Recent content by Dougal2345

I recently bought a couple of ceramic tap cartridges for my basin taps - went for type "CC2". Although I was careful to get most measurements correct, I didn't notice that the spline section is a larger diameter than before - gone from a 20-spline 7.6mm to 20-spline 8.8mm, so of course my lever...

Continuing the talk of asbestos and warm air ducting... my (mid-1970s) warm air system was ripped out some years ago, but a long zinc duct pipe was left behind in the loft. I'd like to remove it now as part of a general tidy prior to putting in another layer of loft insulation - but am...

In fact two of the three bedrooms are mostly unused, and I only switch the heat on in the one I use when it's especially chilly. Whereas the rooms downstairs - kitchen, dining room, living room - all are heated much more frequently. So in my case, between-floor insulation may be of more...

I was looking at some "Jablite" sheets in B&Q the other day: http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=10647758&fh_view_size=10&ecamp=aff-p9-awin-001 Would 50mm-thick sheets of this, laid on top of the plasterboard of my downstairs ceiling, be worthwhile? Or are...

Thanks for this! Most of the cables are quite neatly threaded in bundles through large holes in the centre of the joists, or tacked along the centre line of the joists, at about 4" high, so if I could find some 4"-thick "solid" insulation it could, maybe, be slid into place underneath the...

In order to fit some pipes and cables in my house, I've lifted some of the floorboards upstairs. The boards are T&G chipboard, below there is an 8" gap then the plasterboard of the downstairs ceiling, with no insulation between. I've only lifted one strip of board, from the front to the...

Just going back to this, I've noticed that at the point where the concrete floor meets the outside wall at the base of the patio doors, there are lots of little holes and gaps (see picture), which could well be the route that the neighbourhood ants took when they invaded this summer...

Thanks for that, it's put my mind at rest! I thought I was looking at massively expensive repairs for a while there :-)

I've just rolled back the edge of the carpet for the first time on the solid ground floor of my 1970's house and am slightly baffled by what I've found. On top of the black plasticky damp proof layer are wafer-thin (about 2mm), brittle grey-coloured tiles. They have very fine gaps between...