Rich

Hiya Bernard

Are your local tile centre able to provide you with the actual supplier/manufacturers details as you can sometimes find that if you were to contact the manufacturer, they might have some you can have (As long as their not a million miles away)

I've attached your picture for you but it was too big so I edited the size of it to under 300kb file size...

Hi there

Ideally, when cleaning a computer, its best to remove as little as possible, but it depends on your own level of knowledge too.

If your not comfortable with taking parts out such as drives, graphics cards, then you can open it up by taking the side off, or removing any lids/covers (Dependant on the computer type) and go over all the internal items with a can of compressed air and a very soft brush.

I use one of my wife's big makeup brushes to get into crevices and brush out the CPU heatsinks, fans, intakes and generally clean the system board too, then once all the dust has been swept off its surfaces, give it a good blow out with a can of air when the dust has been loosened which is normally sufficient for my own computer.

A few basic pointers:

• Dont wear any watches or bracelets when doing this.
  
• Avoid nylon clothing that builds up static.
  
• Dont put the computer down on a carpet when cleaning it

To help keep it cleaner, its worth trying to keepthe computer well up off the floor too in normal daily use as most have air intakes on the front which will just suck up dust and dirt at floor level leaving you with a computer that would need cleaning VERY regularly and it can soon become a "chore to hate" and more importantly, shorten your computers lifespan if its spending most of its time dirty as things run a lot hotter, so computer performance is also affected.

Do you have a picture of your computer and its surroundings?

Hey Matey

Welcome to The DIY Forum, feel free to pick brains, ask silly questions, show us photo's or even just have meaningless banter.

But do keep those links out of your signature, specially on your first post otherwise people think your here just to link drop/spam.

Dear Mr DIY Guy you need more experience and expertise before answering questions like this.

Whis is why I'm glad you joined

It is widely accepted practice in the UK to use flexible adhesive to bond solid wood flooring to solid substrates like Concrete/screeds.

the underlay that you used is useless when fixing solid wood flooring and it is against best practice to float a solid wood floor as this leads to failure in the bond and eventual separation of the flooring. This may of course take some time but in the end it will happen.

Hey, were not all perfect, and lookig back, I do believe I missed the "Solid" part and just read "oak flooring"

I myself laid Engineered oak flooring which lock's together and is actually designed to be a floating floor and was laid on newly laid plywood flooring over 18 months ago, and its still as good as new...

it is a good idea to keep the ambient temerature stable but the use of underlay will nothelp this in any significant way. Wood itself is a good insulator and cold wil not be felt coming up from the substrate.

Indeed, ambient temperatures should always be kept stable, but underlay (A damn good quality one, not that cheap foam crap found in homebase/B&Q) will actually help.

if you have installed a solid wood floor floating on underlay why don't you show us a picture now and then again in a year or two. should be interesting.

Not really, its fairly boring, the floor looks exactly as it did 18 months and is still in great shape, and will be for many many years to come.

The underlay I used is fixed down to the plywood, and the ply backing on the engineered planks actually grip the underlay, so although the flooring isnt physically fixed to anything, it doesnt move around at all.

If I still live here in another 18 months, I'll be happy to report back on how its doing, but having seen another install of the same product, done 5+ years ago, I know what it will look like..

Thanks for the good info to Rowntree too

Hiya Rowntree

Sticking wood to concrete with any adhesive is always going to be a bad idea because wood needs to breath and it moves (Expension/contraction) which you really dont want if you stick it down because if the adhesive wont give, then the wood will.

The best thing to do with any wooden floor is either nail/screw it down, or leave it as a floating floor using a top quality underlay.

I've laid Oak flooring in my place and the underlay I used is absolutely fantastic, I got it from wood4floors.co.uk and its 4mm thick, silver lining on the back of it and insulates both temperature and noise (28db)

So something like that would be far better as you can then also ensure that you keep the oak flooring at a reasonable tempurature with less variation to distort it, but ensure you leave at least a 8-12mm gap around the edges of the walls so that the entire floor can expand/contract without forcing itself up off the floor...

Why not show us a picture of the area your planning to work on?

So, the story continues...

Since the sales pitch, ADT were VERY pronto in carrying out the install (Less than 1 week) and the installer guy turned up nice and early as promised.

However, being pre-informed of our oak flooring, and the requirement for dust-sheets and over-shoes, he turned up non the wiser to this with no dust sheets and no over shoes

When questioned about this, he didnt know anything about it

Anyway, I let him get on with the install and left him to it (Along with a cuppa to get him started)

Upon installing the shock sensor to our kitchen window, I did tell the guy to go VERY easy on the window frame so as not to go right through the frame, but alas, he was far too heavy on the drill, and sure enough, he went right through the window frame to the outside

............... Later that day, job finished...

All installed, we then had a ton of foms, and police info to fill in etc etc, and after some detailed instruction on how the alarm system works, off he went.

So, I go round and check out what he has been doing, only to find that everywhere the guy had drilled holes in the walls, he didnt even bother to clean up, he just left all the piles of dirt from the drilling exactly where it all fell.

He didnt ask for anything to clean it up with and I had made the assumption that he would clean up as he said he would...

Well, needless to say, I gave the sales guy a ring to let him know and left it with him to get back to me...

More later...

If anyone wants the company website let me know, as I am not sure if the site owners allow you to post websites in here.

Hi Swinters

If you put your location into your profile then people can at least see where your from, and would know if its worth contacting you for the builders details.

Thanks for not posting the details in your first post, its often seen as spam when people blag the first post into a full on testimonial which makes it difficult for others to take it seriously.

If you want to, do up a new thread about them, and be sure to attach some pictures of the work they did so others can really see its been done, and the results you got

Hi Maya

Not sure myself, never had one, never used one. Doesnt it have any bolts/screws/fixtures holding it in place in your kitchen?

Show us a pic of what it looks like at the moment?

Hi James

If you mean this stuff: Paint Insulation - Insulating Paint Additive - Ceramic Paint Additive then no, never seen it before, but it sure does look expensive for 5litres worth @

Hi Neil

Are you able to cut the beading to replicate the skirting board?

An easy way to do it is with a "Mitre block" to cut the angles, and some wood filler in the gaps in the joins if you end up with any, but you may need to cut smaller strips, thus helping to fit round the curve.

Alternatively, if you have time on your hands, and some space, make a cardboard template of the curve in an exact fit, then transfer this curve to a similar sized peice of plywood, then place nails in the plywood every inch along the inside of the curve, and every 2 iinches along the outside of the curve givng you 2 rows of nails the width of the beading, resulting in an identical curve, made out of nails, wide enough to accomodate the beading. (Hope this is making sense so far?)

Then get a wallpaper steamer, and steam the beading continuously in small sections as you very gently bend it into the curve of the nails.

Make sure your wearing heavy duty building gloves, or something strong enough to avoid getting burnt with the steamer.

Place one end of the beading into one end of your nailed curve, then, VERY gently, flex the beading down into the curve as you move the steamer along the beading.

Its best to do this with a flexible, plyable beading, so consult your builders merchant on this, and do it REALLY slowly, prefarably in a garage out of any drafts or wind, and keep the beading steamed all the time.

You will find it easier to do it in lots of small sections over a number of hours, just bending small sections maybe a foot at a time as you will need to keep the timber moist for as long as possible (An hour or so) then let it cool slowly before moving on to the next part.

Those are just 2 methods, maybe somebody else has another method?

How about a picture of what you are working with?

Hiya mate

Apologies for the delay, yes, if you are 100% knowledgable in what your doing, and can competently isolate other items on the mains to a "certifiable standard" then you should be fine, but do get it certified immediately when done, otherwise, if anything goes up in smoke, you may find yourself without any home insurance.

If your not sure about the "exactness" of it, then leave it to a pro.

Electrics are immensly dangerous, and extremely easy to get wrong, even when all "appears" to be ok and working.

I know first hand as I had a team of electricians rewire my place, and although it all worked on the surface, upon professional inspection, half my house had to ripped out and done again as it would have caused a fire had I put any loads on the ring main.

To upload a photo, you need to use the "Advanced interface" which you can set in your "UserCP" and you will then get the "manage attachments" box below the post message window.

Hey kaloochi, welcome to the diy forum....

Regarding your mains smoke alarm... Why on "earth" (bad pun) would you want to get rid of a mains powered smoke alarm?

ok, so lets assume your crazy enough to want to actually get rid of it, do you have a fused switch for it on your mains consumer unit?

If you do, switch it off, hopefully the alarm has some sort of light on it to indicate its on mains power, so once this has gone out, you should then be able to remove it safely.

Then go get something called a "choc box" from any electrical supply store, its basically a big plastic box, the size of a packet of cigarette's with a terminal connection inside and a screw down lid.

Eterna Choc Box 5A

Remove the wiring from the alarm, fit it into the terminal connectors in the choc-box, screw the box shut and if you really want to, tape the box up with electrical tape, then just push it back into the ceiling.

Job done.

Pop a bit of tape over the consumer unit fuse too so nobody tried to switch it back on, (Not that it will do any harm) and your good to go.

Before you remove the wiring though, make sure no other alarms are linked to that one, or that it isnt feeding something else.

If your not 100% sure, consult a qualified electrician though, they wont charge much just to do a little job like this, its very simple if your wiring is already certified and in good condition.

Show us a picture if you can?

Hiya, welcome to the diy forums...

These questions you about your pump, have you asked the suppliers or the manufacturer yet?

Got a link to the manufacturers website and/or the pump itself?

This is fairly easy to do, just start in the doorway and use a blunt bolster to chisel the tiles up off the floor.

Either that or break 1 tile on a corner where it is weakest then you can get underneath it to remove it.

I hope you don't have the tile adhesive stuck directly to the floorboards?

but the DPM goes from the bottom to the top of the wall.

Thanks Bob, look forward to seeing the pic's, its this one line of yours that sounds a little confusing as DPM is meant to be laid horizontally, across course of brick/block etc to prevent damp from rising, its not normally meant to run top-to-bottom of a wall at all unless you have some really odd special circumstances.

Hi Bob

Is this in a basement, or are you just referring to the normal DPM course around the bottom of the wall?

What makes you think there is a DPM right behind the plaster? There shouldnt be, the plaster should be directly on the brick/block/wall with no membranes in-between it.

You got a photo to show what your referring to exactly?

Hey Richie thanks for your help

Always welcome, if you do get anything, lets us know, and hopefully show us the finished work?

Hiya spark

If your looking for actual lighting suppiers, maybe something like ***WEBSITES REMOVED AS OWNERS HAVE TAKEN TURN FOR THE WORSE*** ?

If its not lighting suppliers your after, then maybe shed some light on what you want and stop keeping us in the dark, boom boom!!!!!

Well, back in October 2007, we had ADT in to supply and install a monitored alarm system for us... So I figured what the heck, lets tell you all how I got on with them to-date so far.

So, the sales pitch....

Well, the sales guy was pretty neat, super friendly and didnt give any reason to worry, he was smart and tidy, but did go on to explain all his life's woe's and troubles with his family, which you kind of listen to just to be polite and squeeze a bit of discount from if you can get them on your side.

Told him I'd dealt with many companies who had screwed everything up previously and was VERY aprehensive that something will get screwed up by them during the install, but the sales guy was very "re-assuring" as they are....

So, the sales guy gets the alarm system out aand shows me all the functions and features, the remotes and panick alarms etc, all very impressive stuff as you would expect from ADT

So we sign up, as we had requested anyway, and after the sales guy fills in a ton of forms, he ask's me to sign the dotted line.

Once signed and agreed, we had abrew, and chated for a bit, and all was good, install was scheduled for the following week instead of the 2 weeks he initially scheduled, and we didnt squeeze any discount, but I did get some extra

Hey PMking

Its really hard to tell because your pictures dont indicate any orientation, and they are really really small.

On the wall with the cracks, is that an outside wall too, and is it a cavity wall?

If it is, can you take a big picture of the outside wall?

Electric 'Warm up'

Good choice, easier on maintenance and cheap to run too, and much thinner to roll out under the tiles.

They reckon underfloor heating is actually far cheaper than normal central heating too, costing only 0.07p p/hr to run. (Or about a grand if your with British Gas )

This is something you really should consult a qualified plumpber about because your effectively asking the world"What car should I buy"

We cant see your house, and your what your needs are, but either way, this one is best left to a professional plumber who can actually pay you a visit.

By the way, a hello and thanks doesnt cost anything

Hi there

Funny that, just did ours last year the same, and we removed all the floorboards completely and replaced with waterproof plywood, bonded and sealed the joints, and made special lift up floor sections around pipe work.

Looked at several types of underfloor heating, and the specifications do vary from one manufacturer to the other.

Generally speaking, you wont need any special insulation, unless the underfloor heating itself comes with or recommends it, but you would always benefit from it if you did choose to put insulation under the actual floor itself, directly under your current floorboards, otherwise obviously heat will be lost warming the space under the floor too.

Depending on the size of your bathroom too, this could be expensive because building reg's specify you must use fireproof insulation, not that polystyrene rubbish.

Given a choice though, I would insulate the floor underneath anyway, even if it wasnt a requirement for the heating, but either way, the floor will always heat up fairly quickly, just how efficiently and how much heat is retained is what your insulation will affect.

Is your underfloor heating electric or water based?

Hey Marc, thats fantastic, thanks for highlighting that.

So many people have fall-outs with builders as they dont know how to cope with the stress, and can often easily over-react given a lack of information.

I think something a lot of builders often forget (Like in many trades) is that the customer has no idea what your doing or why, so its always a good idea to stop and bring your customer up-to-speed on your progress, and why things are being done the way they are.

This can not only be very re-assuring, but can also quash any niggling worries the customer might have, but just dont want to bother you with, or they might feel stupid asking about.

What profession are you in Marc ?

Christ, @