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Dear Experts, I've just had a conversation with a friend who has acquired a 12-bed guesthouse - bought at auction at a bargain price and in need of some renovation. (He has done similar projects in the past.) He started by telling me that his electrician has told him that "new laws" mean that...

I’ve just removed a metal socket backbox. Looks OK, right? Nope: Do boxes often have backless earth terminals like that? I don’t think I’ve seen it before. It wouldn’t be a problem if the earth wire were not sleeved.

Dear All, Please treat this as a logic puzzle for your enjoyment, not a call for assistance! Currently my living room lights are controlled by two switches in a conventional way as shown: The wires are singles in conduit. I'd like to add an additional light, separately switched. Clearly...

While renovating my living room, I am considering fitting some lights to illuminate pictures on the walls. The problem is I don’t know exactly where the pictures will be, and won’t know until after everything else is finished. One option is to somehow run wires horizontally in the wall a...

Has anyone used these outside lights from TLC: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GL29192AT.html It's a "BREEZ - Surface Mount LED Brick/Guide Light - Anthracite" by Forum Lighting. Any comments about quality etc. would be appreciated. The plan is to fit a few of them at a relatively...

I have a 6”x6” adaptable box that currently has only steel conduit connections to it. I need to add T&E. What’s the right way to do that? In particular, what’s the “right way” to terminate the new cable’s earth? The box doesn’t have an earth terminal. Also, what are the requirements for strain...

Does anyone ever fit floor sockets in living rooms? Before I started renovating my living room, we had a couple of “trip hazard” extension leads for TV, chargers etc. Floor sockets - in the right places - would fix that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in domestic settings though. Thoughts?

I was surprised to discover that the gas pipe to my stove takes a very circuitous route, via an area where I have lifted the floor to do other work. There is a small risk of damage to the gas pipe, e.g. by standing on it or dropping something on it, while working. I’m wondering if there are...

Dear Experts, My cooker circuit is 10mm^2 singles in 20mm steel conduit. Currently it has a 32A RCBO and supplies only a 16A oven, though it did have a 40A MCB at some point in the past. It runs under my living room floor, which is currently a 75mm void between concrete/screed and wooden...

Dear All, Despite having been a member here for more than a decade, I’ve never previously tried to document the “big picture” of what I’m doing. So I’m going to fix that now with some posts about the latest instalment of my years-long project to insulate my flat. I live in a ground floor flat...

I have a pile of old T&G pine floorboards that got damaged along one or both sides while being lifted. I’d like to slice off the broken edges to get something like a 50mm wide batten, which I can re-use in another project. What’s the best way to do this? I only have a circular saw and jigsaw. I...

How much difference in quality do you think there is between e.g. a £75 pine internal door from Wickes and a £120 one from Climadoor? The Wickes doors in particular have some terrible reviews, not all from people who have used oil-based paint causing them to delaminate. Are these doors all...

Dear Experts, I have exposed the side of a steel lintel and I’m curious as to how old it is. (This is a 17th-century building, but substantially modified multiple times.) It is 2450mm long x 178mm deep, and the flanges are 24mm thick. I can’t tell the width. To my inexperienced eye, the steel...

Dear Experts, Photo shows an alcove in my living room where there has been water ingress over quite a long period due to gutter problems. That has now been resolved and I need to make good inside. This is a very old building, converted to its current layout in about 1980. I believe that at...

Hi, It’s possible to buy restrictors for cabinet hinges that limit them to about 80 degrees, rather than the normal 110 degrees; here’s an example: These clip into the “cup” part of the hinge, and I’m guessing that they only fit the normal 35mm diameter cups, right? I have hinges with the...

I am replacing an electric shower. The old one was tiled-up-to, rather than mounted on the tiles - maybe it was older than the tiles? So now I have this hole in the tiles: I feel that I should fill that in to get a flush surface, and mount the new shower (which is probably slightly larger in...

I am replacing this old Mira Sport electric shower, mainly because it is only 7.5 kW but also because it is falling apart: I found that both Mira and Triton have models that are supposed to be easy to retro-fit as replacements because they have lots of options for water and electricity input...

Does anyone have any advice about sourcing small rectangles of glass for use as shelves inside a cabinet? I’ve found a few online suppliers who will cut to size and polish the edges, but they are surprisingly expensive. They seem more geared up to larger sizes, e.g. table tops, with expensive...

Dear Experts, Water-based gloss seems to have improved somewhat since I last tried to use it a decade ago, but it still seems difficult to get a perfect smooth finish. I am currently using “Leyland Trade fast-drying Plus Gloss New & Improved” (from Screwfix). It looks great as it comes off the...

Dear Experts, I’m going to make a bathroom wall cabinet. Maybe approx 700 x 400 x 120 mm. I’m upcycling some good timber from an old wardrobe. I’m debating how to finish it. The obvious choice is white gloss paint. That’s easy enough in principle, though whether I can make the large flat front...