Search results

As it flooded a year a ago, I put in a basic French drain across the front of my workshop. Just stone, no pipe or liner. It did the job, but it's now silted up. I've dug it out again and am now ready to do a better job. It's only 9ft. I just want to fill it with stone, no pipe. What's the best...

I have a small new outbuilding built of blocks. I'm noticing the start of water penetration. It seems to be mainly along the odd mortar joint, but that may not actually be the point of entry. The blocks are quite coarse - not fine faced. As the entry seems to be quite selective, I also suspect...

I'm building a workbench and using 18mm hardfaced ply as the top (there will be copious strengthening below. I have a lot of surplus 4"x2"). Should I seal it? If so, what's the best product? The outer edge (it butts to the wall), will probably have a softwood edging strip to protect it. The...

I'm building a small single storey garden outbuilding. The first four courses are 6" hollows filled with concrete. Thereafter I will use 7N lightweight blocks (weight is an issue). The manufacturer tells me these are OK for outside use but need to be painted. Can anyone recommend a suitable paint?

Workshop cut into and built into clay slope. Brieze bocks on a concrete base. Diagram below. Will the rear wall and the concrete base resist damp penetration, or do I need to take additional measures?

I'm building a workshop (floor for footfall only. No vehicles). About 10' by 8'. First in will be a concrete base. For reasons of economy, the walls will probably be blocks. Here's the problem. It's on a 1:10 slope, most of which is clay. It has been terraced however. I could build it at the...

I laid several courses of bricks some days ago. I'm not seeing any curing or drying taking place. No bloom, nothing. In fact, the cement is still sodden and appears to have turned to nothing more than wet sand. I used the right mix, so what's gone wrong? The only thing I can think of is that...

Prewar council house, badly refurbished by the local authority about 10 years ago. New concrete floor put into the kitchen then. The walls were rendered first, very thickly, right down to the ground, bridging the DPC. The floor was then laid to the render. The concrete floor does not...

1930's terraced house with 9" solid walls. Original DPC is a layer of tar sheet. There is a bodged 1970's injection DPC immediately above it. A plasterer recently put on bottom beading under the DPC (Yes!) and plastered accordingly. Unsurprisingly, there is now damp and lots of mould in that...

Do kitchen fitting questions go here? I'm putting in a fridge/freezer quite close to a freestanding gas cooker/oven. Not ideal, as it may make the fridge work harder, but there's really nowhere else for it to go. I can arrange it so that there's a 30-35cm gap between the two, so I thought...

I've found some woodworm in the ends of two joists under the bathroom floor. It looks old, but it has caused quite a bit of the joist to crumble. The bath also leaked a bit in the past, so there might have been some water damage too, even though everything is now absolutely tinder dry. I'm...

Had the plumbers in. They needed access under the bathroom floor near the wall, so sliced off the floorboards from the joist nearest but one to the wall. The cut lengths are about 2' long. The cut is flush with the edge of the joist. I now need to replace this little run of boards. I was...

I have one of those lightbulb in a cage on a long lead things. Very useful for looking under cars, floorboards and so on. On this occasion, I was under the leaking kitchen sink. Kneeling in water, being showered with it, and holding onto a nice wet steel sink. I ask for light, expecting wife...

I've just has a replacement sink plumbed in. The new tap is a mixer, previously it was separate hot and cold taps. With the new mixer tap, turning on the cold side sometimes causes the combi boiler to fire up. For some reason it seems to momentarily think that there is a hot water demand...

Afer the bad winter, I'm now getting around to redecorating where the water (11 burst pipes!) came through the ceiling. Minor ceiling stains have been killed with Everbuild aerosol stain blocker, but there's a monster stain on the kitchen ceiling that it can't cope with - it keeps showing...

OK here's the scene. Modernish concrete floor with DPM underneath. Surface coated with what appears to be bituminous paint. Previous owner glued hard lino-type tiles onto that. Next owner put poly liner (dunno what it's called, looks like tissue paper or spiders web!), and then laminate...

I'm looking to build a new outside workshop. It'll be down the garden, so not attached to, or near any other structures. Size will be about 8' x 10'. Not sure whether to do the workshop itself in wood or blocks (preferred, to keep any thieves out). It'll be on quite a steep slope, so I'll...

Okay, it was going to happen. Burst pipes in loft. Pipes were lagged with the usual grey 20mm wall bungee, but they froze just the same. The pipe runs are straight, very long and go over the joists (so they don't benefit from the rest of the loft insulation. It's as if they are outside pipes...

Well, it was going to happen. :roll: Cold water tank in the loft is now a beautiful giant ice cube. Solid, all the way through. Pipes and tank well lagged, but to no avail. So, for the future, how to avoid this happening again? It has been suggested to me that one solution would be to...

I've posted this query here first, because I think that plumbers may have come across the problem before. I've bought a small 1930's terrace. New CH and boiler gone in months ago. Most if not all pipework is new. System runs fine, no pressure loss. Heating is not run very much because the...