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I suspect this is just rainwater running down the vent pipe and not dripping clear of the wall. Still, I fear the only way to be sure is to get up there via ladder or scaffold when it's raining hard (!) and looking to see if rainwater is running down the pipe and not dripping clear.

Prorad are also part of the Strelrad group, but I think their radiators are made in Turkey. They are almost identical to Strelrad radiators - with to my mind a better way to fix the end panels - and are typically a little cheaper. They can be bought online with rapid delivery, which is much...

Yes, microbore piping seems to create problems quite often - it's more prone to block if there is any debris in the system. Best to change as much as you can to 15mm piping. Also, if you do get to look at the manifold, take it off and flush it through. It's quite possible that the outlets...

Yes - what you need to get to it is not really "mains" - you already have an always on live wire that's from the "mains" and a switched wire that feeds the live supply to the boiler whan the thermostat is calling for heat. What you need in addition is a neutral wire from the same supply that...

I googled 3.5uF 250VAC capacitor and quite a selection of offers came up.

You won't drain the hot water tank - instead, once the cold water feed tank has drained, the flow of hot water from the hot water tank will stop. But there'll probably be a stop cock on the outlet of the cold water tank that feeds the hot tank. If there is, close that, open the hot taps and the...

For a TRV to work, it has to have the water flow into the radiator passing through it so it can regulate the flow according to the temperature of the room. If you could somehow get a TRV which didn't have any feed pipe connection (which your picture apparently shows) how could it work?

What I meant was that if you placed the zinc sheet over the hole and then sealed around it, it will have left a crevice between the outside of the pipe and the inside of the zinc sheet. If on the other hand you placed sealant around the hole and then bedded the zinc into it, that would have...

That looks like solid zinc not the perforated kind, which of course has holes all over it. It should work but does look a bit untidy and you may have created a crevice between the outside of the pipe and the inside of the zinc, unless you bedded the zinc into the soudal before sealing around it.

There may be the remnants of the old fibre washer trapped in the nut that you screw onto the treded pipe. That needs to be dug out before you insert a new fibre washer. The outside diameter of that must be of a size to fit closely, but not tightly, into the nut.

I agree copper olives are better than brass ones. Irritatingly though, nearly all compression fittings come with brass olives, forcing you to buy the copper ones separately - and they're not always easy to find

The picture shows an inspection/access hatch within a few inches of the hole, so it would be a bit bizarre to deliberately make the hole to clear a blockage. The hole looks to me caused by rust, so the area around it might be fragile also. I would carefully clean off all the paint around the...

Modern push button cisterns are NOT syphonic - there is no syphon. Instead the push button opens a valve at the base of the cistern to allow the cistern to drain out and flush the toilet. The means of governing the cistern refill - ball valve or inline float system - is completely separate from...

Why would nesting birds get "cooked"? The space under solar panels will be cooler because no sun can get there - be definition. Birds will definitely get under the panels if you don't install some sort of mesh around them. Apart from nesting they'll make a terrible mess with their droppings

Plumbers quite often suggest replacing the boiler but, even though yours is 25 years old, if some radiators and you HW are getting hot then it is not the boiler at fault. Probably need to start with removing the radiators that don't get hot and flushing them through with a hose. Then think...

And/or actually FLUSH the loo before photographing it!

These bleed valves seal against the raditor by compressing a rubber O-ring. This detiorates with time and this may be the cause of the leak. Nipping it up may stop the leak for a while but, if the O-ring is getting hard, then it might start leaking again. Eventually you'll probably need to...

It sounds like the system has been drained and re-filled several times whilst you have owned it. Did you always replace the corrosion inhibitor each time? If not, that could be the source of the black sludge you're encountering and the fact that several radiators have had to be replaced. As for...

The quickest action would be to leave open the access "door" that you have opened to take the picture, when outside temperatures get low. That'll keep it at "garage room" temperature, but also make the garage room a bit colder I guess. I don't think insulation on its own over the water entry...

Have any of the tradesmen actually gone around and balanced the radiators? That is: adjust the lockshield valves on each radiator to ensure that water doesn't flow preferentially to only a sub group of radiators? That could be the reason why some of your radiators don't get very warm rather than...