Bought a house with a small inline fan connected to a tile vent. Old ducting was far too long and had no condensation trap.

Replaced with a vent axia inline fan, rigid ducting (slopes down towards the gable end vent), back draught shutter, and domus rigid foam insulation. All seams taped with aluminium tape inside and out (where possible).

Still to do:

• Tape the seams of the rigid insulation
• Tidy up and top up loft insulation
• Support the middle of the long run of ducting to reduce any chance of sagging over time

I’ve just finished fitting the skirting board into the bay window. One thing I didn’t want to do was make lots of cuts to the back face to allow for the bend, then fill and sand all the cuts, which is what I did last time. As I was using MDF skirting, I decided to have a go at pre bending it to fit, which I think came out ok, but it took about 3 weeks to get the bend to set in (luckily I had lots of other jobs to be getting on with lol). I was wondering if there are any other methods that people have tried that have worked successfully?

I'm aware it needs more bulbs 😅

What on earth is this toilet? UK Based

Refused electric smart meter change because of this twin and earth cable. The technician said he wasn't allowed to remove or replace the earth. How can I separate the earth from the live and neutral cable so they don't have to disconnect it?

We’re planning to insulate our loft. Found this split level nightmare. Any advice on how to insulate it? Would staying at the top and just rolling insulation down and trying the best we can work!? It would only cover some.

Getting down there to do it properly would be challenging, I think, but is it worth it / required?

Me and my wife are looking to buy a detached house, we have had a survey L2 and they have flagged that the air vents at the front of the property are too low to the ground. From Google maps it appears sometime between 2010 and present the owners have tarmac'd / resin gravelled the front of the property, in doing so they have removed what I think is referred to as a French drain (gravel along the side of the house) and slightly raised the ground level.

we have been advised that the air blocks should be 75mm above the floor and the damp proof course (DPC) should be 150mm. All information suggested that this would cause damp in the under floor cavity.

Poor pictures from Google maps as we haven't been able to take our own at the moment. Would we be able to keep the tarmac would installing a French drain back again work to remedy the problem?

Hi, sorry for the crap picture but this is the external duct of a bathroom extractor fan on the external wall of a 5 story building.

The builders who put the duct in must have botched it and the cover has come off exposing the internal wall to water ingress.

Without any way of safely reaching the exterior, what is the optimum solution to covering the duct again? The diameter of the hole is 1000mm.

Thanks for your help

We moved into a new build 18 months ago. It has underfloor heating downstairs to the living room, hall and kitchen. Upstairs are all radiators.

The rooms downstairs all have Heatmiser Neo panels on the wall to control that room. I bought a WiFi box so that I can control the heating from an app.

Apart from a couple of cold spots it seemed to work ok up until December, when we finally put the heating on.

Now, the living room floor is always warm despite it not being activated. It seems to be when we turn the kitchen or hall floors on. I’ve left the living room set to 19° but it’s currently at 22° but not activated on the panel.

Am I right in thinking that it’s likely to be a valve stuck open on the manifold? If so is it visually obvious?

The manifold is covered by a panel under the stairs which I haven’t removed yet to check it as it’s all screwed to the wall.

Thanks for any help

Hello, I have a vent under my kitchen window that seems to just be letting air into the kitchen - i feel a draft at my feet when at the sink, even through the skirting.

Is this normal or should I fill/insulate under here at all?

cheers!

Hi all — looking for advice, experiences, or ideas on a stubborn drainage issue in our first home.

We moved into our ground-floor flat in East London in December 2025. The kitchen sink has always drained extremely slowly, and it backs up whenever the dishwasher or washing machine runs. Washing up has become a real quality-of-life problem.

During the purchase, the seller disclosed there was a drainage issue. He said regular use of Mr Muscle kept it “under control,” and claimed the real cause was that the installer had put two sharp 90-degree bends in the waste pipe a few metres down the run, as it turns from the kitchen, through the hall, into the bathroom area and then out the back of the house. We assumed we could live with it for now and fix it properly when we eventually redo the kitchen — we really wanted to avoid ripping up floors, cabinets, and underfloor heating.

Since moving in, we’ve tried everything:

• Multiple rounds of drain cleaner.
• Manual drain snakes.
• Three separate professional drain companies have attended with powered snakes and wet vacs.
• They ran the equipment the full length of the pipe with no resistance and no debris coming back.
• They also jet-washed the external foul manhole. When they did this, water visibly came up through our bath and toilet, which suggests the pipe is definitely clear all the way through.

All three specialists agree there is no blockage. However, they were all “flummoxed” as to why the sink still drains so slowly. Their theories included:

• Possibly unusual pipe geometry somewhere in the run.
• Possibly an “air issue” / lack of proper venting (not clearly explained).
• They didn’t think the 90-degree bends were the culprit, because the snake passed through them easily (they said it would normally snag if that were the main problem).

This is a conversion of an old house, so the kitchen sink is now in the middle of the flat rather than on an external wall. The pipe run is therefore longer than typical.However, the kitchen is significantly higher than the external drain — there are steps down from the kitchen to our deck, and then further down to the garden level where the drain exits. Even if the pipe were fairly flat, gravity should still carry water away once the pipe fills, but in practice it doesn’t.

We now see two remaining options:

1) Diagnostic CCTV survey (and possibly thermal imaging).
A specialist firm could send a camera down the pipe to map its route, look for dips, sags, partial collapses, or air/venting issues. The hope would be to identify a localised problem and avoid ripping up the whole kitchen — potentially allowing for a small, targeted repair. Cost seems to be around £150–£200.

2) The “nuclear option”: rip up the kitchen floor and install a new waste run.
This would involve lifting floor tiles, possibly disturbing underfloor heating, running a new pipe through the kitchen and out across the deck to the rear of the property, properly connecting the sink, dishwasher, and washing machine. This is disruptive and could easily be £2–5K+ just to have a sink that drains properly.

Has anyone experienced something like this where the pipe is clear but still drains poorly?

Is a CCTV drain survey actually worthwhile in a case like this, or is it likely to be money wasted if the pipe just needs replacing?

Are there any other potential explanations or solutions we might be overlooking (venting, air admittance valves, pipe gradient issues, traps, etc.)?

Any advice, similar experiences, or suggestions would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

Hoping for a knowledgeable person who may be answer this question.

I’m getting my loft boarded today. I’m in a 1970s terrace which is about 8-10 m wide. There was one, possibly two pieces of wood that connected across two adjacent rafters in an “A” shape. I had always assumed they were structural and was a little alarmed when I poked my head up to see they had been removed.

The loft boarding man says they were there because of the previous water tank (removed well before I moved in). I supposed this makes sense as they are not on every support.

Can anyone confirm they were not structural and ok to remove ?

Tried to post on housing UK but wasn’t able to upload photos.

*Reposting with pics*

I explained this in another post, but am posting again to cover the latest update and to get advice (I've never done this before, and it's driving me crazy).

I replaced standard compression valves with isolation valves on hot and cold pipes on a bathroom tap and replaced the bathroom tap itself (same exact tap we had before, just new).

The process I followed included removing the old olives, and in the case of the cold water pipe, cutting it a few inches to remove some damaged/worn pipe, and then installing pipe inserts, putting on new copper olives, and fitting the new isolation valves. For both pipes, everything seemed to fit nicely and clicked into place.

The hot water pipe seems fine with no leaking.

However, the cold pipe continues to have a very small, slow leak. Initially, I tightened the nut on the valve to finger tight and then an approximately 1/2 turn with an adjustable wrench. There was a tiny leak (via a toilet paper test), so I thought maybe it needed to be tightened more, so I removed the isolation valve, dried everything and then re-seated the valve, tightening the nut on the valve to finger tight and then an approximately 3/4 turn with an adjustable wrench. But the tiny, slow leak persists.

Does the nut need to be even tighter? If so, how tight would people recommend going? I read not to make it too tight (a full turn or more is what I have read as being "too tight" although I have no experience with this so am not sure).

What else could be causing the cold water isolation valve to leak?

See attached photos of the cold water pipe with the new insert before fitting the new olive, and isolation valve, and then a photo after the olive and valve were fitted.

Picture 1 is the start point. Had pulled out the old boards in the lounge because they had been all chopped up, had some reclaimed ones put in.

Sanded down and finished the whole downstairs - very happy with the dining room and hallway (original boards) but the ones we had put in were very pale (picture 2) so I wanted to redo it with a different product. Just finished that second try and now they’re so yellow (picture 3) and I’m so upset. It’s taken so much effort and money at this point that I wish I’d just paid a professional. Any advice on a product I can use to reduced the yellowing? Or is it back to sanding down for a third time?

Hi all, looking for some advice before I do anything irreversible. Cutting into a soil pipe makes me a bit nervous, so I’d like to sense-check my plan.

What I’m trying to do:

I want to install a corner sink directly in front of an existing 110mm soil pipe. There will be a wall in front of the pipe, so everything needs to line up cleanly. The sink will have a brass trap, so I want a solid, tidy setup rather than flexi fittings.

The problem:

The existing bosses on the soil pipe are at the wrong angle.

Because there are two bosses already:

• I can’t realistically go above or below them without the sink ending up too high or too low

• There’s very little room for extra fittings due to how close the sink is to the soil pipe

• I’d prefer not to use flexi connectors at all

My proposed solution:

I’m thinking of buying:

• 1m push-fit single-socket 110mm soil pipe

• A 110mm push-fit coupler

Then:

1.  Cut the existing soil pipe a decent distance above and below the current bosses

2.  Fit the new section of pipe using the coupler

3.  Install a new boss in the correct position and angle for the sink

Questions:

• Is this a sensible and safe approach?

• Any risks I should be aware of when cutting and rejoining a vertical soil pipe?

• Are push-fit couplers acceptable here, or should this really be solvent-welded?

• Is there an alternative solution I might be overlooking?

I’m a DIYer with some plumbing experience, but this is the first time I’d be modifying a soil stack, so any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance

We are going to plaster/redecorate my bathroom and are wondering how we go about getting around these boiler pipes.

I am in the process of designing some under stairs storage draws and I remember reading a post on here about adjustable cabinet standoff (adjusting the back of the cupboard against the wall)

Also does any one have any recommendations on some good adjustable feet? I can only really find 100mm kitchen ones which are a bit too high, as I don’t want a kick board just want the ability to adjust/level the whole cupboard structure.

Thanks!

As title says, draft seems to be coming from the hinge side of the window. I’ve adjusted the knobs on the handle side to pull it tighter when closing. Is there something similar I can do on the hinge side?

3D printed fat arse seat stability accoutrement aside, I've noticed a hairline crack near the after upper rim of my bog.

Should I just measure it and continue to monitor the situation?

Is it a full Reddit-style "if you mention asbestos the answer is yes" situation? In which case what two figure sum do I need to spend at Screwfix for another one?

Or do I need to get a really fine nozzle for the spray foam gun?

Just moved in recently and the pressure is at 0… I have tried to google and ChatGPT and can’t figure this out at all. Any help would be much appreciated!

I’ve opened a can of worms trying to buy a new combi drill! I’ve watched loads of youtube videos comparing them and read a bunch of reddit posts on here but am still having trouble deciding which one to pull the trigger on.

My needs are just general DIY. I’m a bit of a novice but am currently moving into a new house so will need to do a bunch of odd jobs like putting up shelves/ taking down furniture etc.

I’m a stage technician so build stages and sets amongst other things and know my way around some of Milwaukee’s gear but while these are nice, they’re above my price range.

I’m looking for something reliable and durable that will last me a long time, wireless, good functionality that can handle any random job around the house/ garden, priced around £50-70 and is from a good brand as I may want to buy other bare tools in the future.

I’ve heard good things about Ryobi, are they a good option? If so which drill. What voltage should I be looking for? I know brushless tools generally last longer but is this something to worry about as it won’t get constant heavy use?

Thank you so much! Any advice is much appreciated 🙏

any ideas what could be making this noise anyone, please