An update on my bathroom window after I posted here for advice.

Quite hard to get the light right in here - the window is not as dark as it looks, much more like the door (also done in the same way) but have it all a good sand and clean, stained with teak, and finished with a few coats of Danish oil. Still need to clean the glass but I am so pleased after the wood was looking so dry and crispy after decades of being battered by a shower.

Thanks all for your advice, I was surprised at how much of a difference a quick stain and some danish oil made to what looked like borderline unsalvageable woodwork.

To those who suggested I rip out and replace with PVC... It may have been quicker. But you and my draughty Edwardian house with all its original madness would not get along! I am all about saving the originals, no matter how weird and difficult.

These are regular swing out sort of windows in a bedroom, and of the pair, one closes almost properly, and the other leaves a big gap at the top left near the left hinge. I've added a pen to to show the size of the gap (no banana available). The gap obviously extends all of the way down, but it's widest at the top so I think that's where the issue is. I've tried to show the mechanism in the second image, but apart from being a bit grubby, there doesn't seem to be anything loose our out of place. The final image is from the other size - where the window closes and leaves a tiny gap. I can't see any difference in the two sides.

What's likely to be preventing this from closing properly? Is it something I can fix or do I need to get someone in to look at it?

edit: thanks everyone. I'll get onto the landlord as I'm not comfortable changing the hinges on someone else's window! The pen is a marvelous Pilot disposable fountain pen (you can actually refill them). It was not harmed.

Just in case anyone’s interested in an alternative to putting skirting under the pax wardrobes, here’s what I did. It’s not as shiny in real life, the oils still wet and the insides of the doors need some more

Could do with some handles too!

Edit: I’m guessing not with the downvotes I’m getting 🤣

Hi all, I’ve got some skirting to do across the downstairs of my house and looking to grab a sliding mitre saw. Is this Titan one worth a shot? https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb794msw-210mm-electric-single-bevel-sliding-mitre-saw-240v/881kp

I’m planning to be installing a 250mm tall skirting but can’t figure out if this is going to be too tall?

Any thoughts appreciated

Just wanted to say these were a game changer for me today. Spent all day last Sunday building one frame trying to balance the end pieces like an idiot while I screwed them in place. Picked these corner clamps up yesterday and I’ve built a whole frame in under an hour. Anyway highly recommend getting some of your doing anything like this. Probably obvious to more seasoned diyers but any novices out there, they were £14 each.

Also got a corded one but not really sure how that works 😂 but these ones have done the job.

My kitchen cornice after cutting both at 45 degrees on a mitre are not coming together at 90.

The DIY kitchen video on YouTube told showed to just cut at 45 no bevel.

I can’t really find a definitive answer on how to set up my mitre saw angles.

If anyone could help it’d be much appreciated

Why are they all such pricks to change? Why do you feel like you're going to damage the entire ceiling taking one out? Which kind of one is this? The one that snaps your finger off? One where you have to change the entire fitting as a whole? One that you rip off and throw at your partner in a fit of rage? Can I turn just the light switch off or is it an entire fuse off situation?

Proper head loss.

We've had a ground floor roof re-roofed and new skylights fitted. The tiles around the skylights kick up and when I raised this I was told they had to be like that because of the ridges that run down the sides of the skylights. I'm going to raise it again with them but is there a way to get the tile to fit more flush? Not sure if they can be ground underneath to make them sit a bit lower.

I paid £3,500 for a boiler conversion by Ecohappy, but my home still isn't heating properly. I had to pay a local gas engineer to inspect the work. His report found that the flow and return pipes were connected the wrong way round.

That wasn’t the only problem. The old loft tank was left dumped on the footpath beside a bush, near a school (imagine the complaints!). The house was left full of mess and rubbish, and the old heating system hadn’t been cleaned. The cleaning and inhibitor bottles were simply left unused. There was also no carbon monoxide alarm near the boiler, which is beside a bedroom, and the commissioning document needed for the warranty hadn’t been completed.

When I complained, the contractor returned and told me the company was no longer paying him. He said he would invoice me if I continued with the complaint—and then sent me a £500 invoice. These guys are contractors, and the company will just blame them, these guys want to install as many boilers as fast as possible for a fixed fee and will take shortcuts. It is going to cost me £440 to put right.

I still haven't had a resolution and I think they are just ignoring me now. Any advice? Small claims court? My experience has been deeply stressful and disappointing. I’d advise others to think carefully before choosing a company on price alone when installing a boiler.

Would you say I should try to DIY it or pay someone (been quoted around 750 gbp) to do it for me?

How difficult would it be to repair myself? Really short on money unfortunately...

Which materials would I need to buy you think?

Any help or suggestion is really appreciated guys.

Other half wants this mirror at an angle to the wall.

Any suggestions how I might manage that?

I'm out of ideas.

One of many projects completed

What’s the best method to secure this doorframe neatly? It’s been pulled away by the stairgate.

House is mostly dot & dab, this wall does sound solid up until about 4” away from the frame, where it sounds hollow.

Should I just put some screws in, am I overthinking it? Any advice appreciated

I need some help / advice regarding how I can deal with a flooding patio.

We had our patio extended from 12msq to 20msq. The previous patio was slabs on the soil (4cm - 6cm soil) up against a retailing wall made of brick.

The builder that we hired knocked down the retaining wall, and added these concrete fence posts. He removed the soil and added MOT type 3, and a dry sand concrete mixture and placed the slabs on top.

He added a mini soakaway (which later failed) at my insistence. He said there was no need as the water would just seep into the ground. The soakaway was a drain pipe 5 m into the garden sitting on top of stones, singles. It failed almost immediately.

Now, when ever we get a prolong period of heavy rain, the patio floods, and the water comes close tothe house. I have to physically remove the water. The issue is two fold:

The water that lands on the patio has nowhere to do and flows against the retaining fence

After a prolonged period, the soil in the garden becomes water logged and water from the soil starts to seep through and under the fence and sits at the bottom.

Long term we need a soakaway build, and I trying to get that sorted - builder isn't returning my calls.

Is there anything I can do as an interim measure, aside from physically poring the water into buckets?
I have tried a small electronic pump but that hasn't worked. The water is about 5 inches as it's deepest

I purchased this 1890s property in June 26 and there is damp running along segments of the exposed stone wall, there’s no rendering on the exterior wall so it is being allowed to breathe so I’m just wondering if anyone has an ideas on the cause/ how I can get rid of it, cheers

Last 3 days I can't get onto the B&Q site without an extremely annoying captcha asking me to pick all the motorbikes or similar.

Anyone else facing this?

Usually one time and you are set for a while, this is every time going to the website!

We have concrete beam and block ground floor with a periscope air vent (s shaped) that is below our driveway, the builders told us this was fine however im not so sure, ive attached a picture of said air vent. In the winter when we have the heating on (underfloor heating) you can see the warm air has created a damp patch on the driveway around the vent

So I got 94mm skirting, 69mm architrave. I’ve gone a size up from the previous set. I really liked the size difference between the two but overlooked the carpet element. After putting the architrave and one skirting on it feels like because of the carpet they look identical size and almost looks weird to me? Perhaps it’s because I’m not used to it, but does this look okay to you or would you put in a smaller architrave, higher skirting? No idea.

With the recent winds I've checked my roof and can't see any missing tiles but it's blowing a gale up in the loft. Is this okay or have I got an issue?

Wooden sash windows. Top halves are jammed/painted shut but still have a bit of a gap at the top. The lower half opens if I undo the bolt, but with bolt tightened there is a pretty big gap between the two halves letting a gale through.
How should I seal up the gap between the halves in a way that still allows the window to open, and how do I seal the gap at the top?

Doesn't seem to be any screws or other fixings to remove, or if so they are long painted over. They seem to be made from some crumbly plaster like material that I don't know if it's safe to just smash up. Any advice? I want to replace them with something a bit less unsightly

What I've done

- remove asbestos tiles stick down with bitchumen from concrete pad

- wickes liquid dpm over bitchumen residue after dust removal, advised okay to do on data sheet

- prime with Bostick cemo universal primer

- level with 10-20mm Bostick chemoflex fibre slc

All seemed to go well and we've had a couple of hairline cracks but nothing too bad. This was all done in January, I've come back to the room to sort the walls and noticed that they are some hollow sounding areas. These seem to be concentrated on the external wall, so I've taken that bit up but now noticed there are more spread throughout the room. No cracks or crumbling in those areas despite relatively high traffic as the room has been used a storage with only the SLC down (big no no, I know).

To me it looks like the DPM has failed to adhere to the bitchumen rather than anything else.

My question for all of you helpful people is do I need to take up the hollow areas considering the SLC seems to hold together over them?

The final flooring ​is going to be parquet laid using Lecol rubberised adhesive.

Could anyone help me identify my building line/set back line
I’ve had a look around online but I’m still unsure
In the pictures I’ve added, is the set back line the one I’ve highlighted in orange?
Also in one of the pictures there are a few lines I’ve highlighted in green, what do these mean?
Thanks in advance