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Open windows and let cold air in. Don't do it.

The extremely wet winter of 2013/14 has tested the damp resistance of even the driest UK properties. Short of full air conditioning, increasing air movement is the only way that will solve domestic condensation problems on walls behind furniture etc., in corners at the bottom and top of...

Fireplaces that have been used to burn coal produce sulphate salts, and wood ash contains potassium oxide, both of which are chemicals that deliquesce when exposed to atmospheric moisture, soak into the brickwork and will become damp whenever the brickwork is colder than the dewpoint...

Applying heat is a difficult task at skirting level. Heat rises by convection, away from near the floor where the problem is. Better to use an ordinary unheated fan to direct air at ambient room temperature to the area where condensation is a problem. Once the skirting area reaches the same...

Neodymium Nd alloy magnets. Small magnets of this type can prove lethal if swallowed, especially by small children, and may be powerful enough to cause injury to adults if handled without caution. Really strong magnets of this sort can be found in old hard disk drives, CD/DVD drives, and...

You could try altering the water surface behaviour of the tiles by coating with a water repellant like Thompsons Water Seal. Then the individual raindrops would splash off, rather than collecting on the surface of the tile to collect at the pointed end and drop downwards.

Except for newer builds, UPVC double glazing has replaced some earlier glazing solution - timber or metal framed - and the surveys that determine the size of the glazing units produced are often very inaccurate. The guys who fit the windows will fit what they are given for the job, however much...

It's a lot of work trying to disperse the paste flakes in the full volume of water - use the following method: Use half the final volume of water required and quickly stir in the paste to disperse the flakes evenly. Leave for 30 minutes until the white bits have all gone into a clearish...

As a general rule, if the thickness of the wall is the same as the length of a brick, plus about 25mm for plaster etc, then the wall does not have an appreciable cavity, and will be as cold as a solid brick wall. Even a 25mm air cavity will have little thermal effect. Whatever the bond visible...

A square Kilometer (1000x1000 =1,000,000m) with 25mm (.025m), or 1 inch of rain is equivalent to 25,000 cu M (=25000x1000 litres) 25,000,000 kg or 25,000 tonnes water The average annual precipitation for Greenwich over the period 1981 - 2010 per year was 557.4 mm, or 557,400 tonnes/km^2...

I have a portable detector for hidden metal, wiring and studs in walls behind plasterboard. When a cable is live, the detector beeps instead of a steady tone for dead cables. Search for live wire detector online. Make sure it is audible. should be less than £10. Tape the detector to the...

I've seen council (Hounslow) properties given a complete extra skin of brickwork over the insulation batts that have been applied to exterior of the solid walls. Here's a link to a slightly less elaborate solution: http://www.markgroup.co.uk/homeowners/insulation/external-wall-insulation One...

Strip or tape LEDs usually run on 12v DC from a high efficiency electronic transformer. They have an adhesive backing, and come in White, Warm White, Red, Blue, Green, etc, and multicolours. Multicoloured LEDs can be operated with a controller to change colour and pattern depending on type...

It is condensation occurring on the inside surface of a cold solid exterior wall. It is neither penetrating, nor rising damp, and is unlikely to affect the plaster seriously. Your damp course of blue engineering bricks is (doing its job as a DPC, but also) preventing the moisture that has...

Thanks for the replies - I hadn't thought about samples books as a source of patches! Yes agree that patterned wallpapers vary by batch, colour and stretchiness. Even within a batch there have occasionally been rolls that I have had to return. I've patched areas of pattern with a fine...

You probably know the situation - for example, a hallway and stairs has been papered with an embossed paper, repainted several times with emulsion, and still is in generally good nick - except for that bit by the front door that always gets rubbed against, wetted when you come in from the rain...

DIY

I used a similar method 11 years ago when we had the conservatory built - I made a box tunnel out of sterling board, and fixed a good quality, lockable catflap to it, then got the builders to fit the brickwork around the tunnel, sealed and fixed in place with silicone sealant, and it still works...