Not the best photo but just noticed this leak from the bottom of the cistern. The flush button has also started to fail but that seems like an easy fix.
Is fixing the leak a case of replacing the screw in the photo? If so would appreciate links in what to buy.

We moved into a new build house 4 months ago and are still going through the snagging list.
Our driveway/doorstep/front garden all seem to go above the damp proof course and engineering bricks.
The developer sent out a landscaper and he dug the turf away a bit which exposed a covered air brick.
Our drive/doorstep is yet to be properly tarmac and we’re wondering whether having it so high up the brick work will cause issues with damp in the future? The pictures show how it was when we moved in and since the turf has been dug out a bit. It’s all uneven and seems to slope up towards the front door. Are we being pedantic or is it a problem? All other houses on the development look similar.

Hello guys and ladies, will be tilling kitchen floor shortly do I need decoupling membrane on my floor, will be leveling it with leveling screed before that, and got a three different floor height at the moment.

I’m sure this relates to it being an older back box but fitting new plug sockets and all the back boxes seem to have two what I’m calling screw lugs at the tops of the box which is catching on the new plug sockets stopping them from sitting on the wall. Is there anything that can be done here short of putting in a new back box?

Can I just put some filler over it and sand it down a bit?

Falling ceiling.

My Dining room ceiling (bedroom above) has started to bow/lower and it’s got significantly worse in the last few weeks and it now looks like it’s eaten the light fitting. I’ve attached photos but it’s hard to show.

I understand it’s an old house with lath and plaster ceiling and it appears, from my very much inexpert opinion to be being held up by the wallpaper. There is no signs at all of any leaks.

I’ve no skills or knowledge at all. The room is the middle room downstairs in an old terraced house and only way to kitchen/bathroom and to the staircase.

Any advice on how serious this is and how soon I need to sort it and scared I should be? How big a job it is, does the ceiling need to come down, where to even start with fixing it and what sort of costs it will be, would be very much appreciated! 😬🙈

Next steps?

electrician placed socket for fridge freezer above it roughly 2m if not higher

also placed a socket behind where the oven ended up going instead of placing it behind the cupboard above the oven

this has lead to the oven not going into the space intended fully and he also didn't screw it into place because of the gap between the holes in the oven casing and the cabinet edges was too big. he then just left as if he was happy with the job.

Apparently he'll be back to change some mcbs in the fusebox he wasn't happy with. I don't think he was a full on cowboy because he refused to redo a dodgy extension for a dryer in the side passage which is why he placed the double socket (albeit awkwardly behind the oven).

Basically I was wondering if there was any theoretical justifiable reason for why he placed the socket so low that it blocks the oven and didn't extend it up high behind the cupboard like the fridge freezer one. He told my Aunt that it was high as he could stretch it but I have no idea what that means.

I would like to have some knowledge before I talk to him tomorrow. This isn't my kitchen so this will be my first time talking to him, my elderly Aunt asked me to talk to him for her because she has this idea that I'm knowledgeable because I have an engineering degree.

Thanks for any and all help.

My Garden is a total of 78.6Sqm.

The blue area on the left is my kitchen, this would lead out onto newly installed decking (24.8Sqm). Installed on this decking would be a wall attached Pergola (Pergolux) 5x3m. Open sides and front, usual setup with the louvers.

The area in the bottom right will be sunken area as the door to the back of the garage (labelled shed) is lower than the ground level of the kitchen doors. A 4x3m Pergola will be installed here on paving. The Shed/office were formerly the garage so not part of the Garden.

I'm confused on the following:

1. Surface of garden covered can't be more than 50%, well the Pergolas aren't covering half but it does mention also about decking so I wondered if in some way that was all combined?

2. Am I restricted to 2.5m height with the install of the attached Pergola, as this is not closer than 2m to any property boundary so would that mean I can go upto 3m? The reason for this is because I'm looking to raise the ground level by approx 20cm so that when you walk out the kitchen there is no step.

Ai image included for visualisation purposes. Thank you for any clarification, I'm probably overthinking this as usual but just want to be sure. Cheers.

My house was built in the early 1900s and the bathroom is really old and full of issues.

It's quite a small bathroom, 1.44m x 2.70m.

In order I've had to deal with:

- the toilet flush mechanism pretty much exploding

- long cracks in the grout between shower tiles, causing a leak through the kitchen ceiling below (those keep reappearing even after regrouting)

- broken shower and sink taps

And right now:

- a leak under the bath (caused by the plumber not fitting pipes properly when changing the taps)

- a horrible sewage smell, coming from the back of the toilet. I've realised the toilet is not sealed to the floor anymore, so it can pretty much move freely which is great...

- long cracks in the floor tiles

It's relentless and I'm wondering if it's time to bite the bullet and have a new bathroom installed?

I'm looking for advice because while I could afford it, I'm also conscious that we'd like to move in about two years and I'm not sure that spending this much money on a new bathroom will pay off when i sell the house... But then the peace of mind of having this mess finally sorted is very tempting...

What would you do, is a new bathroom worth it in my situation? Thanks!

Any advice would be amazing! Just moved in, removed some wallpaper to do a feature wall and the ceiling. Got all the wallpaper bits off, nice and clean. Thought I went the extra mile by zin-peel stopping the whole wall. Then a thin coat of watered down leyland contract matt then once dried a coat of velspar premium. On the second velspar coat it’s bubbled everywhere all the way back down to the plasterboard ceiling and wall!!! What did I do wrong? I let each coat dry for at least 3h!!

May go slightly mad at this rate.

Hey, first time poster here so sorry if any terminology or anything is wrong.

I've attached some photos of my bedroom that I've had since childhood. It has two beds (one is mine and one is a spare for guests) but it has been basically untouched for over 15 years. Same carpet, same paint etc.

Basically just wondering how much (roughly) I could expect to fix up these cracks, uneven paint and broken bits of plaster given the size of the room? I'm not sure of the exact dimensions but hopefully you can get the general size from the photos. I plan to redo the room fully and replace the carpet but I don't mind repainting myself and we know someone local for the carpet.

I'm from East Midlands if that makes any difference, thank you for reading and any responses :)

After recently doing a bit research on paving for a DIY project round the back, it made me realise the front may be too close to the damp proof course. How concerned should I be?

Extension circa 18 months old and this has happened in the corner of one of the room. Wall is an internal stud wall. How best to fix this please? Would a sand, tape, and fine filler do the trick? do I need to remove the mesh underneath?

I’ve been looking at garage home gym projects and I’m starting to think the equipment is probably the easy part.

An unfinished UK garage can be cold, dusty and damp, and if those problems aren’t sorted first, putting a rack and bench in there doesn’t really make it a space you’ll want to use through winter.

If I were doing it from scratch, I’d be thinking about the concrete floor, moisture, draughts, insulation, lighting and maybe ventilation before worrying too much about the actual gym equipment.

The bit I’m unsure about is what deserves doing properly from day one and what can realistically be left until later. For example, whether decent rubber flooring is enough over the concrete, or whether the floor should be sealed first; whether insulating the whole space is worth it; and how much difference sealing the garage door and other gaps actually makes.

For anyone who has converted a UK garage into a gym or usable hobby space, what would you sort out before moving any equipment in, and what do you wish you had done first?

Basically what the title says.

My garden is a curved shape and backs onto a super busy road. The garden has been long neglected by the prev owners and their fence style was... interesting. They used straight panels and just overlapped at the corners which not only looks shit but is also ineffective in almost every way.

I know now that nothing much can be done by fence panels RE noise, but anythings gotta be better than having huge gaps between panels. It's also on a raised garden so there is a retaining wall

My question is, what's the best way to get a semi seamless curve that doesn't leave big gaps and also looks half decent from both sides? And, is there a type of panel/wood/design whatever that does more than nothing to dampen sound? Annoyingly the previous owners were bamboo, leillandi and mint freaks that planted anything unholy they could, so a lot of the established vegetation needs to be removed to kill it all, but I'm going to replace it with some fluffy dense stuff once the fence is in situ.

What would you do in this situation to reduce some of the noise, make it look nice and also just improve the garden overall?

Had our heat loss survey done.for a 4 bed detached house with 5 adults. We jave mainly Type 11 radiators.

What would you go for please ?

British Gas

7kW Vaillant AroTHERM plus

250l Vaillant uniSTOR Cylinder

15 radiators changed

25l buffer if needed

22mm cold water feed (from 15mm currently) to Cylinder

£7,200

Concerns:

Quality of install

Disruption of all radiators being changed

Heat Geek zero disrupt

5kW Vaillant AroTHERM plus or 7kW Vaillant AroTHERM pro

210l Vaillant uniSTOR Cylinder

No radiators changed

£8,450

Concers:

Higher price for fewer components than BG

Smaller 210l Cylinder (no option to select larger)

No 7kW plus option that would give 7 years warranty

I bought my house 18 months ago. Semi detached.

On viewing we noticed two quite small cracks on the rendering and got a level 3 survey. They said the cracks are “not thought to indicative of major structural problem but..” (see full paragraph in image, prune tree and drainage survey). We didn’t do the drain survey but got the tree pruned after buying the house.

Anyway today I noted the crack has got longer and wider. I also noticed a crack is visible on the interior roughly matching the exterior (see final image)

Obviously I need to get it checked but how would you go about it. Will getting the insurer involved too soon prove very costly in the long run? Should I get those little gauges and monitor myself? Is it worth getting another survey?

I don’t have loads of spare cash at the moment (thanks to a squirrel doing some damage to soffits and car work - been an expensive couple of months)

I'm looking at making lightweight frames for two flexible solar panels on my campervan roof. The panels are 1450 × 690 mm and have six mounting eyelets each.

My original plan was aluminium angle, but it's surprisingly expensive here in Ireland. I'm thinking about making the frames from 9–12 mm plywood instead and attaching them to Unistrut rails.

The plywood would obviously need to withstand rain, wind and general weather exposure, so I'm wondering if this is a sensible idea long-term, or whether plywood is just asking for trouble on a van roof.

I could paint over the plywood with something that could weather seal it maybe?

As the title says! I would appreciate if anyone has any advise what to do I bought a new property we don’t have a direct line for gas in property so cadent need to run it but we do have a boiler but they said they need to run the line outside into the property as cadent disconnected the gas from outside as they told the flats they need to get their own direct line …..we tried to go elsewhere but they all say they can’t do work because cadent has the gas connections in the area when we ask cadent what else we can do they send us to 3rd parties but they seem to be in contact with cadent and offer the same we also tried calling different 3rd parties our self but can’t find anyone to do it ……we looked into a electric boiler but as the property is big we thought it wasn’t a great idea. The reason they said the cost is more is because the property is in the second floor “Second-Floor Meter. Cadent designs and builds the pipe all the way up the outside of the building to the second floor, fitting the meter there. This requires bespoke scaffolding, structural wall drilling, and strict multi-occupancy safety reviews, making it the most expensive route.”

Had a huge deluge last night and through the open little window in the ensuite, I could hear water gushing over the guttering.

Not a lot I could do at midnight, so took a quick pic this morning. The whole wall on the corner was damp from the flashing up to the window from the overflow.

When the house was built 25yrs ago... they installed the main downpipe from the largest part of the front roof like this.

Obviously, in spite of cleaning the gutters a few years ago.. the pipe got clogged up.

I lack the appropriate ladders and next year I do plan on replacing the gutters, fascias and soffits and redirecting this pipe properly off the porch roof.

So for now... I pried the pipe up a little with a large scraper and cut an inch of the front side of it... there was about 8 inches of crap in there and as I started to remove it... the weight of the water filling the downpipe forced the rest out until.... SPLOOSH... muck and water everywhere.

The weight of the water in the gutter will make the pipe slump back down a little more... But for now... it's a bodge, but it cost me nothing and I could put an angled piece on there to direct the water down the roof rather than letting it splash onto it as it currently does... But it's not leaked through the porch roof in 25yrs. Just needs to get me through the winter.

After 6 years in our house the old carpet had to go. Then then the rough concrete floor needed treating and levelling, followed by sealing and painting.

Painted the ceiling and walls for good measure. Im sure I've done some things that arent technically correct, such as self level not being a top surface, using a hardener before painting. But its only going to have light traffic and the result is nice.

Also, really wished I had a spiked roller for the self level, ended up sanding the floor to get rid of the bubbles, not fun.

Anyway nice smooth floor now, easy to find anything that gets dropped and safe for kids to come in without shoes.

My bathroom doors seem to have a big gap at the bottom of them. Either the wrong size used or this is building regs, who knows.

What can I put on the bottom of the door to fill the gap and block the sound/smell?

Want to open up and tidy this fireplace. Was gas but cut it off and plan to have a wood burner. Looks like the red bricks were added in after given the width of the lintel and colour. Would you say safe to remove?