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I'm planning to put in a gravel grid driveway. I will need to retain the edges with a kerb, so am thinking about how to do that. Precast kerb stones and paving blocks are the usual materials in the UK, however I have seen in other countries it is common to assemble formwork and pour a concrete...

My house was built in the years just after WW1. The ground floor is mostly a concrete slab, but in a couple of places I have found that they poured the concrete a little lower and inset wood directly into the concrete. Comparing notes with someone who has the same design of house, this is an...

Years back I bought a Ryobi Expand-It petrol strimmer, and ended up buying a few accessories over the years. As the engine is a little past its best but the accessories are still in good order, and as I have a few Ryobi battery tools I looked into buying a new electric powerhead. Unfortunately...

I've built a workshop in my garden; construction is 4x2 walls sheathed in 11mm OSB3, then wrapped with breathable roof membrane, with battens and cladding yet to come. For 2 of the 4 walls, aesthetics isn't a concern - the building is in a corner of my garden and the neighbours can't see it. I...

I appreciate costs of everything have gone up in the last couple of years, but has cladding skyrocketed? I have a workshop to clad in my garden, and currently the cheapest of the cheap softwood timber shiplap is coming up at about £30-£40 per square metre... I'm sure when I looked last autumn...

I'm running some conduit and have hit a problem I've never seen before... I'm using a Schneider box with the rubber grommets that can be replaced with a gland or bush, and I've found that the holes are slightly too large for the PVC bushes I've used in the past. On a 20mm hole or knockout these...

I'm looking at chest freezers with the intention of putting one in my completely unheated workshop. The majority of fridges and freezers are rated for 10-43 Celsius ambient temperature, with a tiny minority rated down to -15. Now, I have previously told friends "careful putting that freezer in...

I have built a large shed with a flat(ish) roof (1 in 35 fall). I have EPDM membrane for the roof, but watching lots of videos, I saw recommendations not to lay EPDM in cooler weather as the creases will never drop out, and as my membrane has been stored for a good 6 months I expect the creases...

I'm about to start on my new shed. The roof will be a flat roof with EDPM over OSB3, so needs a minimum fall of 1:80. I've designed the building with a fall of 1:40 to be more forgiving of any inaccuracies I build in. I was also planning to use upside down joist hangers tying the roof joists to...

I know this topic has sometimes caused disagreements... I've no dog in that fight, I'm just trying to make sure if I sell my house I don't have a ball-ache on my hands proving my shed isn't non-compliant. I am planning out my new shed/workshop. It's going to be a timber-frame building on a...

In civil engineering, roller-compacted concrete is a thing. I understand that this involves laying a dry mix and then running over it with heavy machinery, rather than pouring a wet mix into a form and screeding it off the top. Not sure if water is added or if it is simply absorbed from the air...

I've got a Stoves range cooker (dual-fuel) that I've had for around 12 years, and recently the wok burner has developed a fault. For around 5 or 6 minutes from cold, the wok flame comes out where it should. Much longer than that, and flames start licking out from under the burner ring. If I...

I've got a lead mains feeding my house from the rear. I've spoken to the water supplier who have said that they can connect me up to the new non-lead main at the front, but obviously I'm responsible for everything from the boundary back. Looking at my local supplier (Anglian Water) website, it...

Hi all, I've got a concealed shower valve from Victoria Plum. Recently the thermostatic control stopped working (hard water area, 4 years of service, not unexpected really) so I ended up buying an additional valve of the same design and swapping the internals over. It's now working again as it...

In the past, when I've needed to run pipes through an exterior wall I've simply drilled a hole big enough for the next pipe size up and used a short length of pipe as a sleeve (e.g. 22mm pipe to run 15mm pipes through). I need to run a pair of 15mm pipes through an exterior wall (brick cavity...

I have interlinked mains-powered Kidde Fyrnetics alarms throughout my house - 8 smoke, 1 heat and 1 CO. As a few are getting a bit yellow now (yay brominated plastic) I looked at replacing those ones but can't get a straight answer on compatibility with newer models. As the system is 13 years...

I've been looking at air-conditioners, the smaller split-systems rather than the portable units. I've noticed a lot of the split systems say the pipes are pre-gassed, but that they need to be installed by an F-gas certified/qualified person. What is the deal with this - is it actually a matter...

I'm building a shed from scratch. Due to distance from the road a concrete slab base is not an option (SWMBO is determined but petite, and after we built the last one she vowed never to lay concrete again!). I was considering using "decking blocks", pre-cast concrete saddles that have notches...

In the spring I'll be building a new shed to replace the failing flatpack abomination I bought a few years ago. We're hopefully only going to be here another couple of years, so this isn't my "forever shed" and whilst I'll build it properly, longevity is a secondary concern this time, and...

I'd like to use an adaptable box on the outside of my house to join 6mm T&E (from box to CU, run inside the house) to 6mm SWA (to run from box to workshop... once I've built a workshop). To keep it neat, and because AFAIK T&E isn't rated for outdoor use, I'd like the T&E to run through the...