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Why not fit rim night latches ('Yale locks') to the doors, which are simple to fit? You shouldn't fit anything which could potentially have one of your lodgers locked in without being able to escape.

1. Wall chasers are not a good purchase if you have a limited budget. You need to spend a lot of money to get a decent one; they can make a lot of mess, even when used with a good dust extractor; they only work well in softer masonry; they do only the one job. 2. A Bosch 2kg drill would be...

Hello, and welcome. The best way is always through personal recommendation. Failing that, look for cards in local shops (newsagents, for example) and in local advertising sheets and newspapers. Make sure you have a clear understanding before work begins as to what you are asking the...

If the floor has been screeded over, or some form of self-levelling compound has been used, I wouldn't set your heart on being able to recover the wood block flooring underneath without an enormous amount of work, which could involve taking up all the wood, cleaning it off and relaying it...

cables

It's a bit more complicated than that, because the dispute arises over additional health problems that these soldiers have developed, as distinct from the original injuries. Whether or not the MoD is in the right over this, they should never have got involved in challenging the payments as it...

Personally, I find those guards a bit of a nuisance and don't see the point of them. It's not difficult to hit a bolster with a club hammer without missing.

You can have a voltage present without having any power to turn the starter motor. What happens if you use jump leads from another vehicle?

This needs addressing urgently: it sounds as if the flue next door is leaking into your house, leaving you exposed not only to nuisance but also to carcinogenic smoke and the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. Your neighbour should not use the log burner in this dangerous condition; the flue...

One reason for fixing a batten to the wall first is that it gives you a much wider choice of fixing centres, for example if the curtain pole brackets would lie over a lintel which is difficult to drill, whereas the fixing holes in the batten can be chosen to lie beyond it. Sometimes the batten...

Yes, they're quite widely available. For example here. Scrape off as much of the cement as you can from the lug first before using the rethreader.

I got fed up with my wife losing her remote controls so I built a set of wooden pigeonholes for her to have next to her chair. Now all six spaces are taken up and there's an overflow scattered around. I've got no idea what most of them are for.

27 volts: does your vehicle have a 24v system? Have you tested the battery under load to check the cranking capacity? Has your checking of the connections included the battery terminal connections?

No, I didn't mean to suggest you'd oil it every day, but periodically. It's only my untutored opinion, but I'd use washing up liquid to help clean off greasy deposits or other stuff that water alone won't remove.

Spelling: iroko. I would wipe it down with a cloth, or clean it with a scrubbing brush and water, then reoil when dry. Lignins, naturally occurring in wood, help to inhibit the growth of bacteria (which is why wooden chopping boards are good things to have). It's quite possible, and...

Yes indeed: take the filler cap off and look at the underside.

A friend of mine built his kitchen with the sink unit raised above the level of the worktops, so that the bottom of the bowl would come up to the correct working height. It looked strange, but worked (he told me) very well. I don't go to such extremes, but as I do most of the cooking in our...

Leaks from the cooling system usually show a deposit remaining after the water has evaporated; alternatively, you may be able to see where the leak is occurring if you do a visual check with the engine warmed up and running. Check the oil filler cap, too. An emulsion of oil and water means...

I agree it would a great shame to change the configuration of the window. It could have a significant detrimental effect on the property value, too.

The government's telephone and online information system set up to deal with the swine flu pandemic is being overwhelmed by millions of enquiries as fear mounts. Makes you wonder how they would deal with a real crisis.