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I have light oak rails and posts on my staircase. These were originally finished with some sort of satin varnish which seems to have kept the wood fairly light in colour, which I like. Recently, a couple of areas suffered some damage but I have been able to carefully sand this out...

The doors were in the house for a couple of weeks before fitting. However, that was during a very warm spell in the summer. I am going to take your advice and remove a very small amount. I am limited to what I can take off as I will have to bring the catch plate flush again and this could throw...

I have recently fitted solid pine doors upstairs in my house. At the moment they are primed and undercoated ready for gloss. I have noticed that during damp weather they seem to swell to the extent that in a couple of instances, they jam in the frame. In dry weather there is reasonable...

I have recently had my stair case oak clad and the fitters finished it off with a couple of coats of varnish and then a coat of Osmo oil. I am now doing other work around the staircase that has meant rubbing some areas of the oak back to bare wood again. I will be re-varnishing the wood but what...

The other night, our central heating came on at around 2am, it was timed to come on at 6:30am. After some investigation, we realised that it was not being controlled by the boiler timer and was effectively on all the time after this, even though it was switched to "Timed" We have Worcester...

Ok, I think I will drill a small test hole to check. Thanks.

"Nothing like proper planning, and having as a pervasive influence the concepts of "just in case...", and "but what if...", is there". Very true. I was occupied more with other aspects of the room than future proofing the electrics. Lesson learned though.

A second cable would require major wall surgery so I will go with either the 5A sockets or an FCU. I think I am leaning toward the FCU solution as it keeps the plugs standard and is easy to implement. Thanks very much for the advice.

The situation is as follows. I have a long partition wall and near to one end there is a socket on each side of the wall, back to back. One of these is on the ring and the other is spurred off with a short length of cable through the wall. I have recently over-clad both sides of the wall with...

I know the limit is one spur from a socket on a ring main. Is this a spur to a double socket? If so, is a spur to two singles back to back in a stud partition ok. I would have thought this would be similar to one double.

Might seem like a daft question but are staircase risers generally the same thickness as the treads? I have some creaky treads and want to screw these down before I get a carpet fitted. I need to know the thickness so that I can locate the centre of the risers for the screws. Otherwise I will...

I had always intended laying hardboard over the floorboards prior to getting my landing carpeted. The floorboards are in pretty good shape but I will run a plane over them to take out any high spots. My question is, is there any advantage to laying hardboard if I am going to have a good quality...

Wasn't aware of that. Thanks. Haven't bought the new socket yet so nothing to change.

We used to have an electric shower which was removed some years ago. Recently, I have re routed the redundant 6mm shower cable to a new double 13A socket on my landing and the MCB has been replaced by a 20A one. I now want to add another socket along the line, however, the 6mm cable was about...

Ok, thanks very much for that.

Bit of a reword to my previous reply. I do know why this cable was run but not why they took a difficult route into the main house rather than pick up the ring main earth in the kitchen. Still, that is unimportant, just want to know what I should do.

Yes, the incoming water main is plastic. I am not really sure why an earth cable was run from close to the water main, up a wall and through the ceiling to pick up the upstairs ring main earth in the main house. I thought I had read that both the gas and water main should be earthed to the main...

Yes, the incoming water main is plastic. I am not really sure why an earth cable was run from close to the water main, up a wall and through the ceiling to pick up the upstairs ring main earth in the main house. I thought I had read that both the gas and water main should be earthed to the main...

Apologies, for Bonding read Earthing. At present there is an earth cable between my gas main and the earth block, there is no direct connection between any water pipe and the earth block. My understanding is that there should be.

I have recently been carrying out some work which has required me to lift a lot of upstairs floorboards and it has enabled me to see the wiring that feeds into the flat roof space of a single story extension. The extension was built well before we moved in. What I have found is that they have...