verne

ive not seen foil backed bubble wrap yet. can we have a bit more of a description please? i am surprised that it is breathable. does it have a brand name or just a generic name and where is it available? is it a rigid or semi-rigid sandwich or is it still in roll form? ta-muchly.

hello. our kitchen is ready for a revamp. our worktops are currently "autumn daisy" formica - the same as little chef used way back. i love the colours of the 50's 60's and 70's which seem to be completely unobtainable now. it goes against my grain to pay a small fortune for worktops that are not particularly attractive and if i have to have something that is pretending to mimic stone or marble i should save the money and make my own. i read about a chap that cast his worktops in situ from ordinary concrete but i can't remember how he polished and finished them. any sugge

i don't know much about roofs, but i just wanted to advise you about your damp roof timbers. it is when untreated wood becomes damp that it is most vulnerable to attack by woodworm and dry rot so i suggest a regular check on this or treatment when your other problem is sorted... good idea to sqeeze maximum value from the cost of scaffolding by having any other maintenance work carried out at the same time - gutters, chimneys, modern telly aerial, moss removal and so on. if the chimney is in good order it is an excellent idea to treat it with thompson's water treatment so that it stays that way

i think this depends on what local building regs say and what you feel comfortable doing considering local conditions; water table, dampness, etc. we moved in to our house in 1975. the house was built (and not very well) in 1864. apart from a small patch of tongue and groove the front room floor was probably original with rough cut and hewn joists and boarding adze shaped on the back. someone had raised the level of the front garden around 18 inches above natural ground level/floor level and caused dampness in the front wall and this had caused the ends of the floor joists to rot along with s

the majority of paints for industry and vehicles have become water based in recent years with traditional finishes becoming more unobtainable all the time. some vehicle manufacturers have been playing with the stuff for years and suffered a lot of problems for their pains. top coat laquer remains isocyanate activated for a tough finish as water based and single pack is still not durable enough. it is all a big nuisance. it would be interesting to see how a 2 pack painting system would perform as general house paint. vehicle refinishing uses an acid etch primer to improve adhesion which is avai

i faced this sort of problem with some expensive wallpaper and also some tiles and it was surprisingly easy to obtain a small quantity of each. same design amd the same reference number, but unfortunately they could only be supplied from a different batch so i had to expect a slight colour variation. as i had been dealing with car paints most of my working life i thought i knew what a "slight colour variation" meant - a shade or two lighter or darker; mostly acceptable and not everyone would notice... the result, when it arrived, was a joke as not only were the colours wildy darker but also th

i haven't yet had the delights of modern heating/hot water systems. to my inexperienced mind it sounds like a dud valve. i do have a mate who is a plumber who complains about the unreliability of electric valves, especially in airing cupboards where they apparently get too hot, and the fact that few of his customers like paying the high cost of labour for draining down and replacing the valve so he had recently been stripping and repairing the valves in situ. which saves a lot of time and cuts the cost dramatically... more than that i cannot tell you. sometimes you have to ask the right quest

condensation, and especially damp is something to be aware of, especially if the garage walls are not damp-coursed and/or only a single brick thick. as it is a new house it will probably have a damp course. better results will be obtained from a cavity wall and insulation between the boarding and the wall is optional but if it is only a single brick wall insulation should definitely be used. first, i would suggest treating the outside of the wall(s) with thompsons water treatment and then some drying out time. thompson's allows the wall to breathe and yet it repels rain and spray very effectiv

any fans of peter tinniswood or current listeners to bbc7 or older listeners with long memories to other stations will know this quotation from uncle mort... "diy; whats that all about? why bodge it up yourself when you can have someone in to bodge it professionally?" i think it has a certain ring to it that could make it stick in the mind for a very, very long time...

I have an old Elu 3 inch belt sander. It is MHB 157/00 and I believe it is a type one. It is in good order except for a small gear in the gearbox has worn teeth. This part is no longer available from the dealer. If anyone has one for spares that would put this thing back on the road it would be good or maybe someone is looking for spares and wants this one before it goes to the tip which would be a shame...

hello. i have always had a liking for the idea of lime mortar but have never had an oportunity to use it. i googled the subject after reading your post and the first ten references, starting with wikipedia, proved most informative. most of our builders merchants around here sell bags of lime. i have bought this to use as a lime-wash and i don't remember it as being particularly expensive. i assume this is slaked lime but i don't know what sort of quality it is... i suppose a phone call would clear this up. incidentally, in the absence of enough horse or cow hair from the local tannery to bind

if you paid someone to sort your drains/yard recently and the results are causing this trouble then my opinion is they should rectify it free of charge or for very little... water cannot be allowed to stand against your house wall and something needs to be done with some urgency... it is difficult to give an opinion without seeing your yard or knowing more about it. could be you need someone experienced to visit you and give a few ideas... it sounds as though it could be a big job to get it right. maybe an old-fashioned vertical damp proof course would overcome your immediate problem?

the ancient romans thought underfloor heating the pinnacle of luxury and i tend to agree even though my mother claimed it causes chilblains... as heat rises it makes sense to have the source as low as possible... now efficient and load bearing insulation is readily available underfloor heating has again become a (fairly efficient) reality and seems to be gaining popularity, not only with quality builds and refurbishments, but also where there is little or no space for conventional radiators or fires... maintenance problems will be more expensive and inconvenient over the longer term but the ma

it is still a good idea to show a lot of indoor timber some cuprinol - or at least some sort of woodworm treatment. a comprehensive treatment is best but to save money and time a splash on the end grains and the backs of skirtings, architraves and other similar timbers can only do good over the long term. houses are not so well ventilated these days and this can lead to quite a lot of condensation and it is when the moisture content of timber rises just a little that it becomes vulnerable to attack by wood boring beetle or dormant eggs already in the timber can become active and continued clim

depends on what and where? traditionally oil based were the paints of choice but that was in the days when they contained copious amounts of lead, cadmium and all sorts of other nasties. nothing could beat the performance of lead primer on any surface as part of a painting system that also used lead loaded undercoats and top coats... no longer commercially available as paint but the ingredients are if you want to mix your own and you can afford to buy in bulk... there are still some nice bits of exterior woodwork that have stood up to british weather for a century or more only because of lead

the adhesive is generally a latex base which is kept liquid until applied by the addition of water or a solvent (mostly water base for this job). i think the heat you speak of will age the adhesive prematurely but probably be fine till you've sold the flat if it is allowed to dry thoroughly before applying any heat. proper linoleum is still obtainable but fiercely expensive. cheap imitation lino is the sort of stuff you might put in a pantry or a box room if you are desperate... cushioned vinyl is an insulator so hardly suitable to cover underfloor heating with... solid vinyl would probably do

hello again. as usual more information is needed to answer. it depends what paint you want to remove and from what sort of surface? apart from special paints there are a few different sorts in common use; the types a householder is likely to be using will be water based plastic emulsion or acrylic types or the synthetics - oil based alkyd enamels or varnishes. you might sometimes use a laquer also. the big question is do you wash your brushes in white spirit or water? standard caustic type paint stripper will sort out most paints that needs white spirit as a solvent and the water based one is

as i said before an mdf pattress is a good way around your trouble; most electrical fittings were fitted to a pattress in the early days of electricity because there was often an inch or two of plaster on the walls and sometimes more on the ceilings to go through in the old houses before a good purchase into the substrate was possible and the electrical fittings did not have holes suitable for huge screws that often needed to be more than a couple of inches long... a piece of wood the approximate shape of the fitting and over-sized and nicely finished was screwed into place with the proper siz

not just smartlady then but a determined one too! most people with an interest usually start mucking about with low voltage stuff - batteries and bulbs and stuff at school and fixing torches and pushbike lights and work up to mains voltages as they become more familiar with the techniques and equipment. one of the best bits of kit you can have to start with is a mains tester screwdriver... it will indicate the live wire with a single connection... just touch the blade of the screwdriver to each wire in turn while keeping your thumb over the other end. for the job you want to do, you will proba

i am looking forward to your next installment eddie. your photo takes me back as it is reminicent of the bus shelter in my home village - different size of course!

a firm of roofers i do work for do not tackle flat roofs. they say it is specialist work and attracts more bodgers than average... i have had to do some flat roofing repairs myself as a "temporary measure". it seems to me the biggest problem with flat roofs is the under-boarding which never seems strong enough and allows movememnt, if not at first, certainly as the roof ages... people seem to equate flat roofs with cheap and consequently the budget is never big enough from construction onwards... i have seen some very nice flat roofs of the bitumen felt type which must have been around half an

hi smart lady, what a disaster! if you have no way of testing the wires yourself it is not going to be wise to try and do the job yourself - you wouldn't want to get this sort of job wrong, especially if you don't know much about electricity. forgive me, but if you had the first idea about it you would at least possess a means of finding a live wire... i suggest you first think about why the fitting came down in the first place and why when it came down it managed to tear the wires out of the terminal block. obviously the fitting wasn't secure and unless the fitting is very heavy the wiring wa

thank you for your compliment johnjo. true i would rather do someone a good turn than a bad one. call it ethical behaviour or whatever... my parents brought me up like this. they believed it was an essential part of being "English" and working class... oh, the beauty of innocence! i rather thought your problem was something like your electrician found; i think i said so in one of my earlier posts. as i said, if the job wasn't very old you should have dragged the first electrician back to do a free repair! now it is working you can extend the installation and fit additional switches at your les

hi eddie, your first effort looks fairly straight at least. i think the word that best describes it is "rustic" and there is nothing wrong with that in a lot of gardens and as it matures and grows the odd bit of moss and other verdigri and becomes a little sooty and fireworn it will start to disappear into the scenery. true, the lack of good pointing will make weather damage more likely... around 35 years ago i was lucky to be able to learn a little about this sort of thing from a local stonemason under a labour exchange scheme where people with no money swopped skills...

sorry i didn't see your further question til just now johnjo. i guess you have probably got sorted by now... the wiring you described is unlikely to be a series circuit but a sort of daisy chain where both live and neutral wires (together in a common cable) pass through each light fitting in turn, supplying power to each in turn. this is called a parallel circuit and failure of a single light fitting should not affect the others as long as the wiring and supply remains good. fitting a switch of your choice next to each light should not represent much of a problem. it might be possible to fit t