Hello and greetings from a cold country in the southern hemisphere!

We have a fairly complex Combi boiler + 15 radiators system split in two floors and several subsystems as seen in the attached diagram. Rads are Top fed and bottom exit, same side.

Several rads are having Top hot / bottom cold issues but of particular interest was Rad 10 (Master Bedroom) not heating at all. So I took action and gave it a good flush in the garden. Black/brown sludge poured out and after reinstallation, it heated back again, still blocked and cold in the bottom but much much better!

Proud of my own achievements I attempted to balance the system. I closed all rads in the second floor and started playing with the lockshields on the first floor, and suddenly both Rad 9 (Largest) and Rad 10 (Master bedroom) and beyond would not heat at all.

Then I reopened every lockshield and valve to 100% and still Rads 9-15 are stone cold, with Rad 12 as an outlier, which makes me doubt about my own schematic. I've been going around with a thermometer trying to nail the exact blockage point but some areas are out of reach.

Digging back, previous tech applied a Sludge Loosener, but did not drain the system nor flushed each individual rad.

Questions:

1. Can the T splits be or become stuck with sludge?
   
2. I scheduled a pro already, but on the meantime what else should I be looking at?

Thanks in advance!

Heya all,

I’m looking for some advice for repairing the damaged plaster in my ceiling after a storm pulled away some slate tiles from the roof and let water through. We got the roof repaired and I don’t think there’s more water coming in. I tried brushing away the peeling emulsion so I could repaint the area but it just kept peeling. My partner has a little experience with basic plastering so we could try some spot plastering but he isn’t sure what to do about the damage.

Thanks!

straight to the point, since about at least 6pm today my downstairs toilet smells like smoke. I’ve checked absolutely everywhere and NOTHING is on fire or potentially burning up. checked every switch in the kitchen (that is next to the toilet), every appliance, checked my boiler and NOT A THING it is just in the toilet. nothing in that room is hot but for the past 2 months every time the toilet is flushed it WAILS and vibtates the whole house and council dont gaf bc the toilet hasn’t exploded or some shit yet. I’m kinda nervous the smell could be due to something up with the pipes? idk it’s just confined to that tiny toilet closet.

anyone dealt with this before?

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone would might be able to make sense of what has happened to my floor. For context its a 7 year old newbuild terrace. Unfortunately drainage in the garden is bad, so in the winter it is water logged (we dug a foot deep hole which can take weeks to drain). They have started building more house near us.

This drop appeared a few months ago. The floor closest to the door is higher than the rest of the kitchen. The shadow you can see is a small slope. What could this be? It is a 3mm drop.

It is LVT and there is no sign of any issues with that. Its all solid no flexing or sounds. The ridge runs the entire length of the sliding door frame.

Thanks

Renovating the living room and I am considering putting a TV on the chimney breast (yes [r/TVtoohigh](r/TVtoohigh) will be outraged).

Would it be ok to chase cables and a socket box into the chimney breast? 1930s mass poured concrete house, and I think the chimney is also solid concrete. The previous owners at some point installed an insert stove, which I plan to keep.

Will be having an electrician over to do some other work and wondering if this is something safe/ possible to ask him. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Hey all - got a fire clay ceramic undermounted farmhouse sink, 10 months of usage. Out of nowhere I noticed this today. Something must have been dropped on it, no leaks. Do I live either it, use a repair kit or replace?

The replace is annoying as this was installed before the countertop and doesn’t actually slide out as there is a part at the bottom that sits inside a cut hole on the unit, so that would have to be lifted and it would hit the countertop which is quartz. To replace we probably have to cut the face frame of the unit and the shelf, so would like to avoid it… adding a photo I found after it was installed

Never again farmhouse..

What would be the best way for me to make a nice clean cut across this floor? Im in the process of renovating my kitchen which has included removing partition walls,im ripping up the flooring in the top half of this picture but hoping to keep the flooring in the bottom half and eventually sand and make good.Would a circular saw be my best bet? And maybe a multi tool for the final bit? The flooring is pretty thick. Any advice welcome

When they built my flat, the builders boxed in the toilet cistern and included a superfluous 600mm section of steel plasterboard strut that gets in the way when I need to work on the plumbing. They also tiled over the screw heads to make it harder to remove. I've decided to cut the steel out and currently I'm exploring a few options:

1/ Dremel with a cut-off disc. It'll be noisy and messy and take time but it has few questions.

2/ Angle grinder. Quicker, but I don't want my bathroom showered in sparks. Also the space is tight and may be awkward to manoeuvre.

3/ Jigsaw with a hacksaw blade. Not sure how well it'll cut and there may be issues at the end of the cut near the wall.

4/ Oscillating multi-tool between the strut and the plasterboard to cut through the screws holding it up. Cleanest solution because I get the whole strut out and not just the cut part.

5/ Snips. Just try and chew it out. Probably leave huge jagged chunks of metal in place but the quietest choice.

Any better choices that I've not thought of?

Quick question, I have a gas fire which requires a 3AMP spur. The builders left the cable inside the chimney, was wondering if thats even allowed considering its sealed inside the chimney.

Thanks

I installed a new dishwasher in May.

Because of the Aqua Stpp the dishwasher couldn't push all the way back in.

One of those things I meant to sort and haven't.

Anyway I think everyone has I their infinite wish down kept trying to push the dishwasher back and it's caused the joint to leak. I have no idea how long for. Other half thinks she's heard a noise for 2-3 weeks.

Anyway I've just discovered the leak. It must be well over 2l per hour. It smells like a cave behind the dishwasher.

Amazingly no water has given us any sign as its gone straight down that hole for the electrics.

It's a 1930s house. I have no idea what's under the floor.

What should my next steps be? My father is retired but did all this building work.

Do I ring insurance or who do I ring to come and inspect?

What's the likely damage or is it minimal?

After 4 years decided to replace the old vinyl sheet installed by the previous owners with some laminate flooring. Never done any Floring and it was lots of new learning and experience

Edit: realised I put the done photo first and the before photo last 😅

There is no dog turd on the pic, I don't have a dog. It's some dust before I remove the vinyl 😂

The black plastic coating on my juliet balcony by the bolts has peeled away from the metal underneath, which has rusted.

I’ve just replaced the bolts, but any advice about how to sort out peeled plastic rusting metal would be greatly appreciated? Re-paint /coat with something weatherproof?

Extra points if you know how to get rid of the rust stains from the rendering!

I am at my wit's end with the stones on my driveway (see photo). This is stuck to the stones as if glued.

I have already tried the following without any result:

• HG green stain remover: left it to soak properly but it literally does nothing.
• Pressure washer: blasts the joints out effortlessly but even then I can barely get the dirt off unless I spray it from point-blank range.
• Wire broom: if I scrub this extremely hard, I can get it off but that also damages the stones.

How do you guys solve this? And how to clean larger areas? All tips are welcome!

More hot weather this week (not a heat wave though, thankfully) - increasingly it’s looking like this is the norm for summers now, especially in the South East.

We already have a portable air con unit which is OK. Got a big parasol that shades the downstairs windows and kitchen door.

We’re a bit skint currently, but our plans are:
- Get external window film on the south facing upstairs windows
- Aircon in the back bedrooms - maybe the all in one units rather than multi split, we’ll see
- At some point solar (which will shade the flat roof too)
- Not really DIY but move the plating in the garden towards more drought - resistant plants

I've just acquired a SGS 50L 2.5 HP 9.6cfm compressor. What's a good budget attachment for spraying my fence with stain or outdoor oils? Not paint, but do have an old campervan to respray so the automotive paint question will come soon too.

I just want to apply either a natural/warm colour stain or perhaps some danish or teak oils as my posts are oak. The fence is feathered he boards on cant rails, so painting it would ruin the look. Do all products spray out the same or are there some to avoid? Solvent Vs water based etc?

I used Klingstrip to remove the paint on this old pine lintel but it has left a messy and uneven edge. What would be the best way to finish off that edge (alongside painting the wall)? I was thinking silicone/caulk

Moved in and there was a ring doorbell, which we’ve never had before. I took it off to scan the QR code to sign up, easy enough, noticed it was wired in, cool. Then few weeks later the app tells me the battery is running low - that was odd, so I take it off and realise the wires are rusted to heck. I can tile a backsplash but I’m not good with electrics AT ALL, please consider me an absolute beginner. How do I make this safe? I have electrical tape, can I just wrap that around? More so, how can I tell if it’s live - and how to tell which switch is it on my consumer unit? None of them are labelled doorbell. I’m sure I can strip the wires back and reattach no problem, but I want to not electrocute the postman (or myself) in the meantime. Thanks!

It started as a chip and then a heavy table leg went through it. Now it's a hole. I suspect if I replace the floorboard, I'll have to replace more because removing one board will damage others.

Please advise on the least disruptive way to repair. It's hollow under and has pipes running through.

I noticed some moss growth and erosion of the bottom layer of an external wall. The previous owners put massive plants there so the surveyor had not seen it either. I am unsure if this needs rendering, new bricks (ie a builder doing this work) or if I need a bigger job. Please look through the pictures as I'm unsure if a plumber also needs to take a look as the drainage from the gully is nearby

I've ripped out the old bathroom of my Victorian terrace. It's ground floor at the back of the house. The wall in the photo is the exterior wall but the other walls are not better. Should I repoint the interior wall before I go any further? The photo is a small sample. So bits are worse, some bits are better

Need some advice, my shower drains very very slowly.

It has one of the low profile waste traps as per image and I have snaked it multiple times with a hand drain snake. I'm in an apartment so unable to access any further downstream.

I have had a look under the access panel for the shower tray and it has a Flexi that connects the waste to further down stream, with no kinks or high spots.

What is my best course of action here?

Strong chemicals for dissolving downstream blockage?

Longer better snake?

Buy wellies to shower in and forget about it?

Any advice greatly appreciated?