Pnewall's profile

For fire safety reasons I need a new five lever mortice deadlock that can be opened from the inside without a key. It would help me a great deal if someone could recommend a good one. Thanks!

(obviously meant deadlock and not sashlock in the original)

My house has four mains powered smoke detectors, one on the hallway of each floor. For the purposes of fire safety, is it possible to interlink the detectors so that if one goes off they all do, and also to add an additional heat detector in the kitchen that's also interlinked.

Thanks!

My door frame seems a non-standard size. I've found a door that would need 3cm cutting off it, but on the site is says only 12mm can be cut off (a door from Wickes). It's a solid pine wood door (not a veneer) with 15 panes of glass (but there should easily be enough wood to cut off either the top or bottom).

So would I be able to use this door?

There's a lot of wood in my living room: large skirting boards, double doors and some wood panelling around a window. (see pictures below). What steps do I need to go through to paint over this wood? Do I need to sand first or can I just go straight on with undercoat. How many coats of undercoat before I can apply gloss? Many thanks.

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i159/wearethefall/?action=view&current=Southwark-20120123-00005.jpg

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i159/wearethefall/?action=view&current=Southwark-20120123-00005.jpg#!oZZ2QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs71.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi159%2Fwearethefall%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DSouthwark-20120123-00004.jpg

One of my radiators doesn't have a bleed valve on either end and I want to fit one. Is this a simple enough DIY job that one of you can step me through or will I have to get someone in? Many thanks.

I'll have a look at the back of the radiator, but I had a plumber in a while ago who couldn't find one anywhere on it. My house has a bit of a strange history so I'm not entirely surprised by this although from your responses it is quite unusual.

My house is a mid-terrace with solid walls and is in a conservation area so internal wall insulation is the only option.

Loss of space is my main concern so I'm looking at aerogel insulation to get the best u-value to sq. ft lossed ratio possible. Is it possible to remove the plaster on the walls before applying the insulation and plasterboard to reduce the space loss further?

It should meet building regs as the aerogel I'm intending on using has an incredibly high insulation value.

All heating system seems to be working OK except for one radiator on the 2nd floor (boiler is in the basement).

The radiator doesn't heat up fully despite both valves being fully open and there also seems to be a temperature difference across the radiator with the bottom being hotter than the top. I've opened the bleed valve but I can open it several turns and leave it for over a minute without any water coming out.

Any help?

The pressure on the boiler is at about 1.5 bar

A cheap carpet was glued directly onto my floorboards using some sort of slightly off-white carpet adhesive. What's the best way to get it off? I'm worried that using anything chemical-based might damage the varnish.

I'm looking to replace the carpet over my stairs and hallway. I want a stair runner going up my main flight of stairs, with the carpet continuing over my hallway to the front door. I then want stair runners going up the further three flights of stairs, with wall-to-wall carpeting on the landings.

Would this be possible using a normal piece of carpet throughout?