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Question for the SAFE registered ... What's the general feeling about fitting used parts? My situation is the gas valve on a conventional boiler has packed up. It's an Ideal Concord brute supplying heating only to four floors. It is old but going strong. Replacing the boiler is not an option...

Ok, so my grand plan is to seal some yet to be discovered gaps. Assume the likes of joist ends where they enter the masory and the wind whistles through after decades of shrinkage etc, and around windows when I peel off the UPVC trim the fitters used and I find gaps big enough to stick fingers...

I'm planning to fit engineered oak in our hallway. 14mm click together planks, running width ways. Is it the done thing to add anything to the joints to reduce the chance of water ingress?

The eternal question ... What's your got to caulk? Which one do you reach for that you trust not to shrink, pull away and takes paint without a grumble?

A few years ago I insulated the underside of the suspended timber floor in my hallway. Plan now is to float engineered oak on top to match other rooms. Now, I've been given a leftover roll of that foil used with underfloor heating and I'm seriously tempted to put it down just to add a tiny bit...

Curious one ... I was chatting with a friend who had an EICR done on an upstairs flat he wants to rent out. Meter cupboard is inside the kitchen and has a meter connected directly to the CU and the various circuits spider away from there. Sparky does his thing and nothing untoward was noted...

Has anyone found a good while silicone sealant that doesn't Shrink? I had to make a quick external repair less than a year ago. The Soudal I used went on well, but it's shrunk a good 10% and pulled away.

I've some 14mm engineered oak flooring I intend to fit in our hallway. They are the click together boards and are 1090 long. The hall is 970 wide so they'll be fitted width ways rather than length ways. Current floor is a well ventilated suspended floor with insulation underneath and 18mm ply on...

Hope this is a simple one to answer ... SWMBO grumbles about our thermostatic shower (fed from the combi) and has got wind of digital ones. Given the heads in our current shower do the job and I have plenty of space to fit/hide the pump part, a) is it possible to just buy the pump/controller...

I'm planning to ditch VM's cable service and defect to Cityfibre as they've installed fibre to our street. Has anyone had any experience of CF refusing to mount their ONT inside of the house rather than on the interior of the external wall the fibre comes in at? My plan is to have the ONT in a...

Over the next few days I'm going to replace our old wooden backdoor with a composite. Instructions are clear enough, and I've watched a few YouTube videos so have enough knowledge to bodge with confidence. My only concern is drilling into the concrete lintel Now where I'm a little puzzled is...

Plastic pipe from the toilet pan to the solid pipe. Seal has aged and needs replacing. What gloop would you recommend?

I'm planning to leave a house unoccupied over the winter and popping round to check on it is not an option thanks to the distance. Hot water is supplied on demand from the boiler, so that's not a worry. Mains water I'll turn off at the stop cock and leave taps open to allow for expansion so I'm...

Just out of curiosity, and serendipity, I have a visit from a PV seller tomorrow to give me a quote. I had to deal with "head office" and was told that under the MCS rules, both homeowners (me and my wife) are supposed to be present during their quotation process. Does anyone know if this is true?

I'm going to replace a few damaged bricks but where do I get just 10 bricks from? Current ones are 73mm and have weathered from black to a dark brown. Not having done this before, I hopped onto a well known building supplies site and spotted some that will probably do the job. However, they...

I shall be abandoning my late mother's house for 6 months. I'm in the process of clearing it, but it is taking an age and I have little time I can dedicate to the task just now. It's also 300+ miles away so dropping by for a weekend is impractical. There is empty property insurance in place...

So here's one for the proper sparkies... You're doing a bit of work in a house and while tracing a cable you come across a junction box which you open up. Now, do you close it up and be on your way, tighten up those screws out of habit, go crazy with your torque screwdriver and tighten them...

As usual, the hedge has grown taller than I realised and is in need of a good trim. Think 3 feet. Every two or three years I bring it down to size but it takes an age since it's 30m long. Some branches are too thick for my hedge trimmers so have to be lopped with cutters or a hand saw. Yes...

A while back my elderly mother turned her toes up leaving me and my sister the unenviable challenge of clearing the house. Little progress has been made mainly due to neither of us living within 400 miles of the place and both having families and jobs of our own. This evening my sister called...

So the original ceiling pull light switch in my garage has packed up. By "garage", I mean junk room with a big up and over external door. Plan will be to run T&E down to the white switch which operates an external light, replace the single switch with a double and reuse the existing 20mm back...