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Hi, I’m in desperate need of advice please. Firstly, I’m an electrician by trade who has done a degree of building work in the past and limited woodwork, mostly working in maintenance and domestic and commercial electrical. I’m trying to fit casings out of necessity, not pleasure. Background...

hi everyone, My partner has just been done over by builders she got in to do big works in her house, and now she’s out of money and has a home with children that is virtually unliveable. I’m trying to help all I can to make it better for now, but I’m an electrician and need some advice please...

hi everyone, At work the above boiler is fitted supplying office heating and an immersion. It's on a Honeywell controller and hasn't been connected properly because turning off the hot water on the controller disables heating to half the building too. I'm the electrician at my workplace and...

Hi, Just a quick question - ground floor of house all floorboards except kitchen which has a concrete floor. One little section of the kitchen which used to be a larder has floorboards though, and I need to concrete this section so I can tile the floor. But, running under the little...

Hi, wonder if any plumber here can tell me what is the usual grease used to lubricate tap valves? My kitchen mixer tap quarter-turn knobs are hard to turn, causing the whole tap to revolve. I want to remove the tap inserts, clean them and grease them up, but don't know what grease is safe to...

Hi, Got an outside brick shed, not attached to house. It's about 5m by 3m square, built with single brick course and has flat roof which seems to be made of metal beams running from one 3m wall to the other, rendered on underside, concrete on top. It's divided as per the layout picture below...

Hi, I've recently bought a cheap petrol chainsaw to get some trees cut down, etc. I haven't used a petrol one in over 15 years, only having used electric from then to now. I don't know what mechanism the petrol ones use for automatic oil application to the chain because the old petrol one...

Hi, Got to fit kitchen units in my house soon, and haven't done it before so got a couple of questions. Walls are brick with about 3/4" mortar render on top. What would be the usual or recommended fixings to use, especially for the wall units? A certain size and length of rawl plug and...

Hi, I wanted to ask if anyone knows much about the type of gas fire which has coals above the flames. The one my parents have has huge yellow flames which reach the very top of the fire and lick into the opening to the flue. Also when the main burner ignites from the pilot, it catches with a...

Hi all, Sorry to be a post w h o r e, but I'm struggling using materials that, when I first started doing a bit of building and rendering when living in Spain, I'm not used to. Over there they just have one type of sand which is basically made by grinding down rock from mountains. It's...

Hi, This is only the 2nd time I've tried plastering, my main experience has been with rendering and I'm no professional either way. The skill you pros have is beyond belief, it's one of the trickiest things to do even half decently. I've got a small wall in a bedroom that's old...

Hi, Just taken down small partition wall for walk-in cupboard in bedroom and now have 6 feet by 2 feet patch of ceiling to match up to main ceiling, with 3-inch gap where batten went which I'll put plasterboard in. It's much more thinly skimmed and slightly higher so I need to skim it with...

Hi, If anyone has the time and doesn't mind helping, here's a brief background of the issue: got an old fireplace which contained a Baxi back boiler with integral front gas fire until recently when central heating was fitted. I have a new gas fire I would like to put in the fireplace hole...

Hi, I've got a 110mm TCT core drill very similar to this one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/110mm-SDS-TCT-TUNGSTEN-CORE-DRILL-HOLE-CUTTER-M16_W0QQitemZ380100759873QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM?hash=item587fc55141 But as it's the first time I've used one of these (to drill a...

Hi, I've got an old brick-built shed at the back of the house not physically conected, which has a concrete roof in dire need of repair as it's leaking where the felt's damaged. Originally roof seems to have been felted with shingles on top. I know little about roofing practices and...

Hi, I'm a bit unsure about cables in walls. I need to run some T&E and don't want surface-mount, so plan to put it in the brick and render walls. Now, do I just chase the wall and put the cable in, followed by render screed directly over the cable? I know of capping, but can't recall if...

Hi, I'm going to be putting a 4' high fence around the perimeter of the garden into soil using bags of 'postfix' stuff. Bought the posts and wooden panels. Posts looks to be around 3"x3". How deep should they be set in the ground ideally? Soil is more sandy than anything and quite soft...

Hi, I have a question about rendering if anyone has the time to give some advice please. I lived in Spain for many years and did building work over there, but find everything's different here in the UK. Over there, walls are rendered with a simple mix of 3:1 or 4:1 sand and cement mix...

Hi everyone, At work we're trying to sort out sealant problems where shower trays meet the shower cubicle walls (all plastic panels). The original seal is breaking down. We could use silicone, but the original sealant also acted as an adhesive, holding the walls back via their bond to the...

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