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Hi, I'm in the process of refurbishing a lean-to extension. Originally there was a false ceiling with no insulation at all. I've pulled all of that out and fitted 50mm Celotex between rafters and 62mm insulated plasterboard under rafters (so another 50mm insulation + the 12mm plasterboard)...

Hi, i'm renovating a lean to extension (1960ish) and trying to get an idea of the costs. The floor is cracked in a couple of places and doesn't have any dpm so i asked a builder in to take a look. He's said the floor needs pulling out and new one putting in with dpm. The room just over 5m long...

my mistake...i think it's a conventional boiler for open vented system. I have 2 tanks in the loft, a cylinder and boiler. The water levels in the tanks are fine and pump has been going ok this afternoon. Could the chugging be something to do with bearings, or another mechanism about to give up?

thanks for the reply, the system is open vented with combi boiler

The pump for my hot water and heating kicked in at about 5am this morning as usual but this time it chugged very loudly for a few minutes before finally jumping into life and working as normal. I've been here 3 years and it's always been a tad noisy but always worked fine. The chugging concerns...

I have a couple of windows with rotten frames and broken glass. I could just replace the glass but the rotten frame would cause problems. So, instead I'm making new frames and windows to fit. It would appear that I need planning permission for this. The question is can I get away with single...

So i've decided that while i'm working on the walls i'll put lintels in even though there's not really a structural problem. I've bought 2 concrete lintels from Wickes but just realised that they're rough finish. This should be fine on the inside but for the outside i'm presuming i need...

I'm in the process stripping off the plaster on a lean-to 1950s ish extension to our house. It seems that there's no lintel above the window (inside or out). The wall is solid brick (no cavity) and 2 bricks thick. The window frame must be supporting the outer leaf but as far as i can tell...

The electrics mounted on the wall of my house (main supply + meter) were mounted on a board. This was in a bad way when we bought the property and soon disintegrated. I want to mount the boxes back to the wall but can i mount onto a wooden board (mdf) or do i need a specific material? Thanks

I'm in the process of renovating a 1940s lean-to extension. The lengthways brick wall butts up to an older gable sandstone wall but doesn't appear to be tied in. (see photo). I guess it's stood the test of time but should i be thinking of tying in? if so is there anything suitable for...

I'm trying to find out what the regs are for surfacing over drainage. I thought that for certain depths it needed to be concrete. I'm asking because i'm thinking of getting block paving our driveway but want to make sure that i meet regs for drainage. Drainage is a mixture of clay and poly...

apologies...didn't realise i'd posted twice

Cheers again. Yeah in the ideal world i would drop the ground level. I might be able to gain a couple of inches but nothing more unfortunately. I'm definately not an expert and am getting a range of opinions. My thinking originally was a French Drain below internal ground level and connected to...

Thanks for the advice. My thought was that by installing a land drain we could take water away from the walls in a similar way that a French Drain would work. I'd welcome your suggestions on how else i could deal with the walls.

Another builder has suggested the following: "i would suggest we dig out along the wall and create a barrier between the wall and the aggregates using a medium dense breeze block then bed the channel on top." I hadn't considered this as i was thinking of getting the water away from the...

Following on from my post bout tanking, i'm now low looking at solving the problem from outside. The problem: penetrating damp from raised groundlevel, 1ft above inside Possible solution: Double drain: land drain below internal floor level with Aco drain on surface. And membrane against the...

Following on from my post bout tanking, i'm now low looking at solving the problem from outside. The problem: penetrating damp from raised groundlevel, 1ft above inside Possible solution: Double drain: land drain below internal floor level with Aco drain on surface. And membrane against the...

i should probably also mention that externally the wall is rendered, so lots of concrete and rendering = recipe for damp! I'm looking for the easiest sound solution. Just started looking into Aco drains, looks like it may be an option but i can't find much on the use of these in areas with...