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I have had a few companies out to quote on a new heating system for my house. A question none of them have been able to answer is... Is the condensate from the boiler likely to cause harm to my salt-glaze drainpipes or the cement joining them? I've googled but the only sources I found seem to...

The weird thing is, the blockage wasn't fat/grease as I expected, but solidified detergent. The drainage bloke could see I was sceptical so retrieved a big chunk to show me - it looked like the stuff they make dishwasher tablets out of and was powdery to the touch! It wasn't caustic soda...

Our kitchen sink drains into a gulley, and over Christmas this blocked. We had the drains jetted and the drain man suggested we buy a drain rod-based plunger and use it once a month to try and keep the drains clear. Lifting the gulley grid, I can see that the vertical pipe is square (5" x...

Ah, hadn't thought of a clear preserver. Thanks Andy, I'll give it a go.

Is it possible to apply wood preservative to damp(ish) wood? I'm thinking about the solvent-based fungicide stuff rather than the waxy sort. We had a shed to assemble, and unfortunately missed the weather window so ended up finishing it in the rain. The wood has (as expected) swollen...

Thanks chaps, tbh I was half-expecting to be called a wuss for not just digging the trench! :lol: I'll ask the BCO if they'll accept photographic evidence of the trench, if not I'll lay it in the flowerbed and in a few years when I get someone to kango up my old concrete patio it may...

I've got to run the supply to my shed, approx 20m of which is across the garden. As I'm doing this under a building notice, trenching would involve digging the full length in one go so it can be inspected before being backfilled. I have to comply with BS7671, and there's nothing in BS7671...

where it promptly set fire to a farmers hay-shed! :shock: They're pretty things but you have to wonder about the sanity of basically sending fire out at random via the air. It shouldn't land until the fire's gone out, but there's no guarantee! Wonder if the kango trick will work with my...

Whenever I do a bonfire I always get the hosepipe unravelled and turned on ready just in case! Never had to put anything out yet, but it came close when burning old fence panels I found the heat was so intense (big pile of thin, tinder-dry wood!) that the fence 10 feet away was getting damn...

When you lay a slab for a shed base, do you compact the hardcore and THEN put the formwork for the concrete down on top, or is the formwork laid and then hardcore compacted down within the boundary of the formwork? If it makes any difference, 'm planning on 75mm MOT1 followed by 75mm...

It's a shed that comes without floor as it's meant for use as a workshop. I'll be putting a lathe in so want something solid I can bolt it to (I'll use drill-in anchors at a later date for this, but it will be further from the slab edges) The website of the place it comes from says the gable...

Hi, I'm going to be putting in a concrete slab for a new floorless shed (in the next week or so, trying to get it in before any frosts). The shed needs to be fixed to the concrete slab according to the manufacturers. Bearing in mind that any fixings would be at most 2 inches from the slab...

Does anyone here label cables as they are installed? I am in the midst of 1st fix and to make inspection easier I labelled cables with paper labels. But, these are starting to peel off. I would like to install some sort of permanent label to make sure I can fully identify cables. The scheme I...

Best way to check is to knock off the plaster around the old gas fire / back boiler (assuming you've had it taken out) and see if there was originally a wider opening that has subsequently been "filled in" to create a narrower opening for gas fires.

What put me off was the need to have a dedicated backend server regardless of the number of clients. Also whilst being based on Linux makes it (in theory) more stable, most of my Linux experiences have resulted in spending hours sorting out minor niggles. Mythbuntu probably reduces that...

I tried Mediaportal for a while, but I found it pretty inconvenient, possibly because my PC at the time was multi-purpose. Windows Media Center (Microsoft's spelling, not mine) is pretty good and is built into the Home Premium versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. You can integrate tuners...

Well, when we did the fence the neighbour chipped in half for the fence (it's actually my fence) and he fancied this particular Cuprinol, so I felt as he had offered to chip in half it was only fair. That was approx 2 years ago, and the fence is currently at the point of needing some...

I recently built a fruitcage and used a product from my local builders' yard called "Blackfriars Wood Preservative Gold Star" (this stuff). As far as I can make out it is based on white spirit or similar as it is very runny and soaks into wood like mad. It soaked into the wood really nicely...

I bought a pot of specifically-labelled hydrangea colourant from my local garden centre, I think it was iron sulphate. A pot lasts me about 2-3 years and cost about £7 so not bad value.

Can I ask what the purpose of the concrete underneath the gravel is? Is this to hold the gravel in place (like resin-bound surfaces) or is it to act as a sub-base? I'm asking because I reckon if you were to put a thin layer of gravel down over concrete it would be a very slippery surface...