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We have a pair of Keston 170s that keep failing (surprise, surprise, please no lectures on just binning then as we know all that and will do it in a year or two). A succession of new Pektron units, igniters and igniter cables have gone in, the latest only a month ago. Yet despite this it fails...

OK it’s a bodge but realistically there was no time to re-mortar them so a few more years would have gone by till they started crashing to the ground. The alternative argument runs like this. For thousands of years lime mortar has been used and it’s know it lasts decades at best (about 20...

How UV proof is Aquaprufe? Do I need to sprinkle sand over it to reflect the sun?

After 25 years the ridge tiles on my roof are quite loose in places. They are a grey cement/concrete type. Some can be just picked up as the mortar no longer ‘sticks’ them on. The mortar looks like lime and is quite soft/eroded in places but none falls out in chunks even if I do lift a tile...

Many thanks for input. To clarify, the faces have not yet spalled except on the top brick which is the wettest. What about these 3 new solutions for the 3 different areas of this wall? 1) Main bit where the stone capping has recently loosened: Remove the top brick layer which is the only...

The wall is a cavity wall, apart from the top course, with maybe concrete blocks against the earth for the inner face. This maybe explains why the lower bricks are not spalling as they are kept drier by the cavity, whereas the top brick can directly pick up water though its end in contct with...

A builder built me a low garden wall (600mm max) 4 years ago. This was backfilled with earth to within 20-50 mm of the top. The top was normal bricks on their edge. After a couple of years the tops of 50% of them were badly spalled by frost with 5mm or more flaked off. I tried a silicone...

4 years ago my mother’s cylinder, element and stat were changed. Last week she used it for the first time and after 5 or so minutes heating from stone cold (about 15C) it stopped working. I found the stat open circuit so changed it, but the same thing happened with the new one. I noticed that...

Coffin tank might work but this is a holiday house and in winter when it’s unused and unheated we may have to lightly heat the tank to keep it from freezing. The larger the surface area of tank the more volume we have to heat and the more heat loss. Anyone recommend a suitable freeze...

Due to very limited loft space I want to fit the smallest possible header tank on my new hot water system. It feeds the hot taps in a 4 bed house, but not the cold ones. Can I use an 4 gallon tank or is there some Bylaw or Regulation that demands a bigger one? Does the 4 gallons refer to the...

4 years ago my mother’s cylinder, element and stat were changed. This week she used it for the first time and after 5 or so minutes it stopped working. I found the stat open circuit so changed it, but the same thing happened with the new one. I noticed that the overheat trip had tripped on the...