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My son has summoned me to his house to fit skirting boards in his kitchen. He has the boards which he says are about 7cm (just short of 3 inches) tall. They have to be attached either to wood or plaster. None of my DIY books covers skirting boards. I have a saw box for cutting the 45 degree...

The washing machine (AEG 8000) has gone rogue. Iţ trips the electrics either immediately or within seconds. I have drained it and left it to dry for a few days but to no avail (except to give me a few more seconds before the trip). It is over 5 years old so replacement is probably better than...

My non-DIY son has asked me to make a loose door closeable, but there are some problems. The door leads down to his cellar (and isn't used much). This is a typical Cleckheaton terrace. The cellar is partly open at pavement level so the door opens in the wind. My first thought was a mortice...

The toilet is filling very slowly so time to replace the inlet valve. I haven't done this job before so would appreciate confirmation the part I am intending to buy from Screwfix is the right part. Picture 1 shows the current (faulty) bottom-entry inlet valve on the right. Picture 2 is...

I want to replace the broken pane in a kitchen door and I am having difficulties at the first hurdle. Round the edge of the glass is something like a picture frame (actually two, it's identical on the other side) with 45 degree angles on all four corners. Each of the four sides is held down by...

This concludes the Son’s Kitchen series. My son wanted me to put shelves up in here but the metal detector reveals an awful lot of metal behind the plaster so I don’t feel like fixing individual shelves. I am looking for something freestanding. The space available is depth 18 inches, width...

The solid kitchen floor has been covered with tongue and groove boards, but these have not been abutted up to the units, leaving large gaps with plastic underlay sticking out. My son’s idea is to take up the boards and replace with vinyl or similar. There is a problem with this you can’t see on...

This follows from the Son’s Kitchen #2 and #3 posts. The pictures show the waste arrangments for the washing machine, and the waste diagram in the dishwasher’s spec. My son has a notion he can use the existing waste pipe from the washing machine to channel the waste from the dishwasher, but I’m...

This follows from the Son’s Kitchen #2 post. On the picture is the cold water feed for the washing machine. Can I somehow piggy back on to that to provide a cold feed for the dishwasher? Some sort of T junction or adaptor?

Number 2 in the series. My son has an option to buy a second hand dishwasher, 2 feet (60cm) wide. He thinks he can fit it to the left of the washing machine in the picture, by sacrificing that cupboard. This will mean removing all the cupboard panels, leaving only the two vertical panels marked...

My son and his wife recently bought a house and have asked me several DIY questions about the kitchen. I need advice on all of them, so I will submit them as a series of posts (6 in all) starting ‘Son’s Kitchen’. As a general comment, this house was extensively renovated by the previous owner, a...

My son recently bought a house, the previous owner of which did extensive renovations of the plumbing, including enclosing the WC in a Fort Knox of plywood. Water has started intermittently leaking into the pan. I have fixed a similar problem on my own WC (replaced the siamp valve) but mine has...

Not a DIY question but this is something I want to understand before I die. I have a gravity shower fed from the hot water cylinder and the cold water tank. Every other time I turn on the shower the water is only flowing about half as fast as it ought to. Usually I can fix this by holding the...

Three years ago I treated my fences with Cuprinol Clear Wood Preserver. I used seven 5 litre cans which cost around £45 each. I didn't keep any empty cans but I am pretty certain that it was a solvent based product and was sold as a self-contained five year treatment. The fences are in...

Not quite a DIY question so hope it is permissible. I intend to build a platform of 6 * 5 2 foot (60cm) square paving slabs for a shed base, i.e. 30 slabs making a 12' by 10' base. When I say 'intend to build' that is in the sense of Christopher Wren 'building' St. Paul's cathedral. When I...

When I found water was leaking from the kitchen sink into the cupboard below it I thought it would be one of the screw fittings on the U trap or pipes leading into it. But the water is coming through a dried up seal where a circular black plastic fitting sits against the the metal sink, as in...

I have never had to do anything on the distribution board other than reset a switch when something has tripped, but I have a genuine problem this time. First, some pics of the board: The problem is the leftmost of that bank of four switched units (I'll call it no. 1). It tripped on...

I needed a spare key (already have three) for a Yale lock I fitted to the front door more than 30 years ago. The key is only copyable by Yale who require my signature before doing the job. Two problems here: 1. They charge a fortune (about £40 I think, was £5.75 once) 2. They are not doing keys...

I have a 7' * 5' shed sitting on an 8' * 6' base made from 2' * 2' flagstones (i.e. 12 flags arranged 4 * 3). It looks like these flags have been laid directly on the soil but the platform looks flat and level enough. I would like to upgrade to a 10' * 8' shed. On the face of it the job looks...

Isn't this just what you want to hear. 'There's water dripping from the top of the airing cupboard'. Fortunately the leak was easy to spot. It's from the big plastic water tank, where a pipe enters near the bottom: I've put a bucket under the leak and the rate is one drop every four of five...