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Where the builders have left their materials, well as the bags of cement there are 2 types of sand - building sand and plastering sand. Is there any problem with using either of those?

These are a couple of pictures. I took the picture of the red bricks, which are on the front, a few weeks ago. The builders have now completely repointed the front of the house. On the back, they've mainly been replacing damaged bricks and haven't done much of the repointing yet...

Hi. Thanks for your replies. I'm in London. The bricks on the front of my house are red. The bricks on the back are yellow London stock.

Hi. I'm getting the brickwork on my Victorian terrace house repointed. Before the builders started, I asked what type of mortar they use. They told me lime mortar. But they're using Portland cement. A couple of people have told me cement mortar is fine for brick. But I thought that's what you...

Hi. I'm trying to plumb in a period radiator. I've used 3/4" x 1/2" reducers to make modern valves fit. It leaks around the reducers, where they screw into the radiator. I used PTFE tape around the threads but perhaps that's not enough. Would a good helping of jointing compound do it? Or should...

Yes, not sure that would look right.

The reason I don't want to stand it on the floor is that it's too short – only 40cm high.

Great. Thanks. That's very helpful. I'll upload a pic when I'm done.

I've got a small, old-fashioned cast iron radiator that I want to fit. It's only 55cm wide by 40cm tall. So it's too short to stand on feet on the floor – but it's still very heavy. What would you use to fix it to the wall?

Thanks. Yes, these ones look too heavy to be held up by copper pipe.

That sounds like it applies to these ones - there's a connection at the top of the radiator on one side and at the bottom of the other side. I just guessed at the size of the connection, so 3/4" or 1" may well be correct. Thanks very much.

Hi. I wanted to install an old cast iron radiator in my flat. I haven't bought the radiator yet but it looks like the fittings are 22mm. The pipework in my flat is 15mm. That works fine with my combi boiler. Can I install the radiator on 15mm pipework? It looks like it's physically possible...

Thanks for your replies. Very helpful. There's no communal buildings insurance. There are just two flats in the building and it's a quirk of the leases that each flat is responsible for its own buildings insurance. I put in a claim to my insurer. Initially, they said they thought it was a...

Hi. I'm based in London. A 2.5 m sq section of my kitchen ceiling collapsed a couple of months ago, thanks to an unattended leak in the flat above me. The whole ceiling is about 8 m sq. I put in a claim on my buildings insurance, which I'm beginning to regret now. Two months later, nothing...

Hi. I need to get some windows in my flat replaced and I'd like to have double glazing put in. I had an estimate from Anglian - which was sky-high - and I'd like to ask a few smaller, local firms to quote. I'm in London. I've been looking on mybuilder. Does anybody have any other...

Hi. I've got a bay window in my kitchen that needs replacing. The original single-glazed wooden frame is quite rotten and I'd like to have it replaced with new double-glazed windows. Over the winter, there was a leak in the ceiling of the bay window, caused by a damaged gutter. The leak is...