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I would like to stop progressive erosion of the banks of a little river (not so little in the recent rains!!) and want to compact heavy clay soil behind the revetments I intend to install. This would replace material lost to erosion. About 100m of bank, so perhaps 10m^3 or so of material. How...

I need to remove a window restrictor now our children have grown beyond requiring this. It looks like I need a pin wrench to turn the 'lock nut' in the image through 90°? Is that right? If so, do I need to buy a specific pin wrench for this? The diameter of the 'pin holes' is pretty small, and...

We have renovated a basement room as a guest bedroom. It is only used occasionally and developed a bit of a 'musty' smell after a while Although it has 'French Window's type doors, I'm thinking it would benefit from a regular air exchange even when not in use. What are the options for installing...

I have had some electrical work carried out with new buried trunking meaning I have a need for a small volume of F&B 'Slipper Satin' paint to make good the plasterwork repair. But I only need to paint one small area, certainly not justifying a whole new can of paint! I'm guessing a couple of...

Hi, I have a new burglar alarm installed (by a household name company), but the doorbell camera needs some 'assistance'. Our front door is quite recessed and so there is no direct light onto the face of the person at the door: and with bright light behind them (daylight), the person is pretty...

I need to treat a garage wall to remove green algael growth before stabilising and repainting the exterior wall. Rather than pressure washing (the surface is a little friable) I want to treat with an antifungal wash and stiff bristled brush and then treat with a stabilising solution, before...

Attached are images of my shower drain cover which I have just cleared of the most foul hair blockage ever. I had to disassemble the whole thing. As I am practically bald, I blame my wife and daughter. What does the arrow on the underside (approximately at 'six o'clock') of the drain mean...

I have an Audi Q5 that periodically demands AdBlue to be filled up. Using a 10l bottle, I have never found it easy to fill, with about 50% of the contents frequently not ending up in the AdBlue tank, but dripping all over the back wheel instead, via the spillage drain hole. I am carefully...

I have a lot of green wood processing from tree surgery to do, and although I have a chainsaw, it is noisy and annoys the neighbours. When new, my bowsaw blade is like a hot knife through butter, but after a few hours use, the brown non-stick coating (Teflon, I presume) wears off, and the blades...

My driveway is tar mcadam and has a bad moss problem. I treated it with a 'professional' moss and algae killer a week ago and it turned pretty brown/ sick looking. Rather than trying to use a 'stiff brush', I invested in a Stihl power brush to fit onto my Stihl combi engine. I'm surprised just...

From new, the gaskets on our hardwood windows and doors were clearly ill-fitting and 'popping out'. The manufacturer (remaining nameless) seems less than concerned and adviced that we should use sealant to fix them in place. The fact that, if necessary, this should have happened during...

I would like to run power out to a 'summer house' and greenhouse. Two separate buildings. A huge part of the expense is likely to be digging a trench from the house out to the two buildings. The furthest run is likely to be about 100m from the house (electrical source) to the greenhouse. I'd...

I put some (allegedly) pressure treated posts into postcrete about five years ago, and I'm surprised (shocked) just how decayed they have become. See picture Is there a remedy that would prevent me having to dig them all out and replace them? If I did, I think I'd flatten the surface of the...

Working overseas, we are renting our house next year and will be storing a lot of personal items in the loft. I'd like to add a lock onto the loft door without it being 'in your face' obtrusive, and slightly insulting to our (unknown) tenants. So a dangling padlock is not acceptable to me...

I have some 'Blum' type hinges into chipboard type cabinets, so the screws became unstable and have been reseated in 'bicarbonate of soda and superglue' cement (my new favourite hack!). I have repainted the doors and need to now rehang them. Can anyone direct me to a good explanation of the...

The main sewage/ waste water pipe for our village runs under/ through our garden. I do not know how deep it lies, but presume several feet. It is tempting to thing that because some waste water may be 'hot' water, the ground surrounding the pipe could be warmer than soil at the same depth...

Hi. What ratio of Portland Cement/ sharp sand/ aggregate would you recommend for building up existing concrete footings of a small bridge? 3m span. The river water has 'undermined' the exposed edges of the footings. Not so much 'undermined' as 'side scoured'. So some of the concrete will be...

We have a 4m bridge spanning a small river in our garden: nothing fancy, just concrete 'foundations'* built into the banks supporting (small) steel I-Beams across the span of the river, and then a flat timber bed on top of the I-Beams. The timber has deteriorated now to the point that I need to...

Okay, so I have a high hedge that I take my life in my hands every time I have to trim it. I use a Stihl petrol hedge trimmer, on an extension pole, but the balance is really not great given the extreme height. I prefer to use a shorter reach pole but then I have to teeter on top of a...

Hi, I'm looking for advice on who to talk to about harnessing electric power from a small river that bisects my garden. I don't expect to be able to power anything more than a few lights in the garden. The flow is approximately 0.5m per second, and following some recent revetting, the flow is...