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Hi all, I have an Edwardian brick chimney in my kitchen. I want to create a squared-up opening in it. The brickwork in the body of the chimney starts to form the throat of the chimney below the height at which I want to square the opening up. I have had formal calculations done and inserted...

Thanks. I'm not trying to be deliberately obtuse (just trying to understand) but ... Ok, get it. The devices cannot cause any sort of overload. But, short circuit. If the fault current is likely to be 100s of amps, why are you suggesting I swap the RCBO for a 32amp one and/or why is John...

Hi John, Thanks for the post. I am clearly not a spark so excuse the dumb question, but if 2.5mm cable is rated to 27A maximum, I don't understand how a 32A RCBO would (and a 45A RCBO probably would) protect it from a short circuit induced high load? Is this the "can withstand approx. 1.5 x...

If I were perverse, for reasons I can't think of right now, and insisted on keeping the 45A RCBO would using 4mm cable for the links to each appliance be better than using 2.5mm? Thanks, again, for your help.

Rationally, nothing, I guess. Just feels a bit messy but I guess it's what everyone else does.

@EFLImpudence - Thanks for the reply. I guess I am struggling to find a junction box that isn't some sort of surface mounted monstrosity that will take a 10mm cable and 5 or so 2.5mm cables! If I don't fuse down when I break the 10mm cable into multiple 2.5mm cables before I get to the...

Hi, I have a 10mm cable, fed from a dedicated 45 RCBO in my consumer unit, feeding my current range cooker. Everything (mains incomer, consumer unit, all internal wiring) done in 2012. SWMBO has redesigned the kitchen. She has ordained that we shall have a 16 amp rated oven; a separate 13 amp...

Hi, Thanks for all of the replies above. (1) Whatever the rights and wrongs of the '45 degree spread of the load', it's a bit of a moot point. The beams are steels are roughly central above the door frame and that's roughly a square area of brickwork above the door frame too. So, one way or...

Hi, We've taken down our kitchen ceiling and think we've found the root cause of something. Our house is Edwardian. Resting on the wall above our kitchen doorway is these two steels. They're supporting a single skin, single storey, internal brick wall above (about 4m long x 2.4m high). For...

@JohnD - You are right, the external stone header is intended to be decorative. Its inclusion in the scheme has been specified by me as an aesthetic requirement. The SE has then proposed a set of steels that will sit behind it and take the full structural load. He has, though, additionally...

Thanks for the replies. In fairness to the SE he is not specifying that we must have a structural stone header. The load is carried by the steels. He is suggesting that it would be preferable "belt and braces" to attempt to find a stone header that can take some load. His design, though, is...

Let the lime mortar crust over a bit then smack it in hard with a slightly damp churn brush - makes a fantastic finish. The pointing above - not my cup of tea: I don't like the pointing-stands-proud crazy paving school of pointing, looks pretty unsympathetic to what was there before and has...

Hi, We would like to install some bifold doors, with a cast Bath/Ham stone header/lintel for the external face of the opening to match the rest of the house. We have had structural calculations done. The structural engineer has specified the steels to carry the entire load but has suggested we...

Ok, new immersions heaters it is, then. And if the tank is full of crust, new tank too. I see on line that you can get plenty of tanks with a single immersion heater feeding in from the top. I'm guessing this means I won't have the faff of draining off if I need to replace it again. However, I...

Thanks, both. The immersion heaters were bought at the same time, from the same shop, and ar ethe same make/model so I guess it's not inconceivable they come from a faulty batch. Is it likely that both could have encrusted so quickly?

Hi, I have a traditional copper hot water tank, with two immersion heaters - one powered from economy 7 and a 'booster' one powered from the normal mains. The E7 one (bottom of the tank) is used every night. The booster one has had occasional use. Both were replaced about a year ago. The tank...

If I were you, I'd consder calling the tiler back while you're at it. Brick bonding of large tiles is inherently a bit more challenging than plain old side by side bonding as it is very intolerant of walls that are not flat horizontally. If they're not, or you don't compensate by packing out...

Hi All, @fezster - good thinking on moving that balanced PRV, but I saw it too late ... ... because I've now fitted an additional PRV to the cold feed after the tee to the unvented tank. I guess that does mean I have a pipe, with a tee, with both sides of the tee having a PRV where, as fezster...

Hi All, @Nozzle & @Old&Cold - yes, there were commissioning instructions to alter the temperature range. I've followed those and 'turned everything up to 11'. There is no provision for fitting flow restrictors in the instructions. So, I'm fairly confident that there isn't a shower installation...

Hi John, Thanks. My plan is that both hot and cold will be regulated down to the same-ish pressures, albeit using two PRVs - the preset one already on the feed to the unvented hot cylinder and a new one I will add to the cold. The pipework isn't really conducive to using the same PRV (I can't...