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Merry Christmas everyone. Earlier in the year we had some plastering and I took it as an opportunity to extend the ring circuit to our bootroom. That was 2 sockets plus a lighting on a 16amp mcb. It was my intention to get an electrician in to change the mcb and while I'm happy wiring...

I have a gate valve that feeds the hot water taps in the kitchen below, beneath the floorboards of an upstairs room. It's fully open, and I'm not touching it. Now, before I replace the floor in the room in question, should I really get htis removed? What's the likely failure risk if it never...

I'm planning on teeing off these 15mm pipes. The rough line of the pipe is indicated with the loose pipe on top. My query is the proximity to the joints to the left? The feed is the pipe on top and will be around 65mm away between the old and new joint. Even with a damp rag wrapped, is there a...

Just replumbed the under sink and fitted a check valve to feed the new washing machine. Just did a high water cycle (denim) and the machine is erroring - saying to check the water feed. I'm wondering if the new check valve is to blame? I purchased a bog standard one from Screwfix - is it safe to...

For the last few weeks we've had intermittent issues with the washing machine tripping the RCCB. I isolated the problem to the Washing Machine - on the circuit (marked utility room in the picture) we have a washer, dryer, fridge-freezer and a few low power things like the Ring alarm keypad. The...

I have been unsuccessful in sourcing a radiator bleed key and wondered if it was either rounded off or too small? The valve the other end appears to be tightened by a large flathead screwdriver, and this has something similar. A recent plumber who fitted another more modern radiator was unable...

We have to dig a trench for the fitting of some underground cabling for Solar Panels. The most direct route is between our house and garage - some 15m or so which is currently block paved. I have carried out some simple excavation at one side and can see the blocks sit on a sand and red...

I've laid cable for an extension to a ring circuit, but am rethinking where I break in. This ring carries nearly all of the sockets in the upstairs of the house. I have a 16A breaker in the consumer unit that is currently feeding 3 sockets to a small porch area that is a radial. I'm thinking of...

We just had a loft ladder installed to the second-floor office area. Room was plenty cold and I suspected no insulation above and I was right. Now the hatch and ladder is fitted, the carpenter pointed out that the joists were not particularly strong. They measure just shy of 3" x 2" with a span...

Hi all, I'm now tackling another room of the house - the most important - the office. The lockdown period has proved the importance and luckily we have the space for a dedicated room. Historically, this was used a bedroom and part of an extension. House is originally 1902 but not sure on the...

I expect the answer to be no but the install manual just focusses on the ability to withstand a temperature of 90 degrees or higher. The current cable for the old hob is hard wired to an isolator and on a dedicated 32a curcuit with the oven. Not changing the cable simplifies things greatly but I...

Good morning! Typical domino effect in progress in my kitchen. The old Lamona single oven is on the fritz, letting more heat out than it retains so we decide to buy a new one. Double oven and additional flexibility are the order of the day, and we opt for an AEG built under model. The fittings...

I've been covering a wall in Leyland Trade Contract Matt Emulsion and it's starting to get on my nerves! The result is as follows: I know I made the cardinal sin of starting the middle of the wall but the paint was going off so fast I couldn't get to the top of the wall from the bottom...

I've had trouble for a while now with my pump not kicking in for the hot water. I was advised to change it as the only remediation other than pulling up tiles so thought it was worth a shot. So I changed the pump to a Salamander 3 bar CT Regenerative pump and if anything it's worse. Certainly...

I need a new pump and have a universal 2bar model. The header tank is in the loft about 3 metres above the tank so there should be no impediemtn to replacing this with a regualr Positive Head model? I figure I would put the money saved into a more powerful pump allowing us to run two showers at...

We have an odd issue where our shower room (closest to the boiler/hot water tank) does not turn hot unless there is another hot tap further down the system running. Daughter went for a show last night and said there was no hot water and I checked if the tank was warm to the touch - and it was...

Hi all, I've been looking to replace my kitchen cabinet lighting and tracing the power feed I'm in need of a bit of advice. I have a wall light switch that I can trace to a connector block, fed by a single 2.5 T+E. The connector block also feeds a light driver although I think this has since...

Hi all, In the midsts of skirting board hell, my less than 12-month-old Erbaur started intermittently screeching like hell when I turned it on - high pitched. I was worried something has gotten up inside it but upon taking the blade out I noticed there were circular scratch markings around where...

I have an external, two-storey double garage. The upper floor is accessed via an external door and is used for storage. It's not insulated and as a result gets a lot of condensation. This condensation has led to patches in the ply flooring to rot and the whole lot needs replacing. We are...

This may sound odd but I wonder if it rings any bells. On recent threads to solve a water hammer problem, I fitted a hammer arrestor on the attic feed pipe. Turns out it was not needed as it was a float valve in the tank. All seemed to be well until I turned off the water to the attic and...