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Only a DIYer but I'd be prepared to pay up to the £300-or-so price of a D-tect 120, quite widely available, if they actually work as advertised Don't need the extra penetrating power of a D-tect 200 at more than double the cost. I have a Bosch DMF 10m Zoom which I regard as useless. Any opinions?

I have an Ikea-badged twin oven which was in the house I bought 6 years ago. It is the same as numerous ovens badged as Electrolux, AEG, Zanussi or others. In 6 years I have needed four new top oven door seals and now the latest, only about 9 months old, has split. I have bought them mostly...

As title. I have two towel rails in my house on the central heating system and both flow-side valves tend to leak when operated. That's annoying outside the heating season as one rail is piped to get heat whenever the (system) boiler fires, irrespective of whether it's for central heating or...

I need a new one. My 16-year-old JSP Powercap still works OK - being a hay fever sufferer, just used it in the garden for an hour with high pollen count and I'm OK - but is showing its age. It's very tatty, the velcro securing strap is dying and the visor is heavily scratched. I sweat a lot and...

And if so were you happy with them? They seem to be the only place in the UK claiming to stock a battery for an old right-angle Bosch blue drill of mine. It costs about £40 which is a bit under half the price of the pukka Bosch part, but the latter seems to be out of stock everywhere anyway. So...

The house I bought five years ago has ten small downlights (LED I think) set into some boxing in the kitchen. I don't use them but that's because I find the colour temperature too cold. If I could replace the lamps with warm white ones, I'd be happy. But how to replace? They don't seem to...

I have a solid Zen Internet DSL broadband feed to the first floor of my house which works fine with streaming services (Netflix, Disney+) on a desktop PC wired to the switch I have connected (also wired) to Zen's router close by to it. However I have Cat 6 cabling from the switch via patch...

I've found Dulux Weathershield satin in a light-ish green ("Fresh Sage") excellent for the front and garage doors and some other surfaces at the house I bought five years ago. But it was always expensive at £26 for 750ml and is now £33 for that size at B&Q, and seemingly about the same...

As title. There don't seem to be any recent threads on this. I want to replace grotty carpets in three first-floor rooms, total area about 30 square metres. Suspended timber floors; all skirtings to be replaced and flooring taken to 10mm (or whatever) of walls; no underfloor heating. Underlay...

This is for where the Aqualock unit fits onto the standard dishwasher tap. Mine leaks. It's bigger and thicker than a normal 3/4" dishwasher tap washer, and has a profile rather than being just flat. Its external diameter is about 25mm and internal 16mm (hard to be accurate as its distorted)...

I've owned and bashed houses in North London since 1989. Was 30 years in N6, now in N14. Others might appreciate a few of my recommendations below. I have obviously not bothered with the sheds, Screwfixes or Toolstations, which are all around, or my favourite online sources. These are mostly...

I'd never used an auger bit larger than 12mm until recently. Trying a 19mm one, I found it so powerfully pulling itself into the wood that it overwhelmed both my cordless and my corded drills, both grinding to a halt halfway through. Apart from anything else they were very uncontrollable. I have...

I went to look over the newly-bought house of a young relative today (first time buyer, North East London suburb). At the back of the house I found this large grey plastic box outside fixed to the wall just above some decking. It does not appear to be linked to the double socket to its left...

Beko WIY84540F, 3 years old. Fine until yesterday when it overfilled halfway through a 2-stage cycle (when rinsing the prewash I think) and flooded the kitchen. The pressure switch seems to operate ok though not yet tested with a multimeter. The pressure hose is clear and intact. However the...

Some time last year I noticed in a B&Q that they now sell, separately, kitchen paint and bathroom paint; there used to be only combined kitchen and bathroom paint. I asked a young lady staffer how the new paints differed from one another. Her reply: "Oh, the kitchen paint is for kitchens and the...

Sealant gun, that is. It's a Tajima Convoy CNV100SP12, to be exact. Tajima do lots of different models but this is one of the ones that has what they call Auto Flow Stop, which is a posh way of saying that after every squeeze of the trigger, the piston retracts a few millimetres, enough to stop...

I hate all previous wiring centres: too cramped, too difficult to see what goes where, too easy to dislodge one connector while adding another to screw terminals. So the new(ish) Wago L60 is wonderful: spacious, easy to use 221-type lever connectors, everything well thought out.

There don't seem to be any recent posts on this. I'm considering a variety of 12v or 24v LED lights for my long thin garden: downlighters on fences, an uplighter under a tree, maybe some lights on pillars. Ideally would like 230v but that would mean either unwieldy SWA or NYY-J cabling needing...

Excuse ignorance but...I bought my 1930s North London semi last year. There is a gas boiler with a pressurised central heating system and pressurised hot water cylinder, and mains pressure cold water. On the top floor, converted from an attic into a bedroom and bathroom by the previous owners...

The government planning portal stipulates in respect of outbuildings under Permitted Development: "Maximum height of 2.5 metres in the case of a building, enclosure or container within two metres of a boundary of the curtilage of the dwellinghouse." Does this no part at all of such a structure...