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Thanks for your replies. Now if these two certificates are the best we can get under the circumstances does it mean that they will be enough to satisfy any regulations? Does the electrician need to send these certificates or something else to the local planning department? Please excuse my...

We had some work done to our house, including replacing all the smoke and heat detectors. We have an Edwardian terrace house (3 floors including loft conversion) in London and now have: Aico EI144RC Mains & Battery-Powered Heat Alarm in the kitchen; Aico EI141RC Ionisation Smoke Alarms in the...

Last Summer we had our consumer unit changed during some other refurbishment works. The electrician did all the work, then told us that he couldn't issue a certificate for it because there was no Earth connection for the house. It took us a few months, but we finally managed to get UK Power...

Thanks Notch7. Two little issues are that: a) the bamboo is REALLY hard! Yes, a multitool will cut it but the blade will need to be replaced every three feet or so! b) we also have a kitchen island (sitting on the same floor) which would be almost impossible to cut around without dismantling. I...

We recently refurbished our house and installed solid bamboo flooring, floating over a cork underlay on top of floorboards (and concrete in the kitchen). Unfortunately the builder has botched the ground floor: he laid the floor then built the kitchen on top of it so the floor can't expand and...

The units do have plastic screw legs but the bamboo flooring is incredibly hard to cut. I do think it may be eaasiest to cut away all the flooring behind the baseboard of the units.

We renovated our kitchen/dining room and had new solid bamboo floors installed floating over a cork underlay. The builder asked me if we wanted the floors to extend under the cabinets, and stupidly I said yes. My thinking was that if it didn't the cabinets around the walls would be at a...

That's great, thank you for the reassurance.

From the cross-section 3-3 on the second drawing: it looks as though there is a vertical steel joining to a horizontal at the top and another horizontal at the bottom.

We are having work done on our Edwardian terrace, involving removal of most of the rear wall on the ground floor to make room for a large door/window. We have the drawings of a structural engineer but I am unconvinced: he has planned to make a vertical rectangle of steel to fit into the new...

Thank you for all the replies. It looks like I'll try to use soda blasting to get the paint off first, and get a better idea of the condition of the bricks underneath. Is this something I can do myself? What equipment do I need, and can I hire it?

It's odd though, most of the houses in the terrace are painted but ours is the only one with this crumbling and bubbling.

Interesting, thank you. How do I get the paint off then? Lots of scraping with a wire brush, or is there a better method?

This is a picture of the front of our 1902 terrace house, the wall below the ground floor bay window. It is the north facing side. The paint seems to be bubbling around the pointing, but it looks brick coloured where the paint comes off. Any ideas on what could be causing this, or how to fix...

Hi, I am building a summerhouse and want to lay an underground cable to the main house for electrics (it's only about 10m away). I will get an electrician to link it up to the house's electrics, but was wondering what sort of cable I will need. It will need to power a maximum of 3KW of...

Hi, We've never had a problem with damp stains on walls in the year and a half we have owned our home, but this January several have appeared on the external walls on the first floor. The stains are on the wall of the house facing southwest, and the walls are solid brick. The outside is...

Hi, I have a central heating/hot water system which is misbehaving. It has the following components: 1 potterton boiler 1 potterton timer switch with controls for hot water and for CH 3 Honeywell zone valves controllong HW, half the house's CH, the other half's CH 1 HW cylynder thermostat...

I have an Edwardian House with the original wood-framed windows around the front. Drafts occur between the frame and the panels which open, and I was wondering whether there is a way to seal these. Self-adhesive strips seem the easiest but the window won't close properly if I put them in. A...

Hi, I'm having trouble with the shower in our new house: the water is always too hot! Even when the temperature control knob is right down at the lowest temperature the water is really hot. I believe it's the mixer valve for a couple of reasons: 1. Hot and cold water work fine in the bath...