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Got an unbranded shower mixer control which is slowly but constantly dripping - are there generic cartridges which might fit something like this, or does it need replacing? If replace, am I likely to find a straight replacement? I can’t see any grub screws or similar holding the fascia plate on...

I need to repair the attached window frame - it’s softwood, and the inner section where the window stay pin mounts has split from being constantly soaked with condensation. There’s some wood lost, although the rest of the frame is good. Would it be better to try to splice in new wood (and...

Have had a leak from a shower screen which a tenant had very helpfully partially-siliconed to the bath and hinge after throwing the seal away - it has rotted the bottom corner of the frame, the bottom of the stud upright and the cover piece (pictures attached), and the wood is still very wet...

I need to cut out a damaged section of 10mm twin & earth cable and reconnect it - whilst the cable isn’t actually exposed, it is in a vertical position where it’s likely to get damp and drips on it. Are there any IP68-style connectors designed for this, or will I need to silicone a round cable...

Have a steel-framed agricultural-style building - it has a single phase distribution board inside which supplies a few outside lights and inside 13 amp sockets. One of the old-style wire fuses blew, which appears to supply three double sockets - I replaced the wire and the sockets worked...

Had a problem with a toilet cistern filling only when a cold tap was run - played with the (Siamp) fill valve washer cover, and it seems to be fine - maybe a bit of limescale. In the process of putting the fascia board back on, the flush cable appears to be stuck. There’s no resistance to, or...

Looking at a 1920s roof with no felt - some tiles (flat and ridging) were replaced after storm damage a while ago, but none of the replacements had the torching put back. There are some big gaps and it’s very draughty - I was thinking of trying to line it across the rafters with a membrane...

Have an older Baxi Duo-Tec 28 combi boiler in a rented house - engineer attended because the new tenants had no heating or hot water (and supposedly had a leak on the boiler, but this wasn’t communicated) on the night they moved in. Unbeknownst to me, a previous tenant had a gas prepayment...

Trying to replace a Bristan basin mixer tap - bought a new one which has the usual screw-in-at tap-end tails with the captive spinning nut on the end. When I came to remove the old one, the pipe connections appear to be compression fittings, and I can’t reuse the existing tails because they’re...

Just replaced the selector switch on a Bosch HBC 84E 653B combination oven/microwave, as only the microwave function could be selected. It was temperamental for a while, but eventually the non-microwave positions just left the display showing the clock. Replacing the switch has not helped, it...

Having ongoing problems with a lack of hot water flow from both ground and first floor taps - it’s a basic vented cylinder system, cylinder is fed from the cold water tank in an attic; all the cold taps upstairs and down off the mains, the attic cold tank appears to directly supply only the...

Have a Bosch HBC 84E 653B combination oven/microwave with a broken function selector switch (basically, it will only work on the microwave setting and no other positions on the rotary selector work). I’ve bought a replacement switch, which fits behind the fascia panel and the knob, but am not...

Attempting to replace a dual shower pump, which has been plumbed to serve one shower (cold feed from a CWST) and three mixer taps (cold feed from mains). The hot feed to the pump inlet is taken from the top of the top of the hot water cylinder via a copper tee, the other side of which is the...

Having problems (possibly) with a Stuart Turner dual shower pump (old Aura model, looks like the current Showermate) - it supplies a single shower and also (I know it probably shouldn’t) the hot water to three mixer taps. The cold feed to all three taps is from the mains supply and they all...

Cleaning out a cold water tank today (ugh) - the board it should be covered by was only halfway across the top because there’s a rigid copper overflow pipe above it coming from the top of the adjacent hot water cylinder. Are covers available with provision for this overflow? Should it enter...

This concealed cistern has just started to fill very slowly - really just a drizzle out of the back of the valve assembly on the right (which I think should flow onto the plastic tray underneath). Problem is that access is very tight, there’s an opening just big enough to get a hand in and the...

Have a leak on a flexi-to-flexi hose join on the hot outlet from a Quooker hot water boiler - am I right in thinking that there should be a rubber or fibre washer or o-ring between the two fittings? It’s been fitted for about five years, and there was only a bit of indeterminate black...

I’ve just replaced an existing nightlatch with a Yale P89 non-automatic deadlocking one, with new lock barrel, which should deadlock from outside with a reverse turn of the key. I was expecting the deadlock to require a 360 degree anticlockwise turn to engage (ie the opposite direction to...

A few months ago I replaced a broken 2 gang 2 way switch - one gang operates an internal fluorescent tube, the other a pair of PIR halogen floodlights. I wired it exactly as the original switch. The floodlights (also new replacements) are wired as originally so that either PIR sensor turns them...

I'm interested in buying a19th Century house which has a loft room with a fixed staircase - it has an original small dormer at the front and is fully plastered, boarded, etc. It has been in use as a habitable room (rather than loft storage) possibly for as long as the house has existed (same the...