” where the I’m down to bare wood and surrounding areas still have the...

Got some building work coming up. Dishwasher relegated to garage for storage. Washing machine went into its place. At least that was the plan. Inlet seemed long enough but drain outlet was too short and on the “wrong” side of the machine. Googled washing machine drain extension. Got a hit off...