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I need to remove three 6x3" tiles from the top of a row. Preferably unbroken. I'm raising the tiling height above them and I can't just go on up as they are rolled edge so the grout won't stick or will look too thick. I'm also concerned about loosening the nearby tiles. I've cut out the grout...

Our 9kw Mira shower has just eaten a second pullcord switch in ... not many years. An MK, in this case, about 3 years old. The neon glows faintly, but no power to the shower. I switch it off after each use. Do I need to, or can I just leave it on?

No silicone thankyou!! What's your favourite method of sealing onto the rim of a bath? Existing bath - 60s, enamelled - has quadrant tiles which have lasted pretty well, do not leak and are not loose. New bath - Villeroy and Boch - made of quartz/acrylic, should be pretty rigid. Unfortunately...

1960s extension, hard concrete block internal wall. To put a power shower on that wall I need to chase for the 15mm copper feed pipe, and the electric of course. Any recommendation for a power chaser? Probably just for this job, but one never knows. Never fitted a power shower, how deep do I...

Looking for a deeper bath. I was thinking of a Japanese-style soaker, but they look a pain to climb in and out especially for the OH. Then I looked at deep baths with a door, looks like more pain if the seals leak. So, just a standard bath but deeper. Length 1650 - width of our bathroom. Best...

I plan to put in a deeper bath. Which holds more water. Up to 90 gallons. The purpose of a deeper bath is so I can have a nice wallow, which I can't in the present one. So the standard cylinder 36" x 18" that holds around 25 gallons will no longer be large enough. Or will it...? I could put a...

A local craft group is making a large mosaic using bits of tiles on three sheets of 6x2 ext ply. Using PVA to stick the tesserae. I think the ply should be primed with PVA or the mosaic will eventually fall off. What do you think?

Not sure if this should be in the Electricals board, anyway... So, being a fan of electrical antiquities, two years ago I installed this NOS Ekco room stat to run a 1kw kick heater. Probably 1960s. Used it with a clockwork Horstmann time switch. The wiring options for the stat were with and...

Our electric water heater is mains fed by a pipe that comes down from the attic. I want to get rid of it as it trails across the walls of two bedrooms (very old house). There is a mains pipe in the cellar I can use. Any problem feeding from below rather than above? This is the heater. The...

I found a Pur..... something... water filter in the 15mm mains feed to our mixer tap in the kitchen. Can only see part of one end at the moment, hence the Pur.... At least ten years old, could be a lot more. It's completely inaccessible behind a cupbd so there was no thought of changing the...

I need to remove the external alarm box/siren for maintenance of the wall to which its attached. Presumably if I use the engineer code, switch off the mains to the panel and remove the control panel battery I will be OK? The battery in the siren box, if any, is fifteen years old and hopefully...

Block wall, 60s. Sound cement render then old masonry paint. Got a lot of the paint off, but can't get rid of all the mist coat. Need to render over the render, to add 3/4" of thickness. 4:1:1 cement lime sand then 5:1:1 I think I should start with a bonding agent. SBR seems to be a favourite...

I want to create some bogus half-timbering on the outside of a 60s ground-floor extension. Mock Tudor. Wood, then render between. The wall is hard concrete block with sound cement render, masonry painted. I plan to use cedar because it's stable - not likely to warp and won't rot. About...

Woodburner, the flue has a 6" stainless flexible with insulating jacket (thatched). The liner is over 40 years old and the jacket is f*** me heavy. The flue is about 25' tall. The liner has pulled out of the top clamp. I say clamp, but here's a little tale will make you laugh or not... At...

Whole CU is RCBOs since 6 months. Fine, no issues So, I put in a new wall light, one 25W incandescent bulb, connect to the RCBO for that room, switch on, the bulb lights for a nano-second then the RCBO trips. Oh, think I. The cable to the switch might have a screw through it. So I bypass the...

External LED flood with standalone PIR. There are two house light switches, which when switched off, cause the the flood to come on. One switch is about 3ft from the PIR on the same level, the other about 5ft down on the floor below. The flood comes on for its normal timed On period, then shuts...

Bathroom extension, single storey, 60s, hard concrete blocks, cavity. About 10 x 15ft. Slight horizontal cracking in the cement render most of the way round the three side. Mainly along the same course at window cill level about half way up. External cracking only. Been filled and painted by...

Eterna PIR failed after 30 months. It's switching a standalone 50W Eterna LED flood, both PIR and flood are tucked nice and dry under the eaves of our thatched. At least, presume it's the PIR. The flood is flashing on/off continually when triggered and I can hear click click, it stops at the...

A few people make these. I bought two double sockets from Olivers Lighting. Oak fascia. Very nice, and the unusually large fascia covers the problems created by the wonky dry lining boxes that I inherited. https://www.oliverslighting.com/acatalog/Heritage_Wooden_Plug_Sockets-p1.html But.... The...

Will be having some vinyl laid over a dry concrete floor. Level but not screeded. The vinyl will be something decent like Polyflor or Karndean. I presume it's best to overlay the concrete. Should I use ply or hardboard? And what should I use to stick it onto the concrete? TIA