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I’m visiting my mother’s bungalow and am short of time to investigate her CH not coming on, so can anyone help please? The issues: 1. The very old system is confusing me as 2 of the rads are on with the hot water, the rest being as I expect under CH control. 2. The CH has stopped working and...

Can someone with experience please advise me which Wallrock (150, 150 smooth, Plus 180 or Premium 200) and which width (55, 75 or 100 cm) would be best for me in my situation in order to save me time and expense in trial and error? I’ve tried the Erfurt website, internet searches and searches...

Please can you give me advice on replacing blown double glazing units in aluminium frames around 35 years old? I’ve spent an hour or 2 searching but can’t find exact advice. The removable beads are on the outside, made of aluminium and fit into aluminium frames. Glazing tape was used on both...

I have a south-facing garden with a 1 in 10 slope with a flat concrete path and a Bay tree at the bottom. Below the first ft/0.3m the soil is very sandy. The soil at the bottom is wet when it rains, but there’s no flooding. South of London, no strange ground features. Three years ago I took...

My house has a 2.5m x 5m wooden lean-to down the side between the house side wall and side fence. It has lighting on the rafters run off a 5A circuit breaker in a small CU situated in a utility room in the 1930s main house but accessed by an external door (it was the coal storage room); this CU...

I'm building a small unheated in-fill porch with external dimensions of 2.1m front, 1.2m sides (one a lounge wall and the other my neighbour's porch) and 2.2m height to the tiles at the front. It'll have a pitched roof, composite door and a window with small casement opening above a 0.9m high...

In the morning I'll be helping an elderly neighbour trying to identify which of 4 wires from the telephone half of the broadband/telephone cable fitted years ago by NTL should connect to the 3 wires to the phone socket. The phone crackles and dialling out doesn't work. Calling the number gives...

My head is swimming after hours spent researching my best options and would appreciate your opinions. See below for some background info. 1. Air Brick. I have a double height air brick with its top level with the DPC. The ground level is up to the bottom of the brick and I’m considering...

SIPS panels are useful for professionals building whole houses, but are they any good for DIY on a small porch? I can ask the panel producers, but I suspect their advice will be biased, and a couple of hours searching the internet left me none the wiser. I'm a competent DIYer and feel up to...

I have inherited a job lot of oak engineered flooring. I intend to use it for the floor and inner wall of an insulated shed/summerhouse, for which I’m confident it will be fine. I will, though, have some left over and wondered if it will be ok used as an outer wall, either fixed to battens...

I’m looking at replacing our concrete drive, roughly 3.5 x 6 m, and associated paths, roughly 10 x 1 m, a total of 31 m2. My wife likes a brindle with black edging. The house is a standard 1930s semi in the suburbs. I dislike concrete block pavers for the way they deteriorate in colour and...

My head is spinning from researching this. Can someone please give me a heads-up on the way to do this? What is the best way of dealing with a long step 40-75 mm below the level of the DPC without a gap for a drain, shingle etc? The image shows our front door and doorstep. The front area of...

I'm thinking of building a porch and can't find anything in building regs or on the internet to answer if there are any requirements or tricks for a line of 3 bricks above a UPVC door/window frame. See the attached image. In essence, I want to do a mirror image of the next door porch. The...

My ex-wife has just had installed a garden shed (well, a £5,000 log cabin, but it’s still a shed). Her unqualified handyman ran a long extension lead (13 amp 3 pin plug, multi-gang socket, 25m ish long non-armoured standard cable) from a wooden garage interior socket, through the garage wall...

I want to have a porch built. Is the saving of project managing over a paying a builder likely to be significant? See the image. Some specifics: @ I have the time and love to do things myself. @ 1930s semi just south of London. @ The previous owner agreed with the neighbour to build a porch...

I’ve spent a lot of time reading and searching on this but can’t find a definitive answer. The regulations on paving in a front garden are clear on a new drive or replacing an existing drive but not modifying an existing one by paving, concreting or tarmacing over the top. I presume that...

Apologies in advance if this is answered elsewhere, I can't find it and a general internet search only throws up what I consider biased articles. What realistic options do I have for tidying up an old concrete drive and path that is curved and on a slope? I was thinking of resin bound...

My apologies if this is answered elsewhere. I’ve searched without success and my head’s not working well today. Background I’ve done a lot of house electrics over the years but have no formal qualification or certification. I’m confident that I can work safely and will work to the requirements...

If my neighbour can claim adverse possession (let's ignore whether it's 10 or 12 yrs) and was told to get off 3 years ago but has done nothing, has his chance to claim gone? In short, this is a simple case of a neighbour pushing a delapidated fence to claim a few extra inches when building a...

I'm finally getting round to sorting the delapidated patio at the back of our house. It is a strange shape, a combination of squarish patio with an 8% slope and a level-ish shed base separated by steps down needed for the sloping garden (a drop of about 1.6m at the end of the patio, with a...