verne

mould will always grow where there is food and moisture for it. a lot of it is bad for the health too. i think part of your problem is likely to be your painted walls. modern plastic emulsion paints aren't breathable - in fact they are so good they can be used as an isolator coat between paints of different (incompatible) types to prevent reactions between them... using these for decoration instead of the more traditional whitewashes or limewashes (or nothing at all) will seal off the wall as if you have put a membrane over it, concentrating the escaping moisture into areas where the paint fil

i don't know much about stone built dwellings. a lot of the traditional peasant type houses were built of little more than rubble and were always damp and slightly better housing was built with cavity walls that had a decent stone facing but an infill of rubble and rubbish to keep the cost down... i suggest you investigate the possibility of a damp course of some sort before you begin spending much money on the place. an injection damp course probaly wouldn't be very successful alone - depending on the type of stone and construction the chemical would probably only saturate the mortar - but th

it would be a good idea to try and minimise the damp if you can by attempting to trace the source and then taking a few precautions... an area that is naturally damp must be well ventilated and the source of the damp must not be covered with anything that can't breath... drylining the walls will probably drive more damp into the narrow strip between the floors dampening the woodwork... damp in solid walls can be caused by rising damp bridging the damp course (if it has one) in some way - perhaps by the internal plastering or because the ground level outside is too high or because a porous floo

i have never seen one though i wouldn't be surprised if one existed. there are many light level switches available fitted to various devices from street lamps to night lights, including one that plugs in to a bulb holder. i suggest you approach one of the larger electrical wholesalers in your area - they often have access to consultants or at least tend to know their catalogues pretty well... if you get no success there i suggest you contact somebody like farnell or maplin or rs components who i am fairly sure will be able to supply something that could be installed within a switch.

the simple answer is - you can't! as far as i know there are no products that bond tiles to fresh air. i suggest you carry on removing the grout and any tiles not securely fixed until you have discovered the extent of the problem - then attempt to remove a few more tiles so you have an area of good solid plasterboard around the hole that it will be necessary to make by removing the sodden plasterboard. give it some drying time so your repair is not going to trap any moisture where it can cause long term damage. clean the edges of the resulting hole. don't worry if the hole isn't a regular sha

the victorians, like many from before and after, built many very good houses - but also threw up a lot of rubbish! a lot of the rubbish from the barratt type builders of those days is still standing - and i am living in one of them now. perhaps you are too? building materials were fairly expensive in those days, so was labour - in fact things weren't much different from now except there was no diesel lorries to haul stuff around and there was no power tools to make work quicker and easier. houses that were built for the letting market would have as many corners cut as were needed to bring them

quickest and easiest thing to try first would be to use a different type of fire caulk. there must be many different types on the market with varying degrees of flexibility for different purposes. the problem is probably caused by the existing caulk being too rigid. i suggest you do some research into the local building and fire regulations where you are and find the purpose of that caulking; is it merely to stop smoke or is it to give a 30 minute fire barrier - or longer? armed with the correct requirements you can then approach some suppliers with your problem and requirements and obtain s

hello. traditional deep shine finishes take a lot of time and skill to achieve, although french polish takes considerably more skill than using coloured varnishes or stained wood and clear varnishes. i have produced some "nearly" french polish finishes with varnish by applying six or eight coats and flatting between coats using a fine wet or dry paper and a rubber block. the first couple of flattings were carried out dry with a 400 grade and thereafter wet with 600 grade. the last but one coat was flatted with 1200 grade with soap and water. the last coat had to be done in a very clean place

as long as you know exactly where your lights are going to be sited i think plaster first... if you are going to have to dig around a bit to avoid joists, it would be a good idea to to that before the plastering. might be a good idea to ask the plasterer what he thinks - plasterers aren't normal people and they tend to bite when upset...

thanks for that info. i've not seen any clear stuff yet - pink and brown, and the stuff i generally use is the (almost the cheapest) white water based which does the job around the house ok. the stuff you speak of might be useful at work. sometimes things need to be stuck that would normally need a polyuerethane structural type adhesive which is expensive and has a very short life once the tube is started. i will buy a tube of clear and give it a try...

just a reminder to make certain the light/power is switched off first. when a bulb has failed it is easy to forget this little detail or become confused if there is more than one switch... water based no-nails will probably take longer than 15 minutes to set sufficiently due to the lack of absorbency of the materials to be stuck together. due to the difficulty of sticking glass to anything because of its smoothness its probably a good idea to scuff the surface a bit with some scotchbrite or fine wet-or-dry paper before you begin.

750mm is a wide span for a single louvred door. the construction of that type of door is not strong and to remove more than an absolute minimum of material for fitting is to invite problems for the future... i suspect the only way to fill the door hole with just one door would be to have one made especially for the purpose. who ever made it for you would probably have a good holiday this year on the proceeds... even using the double doors you have found would mean removing more than just a shaving or two from each door. in order to make them fit and have a couple of mm gap all around will mea

i am sure we would welcome more information about your roof before you used the foam; was it purely for insulation or did you hope to overcome other problems at the same time, did you spray direct under tiles or slates or is your roof felted? also, how much foam did you use, how much did it cost and how did you apply it?

i am no expert but 10.5 degrees sounds more suitable for sheet roofing material than tiles... i don't have any input for you about the correctness of your plans. i just wanted to remind you to use only treated timber and it would probably be good to give the plywood a coat or two also. low pitched roofs are often associated with lean-to type buildings. if this is so your water through the tiles might actually be finding ways past any flashing. it is also possible that moss has a good foothold and is beginning to lift the tiles a bit or is separating them... i feel the underlay should either be

years ago i bought a huge bag of dry fire clay from our local builder's merchant to line an industrial heater. don't remember how much it was but i do remember it was remarkably cheap. i believe pottery and other types of furnace and kilns are lined with firebrick. maybe someone in stoke could help. there is a famous wood burning bread oven somewhere in the lakes producing specialist breads and distributing nationwide...