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We have a stair rail with painted spindles, and what we think is varnished handrails. What can we do to keep the natural colour of the handrail but have a clear glossy finish? I was thinking of sanding and then using varnish? But which varnishes are good for a decent long lasting finish? Not...

I can't seem to find anything solid that clearly states whether or not unprotected copper pipes will be corroded by gypsum based plaster, in my case bonding plaster. Some say it does (most), some say it doesn't. If it does how long are we talking before the copper pipes fail and leak?

Are these okay to use? It would certainly make it more straightforward to connect my bathroom basin to the waste pipe running up the wall from the floor, but is it the best option?

First time tiling - going rather well, though trowelling tile adhesive on to walls is a nightmare. 'ALL' the videos show bucket trowel in most cases a couple of lumps on to the notched trowel, then wiping it all over the wall with the straight edge, then using the notched side to spread. When I...

I need to get the bath waste pipe from the pipe popping up through the floor boards, across to roughly where the red box of rawl plugs is (for the bath waste connection). How do you plan/go about this? I know I need to know where the bath feet are going and have nothing clashing. Is it best to...

Am fitting a bath (single ended) which will fit in to the corner of the bathroom. What's a workable order to 'do things' in terms of - Fit the bathwaste and overflow (first), fit the trap to the waste (second), then levelling, positioning etc - how do you measure and cut/fit the pipe (I'm using...

I’m soon to be tiling our bathroom and it seems that anything less than 3mm is ill advised for non rectified tiles. My father in law used 2mm spacers, but the grout line is closer to 4-5mm. We want the thinnest we can have for cleaning reasons. Also with a standard set adhesive, when do you...

Will the voids behind dot and dabbed backer boards cause any problems or cosmetic issues once tiled and used in a bathroom? Will the dabs be cold bridges to the masonary wall for example? Is there any solution, or is this not an issue?

There's some 'leaky marks' which I thought was caused by the mortar between the coping stones having failed - the mortar has been chiseled out and replaced. The roof is moist on the inside of garage, after rain fall on the inside underneath and behind the parapet wall, on the right hand side...

The bathroom is completely ripped out back to basics. The plan is to have plumber 1st fix, chase in walls, hide in between floor boards where possible all plumbing and waste. I am going to be using a Hansgrohe concealed 2 outlet shower valve. The iBox part will be installed by the plumber...

What's best practice. I've noticed some patios and pathways have a few mm gap - filled with sand/cement. Some have the slabs butted up to each other with no gap. Advantages of one way vs the other? From experience our old patio which we inherited has 4-5mm gaps filled with cement/sand and it's...

I have a hot water cylinder, the immersion has failed twice already and out of good will they've replaced it. I live in a hard water area total hardness (330ppl) and ultimately the warranty of my cylinder, as well as most manufacturers have terms to the effect of 'must be below 220-270ppl'. How...

Saw this stuff in Homebase, with a lifetime guarantee! I wondered if anyone has used it and if so, how it is? It’s the only ready mixed adhesive that even mentions porcelain tiles.

A decent manual tile cutter (Rubi TX max) can cut porcelain well, cut what about cutting tiles to go around the face of a window cut out? Any tips? Tile nippers don’t give a straight edge, nor do electric wet saws that I’ve seen.

Had some French Doors installed last year and I remember the weather strip along the bottom of the doors kept pulling the strip out from the groove it sits in, so the installed came back, and trimmed it back so it cleared the metal piece along the bottom of the door frame it was catching on...

I’ll be renovating a 60’s bathroom soon and am looking at using 10mm insulated backer boards to increase the thermal properties of the room as a towel rail and need to vent the window after showers and baths means it’s never the warmest room! Is a vapour barrier advisable, or could that cause...

I'm going to be fully tiling the walls in our bathroom and wondered what would be tried and trusted method to giving the external walls extra insulation. Our house is cavity walled with insulation in the cavity, but based on our old house (same construction) the bathroom wall was always cold...

I fitted a stone resin shower tray and levelled and fixed as instructed on a bed of mortar. Nice and solid to walk in 48 hours later. Have now tiled on to and around it and when stepping on the tray there is a slight ‘rock’ from front to back. Any possible solutions to fix it without removing...

Advice please. It seals it drains and it’s connected. However it’s slightly off centre with the indent in the tray (nearest to the the camera). Any implications other than water will always sit in that little area?

Does anyone have any makes/types of a C2 based adhesive for dot and dabbing Aquapanel to a brick wall? This info is from Knauf's requirements - I know I have to use screws also.