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The company that supplied our water softening system, East Midlands Water, also supplied us a water filter for our drinking water (which of course isn’t softened). Photo of the unit below: They called me today to try and sell me a replacement on the basis that it is coming up to the end of its recommended 3 year life. (We bought it three years ago, though didn’t start using it until we moved in 2.5 years ago, so I probably still have a few months life in it.) It is bacterioststic, using both silver and activated carbon. But costs a whopping £179. The water tastes good, but is this reasonable? What do other people use?

Wow that is very kind. I’ve managed to sort it now, but thank you.

Brilliant idea. All I need is a 3D printer and some print medium. And a design.

I have a boiling hot water tap which has broken. Upon consulting the manufacturer, they identified that I need to change a valve, which they have sent me. It requires a 17mm socket. So out I went to screwfix and bought this: https://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-3-8-drive-socket-set-18-pieces/917pg But the problem is the socket is only about 12mm deep and that’s doesn’t reach deep enough to make contact with the hexagonal valve. This is incredibly frustrating. i can return this socket wrench, but need an alternative please.

Not that much. My guy charges £100 plus VAT.

That’s quite a lot. Does that include the annual service?

My mum has a Vaillant EcoTec Pro 24 combi boiler, which has been serving a one bedroom one bathroom flat well over the past 10 years. There are two zones, one outputting to radiators and one outputting to UFH. She has serviced it almost every year - she thinks - she missed one annual service a few years ago. Recently, it had started to need replacement parts: Two months ago, the motherboard (I think it might be called a PCB) went and was replaced by a refurbished one. That cost about £150, plus a hefty call out charge plus a service charge which happened at the same time. Yesterday, the boiler lost pressure and stopped working and today the engineer who serviced it two months ago identified that the Pressure Release Valve was leaking and replaced that at a cost of £50 plus another hefty call-out charge. How does one identify the point at which it is no longer economical to keep an old boiler going?

Just thought I’d update this thread with a clarification of the settings: before setting up the quick actions, the Shelly plus 1PM needs to be set to a relay (as explained above), but not just any relay. For it to work, it needs to be: seems obvious now, but there are a tonne of settings, so not easy to find.

I agree, that was going to be my main revision.

Just re-posting this in case any sparks can comment. I've already outlined the issue with running the Sauna's power supply from the consumer unit, there is a whole (recently finished) house in the way. Other alternatives (to the extent permitted under the regs) might be: to run it from the supply that powers the kitchen appliances, we have separate fuses with isolator switches for each appliance, including an induction hob, microwave and oven. Is that even feasible? The advantage of such a solution, if it were possible, is that the utility room where all those switches are, is about 30m from the site of the sauna, and there is much less house in the way, in fact just one wall. to run from the external power supply at the front of the house, where we have in theory an outlet from which to connect a car charger. We don't yet have an electric car, so this was just future proofing for the "one day" scenario. I'd only want to do this if it still enabled us to use the car charger, but I guess worst case scenario you could have a switch which enabled only one of the two to be on (can't imagine I will Sauna for the entirety of the time it takes to charge a car). Maybe I'll have to run it from the consumer unit after all and accept that there will be some disruption in the house. It's not as bad as I first feared, but it's far from ideal.

I have a steel external side gate which has started to creak a lot recently. The hinges clearly need greasing, but the gate is only 18 months old and I've not done this before. The hinges appear to be "lift-off" types (they look a bit like this). Does that mean I need to lift the gate off its hinges to expose the internal part of the hinge to grease it? If so, this is going to proove rather difficult given the weight of the gate. Although only 80cm wide, It's almost 3m high and made of steel.

I think it does work but you have to move it around regularly, like at least once every day, otherwise it doesn’t seem to work. I can’t be sure it works to be honest. Certainly did initially, then the pigeons may have got used to it. I think there has to be a better solution. Maybe there is a way to automate the drone so that it launches and does a pre-recorded flight path every time there is a pigeon sensed by a separate but linked sensor? Alternatively, feeding them bird food laced with cyanide?

Brings new meaning to “bed knobs and broom sticks”

Thanks for the pictures. All looks very impressive.

Yes, but because of the layout of the room I'm not sure that will as we need the desk/table to come out from under the bed. I will try drawing some plans to figure out exactly the layout we want, but still interested to hear about any experiences of building bunk beds people have.

Ceilings are only 258cm high, so about 8.5 feet. The idea of the adjustability is that: now whilst he's only little 2ft is enough for him to sit up (so 6 foot under the bed, about half a foot for the bed slats and mattress leaving 2 feet for him to sit up; but as he grow taller we can reduce the clearance underneath/increase clearance above. The area underneath is to act as a play area. It will have a table and chairs for a trainset and/or lego. I'm a bit of a kid so want room to play under there without hitting my head, at least whilst he's still interested in my playing with him.

I'm looking for a raised bed for my son's room. It needs to be high enough so there is 6' of clearance under it, although in future we might want to lower it slightly to give him more room up top when he grows taller. Most of the ones I've found don't have any adjustment and are too low to give us the 6' of clearance, e.g. this one: https://www.bedkingdom.co.uk/noomi-tera-solid-wood-highsleeper-bed.html?fo_c=264&fo_k=595ca8297aadd4d71819cdfacc162148&fo_s=googlecsv&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=21098690528&cq_term=&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&cq_plt=gp&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiuC2BhDSARIsALOVfBKbolReUuDvTPaB21ORFYqtGal3ph_u2Drqa3AUXsvZH6eOh96u0gQaAqtQEALw_wcB#80=700 This has made me consider self building one, but I'm not sure it will be as easy as I think it will be... these things never are. Anyone have any experience building bunk beds? How did you get on? The bits I'm concerned about are the ladder and generally making it all sturdy enough and safe enough. He's only six now, but it should ideally last him till he's 17/18.

It is totally bonkers. I have a ready made Asguard “sold secure” (whatever that means) steel bike shed which came flat packed and was assembled by my contractor in less than an hour. I think I paid £700 and it fits two full size bikes as well as my kids’ bikes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39k2glg2j3o.amp

I would raise the outside ground level by 4cm so that you are only 4cm over. But only if you can do this without leaving a trace showing the inspector what you’ve done. If you are not confident about hiding your tracks, then definitely just leave it. Doubt an extra 8cm is going to make a big difference. BRs not relevant for the planning inspector’s purposes. I think you will be fine, but good luck and let us know how it goes. Just be nice and polite, you want the instpector on your side.

Vote Brexit! I’ve seen a couple of excellent brick layers who are English, but they are in the minority. In my experience, brick layers from Poland, Ireland, Lithuania or Italy are better. Though the Italian I employed once was too slow. There is a balance between perfectionism and efficacy, the Italian just took forever and I made the mistake of paying him by the day. Now we are out of the EU and this country is getting tougher to live in (for other reasons) I suspect many EU nationals will leave and we will have less people to employ. Those brickies left here (regardless of nationality) will be in the privileged position of being in such demand, that standards could easily fall. That explains… maybe… your experience of

So what, you can’t sue them. They owe no duty of care to the OP.

Good shout. I just placed an order from BandQ and delivery was only £6.

I’m after some fairly large plant pots, prefer in terracotta. Minimum diameter 36cm but 45cm would also be fine. On the continent, these are cheap as chips, yet over here the garden centres charge a fortune for them. Anyone recommend any online suppliers that are affordable? With these being breakable, the delivery charges soon add up…

I’m happy to build in compliance with the building regs. The BCO on our build was less ridiculous/illogical/unreasonable than our local planning department. And importantly, neighbours don’t get involved in the process.