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I'll be going away on a short holiday soon, but I'm concerned about my pipes or cold water tank freezing and bursting in the cold weather whilst I'm away. I'll be leaving the heating on in the house to reduce the risk, but I'm considering turning the mains water supply off and draining down the...

I've got a short (1 foot) run of 15mm copper water pipe outside, along an external wall. It goes between a spur from the outside tap into the conservatory, where it feeds the washing machine. At the moment, it's uninsulated, but I want to protect it before the bad frosts arrive. Do I need...

I noticed a decent sized crack in some render on the outside of my property this morning. We have a balcony on the first floor of our 1900s brick house, that sits over a bay window on the ground floor. It's the ceiling of this balcony area that's cracked. I don't know what the render is bonded...

I've just moved to a new house, and the plumbing system is completely alien to me. I've only ever used combi systems with TRVs on radiators before, but now I've got a hot water cylinder and a cold water tank (but no immersion), no TRVs and a room thermostat. I think I understand how this...

Well, the pressure gauge on the boiler is there to indicate the pressure in the closed central heating system. 1.5 bar is about right when cold - it may well rise to 2 or even 3 when the heating's on. The fact that the central heating works fine helps to work out what the problem might be -...

I had a new radiator installed yesterday in the bathroom - it's a Hampton towel rail radiator, see here - http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/0-2438 It replaced an old towel rail that was going a bit rusty and was past its best. Because the new rad was a slightly different size from the last one...

My problem was that I had to remove a partition wall simply to take the old bath out, and then make good the walls to a vaguely reasonable standard. Plus the rest of the part-tiled walls had to be made flat for new tiles to be applied. Then the new pipework, assemble the new fittings and remove...

I'm in the midst of installing a new bathroom suite (and it's taking an absolute age - I can't believe how much work is involved) and everything seems to leak. I'm replacing the leaky joints in the pipework one by one, but the leaks in the new bathroom appliances are a bit more of a problem...

Thanks - I'm only thinking of fitting these to the pipes in the bathroom, so I don't think this will apply?

Is it possible to use panel showers with a combi system? There are a few at Screwfix - here - all of which claim to work with combi boilers provided that the pressure is about 1.5bar. I have a Worcester Bosch unit - I think it's a 24i, and so would supply hot water at about 9.5 litres per...

I understand that these valves only allow water to move through in one direction, and so prevent "backwash". Is there any merit in fitting one of these to every pipe immediately before it goes into an appliance, e.g. shower, toilet, sinks etc.? Would it reduce water hammer, and prevent the...

I'm about to retile the bathroom. I'm planning on stripping the existing tiles out and simply retiling over the surface underneath them (which on three sides should be concrete or brick, coated with plaster and old tile adhesive, and on the other side will be plasterboard). I would normally have...

I'm about to refit our bathroom, and I'll completely replumb the place. I've used both soldered joints (the type that come pre-soldered and which you just clean, flux, heat with a blowtorch and add more solder to) and compression joints, but never pushfit/speedfit etc. What are all the...

I have this problem, and it does coincide with the boiler going off; I've always assumed it was just the pipes contracting as they cooled and making a sound like dripping. Am I wrong, and is it anything to worry about?

Sorry, I'm not being clear. The cistern is boxed into a cabinet - it's the cabinet that I'll need to drill a hole in, not the cistern itself

Thanks DAZB - that certainly sounds like what I'm after (but £20!!!!!), and there's a branch just down the road from me :)

No, there's no internal overflow at the moment - I tested it last night. It definitely leaks over the floor! I'll need to lower the cistern, because at present the top of the siphon fouls the lid of the toilet enclosure (so every time you slide the lid on or off to get at the cistern, it moves...

You could install vents in the floor, leading to the sub-floor where you should have adequate ventilation via air-bricks?

I'm trying to connect a ventilation fan, with a circular 150mm outlet, to 100mm circular ducting (as there is already a 100mm circular hole available in the wall and I don't fancy redrilling a larger one), but I cannot find anywhere that will supply a 150-100mm circular reducer. Can anyone...

I do fancy this - it sounds like I'd need a special kind of siphon? Can you point to a link showing the type that I'd need please? Also, presumably this means that any overflow in the cistern goes directly down the flush pipe into the pan?