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I am toying with the idea of a loft extension. The easiest way is to just use windows inserted in place of some tiles. The way to gain more headroom (and living) room is to insert a "box" in place of a section of the original roof slope (dormer). In general dormers tend to look massive and ugly...

We have a large airing cupboard in a very old house. The airing cupboard has always smelt musty. I have been doing some plumbing in the cupboard and found that the cold feed pipes are sweating very heavily. I know that insulation will cure this BUT, there is a multitude of bends and Ts so I know...

The ground level slopes along my road. This means that my flat garden is higher then my neighbours. Now he has a tatty fence on his side of this step which is keeping my garden soil in place. So should I have an earth retaining wall on my side of the boundary or should he? It just that the...

My son has an Edwardian cottage in Bedminster (Bristol). All the rear openings in the 9" solid brick wall are covered by a brick arch that has a 3" high wooden lintel set in, so the bottom of it is level with where the bottom of the arch bricks should be. These bricks have had their bottoms cut...

Apologies to the good folk across the pond. I have just seen a programme on ITVBe called "Fixer Uppers". It is about refurbishing American houses. Its an eye opener, they are huge and crude, but it is entertaing. Frank

I am about to buy a house that has a drive that is about 3' higher at the house end then at the road end, about 20' away. At the moment its gravel and weeds. If I use paving stones what do I have to do to stop them slipping down the slope? Frank

We are about to buy a 1970s stone built house. Upstairs the stone work stops at the sides of the windows and there is some sort of panel above the windows. The problem is that the panel is set back, more or less the thickness of the stone work, so there is no lintel across the outside of the...

I was sitting in a cafe , gazing out of the window when a van turned up a couple of chaps got out with a small ladder. They lean't the ladder against the wall of the small cottage opposite, one climbed it and measure up the width of the sill of a small window (30"?). So far so good, then...

I am working on a Victorian stone built barn. The first problem is that the floor has a 6" slope up from its door to the back wall. The floor was broken flags and earth and when the weather was bad it was very damp. I am removing 4" of the old floor from the door end and when I get to the...

Hi Guys , I am getting a bit mifted about the very poor quality of the sound with All flat screen TVs, so as a project I want to extend the bass down from the 250 HZ at present to some like 60 HZ. For my prototype I am going to build the new woofer into/as part of a kitchen unit plinth...

I have cast in-situ concrete lintels which turned out to be successful. I now want to cast my own concrete pillar to replace rotten wooden ones in a garden fence. The fence is panels which drop into slots in concrete posts but in the end wall of my garden there is a dog leg which requires two...

I need to build a lean to workshop and summerhouse on the side of my house. The design is 3m wide, 5m long (workshop) plus an extra 3m for the summer house. There will be 4m along the side of the house with 4m sticking into the back garden, so the workshop entrance will be on the extra 1m of the...

I moved into this shed about three years ago, it has a little wood burner in it with a flue that runs through the roof. The problem seems to be that on top of the roof, the flue passes through a 18" square ali plate that is nailed down on top of the felt, While I have resealed underneath the...

We are on a water meter and have been in this house for 3 years. I have just replaced the flush unit for the third time. whats the problem with these, they all run on and drip for a couple of minutes or more. I have tried one suggestion of putting a bit of extra weight on the sealing disc, but...

I woke up early the other morning (0445) and was just being dozy, when both the bedside lamps came on, they flickered a bit (20 seconds ?) then went out. Later I found out that the local village was having some mains power line maintenance. Later in the day My wife went upstairs and they were on...

Just had my second Indesit washine machine go bang. the problem is with the micro processor controller, a couple of track burn't off the PCB. The tracks arced across because the track spacing is too small for reliable mains operation in the damp!!! While taking the W/M apart I took of the...

I helped my brother in law move a Belling cooker from his garage into his kitchen. As the cooker became covered in condensation, it was thought it was best to leave it to dry off before it was wired up. Two hours later the glass oven door just shattered. I guess this was due to the thermal...

This is a 1957 Council built bungalow with cavity walls and solid concrete floors. My one has 12 air vents along the front and two sides (none at the back) and I think they are not required. The cavities were filled with mineral wool fibre in the 1980s. These vents only go to the cavity - no...

Just taken down an old dry stone wall that was between the garden path and a patio. I found in the foundation rocks two concrete blocks. The house has been up since 1805 at least. So it begs the question, when was the garden wall rebuilt? Frank

My Son is trying to buy a Victorian property with a single brick skin, double storey rear addition. The mortgage company is waffling on about the stability of said addition. I can see that there are heat losses associated with it, which we could cure with dry lining, but as the rear addition has...