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Currently there is a floor of about a foot thick between my ground floor and the cellar of my (c200year) old house. In the context of some ground floor remodelling I want to remove this floor and replace it with a wooden one, which would give me more ceiling height in the cellar, in which I plan...

Apologies for the following covering a number of categories of entry. I'm thinking of trying to make more use of the cellar in my (old) house by installing the washing machine and dryer down there. I have a couple of questions: 1. The basement is mostly dry, except for one corner which has...

My neighbours recently extended their two storey house upwards alongside my four storey house, so both houses are now the same size. We now have a rather unusual structural situation where for the first two storeys of our houses we share a party wall, while for the top two stories we have...

I'm not sure if this post is in the right place, but here goes. I intend to put some wood panelling on the walls of my stairwell. It will be against both external and internal walls. Given that the walls are not damp, do I need to treat the wood against rot? There is likely to be a small gap...

Anyone got a recipe for whitewash? It is for internal use, to be painted onto the exposed stone walls of my kitchen. I read something about mixing hydrated lime, salt and water, but I have no idea of quantities. Even better, could I add water and salt to some lime putty I made a few weeks ago...

I'm intending to remove the ceiling on the top floor of my house, in order to open up the room to the currently un-insulated attic. At the moment there are gaps between the eaves and the walls, which I presume are soffit vents, but there are no ridge vents, presumably because the air can flow...

I'm removing the ceiling from the top floor of my house in order to make the room open to the roof space. I need to insulate the roof, and having read this forum I think I will use tri-iso super 9, a kind of radiant barrier which is only 2cm thick, with plasterboard over the top. However as I...

I had a heating engineer and a couple of fitters come to my house today to install a couple of radiators and move a radiator on the middle floor of the house. I wanted the radiator moving about 50cm to the left. Not a big deal you would think. I got a call at lunchtime, could I go home as there...

I need to install a plug socket in a wall that has suffered from rising damp problems. Is this a bad idea? Are there any precautions I should take? Thanks in advance

I need a plug socket in an understairs cupboard, where at present there is just a wall light. I don't need the wall light, is it possible to just wire a plug socket in instead? I realise that this would then be on the lighting rather than the plug circuit, is that necessarily a problem? Thanks...

I just spent the weekend removing the plaster from the interior of the rising-damp-afflicted stone wall of my house. I'm not intending to plaster over the stone, rather leave it in its natural state with a coating of whitewash, to match the rest of the room. However, I'm now faced with the task...

I have an understairs cupboard which until yesterday contained a toilet. I removed the toilet in order to make space for a washing machine. Does an adapter exist that would allow me to drain the washing machine into the existing toilet soil pipe? I suppose I would also need a trap. I realise I...

I've got a damp cellar in my c.200 year old stone-built house - not a particular problem as I have no plans to use it for anything other than storing junk. However, one section of the ground floor wall seems to have rising damp. Most of the ground floor walls have no covering - the original...

I've just had a quote for installing 2 radiators. The quote includes 8 hours labour each for the installer and his assistant (i.e. it will take the two of them a working day). The pipework is already in place, as the radiators to be installed are replacing existing radiators, but I realise that...

I recently bought a house and the roof needs some attention. However, I don't know if it needs to be patched up a bit or fully retiled. As far as I can see it does not leak (I looked inside the attic). Thing is, the house is very tall so it's difficult to get up there and have a look. Are there...

I want to remove both radiators on the top (third) floor of my house. I have a closed (pressurised) heating system fired by a combi boiler, and I understand that I have to drain the system to do this. Given that the radiators in question are at the top of the house, and given the laws of...

I have recently moved into a 200 year old house with a damp cellar. Is it possible that the problem could simply be caused by someone bricking up the coal chute, which gave access to the outside and thus allowed air to circulate? If so could the problem be resolved by simply unbricking it?