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Good point. House is 1948. The parquet is varnished so not 'breathing' and was for many years but only suffered due to foot traffic rather than moisture. It's solid, just breaking. I'm only really after a temporary measure (couple of years) until we can afford to dig out the floor properly...

Hello I have parquet in the living room. Knowing it's probably a sin, I need to cover it as its breaking up badly. It's breaking along the tongues of the blocks as its been sanded too far (not guilty) so it's not salvageable. I'm going to ply over and carpet, but wondered what the best way is...

Ten plus years as a chartered surveyor and I don't know! I'm guessing it might be some kind of pre finished stucco panel but it does, as you say, have a cardboard like look. If you do proceed, definitely get a survey - I'd love to know!

Have to agree with ree. The salts are technically called efflorescence and harmless. They occur generally but worse when the brickwork is underground as in a cellar. Having been over painted doesn't help. The staining is as suggested - just some mildew or similar growth from moisture. It's not a...

Hello Bit of a weird one. We have two hard wired smoke detectors, one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom. These are on the upstairs lighting circuit. Occasionally, switching on a light upstairs sets off the smoke detector, which stops once the light is switched off again. It's...

Hello I need to remove a pedestal sink and a back-to-wall toilet to replace some flooring. The bowl of the sink doesn't seem to have any screws fixing it to the wall, just a lot of silicon connecting it to the pedestal and I can see some between the back of the bowl and the wall. It seems...

All Bit of advice please. Our bathroom door has a rack bolt to lock the door and I want to change this for a lever handle and thumbturn arrangement. As the handle doesn’t have a lock on it just now the void in the door isn’t big enough to fit a bathroom set so I assumed that I was going to...

Sorry might have been misunderstood. The boss isn't too high, that's one of the pipes inside. The boss is fine where it is, it's just the wrong size. Can you move a solvent weld boss without it breaking the pipe? Thanks Alan

Hello all I need to change or replace the soil stack boss on one of the soil pipes to the house. Basically the existing waste pipe is 32mm solvent weld (36mm o/d) and only serves a single wash basin in the downstairs loo and the condensate for the boiler. I need to change the waste for a...

All Noted that the question about tiling behind a log burner has been asked before but does anyone have any experience with Vitcas products for tiling? I have pretty limited space around the log burner (meets manufacturer's requirements but pretty close) with hardibacker around. Are...

We've got the original passed plans from building regs showing the make up. Obviously that assumes that is what actually happens but you can see evidence of DPM at door opening do fairly confident. Noted regarding vent - this should be easy to achieve as there are two exposed internal wall...

I have an attached garage that I want to convert part of into a utility room. The garage floor is 170mm lower than the rest of the ground floor and I need to build this up level. The garage was a 2008 extension before we bought the house so it's already insulated and has a DPM. Would if...

Hello The fan and light in my bathroom are operated via one double switch with one switch serving the light and one switch serving the fan. I want to change this so that the fan and light run on one switch and the fan is replaced for one with a run on timer. Can anyone advise what the...

Hello What is the best way to make a core opening wider in circumference? Just discoverered that the person who fitted my cooker hood chose to use a 100mm bathroom kit to vent it rather than the required 125mm, which means it doesn't fit the cooker hood adaptor (lots of duct tape!). I...

All That old chestnut again – any help much appreciated. I have been decorating a couple of rooms in the house. One wall has begun to crack (the crickled glass cracking), but weirdly only one. Prior to prep (usual wiping down) I tested the paint on one of walls in the room and it was...

Roughcaster Thanks for that. I wasn't sure about it being Tyrolean as we have that on our current house and it's much thicker. Top coat on this is only 5mm or so. Did a bit of research today and was wondering if it might be k rend? I'm only guessing though. From what I can tell it's just...