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Hi, My brother-in-law and his wife have just moved into a house with a classic 80s open staircase. They hate it and I have been tasked with boxing it in and making it look like a conventional staircase on as small a budget as possible. I have added plywood risers and was just going about...

Hi, My brother-in-law and his wife have just moved into a house with a classic 80s open staircase. They hate it and I have been tasked with boxing it in and making it look like a conventional staircase on as small a budget as possible. I have added plywood risers and was just going about...

Hi Chaps, I want to build a large workshop/store at the end of my garden. The garden is long and narrow, about 4.25m . I would anticipate the workshop being about 3.4m wide with a total roof surface of about 20-24m2. I am not sure about how to handle rainwater drainage from the roof. The...

Hi, We had a leak from our boiler in the loft last week. An area of boarding in the loft was saturated and the water went through the insulation below and has caused staining on ceilings below. The bulk of the moisture/staining has come through into the airing cupboard directly below the...

Hi, I have a boat plot on a shingle beach and need to sink a concrete base to mount a winch on. The winch base will essentially be a 1m3 block with a 6'x8'x8" slab on top. The 1m3 block provides the counter weight to the boat being dragged up the beach. A winch and motor will be bolted...

Hi, About two and half years ago I tiled my bathroom - quick job when we moved in the house. After 18months we had the bathroom re-fitted and I re-tiles. We used the same tiles with the same shower over the bath but invested in the recommeded power shower resistant, mould resistant grout...

Hi, Just finished painting the first coat of gloss on the new beach hut. The surface had been previously primed and undercoated. The results are disappointing to say the least. There are large patches of wrinkled paint which two weeks later can be smoothed flat with your finger - showing...

Hi, I have just had some new railing for the outside of my house delivered. The next task is to paint them for which I have bought red oxide primer and hammerite topcoat. The metal of the railings has some sort of coating on it - presumably to prevent rust. It makes the metal a dull dark...

Hi During recent roof works to solve leaks (unsucessful and ongoing) the contractor added strips of felt under the bottoms tiles which laps into the gutter. The previous felt had rotted away and water was getting onto and rotting the facia boards. I have noticed however that the felt over...

Hi, I have a socket in my kitchen where the front keep coming away from the wall on one side when you pull the plug out. Closeer inspection reveals a problem with the screw hole in the metal back box of the socket, you know the galvanised metal box that sits in the wall (technical...

Hi, I recently repainted the bathroom with B&Q Matt Kitchen and Bathroom Paint on both walls and cellings. I has previously used and older version of this paint with no problems. Now everytime we have a bath or shower you get a clearly visable film of water over the walls and ceilings...

Hi guys, We had a cast iron combination fire replaced in our house a few months ago. The original had been removed in the 1970s to make way for a back boiler which had sat on a course of bricks laid on the constructional hearth. To fit the new fire place the firm we employed knocked off...

I have a lovely old oak gate leg table. Alas, the screws holding the table top on to the legs no longer hold it tight. No matter how much you tighten the screws the top works loose and rocks around within a few uses. I guess there is no longer a tight enough hole there for the screw to grip...

Hi, I have a showerforce easiboost pump which works fine most of the time. THe pump is set at the lowest pressure setting and apart from ebing noisy it produces a nice shower. However, every so often it appears to loose pressure, the pump still sounds like it is operating, althought the...

Hi, I had a new central heating system installed about 10 months ago and it has been nothing but trouble. We had the combi ripped out and a condensing boiler, hot water tank system put in. The main problem now is that every month or so the system becomes very noisy. So much so that when...

Hi, I wonder if you chaps can give me a little advice. My front door has a cylinder rim lock on it. The cylinder bit is made by HD and the rim lock bit on the inside is made by chubb. It is obviously a mix and match affair and the key we have for the HD cylinder does not fit in the Chubb...

Hi all, We have a victorian terrace where the party walls extend a foot or so above the roof line so that each house has its own individual roof butted up on each side to the part walls (best attempt yet at a concise description :wink: ). There is lead flashing where the roof (concrete...

Hi, My in-laws have just moved into a 1980/90s build modern house having (like me) always lived in victorian properties. I nipped up into the loft for them yesterday to see if had been previous boarded (which it hadn't) and was horrified to see that the joists (the ones to which the first...

Hi, I have a bit a problem with a leaky roof on a late victorian terrace, just down in one corner, with no obvious defect in the roof - so the plan is to strip of and re-do the lead work on that side. There is not water pouring in, but water is definitely penertrating somewhere. We think...

I have built a little cabinet to fix over the fuse box etc. All vey nice but now it comes to make the doors. They are each about 400mm x 500mm. I was planning to use MDF but am concerned about it splitting when I try to screw hinges in. What do people think would be the best approach?