by Nick Jolliffe | Sep 19, 2026 | Plumbing
Almost every guide to fixing a dripping tap tells you to change the washer. That advice is fine if you own a traditional tap, and completely useless if you own a quarter-turn tap, because a quarter-turn tap does not contain a washer to change. It contains a ceramic...
by Nick Jolliffe | Sep 19, 2026 | Plumbing
This guide covers one job done properly: replacing the washer in a traditional compression tap, the sort you turn two or three full rotations to shut off. If your tap stops with a quarter turn of the lever, it has a ceramic cartridge inside and it has no washer to...
by Nick Jolliffe | Sep 19, 2026 | Bathrooms
Most of the time, a bathroom extractor fan that is “not working” is working. It comes on, it makes its usual noise, and it moves almost no air. The householder judges the fan by the sound, which is the one test that tells you nothing at all. This page is...
by Nick Jolliffe | Sep 19, 2026 | Bathrooms
If you want to know how to stop condensation on windows, the first useful thing to say is that the window is not the problem. Glass is the coldest surface in the room, so it is where the water shows up first. The water itself came from somewhere else in the house, and...
by Nick Jolliffe | Sep 18, 2026 | Heating
You are standing in a cold room, the radiator is cold at the top, and there is no bleed key anywhere in the house. The short answer is that you can probably do it with something you already own, and which thing depends entirely on the shape of the centre of the bleed...
