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Home improvement guides
Practical, reviewed advice for planning repairs and projects, choosing the right pro and knowing what to ask before you hire.
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Electrical Repairs guide
Electrical repair is the everyday half of the trade: a dead socket, a light that has stopped working, a switch that crackles, a shower that has gone cold, an extractor fan that hums without turning, a circuit that trips…
9 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Electrical Inspections guide
An electrical inspection of a British home nearly always means one document: the Electrical Installation Condition Report, or EICR.
11 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Consumer Unit Upgrades guide
The board that the circuits in your home run from is called a consumer unit, and older ones are still widely known as the fuse board or fuse box.
9 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Consumer Unit Replacement guide
The board that your circuits run from is a consumer unit in Britain, and the older ones are still called the fuse board or the fuse box.
12 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Wiring & Rewiring guide
A rewire replaces the fixed wiring of a house rather than repairing part of it. Cables are pulled out and new ones run from a new consumer unit to every socket, light, switch and fixed appliance, and the whole…
10 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Socket Installation guide
One piece of vocabulary before anything else, because it is the reason a lot of British homeowners end up reading American advice by mistake. Outlet is the American word.
12 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Switch Installation guide
Switch work is the smallest electrical job that you notice every single day. It covers replacing a tired or discoloured switch, fitting dimmers, adding a second or third control point so a hallway or a staircase can be…
11 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Lighting Installation guide
Lighting work covers more ground than swapping a pendant for something nicer. It runs from replacing a single fitting and adding dimmers, through downlights in a kitchen or bathroom ceiling, to wall lights that need a…
10 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Downlights guide
Pot lights is the North American name. In Britain they are downlights or downlighters, and the job is usually described as fitting spotlights into a ceiling.
11 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Exterior Lighting guide
Exterior lighting on a British house usually means fittings fixed to the building: a porch light, a pair of wall lanterns, a floodlight over a drive, a PIR-triggered security light on a gable, a light above a back door.
11 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Landscape Lighting guide
Landscape lighting is the lighting that sits in the garden rather than on the house: spike lights in a border, uplighters at the base of a tree, recessed markers in a path, lit steps, a lantern on a post at the end of a…
10 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Ceiling Fan Installation guide
Ceiling fans have never been standard equipment in British homes the way they are in hotter countries, which means most installations here are retrofits into ceilings that were never planned around them.
11 min read14 September 2026
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