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Potential row over washing line?
My neighbour has looped their washing line over my concrete post of my fence, my other half wants to throw it off as she has seen their grandkids hanging on it whilst playing sometimes and she is concerned about the fence coming down. They don't have a metal washing line post and the council has not put one in for them. I…
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Painting fences... what would you do?!
Hello! We moved into our first home last August, we’ve just started to have a go at tidying up our garden and the main thing we really hate is the dark brown colour all 3 of our fences are painted in. According to the land registry / the only information we were given from the solicitors the back fence is ours (marked with…
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Repairing small plaster damage
Ended up ripping out a blinds installation from a previous tenant because didnt know mechanism to remove it and pulled out the small red wall plugs and unfortunately some of the plaster and left a worrying large crack. Im getting all the windows changed in 2 months so im wondering if its worth waiting until after then or…
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View from apartment
Hi All, We live in the top flat in a london apartment which we own. The flat below is renting out and the latest tenants have put up a permanent awning which takes up approx 60% of the garden. We initially thought that it was a temporary solution to provide shade during the summer but it a permanent feature. Bizarelly they…
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Plasterboard wall for under the stairs cupboard
I have a U shaped winder staircase and the builder has created an under the stair storage cupboard in the dead space underneath it. The wall of the cupboard is just a board of plasterboard that's been painted on the side that is visible. This doesn't seem very robust but to make matters worse, it also has a double mains…
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Woodworm in hardwood flooring
Hi. First post here. I have small holes in around 10 boards in my hardwood flooring in my dining room. Tunnels are obvious in one board and it and one other are badly damaged. I have had 2 firms out to look at it. One said it is common furniture beetle and the other said powderpost beetle. Both suggested treating/replacing…
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Paint stripping
Hi I've bought a slate mantle that I want to strip back to the slate. The mantle has had 2 coats of paint one white and then black at some point which paint stripper just won't touch, it doesn't even blister at all. I'm not sure if its heat resistant paint or what it could be. It does come off with a blow torch (do not…
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Glasgow tenement moving kitchen
Hi all. I was wondering if anyone with any knowledge of the building trade (particularly in Scotland) could advise me on the likely costs of moving my kitchen from the small scullery at back of my flat (a ground floor tenement) to my living room recess? So I'm going to be joining at moving services (water/waste water) &…
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Insulation on an external cavity wall
Hi, we are building an extension in a terraced house. Our neighbours did their extension 2 years ago and we had party wall agreement in place. We share the wall as it is also on our boundary side. Their wall is a cavity wall. My architect says building regs have changed and you now must add another layer of insulation. I…
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How to get right replacement shower seal.
We have a large glass shower door. The seal on the bottom, at the moment has a tube as well as flaps. The tube has gone mouldy inside , no way of cleaning it. No idea of the brand of door. How do I decide which replacement to buy?
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Paint BT Fibre broadband box & cables
Hi all Ive just had BT Fibre Broadband installed which is great and working well, but I now have this rather ugly box and black cables on the front of my house. I have exterior paint which matches the colour of the wall...can I paint the box and the cables? Or is there some reason why it would be unsafe to paint cables?…
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Foil bubble wrap insulation in cavity walls
Hi Everyone, I've been struggling to find a solution for years to no avail. On our estate, our houses were built in 2000 with cavity walls. As insulation, they used a thin bubble foil type insulation, about 1cm thick) as the cavity insulation pinned to the inner brickwork (something like Airtec foil). To me, this seems…
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Blackout curtains or blinds in bedroom
So I'm going to be working nights in a few weeks time with my new job, main bedroom where I sleep in let's in lots of light through the curtains. Was looking for suggestions please to eliminate as much as this light as possible. Initial thoughts were:- Blackout curtains though there would still be considerable amount of…
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Lever vs Button Toilet?
My plumber was going to fit me a new toilet for £140 labour and add on the cost of the toilet. I don't know much about push button style apart from the fact my sisters keeps breaking so i opted for the traditional lever/handle version. My plumber has come back to me saying the lever versions are too expensive and he can…
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Is this permitted development
Hello We are In the process of planning a single storey rear extension. We have one already 1.5m long and the plan is to demolish it and build a longer 3m extension. All people told me this would be PD but my engineer has the view that most likely we need planning permission. The reason is that the garden is angled (see…
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Boundary issue with neighbour
Hi Folks I have just moved into a new property.There are some hedges between the front of my property and the front of the neighbour's prpoerty. I want to find out who the hedges belong to, so that I can trim them. There is an elderly neighbour living next door and seems to be hard of hearing so I don't wnat to put any…
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What is this socket for?
I'm not sure what this socket is for. A normal 3 pin plug does not fit. Anyone know what they are called. Maybe I can find an adaptor.
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Painting a concrete lintel
My house is behind repointed and as part of the job the lintel above my bedroom window is being replaced with a concrete one. Can someone give me an idea of the best way to paint it? I'm assuming masonry paint, but will it need anything prep first? I'm a bit clueless about these sorts of things.
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Broken locked old style upvc window lock
Hi we have two older style upvc windows at the front of our house, the one downstairs has the pin centre missing and is locked shut, does anyone know how to open it please? I have tried pulling it up but it’s pretty tight and I don’t want to break the actual lock mechanism inside! The window upstairs has the centre black…
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Home insurance during extension
Hi, What are people's views on telling your home insurer about building work (and paying the extra money) or taking a stand alone insurance policy? What are the typical costs of these things? What does extra insurance actually cover? It seems to me from looking at policy documents that big name insurers won't cover…
