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hi all I live in a 1930s semi and want to wind, heat, cold and dust proof my loft. As it stands, the roof has acme tiles with no felt/tyvek underlay - you can see the back of the tiles from the inside. In it's current state, my loft is very dusty, but I can't afford to have the tiles stripped...

Hello all, Does anyone know what I would need to buy to measure the water pressure on my tap and also (if possible) the flow rate? I am sure there is something you can attach to an outside tap, but I can't find anything. Thanks

Hello all, I was surprised to find that my lighting in the loft is not supplied from the lighting ring in my house, but from the mains sockets ring. Is this dangerous? My guess is that it used to be connected to a plug socket by a fused plug, but it has been converted from a socket to a...

Hello, I have noticed some white deposits on our brickwork on our recent extension (8 months old). Is this okay or does it signal a problem? It is on the front wall of the house and mainly in the mortar in patches. It is happening near a window opening if that makes any difference? Also...

Hello and happy new year! In June we had our house re-pebbledashed and I have noticed that the odd few pebbles don't seem to have stuck brilliantly. If you lean against the wall, a few pebbles will fall off. I am not sure if this is normal and that perhaps the surface ones are bound to...

Hi All I recently had a roofer replace the cement join on my roof tiles with some lead flashing and all is well apart from around the hole where my soil stack goes through the roof. They have used lead sheet flashing around the hole and then cemented on top of it and around the pipe. It...

Hi Our builders fitted some grey waste pipes to the outside of our property, but the rest of our pipes are black. Now that the pipes are in place, I was thinking that I should paint them so that they match the rest. Is there anything that I can use to paint these pipes that won't flake...

Hi I have noticed that our recently plastered ceilings have started cracking at the join between the wall and the ceiling. It is a long crack running the full length of the ceiling. I have been advised that these cracks are very normal and are to do with the change in climate, the ceilings...

Hi All I have a Worcester Bosch 35HE plus condensing combi boiler I had a service call today and was told that the gas pressure is too low. The boiler is in the loft and the meter is in the garage. He said that the minimum pressure should be 18mbar and it is in fact 16. He has suggested...

Hi all We have a stud wall that is made from chipboard, which has been painted. The chipboard has also been PVA'd - and we want to have the wall skimmed. Because the chipboard has been sealed, can we do this? Regards Nick

Hi Does anyone know what the best procedure is with newly plastered walls? I have previously used B&Q plaster sealer, but I have since heard that the best method is to mix 1/2 white emulsion with 1/2 water and you will get better results. Anyone have an opinion on this?

Hello all, I am upgrading our house mains supply from a 15mm lead pipe to an MDPE pipe. Thames Water charge a fortune to upgrade the pipe but it is no more expensive if you go for a 32mm over a 25mm. I did tell my builders who are running the new 25mm pipe inside the house that I wanted...

Hi all, I just wanted to check here first in case I ask my electrician and offend him. He is wiring in lighting in my new kictchen and I see that he has been using grey plastic covered cable with a solid copper core on most of the kitchen for my GU10 mains spot lights. There are 14...

I want to have 15 mains dimmable sunken spots fitted in my kitchen and want to control them from a 2 gang dimmer switch. The 15 lights will be split into 2 sections in the kitchen. 1 Switch will operate 8 lights and the other will operate 7 of them. The trouble I am finding is that the...

We are having an extension built and the upstairs level is made from Timber with a pebbledash render on EML and breather paper. Looking at the plans, the architect has requested a cavity of 38mm with insect mesh and a void between the plywood walls and the render. However, the builder has...

I am having my extension built at the moment and the upstairs level is 100mm studwork (exterior): This has an inner and outer skin of ply and insulation between, with an intended void of 38mm between the outer sheet of ply and the outer cladding (which is 3 coat render on EML and breather...

WBP plywood - what is it?? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi I am having an extension built and the upstairs level is to be built from timber and the plywood cladding is meant to be WBP ply. Water and Boil Proof is what WBP stands for...

Due to an incorrectly labelled fuse box the other day I wired in a plug socket in what was a spare wire, capped off into a junction box... It turns out that this wire was from the lighting rig and not the plug circuit and we were just using a high powered tool and it stopped working, went and...

Does anyone know what Clay Master is on a building's foundations? We are having building work done at home and the builders have dug their holes and filled them with concrete mix. Looking at the plans, though, it shows the concrete foundations and then a "75mm Clay Master" - I dont actually know...

Hello and happy New Year to all. I need to do both of the above and I wanted to get advice about doing each one. We are having an extension built and will need to move the gas meter (currently in the garage) and we would also like to renew our water mains from the current lead one to a...