I'm having trouble with getting the central heating for radiators to work.

I've tried switching on and off the boiler, increasing the pressure but can't seem to get it to work. Previously I would just turn the programmer to continuous and it would work.

I have an ideal icos he12 boiler

St6400c programmer

Thermostat in the hallway

Any ideas?

Hi all,

I am looking for ideas on the best way to fix a baby gate to this staircase.

I tried to install a simple straight gate with the mountings positioned as shown in the picture, but I cannot adjust it to reach the wall on the other side because the bottom hinge had to be screwed all the way in to keep it level.

I am not even sure if this is the correct gate type to install here, but I didn't have any other ideas, which is why I am asking for help. I would appreciate any advice on this.

Need advice please. The sill was rotten so I’ve cut that out and replaced with a bit of 4x2 sapele but I just found more and more rot. The top frame is literally flaking as I scrape it.

I’d love to keep the glass - what are my options?
Can I replace the whole timber frame? Should I get a company to PVC it? A joiner to rebuild? Any help much appreciated.

This shower install is a year or so old, I'm going to redo the sealant this weekend. How can I prevent the mouldy corners from happening again?

During some recent work one of my window sills got damaged. Replacing the sill is likely to cause more mess and damage so I’m exploring ideas to repair it in-situ. The bit that’s throwing me is that it appears to be made of clay or maybe a dark ceramic tile. Any ideas, experience or suggestions for repairing this?

Hi planning to board and insulate my loft. Just have an issue currently where the drop/height between joist and bottom boards are only 8cm tall. I understand that insulation comes 10cm, will I have to raise this, to then add insulation perpendicular on top?

Also regarding the boarding I plan to use some CLS timber frames going perpendicular to the current joists, but will cross insulating the first 10cm layer cause me issues?

If I was to just add some CLS timber to the current joists (in the same direction) then add 30cm insulation without cross laying would that work?

Also what air gap should I keep between top of insulation (30cm) and boards, I’ve heard 5cm is ideal?

Looking for some advice as I can't find much online.

I'm looking to tile 1 bathroom wall. The tiles we have bought are quite heavy per square metre.

Roughly 20-21kg.

The wall itself is in good condition, it's a solid brick wall with what I believe is a skim of pink gypsum plaster.

Am I right in thinking these tiles will be too heavy for the plaster? It's not plaster board, it's the solid brick wall shared with next door.

What options do I have? Thanks

Hi! Me and my partner recently bought a house. It has everything we were looking for but the kitchen is tiny. It has room for a washing machine next to the sink, but no room for a fridge.

The previous owners had a fridge just planted in the middle of the dining room. What can we do? We have considered bricking up the backdoor and replacing the window in the dining room with french doors for garden access, so we can add a fridge where the back door is. We also considered knocking through the downstaits outdoor w/c and storage for a longer kitchen but we like the outdoor loo!

Any ideas are much appreciated or any idea on the cheapest most effective option? Thanks!

I've had this leak a couple of months now and I'm running out of ideas. I keep getting ghosted by roofers which isn't helping.

I've had one roofer fix the obvious holes in the roof from slipped slates. I then hoped it was fixed however the first proper rain we had afterwards it seemed so much worse.

The gutters appear to be clean and well functioning based on my observations.

I've crawled about in the loft to no avail and currently have a web cam set up to spot drips but I doubt I'll catch anything. I'm not convinced that the main beams go much into the extension. You can't actually tell from the main loft.

Its a victorian semi with an outrigger rear extension, put in to move the bathroom upstairs at some point in the history of the house. This is the ceiling of the bathroom about 2 foot away from where it joins the house main wall. There's nothing above the bathroom apart from the roof.

From the loft of the main house you cannot see into the bathroom roof space or access it.

The main loft has no immediately signs of water.

Should I take part of the bathroom ceiling down to find the source or do I keep trying to get a roofer to find and fix it?

I've never owned a house before and I'm very skint so the whole thing is stressing me out. Any advice on what to do would be appreciated.

Hi all,

Last year, I repaired this crack with filler and painted over it. Everything looked fine initially, but a few weeks later, the crack reappeared.

Now, around 7 - 8 months later, I've decided to open it up and investigate further (see photos). To my surprise, the crack appears to be approximately 6 cm deep. It looks like it's located where two bricks meet, just below a window.

There are quite a few cracks around the house that have reappeared after being filled, but this one seems a bit more serious and concerning than the others.

I know it doesn't look great at the moment, but I was wondering whether I could fill the deeper part with some repair mortar (the type that comes in a tube, similar to silicone/caulk), then finish it off with filler and scrim tape to help prevent it from cracking again.

I was also considering using Toupret Fill-Flex Flexible Filler instead of mortar, but the instructions mention a maximum filling depth of 1 cm, so I'm not sure it would be suitable.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? What products or repair methods would you recommend, and is there anything I should avoid?

For context, the house is only 6 years old and came with a 10 year structural warranty. Given that several cracks have reappeared throughout the house, do you think this is something worth raising with the builder or warranty provider? Or am I overthinking it, and is it likely just a cosmetic issue - not sure how a 6cm crack is cosmetic but I have to think about it.

I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions before I attempt to repair it again.

Thanks in advance!

We’re updating the utility room and moving the location of the sink in the process. Unfortunately i ordered an ikea unit before removing the old countertop which revealed a hodgepodge of pipework.

The unit is 120cm long which fits in the space between the walls of 124cm but obviously there’s pipework in the way. i can deal with the pipes at the back by extending the depth of the unit, but how do i deal with the pipes on bottom left? I’m sure the only way is so either cut the unit or redo the pipework.

if i cut the unit, it will be quite deep into the unit given the dimension of the pipework, but will also require losing a bit of the bottom left footing of the unit so i will need to reinforce the bottom. the pipework will then be visible when the doors are opened.

i’ll be getting a plumber in anyway to do the pipe rework, so will see if he can do anything to streamline pipes etc. however would be grateful for any advice on how to proceed here - how do i cover the pipework prettily once the unit is fitted?

moved into shared rented house (old victorian) in August. Heating heats taps and house but shower is controlled differently. Not sure what heats the house but we have a gas hob.

Heating turned on for the first time today and my room is ice cold. Went to turn radiator on and it looks like the photos attached. Radiator in kitchen has a thermostat as do my rommates’s ones (asked in groupchat). My landlord lives abroad so i can’t really ask him.

Wondering how do I turn this on or what do i need to do so? In my previous place my radiator was broken and landlord wouldn’t fix so it was so cold in winter when i wfh i wore mittens and was permenantly sick. I don’t want to deal with that again.

Currently im using a mini electric heater but those are costly and it only heats the part of my room it points at. Any suggestions on what to do or who to contact?

What do i do if it leaks? One time as a child my dad was tampering with our radiators and it sprayed black liquid all over me and him. That lowk scarred me as a kid Haahah and i’ve been afraid of tampering with radiators ever since - if anyone ha

Looking for some advice on replacing a isolation valve which is reduced bore with a full bore.

The supply comes in from the stopcock and tee's into kitchen tap and other side into the reduced bore isolation valve which feeds the whole house.

There is quite a lot of water noise when using water so thinking replacing this with full bore might solve the issue.

The othee isolation valve below is hot water coming into the kitchen​

Access isnt great and not novice at plumbing but good at general DIY.

Long story short I regretfully plasterboard my living room, jointing compound in the seems of the tapered edges and corners…
It’s starting to look good and we’re getting to a position of wanting to paint…

My stepdad is old school and said PVA, but EVERYONE online says don’t do it…
We’re not skimming the walls and are hoping to paint over the boards direct… we have put a lot of work in for the joints to be perfect.

I’ve read up on Zinsser Gardz which is the most suggested option but on the other hand I have read absolute horror stories.

Can someone experienced give me an idiots guide of how I go from a dusty plasterboard/jointing compound to having the walls painted.

Any help and advice would be much appreciated,
Sincerely a first time reno couple wanting to cry on the daily🥲

So I have a little mystery, I’ve noticed in the last couple of days oil has bubbled out from underneath the skirting. I’ve taken the skirting off the wall and there is nothing behind or below it that would explain why there is oil.

The oil is clear and to me doesn’t smell of anything but my partner does say it smells like cooking oil. Oil did bubble out when a light was turned on.

I posted about these loose stones in my foundation before and I was going to pack everything with lime mortar. But on attempting that some other things have come to light.

This area is about 3-4 foot long and the loose stones go down about a foot. The part that is worrying me is the stones bulge out 2-3" compared to the rest of the wall.

Back story - there decking here and it was attached to the wall with a ledger board. You can make out the line of where it was. The decking was badly designed and water gathered in this corner so the ledger board rotted out here. This then washed out the lime mortar. Along the rest of the wall the stones were cement rendered and the render seems solid (so I'm guessing the mortar is ok behind it - fingers crossed)

There is very little other clues to indicate big movement other than a hairline crack up to the bottom corner of the window. Looking back at the photos of when we bought the house 2 years ago that crack hasn't changed in size.

Do I need to get a structural engineer or can I go straight to hiring a stone mason or someone else to fix it? What should i be looking for when I hire them?

House which was built c. 1950-1966. It’s been well looked after but very dated and in need of modernisation.
We’re particularly interested in ideas for the utility, kitchen & dining room.

What would you change about the floor plan?

This is taking forever to dig out with hand tools. Would an SDS drill manage to break up the postcrete?

Had some slight cracks appear on self levelling compound, hoping to tile on top of this, any advice?

Looking for some advice on my kitchen diner rear extension. The 3m extension has pitched roof (from bifold to house with 2 vellux). Looking to have a worktop over hanging the island on right and bottom and place kitchen table in the 2873 gap. I would like to return the worktop round the corner (adjacent to utility) but then I'm not sure how to position dishwasher and sink!. The red window (privacy glass) position is not yet confirmed and we have some small flexibility as to its location ( just not beyond old section of house) . Looking to place the final order on Monday but something about the layout I'm just not happy with. The extra worktop I feed would be useful for appliances and possibly a bin cupboard. The island seating I would prefer to face bifold but don't think re-aligning the island would work.

Hello all,

Seeking a bit of insight here. Recent had a bit of plastering. Walls are now silky smooth but that leaves me with getting the skirtings on. As you can see form the imagine the area isnt the greatest and isnt particularly flat and flush.

Any ideas on how to overcome? Was thinking perhaps something like expanding foam and cut flush? Potentially could fill in with filler until flush with the plaster then skirting on top?

Scratching my head a bit with this one any help would be appreciated

My kitchen tap has sprung a leak from what I suspect is the flexible hose that runs inside the upper body. As you can see there is quite a bit of concentrated limescale buildup in the leaking area. Additionally the body of the tap actually fills up with water all the way up to where the spring comes out. There is no leaking coming from below the sink either.

Is there a way to remove the upper body so I can inspect and potentially replace the flexible hose? There is a small removable screw in the top of the back of the lower body which I tried removing but didn't seem to affect anything.

Edit: It only leaks when it's running, doesn't matter if it's hot or cold.

First time poster….
So we went away last week, got home around 1am, it was cold. Got the kids in bed and I turned my heating on, I can only describe it as a dinosaur from my kitchen, dog barking, kids crying. Anyway I smelt gas so got everyone out and called gas line, no gas leak. So I turned boiler back on and it was fine for about 2 hours. It then came up with the code f2. Says ignition cutout? Then it seems to have fixed itself but making the same noise again. I have tuned my heating off and told people to not use any hot water. I have an appointment on Tuesday for someone to come look at it but I have a 5 year old and a 1 year old and we can’t really go without hot water or heating at this time of year. I don’t have much spare cash so I guess I’m just looking for some advice on what it could be? Is it safe to use the hot water and heating? How much do you think it could cost to repair/replace. Thank you :)

We bought a 1930s solid-wall house last year and have finally started on the hallway. The hallway and WC have quarry tile floors, while the living room has a suspended timber floor. All three are currently at the same level.

The hallway was carpeted and the WC was covered in vinyl. After lifting both, I found quite a bit of mould under the vinyl and on the tiles.

The house has had historic settlement, so the WC side of the floor has dropped slightly relative to the hallway. I'd like to level it with a screed.

From my research, the usual approach seems to be applying a resin or similar DPM to the quarry tiles, then laying self-levelling compound on top. I also need to match the living room level, so I plan to lay plywood over the living room floor to bring it up to the raised hallway level.

Because of that, I'd like to keep the build-up to 10mm or less if possible, to avoid raising the living room too much.
Does anyone have suggestions for how to damp proof the hallway and WC? Thank you!

Should I even try as it doesn't leak, although I guess if one next to it goes it will. I fear breaking many trying to sort one.

Can I even buy a single tile? Where from? How do I find out which one I need? Are there standard types?