Damp, draughts, smells, noise and the other slow annoyances.
284 guides in Home & DIY
What a free survey is actually for, what an independent damp and timber report contains that a free one never does, and how to work out which you need before you spend anything.
Graded and refurbished stock from a dealer is usually a good buy; a private sale is a gamble with almost no rights attached. What to check on each type of appliance, and the two categories never to buy used.
Two different questions are hiding inside this one: does it save money, and does it reduce risk. The money answer is small. The safety answer is genuinely worth acting on, and it points at different appliances.
What to do in the first minute for dust, grit, a chemical splash and a high-speed fragment — four different situations with four different answers, and the clear line at which this becomes a hospital problem.
Parts, labour and call-out are three separate things that a warranty may or may not include, and the exclusions do more work than the cover. What voids one, what registration is for, and how a warranty sits alongside rights you already have.
The reason a properly built acoustic wall can make almost no difference: sound going around it through the floor, the ceiling, the chimney and the junctions. How to find the flanking path before spending anything.
Why replacing draughty windows moves condensation from the glass onto the walls, and the ventilation that has to be added back to compensate.
The five reasons a fresh bead colonises almost immediately — a contaminated substrate, the wrong sealant, a joint sealed damp, standing water and a room that never dries.
Six specific causes, each with its own symptom: too thick, too old, too dry, the wrong plastic, a contaminated surface, or the wrong load on a brittle adhesive.
The five things that cause almost every false alarm, how to stop one that is already sounding, and the sensor faults worth checking before calling anyone.
What simultaneous demand actually does to a plumbing system, why some houses cope and others don't, and the fixes that work at each point in the chain.
The six routes water and salts take into a chimney breast, how to tell an active leak from decades-old combustion salts, and why sealing a flue at both ends makes it worse.
Friable, sandy plaster that comes off on your hand has four distinct causes — moisture, salts, a weak or over-trowelled mix, and simple age — and only one of them is fixed by re-plastering alone.
Reading crack patterns in render — crazing, map cracking, straight lines and diagonal cracks all mean different things — and which need action.
Locating the blockage using the inspection chambers, then rodding it, and knowing when it is the water company's problem.
No. The door and its frame are the radiation shield, and there is no owner test and no owner repair — what to check, and what to do instead.
Five different pipes discharge water onto a UK outside wall, each meaning something different. How to identify which one is running, from its height, size and temperature.
What the bathroom zones mean, what may be installed in each, why a normal socket is effectively banned, and what a shaver supply unit is for.
Why an indoor lead outside is a genuine shock risk rather than a technicality, what an outdoor-rated lead and a plug-in RCD actually provide, and the rules for using power in a garden safely.
Drying oils cure by oxidising, and oxidation releases heat. In a crumpled pile that heat cannot escape, and the temperature climbs until the cloth ignites on its own.
The signs that point at the fill rather than the wall, how a borescope inspection settles it, what extraction involves, and the complaint route if the installation was guaranteed.
Where the damp proof course sits in a UK wall, how to spot it from outside, and the checks that tell you whether it has failed or simply been bridged.
Three ways to establish your water hardness, what the different units mean, and why the number matters for appliances, heating and every descaling decision you will make.
Smoke leaves a sticky tar film on every surface including the ceiling, so this is a washing job rather than a deodorising one — and paint alone will not seal it.
Material properties, comparisons and suitability — paints, fillers, sealants, timber, tile, insulation.