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Hi, Insulated under ground floor in 1890 house, from crawl space, by putting space blanket between all joists. Now the awkward bits; the small gaps between wall and joist (4-6cm) and also the joist structure around fireplace. I saw a suggestion here to fill the gap between wall and joist with...

Hi, Rather than fiddling with the timer during a freezing period, to make the heating come on every 30mins for 10 mins or the like, I'd like our old WB240RSF boiler to protect itself. I see both frost stat and pipe stat are recommended. Why not just a pipe stat? After all you want to protect...

Hi, I've pulled the radiator off a wall under an original Victorian square bay sash. The plaster behind is damp. Smells a lot since being disturbed and is pretty loose in a lot of places. I'm wondering how best to deal with this. The room will at some point be completely...

Hi, Got rotten joists to replace in an 1890 cellar. Looks like the ends have fallen foul of the usual wet rot (they are embedded in the external walls, with only half a brick protection from the elements). I can see that almost all the others have already been replaced for likely this same...

Hi, I've got some awful pointing that needs attention on an 1890 house. There's a strange device, that I've never seen before, connected to the combined foul/surface drain: Is that what the Victorians used to vent the foul gases from the pipe? Or is it something else altogether? Can...

Hi, My neighbour has removed a bit of their roof to build a wooden structure to provide a flat roof for a bathroom. They had a bathroom in this room before I bought my house (a semi), but they have now performed this work to provide full height all across the bathroom rather than stick with the...

Have a 1.2m curtain pole to fix to a plasterboard wall. I was planning to use redidrive fixings: http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Screws+Fixings/Cavity+Fixings/Self+Drill+Plasterboard+Screw+Zinc/d90/sd1930/p55036 The two curtain rod brackets have a small round plate which has a triangle of...

Just had a 1st floor bedroom insulated to building regs standards. Followed the information the building control officer wanted and Celotex approved method. 25x50 treated battens against solid brick outer wall with 50mm celotex over that and then drywall. It's not the method recommended on the...

We have a gap to fill before the architrave can go on. I thought easifill would be a quick and cheap option, considering I already have some. It'll just be painted white. At some point, perhaps years, the hallway will eventually be re-done. Will easifill be ok for this? Thanks.

Our chimneys have been removed and cut off inside the loft. The tops of the flues are entirely open to the loft space. As there is no way for rain to get down the flues, from the top, is the usual vent on each chimney breast needed? Just lined the external walls (including chimney breast) of a...

I have the floor up in a bedroom above a kitchen. I thought of filling the space between the joists with some kind of insulation. The Victorian joists are about 16-17cm high and 30-36cm apart. As space blanket is cheap, comes in 37cm width rolls and easy to install, I thought it'd be an...

Hi, A black plastic water pipe about 20-21mm OD supplies my house. Is that alkathene? Here's the stop top which joins it to 15mm copper: You can see one side of the stop tap has a British kite mark and with "31" written above it. On the other side has "1/2" meaning half inch of...

Hi, I wish to add a double socket in a cellar room under kitchen. There is an existing power cable passing through the cellar which is a radial supplying just two sockets in the kitchen above. I was told that by an NICEIC registered guy who installed a dual RCD distribution board last year...

Hi, Plasterboard with insulation attached is pretty expensive compared to getting plain PB and PIR boards. Is it better/easier to have the air gap next to the wall or next to the PB? Celotex show using their GA4000 PIR boards, putting them against the wall and putting the battens over...

Hi, I've pulled down a plaster and lath ceiling in a Victorian house (1890) as parts of it were coming away. Sorry, that this is so long, but I thought extra detail would be useful. I want to plasterboard it, but some of the joists are slightly different levels, only about 5mm out...

Is the manual bypass screw on a 240 RSF a safety device or part of the black art of balancing? I was contemplating adding an automatic bypass to the system. If I do, can I completely shut this screw? Or simply making sure that one rad (bathroom seems ideal) is always on? I'm concerned that...

Hi, I've noticed quite a bit of orange in the flame of my 240 RSF: http://galatea.salford.ac.uk/aix502/07032010011.mp4 Download the great free video player, VLC, if you can't play that: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ The CH and DHW are good and hot. I have a working carbon monoxide...

Hi, On a 240 RSF, water comes out of expansion vessel valve when depressed. Strangely, pressure does not jump greatly when CH is on. From 0.8 up to about 1.5. I thought a failed vessel would mean a large pressure rise up to 3bar and then PRV venting? I don't get that. The installation manual...

Hi, My central heating drain point has been dodgy for a while, but now refuses to shutoff completely. Constantly dripping. Here it is: It seems to be threaded into the proceeding joint. Marked 1 - 2 P underneath. The proceeding joint is a soldered tee, with what looks like...