Recent content by confused-one

easier said than done - concrete base appears to be over a foot deep.

because it runs up against a back door and an 8ft wide patio door and is already essentially flush with these. If I came higher the decking would be sticking up above the entrances and would be one hell of a trip hazard

Hi, I want to replace the paving in my garden with decking. The problem is that there is a very, very thick concrete base underneath the slabs that are currently there, and I can't go any higher than the slabs are at present. The slabs are about 5cm thick, so once removed that is all I...

A small part of the upstairs flooring on a house I bought a little while ago is sagging when stepped upon. The house is a former local-authority house, build 23 years ago. The flooring looks like it is large sheets of plywood, which are nailed down every 2ft or so. The central heating...

I have a wooden-framed house. The exterior of the upstairs is tiled and the downstairs is some kind of wood boarding/cladding, which is painted. (The house was built in 1981). Moisture has obviously managed to get in to this wood along what appears to be a vertical join. The wood is spongy to...

Ok, further (quick) investigation leads me to conclude that all of the cabling consists of a dark grey outer, black and red sheathed wires and an unsheathed silver wire. I don't know how flexible the silver wire is (because it was still live and I needed the lights on....i'll buy a torch...

The thing is, the other wiring in the house has 'normal' copper earth wiring and this is silver so I am far from convinced it is supposed to be an earth. It could well be that the wire has yellow sheathing all the way and that it has just been aggressively stripped back and then poked up ito the...

There are 3 wires - black, red and unsheathed. The unsheathed is silver, not copper, and is appears to be live all around the house. It is sheathed in yellow and used as the common wire for the switches for the landing light but appears to not be used otherwise, just grouped together at each...

I'm trying to put new lighting in a house I recently bought but none of the lighting anywhere in the house seems to have an earth wire! (The house was built in 1981 so the electrics should all be of that era). Re-wiring the whole house is a total non-starter.....so do I have to return my...