Recent content by Catman Chris

Thanks John. The adjustable metal foot on the temporary roof prop in the pic ( 2x2 CLS) is the eventual foot for the post. The end grain will be painted and then have a decorative skirting around the bottom , probably from synthetic material and then painted with the same paint as the post. As...

I have a porch at the front of the house. It is two 11cm posts holding up an apex roof. It is painted white. The bottom of both posts have rotted and need replacing. I am capable of doing this once I get the right size posts. I have considered laminating some untreated wood and then thicknessing...

I did the same thing last year, took out the wall between the kitchen and dining room. A structural engineer cost £450 and the local authority buildings dept certificate and inspections cost another £250. Both were well worth it but I did the rest myself. I got the beam to the SE's spec from a...

Do you just come on here because you like the sound of your own voice? I get the impression that if I said it had to be painted white you would insist it should be another colour.

Actually it didn't require to be near the boiler. It is in the airing cupboard one floor up and 40 feet away from the boiler with the internet hub in the lounge at the other end of the house to the boiler.

I had the same thermostat in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs and converted it to a newer modern design a couple of years ago. Just recently we had a new boiler installed along with a Hive. The chap installing it fitted a receiver box in the airing cupboard and disconnected the wires...

Thanks John I have four isolator switches in the same cupboard and a grid switch setup takes up a lot less space. The switches themselves were ordered with the name of the appliances on them i.e. Dishwasher, oven etc. My question was about the best way to connect the oven and not about...

The legalities of isolator switches in cupboards has been covered quite comprehensively on DIYnot and my proposed set up conforms to building regs. It was in fact suggested by the qualified electrician that installed my new consumer unit. I tend to agree that the isolator switch for an oven on...

I am approaching the installation of my new kitchen. I have a separate built in oven to be mounted 3ft off the ground in a tall appliance unit with an isolation switch in an adjacent larder unit. The switch is an MK grid switch 20 amp rated. My question is:- can I just surface mount a single...

Buy some stilts for your loft boards. Sold at B&Q. That way you can have insulation between your rafters and another blanket of insulation over that.

I have just bought the Macallister 9" grinder from Screwfix along with a diamond disc for under £60. I used it last weekend to make a floor to ceiling cut in an internal brick wall. It performed faultlessly. It did want to wander a little but all angle grinders of this size do. Its the same...

Thanks John - we have got away with it for years but I guess it had to happen sometime. The house was rewired in the 80's at a time when the washing machine was in the kitchen and tumble driers were a luxury. Whilst the ceiling is down I will be looking to replace the spur with a radial circuit...

In my earlier posts I have mentioned that we are having a wall removed between the kitchen and dining room. The wall is out and beam is in. During the process of doing this our kettle and microwave were relocated to our separate utility room. This room is wired with its wiring in surface...

Thanks Tony. I did sort of wonder myself. What worried me was that he said that he had not yet read the engineers report! Unfortunately it does not get me out of having to dig a hole in my dining room floor.

Thanks Woody. The house was built on Shale in the 50's and the BCO seems to think that internal walls don't have the same robust foundations as the exterior walls. As the load on the Nib will be more than before the rest of the wall was removed he wants to see if the foundations are up to the...