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So, I appear to have a pressurised system boiler heating system - a boiler in a downstairs cupboard, a pressurised storage tank in the loft, and then what appears to be an expansion vessel and some sort of sanitary filter (a white Zilmet canister marked as a 110 Ultra-UV-HT-Pro). There is no...

When I bought my house (originally built in the 1930s), the surveyor noted that the loft had polystyrene insulation 'in places'. I've been looking at properly reinsulating the loft as at present, it looked like most of it was less that 100mm of fibreglass, with a partial chipboard floor...

I've just had an NICEIC-certified sparky disconnect an external security lamp for me. He was unable to remove the backing plate and has left the fixture like this. Is this safe? The wires go into a connecting block but they're still live.

My oven door handle snapped off with the screws still inside. I've managed to get the snapped off bits out of the handle but I'm struggling to get the remaining screws out of the oven door. The brass surround outside the screw appear to be some sort of nut that freely rotates, so when I try...

So I was trying to stain some old unstained decking a nice pale green shade, and tried some Ronseal Ultimate Protection decking stain in 'sage'. It was only after doing a first coat, letting it dry, and then starting to do a second one, that I realised my definition of 'pale green' differs from...

One of my small gate posts (1m tall) has snapped in half just below the soil line, with no clear sign of rot. I suspect someone has bumped it with a vehicle. I'm trying to repair it but I'm coming up a little stumped about the best approach. First, I genuinely don't know if it has a concrete...

My daughter has a turf area where she keeps her wheelie bins, which obviously gets churned up in winter. She decided to get a handyman in to pave the section where she keeps them. I've just taken a look at what she's had done and it looks to me like he's simply dug the ground level and laid the...

Recently (as in last month) I painted a bathroom in quite a dark shade. Some splatter from other decorating work means I have a small patch area that needs to be touched up. However, despite using the exact same paint (as in, the same tin), the paint has dried quite a bit lighter and is very...

I've just had a new gate put in and I'd like to stain it to protect it over the winter. I also know now's not exactly a great time to do so! Is it still possible to stain a fence as long as it stays above freezing and doesn't rain? I know it'll take longer to dry but is there any other reason...

How much variation should there be in colour between satinwood and matt? I'm doing a wall in matt and a skirting in satinwood. I had colour matching done with Dulux at Homebase and both tins have the exact same code - the satinwood was deemed to have a match factor of 0.005 (I think) which is...

So, I've been repainting the ensuite and despite the fact I told my wife it was a bad idea, she decided that she wanted the skirting boards painted with gloss. We are using quite a striking colour (bottle green) and it's one of those G&B colours that works better as a matt. The walls have been...

Ok, because I am an idiot and bad at measuring, I have a gap between my new end bath panel and the wall. It's a 700mm panel but apparently a 730mm bath - didn't realise that was a thing and when I originally measured, I stupidly thought 'close enough'. The supplier doesn't do 730mm panels...

Bear with me as I'm a complete idiot on this stuff. Setup: Ancient Potterton Profile 60e boiler downstairs In the loft, there's a hot water cylinder, what looks to be an expansion vessel (it's got a gauge on it, and pipework that can be used to add water), and then a small white tank that looks...

tl;dr bit is in bold.... After a shocker of a water bill, it's become apparent there is a massive leak in the pipework underneath my house which has begun to erode away the foundations. During the investigation work, the contractor sent by my insurance company discovered that my MDPE supply...

I'm repainting a small ensuite. The wife wants it done with one of the Graham and Brown colours, specifically Eva. While G&B do a 'resistance' finish, I'm always a bit skeptical about consumer paints, not least because the reviews here -...

I'm looking to refresh my existing kitchen oiled wood worktops. At present, they're 'textured' i.e if you run your hand over them, you can lightly feel the woodgrain. I'd like to get them so that once they've been fully reoiled, they're smooth to the touch. I've read conflicting advice as to...

My new house has a socket box slot cut into it, but no faceplate. Instead, there are four black wires coming out of it. Both have a black skin, white 'solid' bit in the middle and then a thin copper wire dead centre. Two are quite thick wires, the other two are quite thin. Based on that, my...

The previous owners of my house had a real ramshackle approach to having cabling in the house. In the bedroom, there's a satellite cable just sticking up out of the floor and in the living room there's a bright purple ethernet cable coming up out of the carpet. I have genuinely no idea where...

Can anyone help me identify the right kind of transition strip for a parquet to vinyl floor please? I've had a parquet floor put down which connects through a doorway to a vinyl floor, which is about 12mm lower. Because the parquet floor is tessellated together, it needs a firm surface on its...

My house has rendered external walls on the ground floor, which the previous owners had painted in a distressing shade of yellow. I'd prefer it to be white/cream. Am I able to just paint over the existing paint (and if not, what do I need to do?), and what paint would be recommended? I was...