Recent content by Mander

My bathroom door has a regular lever door handle with your standard tubular mortice latch, with no lock. I want to swap it for something that locks for privacy, but it seems like all of the handles I've found are of the type that have two latches, one above the other. I'd rather not have to...

Ah if it's just the bar then I will just reuse the old one as I already cut that the last time I replaced the door handle. I guess I just didn't pay any attention to the specs when I bought the existing handle. It's just a bathroom door but my husband thinks I should replace it with one that...

I need to replace a door handle but all I'm finding is handles for a door that's a minimum of 35mm thick. My door is only 30mm. What part of the door handle determines the door thickness? Is it something I can easily cut to fit or otherwise modify?

It's a bit awkward to get a good photo, but this is what the underside looks like. The join is about 30cm to the left of the edge of the piece that has been added.

I could try that. I'd rather hack that up than try to cut down the finished edge of the cupboard unit.

Maybe "wide" would be a better description? But yes, there's a piece of MDF/chipboard screwed to the underside of the worktop but the gap it leaves on the right is 2cm too narrow to fit the cupboard as is. The pole is going.

Yeah the pole is trash, I only put it there when I moved in because I thought the worktop needed support. I don't think I'd need it with the cupboard there.

My kitchen is a wreck but I want to make some temporary improvements while I save up to gut it and redo. In particular I am thinking about replacing the old under counter fridge and freezer with a combined one. It just so happens that I have an extra cupboard that isn't attached to anything...

There's no frame to speak of, they are uPVC windows in a brick wall. Or at least I have yet to find one in this house. Turned out there was some kind of steel beading (? not sure what to call it but it was quite thick, but on the inside of the house rather than the external wall side) on the...

Ah I'm perhaps just in the wrong place.

I live in a mid-50s ex council house and it seems that every time I try to do what should be a simple job I run into a problem. Today I started to hang Venetian blinds in a window recess. However I can only drill through a centimetre or so of plaster before I hit something too hard for my...

Yeah it's a former council house that was built around 1950 and most likely had a full rewire in the 80s when the council did an improvement programme in the area. I think later owners had some not-so-great work done (some of the wiring in the kitchen is not chased in, for example) but all the...

I'm reasonably confident the wiring isn't too dodgy after having all that work done a few years ago. Eventually it needs rewiring, I know. However I got up my courage to take the roses off and wiggled some wires and tightened some screws. None of them seemed especially loose but that did the...

Roses are all this type. The ones with screws are the ones that aren't working. I went back through my files and the consumer unit replacement and EICR happened in 2019. The actual wiring is all roughly 1980s vintage, I believe.

Sigh, sounds like a daylight job. I probably ought to hire someone as I'm not very experienced with this sort of thing but I'll turn off the power and see if I can see anything obvious in the morning.