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thanks masona. yes i did mean to say that but it got lost in translation.

Yes you should treat the flue as you would if it were a coal fire that you were removing. you will need to leave a vent into the room - and to do the job properly you should cap the chimney. some even sweep the old chimney first. the purpose of these precautions is to avoid damp in the...

interesting stuff - and some real sense being spoken too. just cant resist picking up on a small point though. its that 'jack of all trades' saying - ive always thought it was a bit suspicious but reading this has made me realise why. it is a statement that makes one big assumption - that...

bleach kills mould and removes it a treat. luckily your damaged stuff is white so its not a problem. you can use ordinary parazone type bleach the stuff people used to use in the loo before we all got conned into blue and smelly products. it even has washing quantities on the label -...

you just reminded me of something i came across when i was at college. someone did some research into what processes made wood last longest when stuck into the ground and came up with an ancient solution to stopping wood rot - char the wood until it blackens. it will survive far far longer...

I need to change the front wheel bearings on my vaux carlton and have noticed that the torque amounts for tightening these nuts are 360 Nm - i thought it was a typo but no. apparently its correct - try as hard as i might i cant find a torque wrench that goes up that high to buy or hire - so my...

In my experience mdf sags badly even under its own weight - so thicker can mean even more bowed. ply is ok but is not intended for resisting bend rather it is for rigidity with a framework. the answer could be good old fashioned blockboard which is designed to have dimensional stability as a...

I always use matchsticks a couple of boxes is cheaper than plastic ones and doesnt use up petrochemicals. not got enough? snap them. and yes stick them in towards the wall not parallel. by the way grout is not there to hold the tiles in - it simply stops water getting behind the tiles and...

seems to me the problem with such regulations are that they inadvertantly make the situation worse. in this case if everyone expects the hot to come out of the left hand tap - they will more likely get scalded when it doesnt. but if there is always a degree of uncertainty then we would all...

thanks for that. I have found the problem and in a way you are right it is the diverter valve. but it is not faulty - it is an undocumented feature for all pottertons that use the same diverter valve. It seems the valve includes a cooling feature so that when hot water is drawn the...

easy as possible - paint it with aquaseal, but be prepared for it not to work! this is a problem that architects have never really cracked. mainly because all waterproof materials get brittle with age or uv light. there is a rather unorthodox solution that is really simple to apply but...

one more thing. you seem to be faced with the age old dilema of wether to be a consumer or a producer. buying a shed will give you the satisfaction of a purchase well made - but then so can doing the weekly food shopping. Making a shed however will give you the possibility of doing whatever...

one thing worth doing if you plan to make a shed is to spend a few hours phoning around getting prices for wood. a trick that most suppliers use is to sell timber at low mark up but boards at a high profit and vice versa. never buy both from the same supplier - find the cheapest for boards...

Did I really forget to mention the dust? prepare for dust and be careful that ventilation isnt taking it all through the house. oh yes and goggles are a must, a mask isnt needed if you can hold your breath for twentyfive minutes though.

well whenever ive done this I use a masonry disc in a small angle grinder and just cut two parrallel lines a bit wider than the 2.5mm cable where i want the spur led to. a new disc (fairly cheap) will give enough depth and the grinder will not shock any existing plaster, saving the need for...

a good trick for doing this - if you can get your head around working from the underside of the tops - is this. get some cheap hardboard at least as wide as your tops cut a mitre on one and place it over the other in situ - then mark with a knife the score for the other. this takes any...

I have done this and it works provided that you consider the following. mark the wortops out too long for the required surfaces, then cut the jointed ends of the worktop first - then the square other ends - that way you can have several attempts and not get the pieces too short. a rough...

there is always a possibility that your windows arent doing a very good job at insulating the outside temp. i.e. leaking. I say this because condensation is a sign of a cold surface causing precipitation - that gets worse with the temperature diff - your neighbours have better windows perhaps.

the only possibility I can think of is that the hair dye, like most cheap dyes isnt light fast - so although there is no quick fix, leaving them in the sun as much as possible (over the back of a chair near a south facing window for instance) will see the hair dye fade much faster than the...

there are quite a few different types similar to the evil looking one above - however I have known a few people used to freeform chainsaw work that wont use them. and my supplier has stopped selling them due to too many injuries. one solution could be an aligator saw - if what you want to do...