Trev

My father in law wants to run his tape player and CD player out of the same set of speakers in his van (I can't convince him to swap to CD), I was going to install some switches swapping the speaker feed from the tape deck to the CD player.

There is the left +/- and right +/- which is four wires but its really difficult to get hold of a 2 way or 4 way on/on.

Does anyone know where I can get some of these in the UK? Or would I only need to switch the positive pole.

Thanks.

I've got a problem with my gas central heating, the water pump for the radiators is whining really loudly but only when the boiler is heating the water and it's pumping very hot water.

I've bled the system of air, there is already fernox system protector in the system (about 3 years old) and I've added this week Tower Triple X system silencer which seemed to quiet things down but only for a day.

Is there anything else I can try or is it time to replace the pump (which is about 7 years old, but apart from the noise is working fine).

If a replacement pump is required how much would you expect to pay for one fitted and to service the gas conventional boiler at the same time?

Thanks

My father in law, has a Sony CD head unit and an old Tape unit he wants to connect to the standard speakers in the car, he's connected it up but the CD unit doesn't work unless the tape unit is disconnected from the speakers.

I suspect this is because power is feeding through the speaker wire to the other head unit, am I right?

My plan was to put diodes all over the place to prevent this from happening. Will this work? and if so what diodes should I use and any idea where to get them.

Many thanks.

I've got a Microfibre Sofa that's about 2 years old, it's been treated with Scotch guard but its looking quite bad, I've got a little Microfibre cleaning kit but its only really good for spotting, what's the best way to clean the whole sofa without having to get someone in? Is it ok to use a carpet cleaner vacuum (I'm thinking not).

Thanks.

Has anyone got any suggestions of decent carpet cleaners that will also do chairs etc, with a little one and recent DIY the carpets that are only 2 years old are looking really bad and flattened.

Also what is the best detergent to use in these machines.

Many thanks.

I can't afford a plastering in so going to attempt this myself (even if I have to sand it after).

I have a textured ceiling in the kitchen, does anyone know what the easiest is to apply Artex Smooth it or plaster? I did also consider Smooth it textured ceilings but it seems very expensive.

Any ideas?

Any tips would be good also.

Cheers

I have put up a load of ceilings in the house, with plasterboard and taken down the old as they were badly damaged.

One of ceilings was drylined by a professional (I wanted it skimmed really but there you go), I've put up the rest of the ceilings and now found out I should have brought board with tapered edge.

What is the best way to dry line such a ceiling without leaving a bump where the tape is (the pro managed it so it must be possible), thanks.

I current have a big reel of Sky Digital cable it's something like CT100 HI grade. Can I use the same cable to connect my outdoor ariel via a booster to TV sets around the house or should I get a reel of coaxial.

The reason I ask it that I tried connecting another TV from the RF2 outlet of the Sky box to the ariel socket on an analogue TV and the signal was terrible (the cable wasn't near electric cables and was about 5m long); which is why I'm now going to the direct from ariel approach.

Any advice would be good.

Thanks.

What do you use for keeping your bathroom dry, I didn't really want a bulky dehumidifier as was looking at getting a pot of Silica crystals for the bathroom but wasn't sure if they were any good or if they would get used up too quickly.

Other thing I was thinking of was an extractor fan, but I don't want a noisy one.

Is this a good idea? What do you do to keep your bathroom dry when its in constant use with teenagers having showers all the time.

I have a standard UK Toilet which has a plastic waste connector which then goes into the original house cast iron stink pipe, when I plumbed it in, the plastic pipe fitted and I filled the cast with silicon.

However 6 months later it has started leaking, I do not understand why as nothing has been moved.

But I was wondering does anyone know the best way to deal with this problem?

I cannot replace the cast pipe as it goes right up through the house and the toilet is new, but I can have a go at anything else.

Thanks.

Does anyone know how to replace the belt on the brush bar on a DC04 with the clutch control.

Dyson say this is a £65 call out but I'm not paying that for a belt. I have a new one here but just can't figure out how to get to the motor.

Does anyone recommend or know the best fabric protector for a new sofa which is cream, this is currently on order and I have kids so want to protect it.

I've brought Sofas in the past and had them protected by DFS (company I got it from) and it was rubbish so I was hoping to do it myself.

Thanks.

Is coving suitable for a bathroom if I paint it so the steam doesn't get to it.

The reason I've got floor to ceiling wall tiles and where my ceiling is out (old house) it shows a mile off where the tiles meet the ceiling at different heights or angles where I tried to correct the problem, so I was hoping to hide the problem with coving, good idea or no?

If not can anyone suggest something else?