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I've run a network cable from the living room to an upstairs bedroom up the front wall of the house. When I drilled the upstairs hole, I discovered that it came out in the strip of serrated soft black material (sorry, don't know what it's properly called) that covers the join between the porch...

That's extremely condescending, as I'm sure you're aware. I'm completely serious. I want to extend the downstairs wired network upstairs, and there are no existing conduits I could run cable through. Cables along exterior walls are a completely normal and accepted part of the urban landscape -...

I want to put Ethernet sockets in my living room and in the bedroom directly above, connected by a cable that will run up the front exterior wall of the house. See the photo below (not my house) for how I'd like the cable to be positioned relative to the windows. I want both sockets to sit just...

After many years (well over 20 I think) of summer use, our trusty floor-standing bedroom fan has decided to seize up. I'd rather repair than replace if possible. Having stripped it down, it looks like the issue is with this bit at the back; it seems to be some kind of bearing that allows the...

I'm going to be using cement screws to attach wooden battens to some concrete fence posts. I've never used cement screws before, and the ones I bought say they need a 6mm pilot hole. I experimented by drilling into a breeze block and winding the screw halfway in. With a 6mm hole, there was a...

Thanks - that's what I wanted to hear :)

I need to fix wooden battens to concrete fence posts. Screwfix has two different types of concrete screw - ones with Torx heads with a thread pitch that looks like regular wood screw, and screwbolts that have a *much* wider thread pitch. The screwbolts are significantly more expensive. Is there...

Rather surprised to discover a very young oak tree growing unbidden at the front of the house. It's only about 6 feet from the front wall. Is it ultimately going to have to be moved to avoid root damage to the foundations?

You mean use some kind of sealant to fill between the siphon outlet and the hole in the cistern? Will any old bathroom sealant do? "Mastic" seems to be one of those generic words that can mean a huge variety of products.

After changing the flush, I reinstalled it without any PM. It immediately started leaking. I had a bit of a Google round and found various videos from plumbers demonstrating how to use PM, so I tried it and it worked (or at least seemed to). This was the video that convinced me: Cool, when...

A couple of months ago I replaced the flush unit in a close-coupled toilet, and I resealed using a new doughnut and a ring of Plumber's Mait on both sides of the (new) metal coupling plate. I let the cistern refill as soon as everything was reinstalled. Everything seemed fine, but I've now got...

Yes, the round holes for the drills are obvious, it's the teardrop shapes for the screws that seemed odd.

This is probably a very dumb question, but I'm uncertain why the screw gauges on this strip of Plasplugs are that elongated teardrop shape. Is the idea that the slot for (say) the 5mm plug is sized to indicate the maximum and minimum thicknesses of screw thread that can be used with that plug...

Thankyou!

With one of our toilets, when the cistern is about 95% refilled the stream of water becomes just a drip, which goes on effectively forever since it'll never get to the completely full mark before someone else needs to flush. It's just loud enough to be annoying at night when the house is quiet...

Ignore - found a YT video that covered everything I needed to know.

OK, I understand... I think :) The only manhole cover I can find is in the shared driveway between us and our neighbours (it says "Osmadrain Inspection Chamber"), and it's secured with large screws in each corner, so I'm not going to mess with that, I'll get an expert in.

From my POV as a plumbing layperson, that seems counter-intuitive. What's the mechanism by which a blockage allows an apparently completely normal flush that doesn't back up in the bowl, but actually leads to a *lower* water level?

OK, the toilet is now flushing completely normally - no hint of backing up - and at the end of the flush the water level is where it normally sits, but over the next few minutes it sinks to below the visible "tidemark" established over years.

I'm not actually sure if we have a manhole.