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Just had an alarming incident at home. My lodger was in her bathroom with the door locked. The lock is a brass thumb turn thingy with a square cross-section spindle - very much like this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Golden-Grace-Victorian-Polished-Bathroom/dp/B0BLZL5CK9 The thumb turn knob...

I've got one of these old things. It's almost 25 years old but has kept going and going. Just in the last few days though I've noticed a fairly loud whirring/grinding noise when it's on the spin cycle. Definitely a new sound and not a good one. When I open the door and spin the drum round by...

Long story. Pest control guy believes we've got rats climbing up the inside of a wall cavity and from there getting into a loft space. He advised that we should remove some roof slates so that the top of the wall cavity can be accessed from above, and then that we should block off the top of the...

For the last year or so, maybe once a day - at random - I've heard a loud click coming from my kitchen. It sounds like a switch flicking (FWIW). I can only think that it's coming from one of my appliances: * Dishwasher * Washing machine * Gas hob * Electric oven * Fridge/Freezer Using the wall...

I live in a basement flat. I'm having a real problem with a loud and very irritating squeaking/creaking bit of floor from the flat immediately above. It's just one spot - the noise it makes is identical every time. Upstairs it's laminate flooring on top of some kind of timber as a subfloor -...

I bought this underlay from UK Flooring Direct this week: https://www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk/accessories-flooring-underlay-cushion-plus-white-underlay It was delivered yesterday and I noticed that it has a very thin 10cm "skirt" on one side (see attached photo) I wasn't sure what this was...

I posted about this a few weeks ago, but I have a bit more info to share now. So...I had a new Worcester Bosch Greenstar 28CDi boiler fitted in my flat in January. Works ok, but two annoying problems: 1. Compared to my old boiler (Vaillant Turbomax Plus 828E), the sound of the water rushing...

I have an old garden bench. I think it's made from mahogany. At any rate, some kind of dark hardwood. Two of the slats (is that the right word) have rotted and I'd like to replace them. Approx 20mm x 70mm cross section and ~1.4m long. Should I hunt down mahogany with that cross section, or is...

See pic attached - I've got an iron (or steel or whatever) fence surrounding part of my garden. I'd like to open up the fence in the red marked section to make it easier to get to the sloping bit of ground below - it's a bit dangerous at the moment because I have to climb over it and I'm a...

The dual panel radiator in my bedroom is about 23 years old. It works fine but the bleed screws are rounded off and impossible to remove (unless anyone has any bright ideas! Central heating guy who put my new boiler in couldn't budge them) - so it looks like it's time to replace the radiator...

I had a new Worcester Bosch 28CDi boiler fitted in my flat recently. It works, but I've noticed a strange thing. Sometimes the gentle humming sound from (what I assume is) the pump fluctuates - the pitch rises and falls every 5 seconds or so. Is this normal? It's quite distracting (sounds like...

Until yesterday I had a wired wall thermostat - connected via 3 core cable (red live, blue neutral, yellow switched live). I had a new boiler fitted yesterday which has a wireless thermostat, so the old wired one is redundant. I wondered if I might get rid of it and instead have an iPad or...

I seem to have a damp problem in part of my flat in Hackney, East London. No mould growth, but areas of powdery residue on the drywall. The brickwork behind is damp (have cut a hole in the drywall and used a test meter on the bricks). The cause isn't obvious. There are lots of damp treatment...

Strange one this (am I in the right forum?). I've got an integrated fridge/freezer in my kitchen, in a housing (some kind of bog standard chipboard thing from B&Q). Wall on one side and other kitchen cabinets on the other. A few days ago the housing - on the side attached to the wall -...

I've got carpet in my bedroom. It looks tatty and I'm thinking of taking the opportunity to get rid and replace with a solid wood floor. Under the carpet and underlay is what looks like a chipboard subfloor. However...the bedroom floor is a bit lower than the floor of my hallway (wooden floor...

In our (leasehold) building there’s an electrical service cupboard on the ground floor. Above that there’s a service duct which goes all the way to the top of the building - for electrical stuff, phone lines, etc. The cupboard and the duct are approx 90cm x 90cm in cross section. Above the...

I'm going to put a solid wood floor in my bedroom (replacing a carpet). Subfloor is wood (MDF sheets or something like that). Lots of questions: 1. I want to raise the level of the floor a bit - it's approx 15mm lower than the rest of my flat (don't know why...would have to ask the builder who...

My shower (Triton Combi HP) is about 20 years old. Suddenly it has developed a fault - not enough hot water is coming through (hot water is fine in the rest of my flat). I can get the temp up using the rotary thingy, but if I go beyond the safety stop it gets colder again! Given its age, is it...

Unsure how to finish this little job off (photo attached): (surface needs some prep before tiling - am on that) The tiles have a wavy edge. To finish off, should I (a) cut tiles and fit with the wavy edge pointing inwards and straight edge pointing outwards (b) cut tiles and fit with the wavy...

Used some corner tape (the stuff with the parallel metal strips) yesterday for the first time on an internal corner. Just at one end there’s a tiny bit that hasn’t stuck properly - the rest seems to be absolutely fine. Is there any way to get that last few mm to stick properly? Hoping to avoid...