Just moved into a house six months back and the survey flagged a few spalled bricks and some scruffy pointing at the front and side. A mate who points for a living reckoned the pointing was cosmetic only. Now, having a closer look, a couple of the bricks right at damp proof course level look […]
Spalled Bricks Around the DPC: How Worried Should You Be? Read More »
A homeowner has a 4-bed, two-storey new build fitted with wet underfloor heating throughout. Every zone works apart from one bedroom, and it's been dragging on for years. They've swapped the actuator, swapped the room thermostat, purged the loop, had the manifold rebalanced, and even fitted a new boiler. At one point, unscrewing the actuator
Underfloor Heating: One Room Won’t Warm Up – How to Track Down the Fault Read More »
A homeowner set out to paint an MDF cupboard and doors to a nice white finish. They cleaned the MDF, then rolled on a shellac-based sealing primer (BIN) with a foam roller, working outside on a very hot day. The first batch came out just about acceptable after sanding, but the next day's work dried
Painting MDF Cupboards: Why BIN Primer Went Wrong and How to Get a Smooth Finish Read More »
A homeowner in a 1960s house has spotted odd white patches on the roof rafters up in the loft. They don't stand proud of the timber like fluffy mould would – they look like dry, bleached areas, and if you scratch them a fine dust comes off. The loft is part-boarded, has fairly new insulation,
White Patches on Loft Rafters: Is It White Spot Mould and How Do You Stop It? Read More »
A homeowner in a 2009 new build has taken off a twin socket to spur off a fused connection unit and found the metal back box screwed straight to the blockwork behind, with a big gap between the front of the box and the face of the plasterboard. The face plate was being held on
Metal Back Box Sitting Deep Behind the Plasterboard: Is It Safe and How Do You Fix It? Read More »
A homeowner has snapped the little square-drive spindle off the bleed valve on one of their radiators. The bit you put the key on has sheared clean off. The heating system is a regular (non-combi) system boiler, and they want to know whether they can just swap the bleed valve out without draining the whole
Replacing a Sheared Radiator Bleed Valve: A Homeowner’s Guide Read More »
A homeowner working next to an office refurb is watching the builders next door strip out an old lath and plaster ceiling. The place is thick with dust and bits of plaster, and the builders have said the ceiling is “shot to pieces”. They want to know whether lath and plaster contains asbestos, whether it
Lath and Plaster Ceilings: Asbestos Worries, Overboarding and When to Take the Lot Down Read More »
An electrician has cut a small chase into the kitchen wall below a socket and just above the glass splashback to sort out some cabling. The hole now needs making good, but there's uncertainty about whether the cables should be "capped" before filling over them, what capping actually is, and the safe steps to follow
Filling a Wall Hole Around Cables Under a Kitchen Socket: Do You Need to Cap First? Read More »
A homeowner has lifted a failing patio at the back of the house and found it had been laid over timber decking with a bit of concrete near the wall – no wonder it was moving. Now the ground is opened up, they can see three ventilation channels under the door threshold that were previously
Extending Air Bricks Under a New Patio: How to Keep Sub-Floor Ventilation Working Read More »
This is a common one in UK houses. A homeowner has noticed brown blotchy stains on the wallpaper of an upstairs back bedroom, mainly clustered along the top of an external wall with a few isolated patches lower down. The brickwork outside looks sound, the loft has been checked and there’s no obvious leak, the
Brown Blotches on Upstairs Wallpaper: Damp, Leak, or Just Old Paste? Read More »
