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Spraying vinegar on your car windshield: what it does and why experts recommend it.
A windscreen can appear clean until low autumn sun, rain or oncoming headlights expose a greasy haze. Light scatter from…
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Could a Reflective Roof Help Keep Your Home Cooler in Summer?
Hot upstairs rooms, sleepless nights and a loft that seems to store the day’s heat can make a heatwave feel…
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Harrison Gardner: 'Ireland felt like the most welcoming country I’d ever been to'
A power cut, a burst pipe or a week of freezing weather can expose how much a home depends on…
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Finish the boxing around the wall-hung toilet: why an access panel can prevent destructive repairs later
A wall-hung toilet can make a compact bathroom feel calmer and much easier to clean around. The costly mistake…
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Viktor Frankl, neurologist: "There is nothing in the world that gives a person as much strength as knowing that they have a mission in their life."
A saying attributed to Viktor Frankl regularly appears on social media: the idea that knowing one has a…
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When an Old Timber Bridge Holds Up Modern Freight
An old timber bridge can look like a quiet local landmark, yet a weight restriction can affect far more than…
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Blue Nivea cream: Just don't throw the can away.
An empty blue Nivea cream tin is easy to dismiss once the last of the moisturiser has gone. But its…
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How to check a cheap Makita tool-set deal before you buy
A low-priced tool set can be hard to ignore when there is a shelf to put up, flat-pack furniture to…
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Transition to winter time: an early change this year.
The autumn clock change can catch people out, particularly when the evening suddenly feels darker before the…
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Turn the key twice in the lock? Locksmith explains why many lock their door incorrectly.
Shutting the front door and giving the key one quick turn is a familiar routine. But on some doors, that…
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Wooden building blocks made from industrial wood: This is how waste wood becomes a building material.
Offcuts, shavings and timber chips are inevitable wherever furniture, pallets, joinery or timber components…
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Dunsink City Quarter: what its proposed density could mean in practice
A new district can sound simple when it is reduced to a housing number. But density is what will shape…
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I spread white pebbles all along my façade so I would no longer see the dirt: by the first autumn, I understood what the rain could no longer do.
A strip of white pebbles can make the base of a house look smart in an afternoon. It disguises bare…
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By buying land along the Saône for decades, the state literally created the layout of a canal that was abandoned in 1997.
A canal does not need to be dug before it changes a landscape. For years, the planned Saône–Rhine waterway…
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Carpenter builds a draughts table – and is not allowed to participate in the competition.
A final practical project can prove an apprentice’s ability in one piece of furniture: accurate setting-out…
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What Preston Market’s proposed rebuild could mean for traders, homes and heritage
Preston Market’s proposed rebuild raises a familiar but difficult question: how can an ageing market be…
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In 1989, Kentucky engineers built a 750-foot road base using about 80 tons of ponded fly ash; the 11% ash section was reported to perform well against the conventional control.
A road can look sound from above while the layers beneath are doing the hard work. When a base course…
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Construction costs exceed budget by £200,000: how to protect your renovation budget
A renovation budget can unravel far faster than most homeowners expect. You may begin with a realistic-looking…
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Why New Reservoirs Are So Hard to Deliver in Britain
A new reservoir can sound like an obvious answer to a familiar problem: hold on to more water when it…
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Norway needs bricklayers: there is a shortage of 5,700 construction workers, and salaries can reach €6,500.
A Norwegian construction job can look very tempting when a converted salary is doing the rounds online. For a…
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Would You Pay Every Time You Used Your Block’s Lift?
Coming home with shopping, a buggy, a suitcase or sore knees is exactly when a lift stops feeling like a…