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My house has a very typical setup: airing cupboard in bathroom with the unvented vented cylinder in, two tanks in the loft for the CH and HW systems. I want to add more insulation in the loft space but the tanks are in the way. Thought about raising them up on boards but would be a right pain...

In an unpressurised system with a feed tank in the loft, is it safe to turn off the supply of cold water to the feed tank once the system is filled & bled? I've got a niggling anxiety that if a joint or fitting goes, the feed tank will keep being supplied from the mains and could flood the...

Just wanted to check I'm not missing something before I go and swap my copper pipes for plastic. Say you want to run 15mm copper heating pipes perpendicular to joists and use foam insulation which is typically 13mm. Because it's copper you need to notch the joists rather than hole them. The...

I'd like to have a freestanding column radiator in a room with a concrete floor slab. This means the pipes need to come up out of the slab at either end of the radiator. Simplest option considering corrosion, insulation and installation seems to be PE-X pipe that has a 90 elbow up to the surface...

I am trying to figure out the number of Acrow props / Strongboy heads needed to support the floors / walls while I install an RSJ, but the numbers aren't making much sense. Plan is to prop / scaffold board under the floor joists to take most of the load off the wall, and use strongboys to take...

I've had an SE come up with specs for a RSJ to support a 2.6m span of a load bearing, internal wall (see floorplan below) Within their specifications they 'assume' a 600mm wide / 800mm deep concrete trench foundation, and suggest underpinning if this is not the case. Given the house is from...

Hi all, I'm planning out how to board a small section of my loft above the hallway / landing - pic below - and wanted some other opinions. The area is 1600 x 3700, the ceiling joists are 75x50, at approx. 400 centres, and the purlin is 175x65. Main problem I've got is there's a large purlin...

I've picked up a new door casing set but noticed that the rebates in the head aren't flush - they protrude by 2mm and this leaves me with an equivalent gap at the top of the legs. Is there a purpose behind this or is it a defect?

I have a typical terraced house with a brick wall separating the living room & dining room Plan for this year was to knock that through using an RSJ to support the load and brick up the doorway between the hallway / living room. I was thinking this would be straightforward as far as building...

1930s terrace, all walls in bedroom had gloss paint in good condition Covered with blue grit and skimmed with multifinish Did this in my spare time so took a few months to get around all the walls Now getting hairline cracks showing up after I've mist coated and want to know if I've done...

Got a few walls in one room where I've added some sockets and also damaged the plaster behind the skirting board, hence need to re-skim Rather than do the whole wall (very difficult to do in time as a novice) I've opted to strip the paint off (needed doing anyway), skim up about 1/4 from the...

I'm digging over and re-seeding my lawn from scratch as it was in really poor condition (weeds, bumps, dips, waterlogging) The existing lawn has a gentle slope up towards the back of the garden which I'm intending to keep as the fences have the same slope, and to level the lawn would raise the...

Is cement-stabilised soil an adequate sub-base for a patio? I'm thinking of digging the soil (quite heavy clay) to a depth of 100mm, thoroughly mixing with 20mm cement, compacting & watering. This would then have the bedding layer directly on top and then the paving slabs.

Just losing my mind at this a bit.. Why don't any of the 25kg materials of bags have the volume on them? Be it gravel, sand, ballast, cement, etc Surely that's the most basic info you need to work out how much you need to buy, but they give you the weight instead which is mostly useless Am I...

I've fitted new downlights in a room with the intention of switching them with a simple dimmer The lights are Bell 3.2w GU10s x 6 so ~19w total I've tried two dimmer switches now: The first was from Eurolite and I didn't realise until it arrived that it had a minimum load that was too high...

Had to patch a few low areas on a wall with bonding coat, which has now dried out completely (noob mistake) and sucks all the moisture out of the multifinish coat. What's the best way to prepare this for skimming: neat PVA or diluted, if so at what ratio?

Trying to understand my current installation before I make some minor changes. There is a component, sort of like a plumbing junction box, which connects four pipes. Could anyone tell me what this is? In the labelled picture attached: 1: Flow from boiler 2: Onto pump, mid-position valve & rest...

Hi all, Looking to do some notifiable work in my house, namely moving some sockets around and extending a ring main, adding a couple new circuits for the loft and the garden, and replacing the aged consumer unit. I feel this is within my competency and I'll be buying a copy of BS7671 to aid me...