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I need to cut 4", 5" & 6" diameter extractor fan outlet holes in standard cavity walls. (inside = soft celcon, outside = fairly soft facing brick). I was going to hire diamond core drills but the 3 sizes makes it quite expensive. Has anyone had any experience of marking the circle and...

I'm about to fit a large 540m3/hr extractor unit over the cooker and the intallation manual says that I need to have a 500cm2 air inlet in the room to balance the pressure. I understand the theory of this and would be happy to do it if necessary but I just wondered if anyone actually bothered in...

When planning the downlighter positions in our new kitchen to coincide with worktops etc, i have found that one will be nearly touching a joist (the others are all thankfully mid-joist). I've heard that there some fireproof type of plasterboard...would a piece of this be sufficient to...

I'm about to have a water softener installed in our extension and had a question as to whether toilets needed cold softened water or not? It seems to me that they would use up a high volume of softened water unnecessarily? Comments please... My intention was to connect the rest as...

I have built stud walls upstairs in our new extension using 89mm CLS and plan to clad them in 12.5mm plasterboard plus a skim. To meet Part E for soundproofing (and thermal) I was just going to fill them using the standard 100mm Crown wool on a roll. I then started to research all the...

I have built stud walls upstairs in our new extension using 89mm CLS and plan to clad them in 12.5mm plasterboard plus a skim. To meet Part E for soundproofing (and thermal) I was just going to fill them using the standard 100mm Crown wool on a roll. I then started to research all the...

I'm fitting some standard door liner kits (the type morticed for both 27" and 30"). Silly question but what should the height be from bare floorboards to the underside of the head? They come in at 2005mm which I'm assuming needs trimming as standard doors are 1981mm. How much clearance...

I'm looking to buy a water softener and have tried researching it but there doesn't seem to be one make that stands out. Which make would you recommend for a five bedroom house? Also, are the ones from B&Q any good...they seem dear enough at £450

I'm sure this has been asked and answered before but I couldn't find it on search. My joists run the wrong way for our new proposed bathroom layout. Is it permissable to drill the joists with a hole saw to take 32mm or even 40mm plastic waste pipes? or do I have to build a boxed-in skirting...

What is the usual thickness of a plaster 'skim' on standard plasterboard? I need to know this to calculate the size of my door linings as I'm using 89mm CLS studwork with 12.5mm plasterboard each side. The door lining will presumably be 114mm + 2 'skims' in thickness. Is there a standard...

Rather than run a 110mm soil pipe up the corner of my (upstairs) bathroom wall to connect with a Drago intake valve in the loft, could I not use 40mm drain pipe inside the studwork which then tees back into the Drago valve via a 110mm fitting once back in the loft? The alternative I suppose...

I have quite a few questions on this subject so here goes... Q1. I am building a wide gravel drive on a slope with a hardcore sub-base which leads down to my house / garage. How much drainage does this need or will the water simply soak in across the general area? Q2. I was thinking of...

A plumber is about to give me a quote for a new central heating system and says that he only recommends installing Thermecon Oil Boilers because they are the best. Does anyone have any views? Is this the case or is there just a special offer on at his builders merchants? I was originally...

I'm building a studwall upstairs using 89mm CLS timber with 12.5mm plasterboard each side, making an overall width of 114mm. The standard door liner sizes seem to be 108mm and 131mm (ie either too small or too big). Is there a standard size that suits 89mm CLS? If not, it looks like I'll...

My Hotpoint Aquarius DWF31 dishwasher has got itself stuck in drain mode. The display shows 11 mins left on the wash cycle and the pump won't cut out to allow the cycle to complete. Pump is working OK because I put some more water into the sump and it pumped it out a treat. Machine is out of...

Just had an OFTEC registered plumber around to give me a quote for a new oil central heating system. Where we want our new boiler the flue position would be about 500mm horizontally from our back door. I thought Building Regs say min distance of 600mm but he seemed to think it was only 300mm and...

We're just about to buy a REDFYRE Traditional Rangecooker (like an AGA) which also combines oil fired central heating. Has anyone had any experiences of these... good or bad?

Does anyone have any experiences (good or bad) of traditional range cookers like AGA, Rayburn, Esse, Redfyre, Sandyford, Heritage, Alpha etc? (Oil fired) We are looking for a rangecooker which does central heating aswell (100,000 btus) ideally with an electric bolt-on ceramic hob/oven for the...

Just had an unsavory experience unblocking my soil pipe on a Sunday night!! As part of our house extension, we asked our builder to put in two soil pipe positions as we weren't sure where to site the upstairs toilet. He's joined them together on one underground horizontal pipe (with fall)...

A few years back I remember that the experts were pushing zoning of the central heating system using separate pumps on each radiator loop instead of valves as the pumps are only about £40 each. Is this still common practice? If it is, it might suit me as I have a new extension to first fix...