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Thanks both. It certainly doesn't smell like leather, but the the whole car is a bit pongy which is why I want to give it a good clean. And it just doesn't look creased and loose enough to be real leather- the car has done 80k miles and I would have thought genuine leather would be more battered...

Hi all I had to change the car recently, and bought an old (2007) bmw x3. I want to give it a good clean, but in order to do that I think I need to know what materials it is made from. The seats were described as leather, but they don't feel like leather. This is not a problem, I just want to...

A quick follow up question: any reason why I would not use softwood plywood to overboard? Thanks

Thanks. 45 degrees would look great. I had a play around with it, and I think it will be beyond my skill to do it well enough. Paying someone to do it is not an option as we are totally skint and it can't really wait as my wife is pregnant. I think I'm going to go for 12mm ply, and just find...

Thanks - that is certainly worth a try. The problem is that I have actually had the builder do quite a lot of work to that part of the house and the staircase now extends two steps on to those wrong-way-around floorboards, so the bottom two steps sort-of sit on top of the boards that I would...

Hi all I need to floor my hallway. The wife has decided that we are having engineered wood. It is a 1930s house with wooden floorboards that are in pretty decent shape. The hall is long and mostly narrow, so I want to install the boards so they run from the front door in to the house, rather...

Hi all I have a 1930s house that has not seen much TLC for a long time. Sadly it is covered in pebbledash that is a pain to get off. It is very dirty just under the roof - please see the attached picture. How on earth do I clean this? It's a sort-of dark muck. We have a scaffold in place at...

Great - that's good to hear. Thanks for the tip, and giving me some comfort that this is a recognised technique. I was a bit concerned about the security issue as there is nothing mechanical fixing the pane to the building, but clearly silicone is tougher than I had realised!

Thanks chappers. I spoke to the window fitter about it- he said he could simply fit a sealed unit on top of an upstand, with the top sheet of glass larger than the bottom (or something like that. Stuck down with industrial silicone, overlapping the roof covering. If that is an acceptable way to...

Thanks Dave I can get a double glazed sealed unit made up to the right size easily enough. It is the frame that I am struggling with! I don't think I can just use a normal window frame for a rooflight - can I?

Thanks both. Chappers, that's really specific advice - thank you. I will ask the plasterer to do that. David - that is what I am looking for - a thin, 300mm wide flat rooflight - I am not looking for a lantern. Unfortunately they seem to start at 600mm width!

Hi all I am putting a rear extension on the back of a typical 1930s detached house. The extension goes out 4m, and extends beyond the side wall of the house on the kitchen side by about 3m. It has a flat roof. The kitchen part of the extension is very light: I've got 4.5m of bifolds and a...

Hi all We are having an extension built. The kitchen will be approx 6m x 4m. We want a tiled floor (probably slate), and under-floor heating. I am trying to determine the best system to go for; as well as the best method for the tiling. This is what my research has uncovered- I would...

Thanks. I took it from your comments up thread that the neighbour has a clear claim if I damage his house. I guess the neighbours home insurance would cover the cost in the first instance? This is of real concern to me. We are proposing to do work that has very little chance of damaging...

Fair question. There are suggestions in other threads that a competent builder would take measures to protect nearby houses anyway when digging foundations, so I took that to mean that failure to do so would be negligent. If not the builder, then does the engineer or the bco have any...

I'm also about to give a party wall notice because we are extending within 3m of my neighbours garage. But my question is: if the work we do does damage my neighbours property, do I recover the costs of rectifying it from my builder?

I just said that the rectification is still wrong, and that skirting boards are not a safe zone. They took off the boards, and pulled the cables up through the floor directly below where the socket is. In the other room the cable does run along just under floor level for a few cm, but that...

Update: he has taken off the skirting board and rerun the cable properly. Phew.

This is exactly what happened. He has said that it is not compliant and is coming back to rectify; the reason he gave was exactly as you state. The main electrician had been away for a week or so and left his team to carry on - he's had a look and said it was wrong and will fix it. I will just...

Possibly not. But running cables in places where people don't expect them does seem a trifle dangerous, wouldn't you agree?