To the untrained eye wood flooring that has been fitted correctly must look alike. Look under the hood though and you will discover different types and various considerations. As a professional tradesman it is important to understand the various types as technology and trends change over time.

Wood Flooring Type:

The most important decision when fitting wood flooring is choosing the right type to start with. Wood flooring is available in solid construction or in varied engineered construction. In some cases either type will suit well, however in others only one type will provide the service life that a property owner would expect.

1^st Type Solid Wood Flooring – These are the traditional wood flooring that until just a few years ago were also your only option. Each plank is made from solid hardwood such as Oak and Walnut. This construction benefits from extreme strength and durability. Service life can exceed 100 years if the floor is cared for and you will be able to sand and recoat the wood many times over its lifetime thereby making it look new again. However, it does not suit conditions of fluctuating temperatures or areas that experience wet and humid conditions such as certain types of extensions, the bathroom area and certain kitchens. If these limitations are not a factor in your home improvement project, solid wood flooring will suit fine.

2^nd Type Engineered Wood Flooring – These were first introduced in commercial properties to overcome the natural limitations of solid wood. They quickly found their way to residential properties. Each plank is made from a layer of solid wood (as the top layer) supported by syntactic materials. This construction means that when fitted an engineered plank looks precisely like solid, however looks aside it does suit in areas that experience varied and fluctuating conditions. Its drawbacks are reduced service life and a limited ability to sand and recoat the plank. Sanding removes a 1mm layer of wood therefore the number of times an engineered plank can be sanded will depend on the thickness of the solid layer (typically between 3mm to 6mm thick).

Buyers of wood flooring that have fitted the wrong type will often witness an expedited service life which could have been avoided by seeking professional advice.

Guide by hardwood flooring seller Wood and Beyond. Timber and hardwood company offering solid wood worktops, flooring and decking. Its products are FSC sourced. For more information on wood flooring types and technology, you can read the wood and beyond blog.

Many people are fazed by the sight of all the pipes in their airing cupboard, but it can be easy to figure what they all do using logic if you know what you are looking for.
In a typical airing cupboard there will be a hot water cylinder or tank which stores hot water for the taps. The cylinder will most likely have four pipes connected to it:
1) hot water for your taps comes out from the very top in the centre of the cylinder
2) this hot water get pushed out by cold water entering the cylinder at the bottom which is usually fed from a header tank in the loft. So this pipe feeding the bottom of the cylinder will probably go through the ceiling of the airing cupboard. Along this pipe you should find a gate valve (often having a red handwheel) which will shut of the cold water entering the tank and hence will stop the water to the hot taps …because if cold water can’t enter at the bottom then it can’t push hot water out at the top.
Note: Hot water is fed to the taps by gravity with a head of pressure provided by the loft tank hence larger diameter pipes of 22mm or 28mm are commonly used to give sufficient flow especially for filling a bath.
3 and 4) the other two pipes on the wall of the cylinder will connect the central heating water coming from the boiler to the internal coiled pipe that transfers heat into the water within the cylinder to make it hot. If you follow one or other of these pipes along you might well find one connected to your central heating pump and also at some point a tee-junction watched over by a motorised diverter valve (often with a silver box attached). This valve directs the central heating water to the radiators, to the cylinder or to both at once depending on what you have selected on your timer.
The other pipes in the airing cupboard will probably go from the floor to the ceiling.
One will be a cold water pipe from the mains to supply the loft header tanks—one header tank for the central heating water and the other to keep the cylinder topped up as you draw off hot water. This pipe will often be smaller (15mm diameter) and should also have a gate valve along it with a handwheel. Turning this will stop the tank in the loft from filling although it will remain full unless it is emptied by drawing off the equivalent amount of hot water (using your hot taps) that this header tank holds  ..which is very wasteful of energy.
Another pipe going into the loft (and so far unidentified) will not have any kind of valve along it because it serves to allow water from the heating to expand as it becomes hot (when you turn the heating on) dumping any necessary water back into the heating header tank in the loft.
One last thing is that the hot water draw off pipe at the top of the cylinder will have a tee-junction because the water in the cylinder also needs room to expand as it gets hot. So the pipe branch from this ‘tee’ which goes straight up from the top of the cylinder is a vent pipe to allow for this expansion and to dump any water necessary back into the other header tank in the loft.
Obviously systems vary and the above description is only typical of many.
Note: If you have a combi boiler you won’t have a cylinder and maybe not an airing cupboard.

Learn from my experience:
1) Beware taking off a door handle it can have ground metal from the lever spring behind it. (Why don’t people ever oil door handles?) The same applies if you remove a tubular latch which will also usually contain powdered metal from years of use. The offending powder will be like ground up pencil lead and it will be really tricky to get it off carpet so ensure something it put under the door to catch this offending powder.
Also if door handles are loosened in order to paint the door, this black powder can drop out from behind the handles onto your sticky new paint leaving a mess.

2) If by chance some silicone sealant comes out of the gun and drops onto carpet, don’t be tempted to try and get it up because you’ll just smear it into the carpet. Leave it there with something over the top so it doesn’t get trodden on. Once it’s dry after a couple of hours it will just pull away like a little rubber worm (possibly with a small amount of carpet fluff attached) and will leave no mark at all.

3) If you are changing a tap washer or servicing a shower valve put the plug in or cover the plug hole because if you drop anything like a small screw it will almost always go down the plug hole.

4) How to tell the difference between a weed and a plant (Rule of thumb).
If you pull it out and it comes back then it was a weed whereas if you pull it out and it doesn’t come back then it was a plant 😉

 

I’m sure I’m not the only handyman who is frustrated by the time I waste getting into indestructible packaging.
Cheap door handles are among the worst and often the quality of the packaging far surpasses the quality of the contents to the extent that I worry about damaging (ie bending) a handle in the process of getting to it.
If I didn’t have my tools with me (seriously) to get into the pack I don’t know what I’d do. In fact, I have tried opening a pack with bare hands and I really think it is impossible even with my hands which are borrowed from a gorilla.

Lots of people now sell ‘toilets to go’ as if there were any other purpose for a toilet.
However, because of the high stock turnover of these items and the relatively low cost (note: I didn’t say cheap!), it can be useful to ensure the vitreous enamel of your prospective purchase has not suffered in transport or storage at your local DIY outlet.
I have had to take back a toilet to B&Q where my client had purchased it for me to install because it was chipped. Being determined not to find another with the same problem I opened the boxes to inspect the stock for a suitably undamaged lavatory pan replacement. After opening five boxes, inspecting and then rejecting the contents due to damage, the sixth was found to be in perfect condition …which was fortunate because the stock level at this branch ran to only another two units.