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Hi all I'm thinking about the possibility of changing the access to my cellar and could do with some general advice/tips/stern warnings (as appropriate!). Currently access to the cellar is through a normal (upright) door below the stairs. In an effort to get a bit more usable floor space, I'm...

The thing to the left of the (flow regulator?/slip fitting?) is an old earth bonding clamp. There's a newer one slightly out of shot to the right. There is what looks like a simple butt joint in the steel pipe further down so I guess I could replace with copper to that point if the mystery...

I think the pipe is steel rather than lead. How would I connect on to those pipes if I were to cut out all of the old fittings?

I'm fairly sure the main stopcock is fully open. Fully closing it is a bit more difficult though. The one in the street has recently been replaced with a meter and these issues predate that. The garden tap is after that stopcock. I fear you're probably right about the pipework :-/

I don't think that drain down tap has been turned in about 50 years... it's completely seized up unfortunately. I also don't have a pressure gauge. I was told when the water meter was fitted that the pressure was normal for the area but that flow was definitely abnormally low. Flow rate from...

I have really poor flow rate of the cold main in my house but the pressure is OK. Could the cause be the device fitted inline, just after the main stop and drain down taps? What is that thing? I should have hard water but in the 3 years I've lived here I've never needed to descale the...

I live in an early 1900s semi-detatched house where most of the internal walls are lath and plaster. I'm renovating the living room and I'd like to take down one side of the lath and plaster walls, fill with insulation and refit plasterboard (adding studs/noggins/cable channels as needed)...

Great. Thanks for the advice. Off to search "how to repair a rendered wall" now :roll:

Should I use plaster or render to finish a wall in an open porch? I plan to tile the lower half of the wall and paint the top half once the finish is dry. Something a bit like this: [/img]

I was planning on having some form of emergency lighting in the cellar to give an illumnated route to the CU should everything go dark. The rest of the house should be OK without. Location? I'm in Kent. The room I'm decorating first is the lounge and the CU and incomer are in the cellar...

Thanks for your thoughts folks. It's been really helpful. I'm going to get the spark in to have a look at what I want and where I want it and also to talk about getting a new CU with a single circuit so perhaps the conduit won't be necessary for the electrical side of things.

I like this idea. I was already going propose some non-RCD circuits (freezer, boiler etc). If I understand correctly, I can have a split CU with one half of the circuits protected by a RCD "main switch" and the other with a standard main switch. The lights would go on the non-RCD switch side...

Thanks all for your input so far. One more question... Is there any advantage to not having RCD protection on the lighting circuits?

So 2 x 20mm conduits to each backbox is the way to go? I will also explore the possibility of installing the new CU and a new ring circuit for this room only. It really comes down to cost.

I won't be adding cables. I might put sockets in the backboxes or maybe blanking plates. I simply want to make a suitable route for the cables so that the rewire can happen without the spark having to chase into freshly decorated walls.

I was thinking plastic. Once the rewire happens I'll have an RCD CU.

All straight lengths at the longest 700mm.

Access will be from the cellar below (sockets) or under the floorboards in the bedroom above (lights). I'm only planning to use conduit where the cable is buried in the wall - once in the cellar it would all be surface clipped which is why I thought t&e.