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My chalet bungalow suffers badly from overflowing gutter corners during cloud bursts, due to rain flowing down the valleys. The guttering is conventional semi-circular plastic which has been reasonably well laid and I see little chance of improving this. Is anyone aware of an easy solution to...

I wish to replace some grey (3rd gen) Hep2O connectors by 15mm service valves with compression joints, prior to fitting new taps. I gather that all should be well so long as I can fully remove the Hep2O fittings. Is there a 'best' method for removing the grab rings, or am I better off just...

My (new to me) property has a TT supply with a 30mA RCD protecting all the MCBs (not ideal but not causing inconvenience so far). There is a substantial Earthing Rod robustly connected to the earth bar of a modern Consumer Unit. PME is not available so far as I am aware. The RCD trips via its...

I am looking at purchasing a 1980s terraced property but would prefer that it was brick and block construction, not timber frame. Please can someone suggest the key points that I should use to tell the difference. I suppose that taking a power socket out would be one way, but it's a bit drastic!

I am told by my local heating engineer that leaking primary and secondary combustion chamber gaskets are weaknesses in this boiler. Is there a good workaround for this, or is replacing the seals from time to time the best that can be achieved?

I would like to be able to make some accurate bends in 10mm plastic covered oil pipe (which has an overall OD of about 12mm). Am I expecting too much? Maybe I should use plain pipe and a conventional bend tool (Rothenberg for example). Any guidance much appreciated.

I need to replace the oil lines to the RDB2.2 burner in my Worcester Greenstar Camray 18/25 kitchen system boiler. Worcester-Bosch have recommended a long-life item part 8-716-115-311-0 and I have purchased two of these on their recommendation. But the burner oil pump has right angle 1/4 in...

My newly acquired home has a number of Hep2O shutoff valves installed for use as service valves for taps etc. But the first one I tried using immediately developed a leak. I quickly opened it again and I think the leak has stopped (!). Is this a common finding and is the valve repairable? I...

I have just moved house and in so doing acquired a Domextra 640MD water softener. The control panel seems quite complex and the user instructions are minimal. In particular they fail to explain what the control panel is about. And what do the jumpers do? Any chance of some installation or...

I am preparing a property I have lived in for several years for letting. It is a 1980s build with a modern gas boiler and reasonably recent hob. The boiler is serviced annually by British Gas under a boiler and central heating contract and I have the paperwork for this which gives an OK status...

A Grundfos UPS2 15-50/60 pump has just failed on me whilst I was recommissioning a small micro bore system after cleaning. It blew a 5 amp fuse on start-up and on inspection one of the electronics boards has failed short circuit causing a flashover between the live and neutral terminals...

I have problems with a Siamp Optima 49. The main flush seems OK and I have set the water level to 6l which I believe is correct these days, but the short flush seems no shorter than the long. The instructions are far from clear about how to set the short flush and I can't work out whether the...

I have a two year old upvc porch door with a multipoint locking system and a Euro lock. I used not to use the lock as the inner door is very secure but recently I have started using it to prevent access to a storage room when I am away. I find that it locks OK but on three occasions when I...

I am refurbishing a small 1980s house which has had 8mm microbore heating installed. I would like to bring the installation up to a good standard but need some guidance from those more experienced with such systems. First, some background: - The old cast iron boiler has been replaced by a...

I have installed eight 6ft 75W fluorescent lights in my garage, fed via a 5A fused spur off the garage ring main, which itself is protected by a 32A RCBO in the main fuse board. I have installed a single on-off switch for all the lights. Surprisingly (for me at any rate) the RCBO trips in...

There is loads of information on the web about best practice for lead DPCs for single flue chimneys, and it all makes sense. However, I have a two flue chimney build into the inside cavity wall with the second flue closer to the ridge line, together with an upstairs room through which the...

I have a small 3 bed house with Vaillant ecoTec plus 415 boiler feeding a 1980s Y-Plan system with a conventional indirect hot water cylinder and 8mm microbore radiators. There is not (as yet) any control over the water flow rate through the indirect coil (I plan to install a gate valve in the...

My new (smallish) house has a Vaillant 415 boiler which serves seven radiators and a hot water cylinder using 8mm microbore and Y-Plan, with a bypass valve. As the rads have a total rated output of no more than 7.5kW I am proposing to reduce the boiler output to 10kW via d.0, and cut the...

I need to replace a radiator and rad valves on a 30 year old 8mm microbore system and will take the opportunity to fit a TRV. I am familiar with the job using 15mm copper and have an olive puller, but not this 8mm stuff! Should I expect to be able to get the old olives off, (and if so how?)...

Only a few years ago a FEL Thermostatic Fire Valve was fitted to protect my oil fired boiler. It was successfully tested OK at each service but has just failed continuously tripped off and cannot be reset. It has to be replaced! I spoke to Keraflo/FuelStop who took over the FEL product...