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Hi all, we bought a flatpack timber frame garden office that is about to be delivered and installed. The site is naturally sloped. We've prepared a raised concrete platform as the foundation (mostly built on the original concrete base for a garage). The garden office will sit on top of a wooden...

Hi all, we have an old Mira Excel shower mixer tap in our loft bathroom, believed to have been fitted in the early 2000s. It has recently given up, valve very stiff and difficult to turn, and then finally broke down (can turn but no water coming out). We ordered a replacement (Mira Element) and...

Hi all, we just noticed that our bathtub can leak water from the edge of the bathtub, if we use it for shower, and the shower screen is not in a proper position (blamed my partner for it). It somehow dripped inside the bath panel, through the wood boards under the tub (red-circled in the photo...

Hi all, we live in a three-storey house (with loft conversion) but the loft was done ages ago so doesn't meet all the latest building regs. We don't need to retrofit to meet the building regs as I understand, but do want to change the old doors to fire doors to improve fire safety. We got some...

Hi all, we are considering getting an outbuilding to serve as gym/office, about 4m x 3.5m in size. We are not experts at DIYs so it looks like the most economical options are some ready-made timber frame ones or SIP kits. A few questions that would appreciate some comments please: Roof: The...

Hi all, we have three wooden Velux windows in our loft conversion, which was built around 1999. I noticed that the wooden frames seem to be deteriorating, with white flaky bits and blackened corners. Don't think it was this bad when we moved in about a year ago. Does anyone know if there is a...

Happy new year everyone! We have a leak from our shower door, and I think I've identified the leak to be where the red circle is showing in the first pic, on the outside of the shower door between the door frame and the shower tray base. From the inside (second pic), that area seems to be...

Hi all, we are in a 1920/30s end-of-terrace house, with solid walls. The wall in the hallway that is external wall is wallpapered, and it always feels a bit damp. But we have not seen any mould, and the wallpaper seems to be well attached. We are in the middle of repainting the hallway, and...

Hi all, we are repainting the old kitchen in the house we moved into a year ago, and I'm wondering if there is anything we can do about the big gap between the kitchen cabinets and the tiled wall? It's quite a big gap so not sure if caulk can be of any use, though seems like the previous owner...

We were about to paint the back of our living room when I noticed a crack between the doorframe and the wall. As I started stripping around the crack, I realised that the old paint on that wall (an external wall) came off really easily. Wonder if there's any problem with the wall please? I've...

We inherited a few shrubs at the front of the garden from the previous homeowners. They look dead throughout the winter but have recently started producing some quite nice red and yellow foliage (or flowers?). Does anyone know the name of the plants please? So we can better look after them. Thanks!

Hi all, newbie gardeners / house-owners seek some advice please: Our garden wall is fully covered by very thick ivy (see pictures), and we've cut back the lower part of it, leaving old brown stems exposed (haven't been able to reach the upper part yet...). After some googling and reading on this...

Hi all, first thanks to those of you who've replied to my humidity issue post. Glad to report that the humidity has dropped to around 65% now that I've turned up the heating. The dehumidifier has just arrived too which should help further. Now I need to address one of the causes of the humidity...

We've not lived in a house before (previously renting in flats) so still trying to get a handle on how to manage the humidity indoor. It's a 1930s end-of-terrace, with solid walls. I've read about the ideas of increasing ventilation and reducing moisture, so have got some measures planned out...

Hi all, we've just had our first floor bathroom renovated a bit in Dec, took out an old shower unit that we don't need, and replastered the wall area and painted it. After last weekend's heavy snow, we noticed that the paint has become flaky in the lower part of the wall (which is a north-facing...

Hi all, I've got an old boiler cupboard in a bedroom which needs quite a bit of tidying up (see photos). I removed some of the old flaky wallpaper on the wall inside, but other areas behind the pipework etc are hard to get to, and the wallpaper is still well-attached. Wondering if there is an...

Hi all, I trimmed back some ivy growing all over my garden wall, and discovered that there is a small crack running vertical in the wall (see photos). Wondering what I should use to repair it please? Thanks!

Hello, I'm in the middle of painting a small first floor bedroom, and noticed that there are some gaps above the bay window fascia. There is some flaky old foam in place but it falls apart quite easily. Can also feel some draught in the gap/hole on the top left corner (about one finger's width)...

When we bought our house, the building survey flagged a few minor issues (not serious or urgent, but worth sorting out) on the roof: chimney pots with no cowling (only wired bird guards), soffits a bit loose (see pics), flashing below one window started to crack (see pic, no evidence of water...

I thought there couldn't be an easier job than to fit a shower riser on the bathroom wall, yet my builder managed to drill into a copper pipe hidden in the wall. He fixed the pipe using a connector, but then the problem is that the connector is sticking out a bit (see pic). He suggested two...