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Recently drained and refilled our open vented system with X400 to clean it out. It's been a long time since it was done. It went well. I carefully filled and then vented all the rads, but there's clearly air in the system. What I think is happening, is this: At the very top of our system...

We have an open vented system that hasn't been drained for some time. The pump is struggling, but before I change it, I wanted to drain and refill the system with X400 for a week or two, then drain and re-fill. The only drain I can find is on the boiler, which isn't the lowest point in the...

We have a power shower in our family bathroom which is triggered and powered from the lighting circuit (switched and permanent live). My problem is that our bathroom has a large east-facing window, which means there's no reason to turn the light on in the morning during spring/summer/autumn...

We had an electric shower installed a few weeks ago, and it has a solenoid valve that shuts off the water abruptly. Because of where we live our mains pressure is very high, resulting in a very pronounced water hammer effect. This morning that caused the compression joint on the pipe to fail...

We've fitting a new bathroom and have started pulling the tiles off in the shower. Behind them is some kind of cement board rather than plasterboard. Picture below. Although we've been careful, some of it has broken away from the studwork behind. Firstly, what is it? I've fitted a bathroom...

Recently had electricians in, running thick cables for power showers. The route they took meant chopping a section of plasterboard to reveal the breezeblock wall beneath. The work is now complete, and I'm ready to close the wall up, but I'm not sure the best way to do it. I've fixed stud...

I'm installing an outdoor socket for our hot tub. I've gone through the wall and installed an IP66 rated enclosure, and had indented to spur off an existing socket in the living room. I drilled at the centre height of that socket on the adjacent wall to make sure the cable run will be in the...

Our downstairs cloakroom/toilet has an extractor fan which isn't connected to the lighting circuit (as far as I know). It's got a pull cord and there isn't an isolator anywhere, so I presume it's either wired into the socket ring or the lighting circuit and permanently live. I haven't traced...

I'm trying to get my head around our CH system and while I think I get most of it, I'm a bit stumped by one or two features. I've labelled the pipes and the bits I'm curious about. Hopefully, someone can explain. 1) Is the expansion for the hot water? Lower down is a T which goes up and...

I've recently pulled up the carpet in my daughter's bedroom to redecorate. Before I put down laminate, I need to lift the floor to sort out a badly installed cabling. The floor aleady has a few odd shapes which look like cutouts? I have found about five, all of which look like they've been...

I'm running CAT6 cable from the ground floor of my house up into the loft, so my kids can have very fast Internet connectivity in their bedrooms, and so I can make the wi-fi super quick. The best route for the cable takes me through a stud wall and up the stairwell into the loft. I've opened...

I'd like to put power in our loft, but I'm not sure of the best way, or what regulations might cover it. There's a spur that a previous owner of the house put in, but tracing that lead back to a ceiling rose in a bedroom, so I don't want to go anywhere near that. What should I be considering...

A while ago the tap on our kitchen sink broke. I decided to take the opportunity to change out the whole sink, which was grotty and old. So, I removed the waste pipes, cut the feeds, and installed iso valves. So far so good. I knew there wasn't going to be a lot of overlap with the...

I'm in the process of replacing my kitchen sink. Unfortunately the previous owner of the house was a bit of a bodger, and he didn't bother with things like isolators, which means, in order to replace the tap, I have to turn off the supply to the entire house. Obviously, as I replace the sink /...

I need to replace the sink in my kitchen. I've bought one to install, and a mixer tap to fit the sink which came with 400mm flexible tails. The existing pipework is copper all the way to the tap, but the installation is in a different place on this sink (50mm to the right), so flexible tails...

I need to replace the sink in my kitchen as it's old and grotty, and the tap broke last night. I've looked online and seen a few that appear to meet my requirement, but I'm not sure about sizes. The existing sink measures 1010mm from end to end (including the drainer), however, the one I like...

We've lived in our house for three and a half years. In that time the water pressure's been just about adequate in our bathroom and ensuite. We have a hot water tank in the airing cupboard on the landing (close to both showers) and cold water is fed from a large plastic tank in the loft. In...

Out kitchen is served by a single fitting in the centre of the room, with a switch at either end of room. One near the doorway into the hall, and one near the doorway to the utility room. The one at the utility room end is obscured by the fridge and can't be used. Over time the fridge moves...

In my garage there was originally one double socket on an RCD. The previous owner of the house has T'd in to this to add a single socket elsewhere in the garage. The T was done in a very haphazard way which I need to soft out anyway, however, a friend recently pointed out to me that it really...

A previous owner of our house installed an exterior light under the porch. Unfortunately he didn't do a terribly good job of it. The light is wired into the hall lighting circuit, meaning when you turn on the hall lights, on comes the one outside too. Not really what we want, and I'm guessing...