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I need to restore the Victorian staircase in my home as the treads are cracked, worn and not level. I took the facade off under the stairs and the stairs have been built in a manner I’m not familiar with. As you might be able to make out there is a message from a long gone carpenter saying...

Just moved into a Victorian terrace and lifted some boards in the loft. There were quite a few of these brown pallets. They seem to be contained to this one area. At first I thought they were droppings, but they’re very uniform and could maybe be some sort of pupae shell? The loft timbers...

In my garage conversion a wall was built forward of the existing wall to keep the gas meter and CU in situ and also create a single flush wall rather than having a cupboard jutting out. There is a draft from the cavity and I want to seal around it. I’ve tried using expanding foam but it just...

I'm just about to add two new rads. Reading the instructions it says to use a cleaner after installation. I've got a microbore system predominantly 10mm but a few rads in 8mm for some reason. Little bit worried about dislodging something and getting a blockage. Is cleaning necessary? Wondering...

I want to change the banister on my staircase from planks to spindles. I've currently taken a wall down that was the next to the landing and have a temporary banister built with CLS. This job was going to wait a little while but I have to decide what I'm going to do now as the surround for the...

My house was built around 1983. Knocking a wall down I noticed the plaster has fibres in it. I've come across asbestos at work a few times and these fibres look too long and thick to be asbestos, but I'm no expert and with the kids in the house I want to be 100% sure. Can anyone identify what...

Right in the middle of putting up a stud wall to make the cloakroom smaller to create a hallway to the new garage conversion and Mrs sees the lines I've drawn out and says she hopes that's not where the wall's going. She's worried about not being able to get the sofa in the new living room so...

Might be using a couple of these https://www.bes.co.uk/2-way-end-feed-brass-manifold-22mm-x-8mm-7387 tomorrow if I can find them locally. Just to check, I solder the fitting onto 22mm pipe as though it was a stop end and heat the manifold and apply solder to the microbore pipes where they...

The guy that owned my house before me was an electrical engineer. I suspect he done a lot of the electrics himself and although he obviously had the electrical knowledge he clearly knew nothing about building regs, as I discovered when I ripped apart the kitchen to find a 10mm cable to the...

I'm doing the wiring for our garage conversion extending an existing radial circuit. The studwork is filled with rigid insulation which has about 20mm total clearance between brickwork and plasterboard, to keep an air gap behind the insulation this will be reduced slightly. How is this usually...

I'm running two new rads and my system is 10mm microbore (thought it was 8mm upstairs but they all look the same size to me now.) I don't know if I have a manifold. There's a rad in the house that I think wasn't there when it was built so I lifted the floorboards on the upstairs landing...

I'm having my garage converted into a living room and connecting two rads up myself. An insulated (xtratherm) stud wall is going up over the existing single skin brickwork and I was planning on running the pipework from the roof void down the wall. The studs are 70mm and insulation 50mm. The...

I'm having a wooden garage put up today that sits between the house and the boundary fence with a 240mm gap on either side. Contrary to what I was told by the salesman, the contractors have turned up and said they can't install the guttering on the side that's next to the house. Presumably...

Got a 3x4 room that used to be our kitchen to plaster. Was gonna get someone in but it's a busy time of year and getting high quotes for spreads to do it over the weekend so thought I may as well have a crack. Got a new fitted wardrobe which is currently bare plasterboard and was just going to...

I'm turning what was my kitchen into a playroom for the kids. I want to move a socket from the usual height you'd find in kitchen down to above skirting level. If I follow the vertical path the socket will end up behind a new rad that's going in, so I need to move it horizontally as well. Any...

I recently moved my kitchen to a different room and have just started turning what was the kitchen into a playroom for the kids. I think sorting the old kitchen is going to be harder than providing all the utilities for the new one. Obviously the old kitchen had a drain where the sink used to...

Anyone know what these sockets are for? They're on my wall by the tv points.

I'm laying sheet vinyl flooring that is 4.2mm thick. I've laid the same stuff before but because it is so thick I've found it hard to gauge exactly where to cut. If you press a straight edge up to the flooring against the wall you get quite bend between the floor and the wall. I managed it last...

I need to get some vinyl flooring down before christmas. It's going to be loose laid and may come up again in the new year to screed underneath. Problem is, on pulling up the carpet the underside was damp above a fairly big crack in the slab. It's uneven where the crack is so needs to be...

After having spent the last couple of weeks getting everything ready for moving our kitchen into our living room, and having fitted all the base units in a mad rush to be ready in time for the 'joiner' to come and fit our worktops, I was devastated to come home from work this evening and see...