Search results

We were gifted a Homcom self-assembly shoe cabinet by a friend and, right at the end of the assembly process - literally when trying to install the final screw - I discovered that the threaded metal insert in the plastic fixing below has stripped and so the screw will not tighten (note that the...

Just discovered a leaking radiator valve that's usually hidden behind some furniture. I don't have any DIY experience with central heating beyond bleeding radiators - how involved a job is this?

I was lying on the floor trying to inspect the bottom hinges of the dishwasher door, as it was sticking, and I suddenly felt like I'd had something jabbed into my leg by the tile edging. I couldn't see or feel anything on the edging that would cause that, so I went back to what I was doing, and...

The is under our kitchen sink, the small sink next to the big one. The previous owner had connected the sink to the drain with the bits in the second photo, which are too long and force the drain pipe down at an angle and leave the rest of the waste pipes cocked and occasionally leaking. To my...

We've been living here for about 8 months and have no drainage issues that I'm aware of, but I've only just noticed that this drain underneath a rain gutter is completely and, apparently, deliberately blocked with soil and stones (grating removed by me). Presumably the idea is that rainwater...

I need to install 3 Ethernet ports in a room where I can't chase into the wall, I have to screw to the wall. I can find plenty of 3-port front plates but they all seem intended for chasing, I can't seem to find any matching plastic back boxes for them. Is there anywhere that sells what I want...

We have a 10-year-old Bosch washing machine that has been very reliable, only needing replacement brushes about two years ago. I'm thinking about the bearings being the next thing to fail, and E-Spares have complete kits with the shaft seals for our model number machine for £84. How specialist...

I'm after a small portable compressor that allows you to set the pressure you want it to maintain (down to 2psi for finding vacuum leaks in emissions systems), and which will work silently (when it's not refilling the tank). What's the entry level price for something like that? I've been using a...

I'm looking for a closet/toilet flange with test cap and a 4" cleanout adapter with plug (it's to build a smoke machine). They seem to be cheaply and easily available in the USA, but over here, just looking online, I can only find the cleanout adapter for about £22 on Amazon, and only with a...

Downstairs toilet flush has broken, and looking at the water input pipe, there's this metal connector with the screw on the side. Is that screw the means of shutting off the water? The upstairs toilets have different, plastic shutoff valves. There's nothing else accessible; the rest of the...

The cold taps in our upstairs and downstairs bathrooms have seized up over about 5 years. 5 years ago, they were similarly seized, so we called a plumber and he fixed them in about 10 minutes - I wasn't paying a huge amount of attention, but all he seemed to do was pop the top cap off the tap...

I'm sure that I once read somewhere that dishwashers typically have a small tube round the back (not the big chunky drain tube) that can be blown into manually to clear a pressure differential issue that's causing the appliance to stop and flash an error message during a wash cycle. Is that...

I've just repaired our 8-year-old Bosch washing machine thanks to YouTube videos that happened to cover the same fault on the same machine. But is it really still a waste of time trying to obtain a proper repair manual if you're a DIYer?

The large central burner on our Kenwood oven has ended up with a load of cooking oil in it. We've soaked up most of it, but it could obviously do with a more thorough clean. Can I just remove those three screws and lift it out, or will I be disturbing seals that will need to be replaced with new?

When you start a cycle it will run normally for about 2 minutes, then you'll hear the gurgling noise from the drain (totally normal for when the unit is draining) and immediately the error code indication is displayed. It will then run something (the pump?) for another few minutes and then stop...

I want to use one so I can switch from black exterior cable (where it comes in through a wall), to white for internal use. Ideally I want rear entry for the black cable, side entry for the white one. I can't find anything online that does this, all the junction boxes I've found are side entry...

I've run a network cable from the living room to an upstairs bedroom up the front wall of the house. When I drilled the upstairs hole, I discovered that it came out in the strip of serrated soft black material (sorry, don't know what it's properly called) that covers the join between the porch...

I want to put Ethernet sockets in my living room and in the bedroom directly above, connected by a cable that will run up the front exterior wall of the house. See the photo below (not my house) for how I'd like the cable to be positioned relative to the windows. I want both sockets to sit just...

After many years (well over 20 I think) of summer use, our trusty floor-standing bedroom fan has decided to seize up. I'd rather repair than replace if possible. Having stripped it down, it looks like the issue is with this bit at the back; it seems to be some kind of bearing that allows the...

I'm going to be using cement screws to attach wooden battens to some concrete fence posts. I've never used cement screws before, and the ones I bought say they need a 6mm pilot hole. I experimented by drilling into a breeze block and winding the screw halfway in. With a 6mm hole, there was a...