Recent content by pcdj

So they've actually all got "hoods" - I don't really know the technical term - the light shines sideways, rather than directly upwards, hopefully diminishing some of that light pollution. You're right; sorry, it's an residual current circuit breaker. They're not a bulb but a single unit of...

Sadly all the wiring's buried under concrete and all I have access to are the tails. I have easy access to the ends of this circuit coming into the distribution board so I had the idea of disconnecting it and passing 12V down the line and using a multimeter to check which light's metal housing...

I have 35 stepping stones placed around my garden, each with two 1W uplighters embedded into them shining upwards. Occasionally these units will get wet and short out, requiring them to be replaced. How can I efficiently figure out which of the 70 bulbs is causing the short given the moment I...

I have an existing installation of about 20 meters of LED strip lighting on my patio steps which needs replacing, and I'd like to DIY it. My patio steps are designed as in the picture. In blue are thepatio tiles. There's a small horizontal overhang of about 15mm, and then a small riser (I hope...

I've had the same installation of Tado and Ecotec boiler for about two years and have had no issues in that time, but at some point last night my boiler decided to keep the central heating on despite Tado being shut off (at least according to what the app was reporting to me). I can turn the...

Good point. It could be. I've certainly seen some coming and going around the garden, but not many. Question is what should one do in this situation? If it's rats then I may have a potential fire/building hazard on my hands, but if it's squirrels perhaps less so.

We've recently heard a lot of scratching happening on our exterior walls which I thought at first might have been coming from outside, but I now think may be from inside the wall cavity. Assuming my hunch is correct and we have rats, should I be going to an exterminator, a builder, or perhaps a...

Unfortunately I don't think it's been plumbed correctly. Here is a rudimentary drawing of my loft. The empty black box to the right is my neighbour (semi-detached property). As far as I can make out from looking in the eaves of the loft there's one rather fat (6" diameter?) pipe exiting the...

Possible. The piping between the toilet and the shower drain can't be any longer than 60-70cm, so I would've thought it'd still have some suck at that distance - even with a vent pipe in place. I also don't meant to give the impression of "one flush and the shower seal is broken" - it takes a...

The new house we've moved into has a couple of tiny en-suites fitted in two of the bedroom - a shower, toilet, and sink - but the showers rarely get used as they're not too spacious. Whilst the showers don't get any use the toilets do, and whoever fitted them has plumbed the shower drain to the...

Not a typo. 12V power. Thanks.

Didn't consider this to be strictly woodwork; can a moderator please move this to a different category if 'general' is inappropriate? I need to cut through some backboard in the back of my wardrobes to feed some power cables through. I can't remove the backboard, and unfortunately don't have...

I'm doing a bit of redecorating in my living room and need to make the right half of a two gang wall socket "disappear" - preferably flush to the wall. I'm thinking I can either pull out the existing pattress and reposition the entire two gang unit half-a-box-width to the left, pull out the...

I've been looking around for materials to finish off an Ikea wardrobe and make it look more "fitted" - I have a 50mm gap between the top of the wardrobes and the ceiling which I need to fill. I've visited Lawsons, Jewsons, B&Q, Travis Perkins, Wickes, B&Q, Homebase, a local timber merchant, to...

That's really cool! Unfortunately I have to go horizontally sideways from my TV, rather than vertically :-/