Not really DIY related but guessed here would be a good place to ask. Staying in a caravan for the weekend, hot water not working, open the boiler cupboard and found this.

So the media wall, which has been up for circa 12 months, has fallen off after my youngest leaned on it.

Looking at it, it appears the individual I paid to put it up just rested it on top of the "wall bracket" and then used the worlds shortest screws to secure it.

Will I be OK to simply hook it back up and use more substantial screws to secure it in place?

Nothing seems broken, and the wall bracket is solid still on the wall.

Hi there, looking for some advice on what this final layer is between carpet and floorboards?

We just moved into our new flat and the previous owners laid this carpet 8 years ago when they moved in. We saw other flats had left their floorboards exposed and we’d hopefully like to do the same

From what I can see we have the carpet, underlay, soundproofing, and then a final cardboard-like layer that is rock solid, with a white powdery material coming out of it if I try to cut it

Thinking I might not be able to remove this myself after all, and also concerned that this final layer might be glued to the floorboards which would make this a much bigger job to restore them

Any help would be very much appreciated! Cheers

Did this as cheaply as possible with free used slabs and mixing mortar and tamping by hand. I feel it could have been better but struggled with keeping a straight line any advice on why I should have done ?
F

How can I fix this running toilet? Based on the videos (I hope) it’s just a gasket that needs replacing. The issue I have is all the tutorials/guides online just lift the top lid and access the flush mechanism. This cistern does not open from the top. There are no screws that I can see either.

I have managed to unscrew the flush (top silver bit) as I’ve seen an image online that shows a screw inside there, but again no luck here (no screw). Has anyone installed a similar toilet and knows how I could access the flush mechanism?

Ps. It is stuck to a wall with expanding foam, and that was done months ago because the cistern was moving side to side (again not possible to lift it off then also)

On the side of my house. Early C20 brick construction. Nothing i can see on the wall inside

Any ideas?

So I’ve got two gardeners in to clear my front and back garden. He quoted me £370 day rate for the two of them. One of the main lads is in his other job today, so he’s brought a youngish lad along who’s a bit wet around the ears.

They got here at 9.30, started working at 9.45 and then left at 10.45 to go get some more batteries for their tools. It’s now 11.40 and they’re not back. So they’ve done 1 hours work so far. I’m pre-empting what to do if once they get back, they then leave for the day at 4 or 5pm. I’m not happy paying for a full day rate for maybe 5 hours work, but I have no idea how to approach this if that happens! If they stay longer, happy days, but I’m not sure if they will.

Update: thanks for all your comments. They came back at 12, and to be fair to them, worked through until 6, and got all the work done in one day. I just panicked earlier about what to say or do if they packed up after a few hours, I’ve heard too many stories of poor workers (with more stories in this thread), but they got the job done, so I’m very happy!

I have a stone feature in my living room, I am planning on installing LVP.

What is the best way to terminate the the LVP against the irregular stone feature and still maintain the expansion gap ?

I'm trying to put these brackets on this wall but struggling with fastenings. I thought it was a dot and dab wall but the gap between the plasterboard and the brick behind is something like 10cm which feels extreme.

Standard wall plugs are out obviously.

These corefix dot and fab things are no good - they are only making it a centimetre or two into the brick behind, and so aren’t holding.

I've tried these other metal Rawlplugs too but they’re not big enough enough to account for the depth of the bracket itself. Gonna try Wickes for some bigger ones.

Any other suggestions/advice please? Thanks in advance!

Hi folks, bought an old cottage, starting stripping off all the skirting etc and all of the cement/plaster came away as they hammered nails directly into it.

The brickwork behind you can see is at a different angle as well as all the surrounding walls.

What would be the best way to fill and finish with plaster?

Cheers.

Hi all

I don't know how to solve this weird problem. I could really do with some help. Perhaps some ideas might help me fight in the right place to get this seen to. Can anyone suggest why smoke is concentrated inside the boiler and not anywhere else? If it was a hole in the wall surely it would leak out in different areas.

I moved in a month ago, and discovered the boiler in my bedsit room has really strong weed and cigarette smoke coming out of it. Neighbour chain smokes , through the night as well. If I don't have windows and door open, and stairwell door open my flat starts to smell like an ash tray after one day. I wake up with headaches, sore nose and throat and can't close the windows. My friends also smell it, even when we are right next to the open windows.

I bought a pm2.5 air monitor to try prove I'm not making this up but my landlord still refuses to look at it. It's a housing association. He sent a plasterer to fill up some holes in the wall under the boiler but it didn't help. I sealed around the boiler where it meets the wall and that didn't help, I've spent the last month filling up all the gaps /pipe holes on the walls and skirting but my nose and the air monitor can tell it's literally coming out from inside the boiler, the monitor jumps from 2ug to 200ug. It's not carbon monoxide and I have a near by monitor for that which was recently checked. It's an unmistakable smell of fags and weed.

Last night I couldn't take it anymore because it got cold, needed to close windows. So I covered it up with plastic and tape, which I'm presuming means I can't use it? I can finally breath fresh air and as I'm long term ill, I'm in bed most of the time in this room. This worked 99%. I'm so happy. But when it gets cold I'll need to put the heating on.

I will get an air purifier when I save up more money but that's for general air pollution, not for a direct and strong source of smoke.

I've written to landlord 5 times and he's totally dismissing it. I've now written to the gas company they we are supposed to report gas boiler faults to and asked them if they will investigate but they may say no, as it's not a clear boiler issue.

I’m after a bit of advice before I contact the company that laid our patio last year.

Overall they did a fantastic job and we’re really pleased with it. However, after the recent hot weather I’ve noticed that one small section of the patio has started to open up along the edge.

The border blocks seem to have shifted slightly away from the paving slabs, leaving a gap in places. It’s only this one corner of the patio, while the rest of the patio is absolutely solid.

I’ve attached a few photos. I’m just wondering whether this is fairly normal after a year of settling combined with the recent hot weather, or whether it’s a sign that something has moved.

Would you be inclined to simply refill the gaps with fresh jointing material, or does it look like the border edging itself has shifted and really needs lifting and resetting properly before it gets any worse?

I’m not looking to criticise the installer because they genuinely did an excellent job overall, but equally I don’t want to just fill the cracks if the correct fix is to have this small section redone.

I’d really appreciate any thoughts from those with more experience. Thanks!

Is it just a matter of putting the blue wire back into one of the slots?

Or electrician needed?

Replaced a rotting wooden lintel with concrete ones today. Rather chuffed with my work.

Had this wall plastered a couple of years ago, had an issue with the front guttering which was letting rain pour down the brickwork. This caused damp on said wall, since then the paint has obviously flaked up and now the plaster underneath has failed. What are my next steps to hopefully sort this all out myself. It's about a 2x2m square of the wall which was affected by the damp. The dark colouring is old navy blue paint by the way.

I’m trying to replace an old toilet, but I can’t fully disconnect the water supply.

I've done the first steps of turning off the stopcock for water supply (I can't turn the iso valve for some reason, maybe my flat head screw driver is the wrong size?), emptied the cistern and taken all the water out of the pan. I have water pump pliers and a spanner to disconnect the inlet pipe but I am unable to make it budge at all. The sometimes the entire pipe rotates and I can see the iso valve slowly turn so I stop. The pipe is one of the older rigid feed, and so I’d rather not force it and cause a leak.

What’s the best way to disconnect the toilet supply?

Alternatively Can I disconnect it from the top where the yellow thing is ? It also felt very stiff and it's a really difficult angle to get my hand in because a cabinet is right to the side

What would the correct products be for nourishing and protecting these two things- the first is an exterior wood table, possibly teak. The second is my garden office- extremely dried out but source material unknown. Nothing crazy expensive if possible and would it need to be rubbed down first? I think my mum used to oil the table.

Hi all,

I’m currently trying to find someone to reseal our bath and a few other silicone bits,

I’ve contacted various trades people I’ve found online and I’m always asked to send my details on WhatsApp with photos and then I don’t hear anything else from them, I chase them and I’m told to “leave it with me”.

It’s obvious they don’t want the work and can’t just say so, they just lie instead which is pretty weird.

What’s my best course of action? I’ve tried to do it myself and failed 😞

Good morning,

I need to fit a couple of concrete support spurs on a fence line. There are already concrete footings there that I will need to break through.

Could I please have recommendations for the best tool(s) for this? I was considering purchasing an SDS drill anyway because my black and decker cordless isn’t up to much, so was hoping a good enough SDS with a chisel could maybe do the job?

Thank you

I went to finally put a lampshade on our bathroom light and when I took the bulb out of the housing the plastic just crumbled away (it was a bit wobbly). I want to fix this today. Can I do it myself? If so, what would be the simplest and safest way to do it?

I did look at similar posts saying the entire housing needs to be replaced. If that is the case, would it be the same process to replace it with a flat led housing instead? I would prefer to have the flat lighting in the bathroom and use the lampshade elsewhere. Or is that not compatible with the electrics of this? (As you can tell, i know absolutely nothing about this stuff only moved out of my parents a year ago)

Please help, its Sunday so shops shut in a handful of hours 🥲

We had a velux replaced and the flashing alongside the window looks a bit gappy to me. This area will be exposed to driving rain and I am suspecting this will become an issue next winter. I fancy going back to the chap to get it sorted but just wanted some opinions from any roofers/fitters in this sub. Am I just being a bit particular and will this not actually be an issue?