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Has anybody built a retaining wall from sleepers? I need to build a perimeter wall 4x3m square 200mm high. I was wondering what kind of foundation I needed.

What will your 200mm high wall be retaining?

Nice, cheers!

Old railway sleepers?
See if you can find something else. They’re toxic!

New green treated.

It will be retaining whatever soil is left when I rip up a patio.

I feel like if I screw it all together enough and use a brick like pattern that two sleepers on top of each other will be pretty strong.

Have a look at Toolstation item 42827, (2 x 32 x 32 x 300mm galvanised angle),
in each internal corner,
drill the holes out to 5mm to accept TS 14627, (5.0 x 80mm Torx woodscrew),
with 3mm guide holes about 20mm into the sleepers.

Sounds like a good plan. Would you put them straight on the soil or some gravel for drainage?

Have a look on Gumtree or something similar for the tail end of someone's driveway project,
and put them on a line of block pavers,
with a dampproof membrane, between, it you want an A1 job.
Any weight on gravel will just compress the gravel into the soil,
unless you have a roll of geotextile, TS 45800, to separate the gravel from the soil.
It is an idea to line the soil inside the sleepers with the geotextile to prevent
pernicious weeds emerging in the future.
Other suppliers for these items are available, I just happened to have the Toolstation catalogue to hand.

@mespilus and I implemented what he described. It certainly looks very neat, but a less labour intensive option (assuming you don't mind visible screw heads) is to use some hex-head flanged woodscrews of sufficient length and screw the sleepers directly together with no ironwork. You can also use the damp-proof membrane between the soil and the sleepers.

So I'm trying to wire in a new external light, outside my front door. There was an existing one when I moved in, but it was dead.

New light wants, live, earth, and neutral, as I'd expect.
Old light had, earth and what looks like 3 core live? brown/grey/black

Help. Do I need to run a neutral wire out to the connection? Strangely there is a neutral wire in the cavity behind the switch (inside) but connected to nothing.

Anyone want to buy my mitre saw? Details here:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/331293/

That's pretty common on lighting circuits, usually the 'extra' wire is used for a strapper in hallway 2 way switching scenarios. It's possible that they only had that wire available and one of your conductors is unused, in this case it would likely be the brown and black carrying line and neutral. You need to test them with an appropriate voltage tester.

It does sound like you are a little bit out of your depth though, don't assume that the colours of conductors mean anything in a lighting scenario. You need to understand and double check everything and work with the power off.

has anyone DIY'd underfloor heating in a bathroom?

Just having a look of this stuff:
http://www.theunderfloorheatingstore.com/prowarm-electric-underfloor-heating-150w-mat-kit

and wondering if there is a simpler product / method. It's for a very small area.

Please to report that I am still very much alive. The old light is still in place though...so there's still time.

I don't want to get the big book out but it would make sense that an electrical installation in a bathroom would need signing off. If a new circuit was required it would definitely need signing off. Of course you can try and use the 3rd party scheme but you need amp electrician who'll agree to it.

Don't want to dampen your enthusiasm for it, I'm sure on a practical level it's not too difficult but you would need to properly check the insulation resistance of an installation like that before you commissioned it. Not just a bang test with the breaker!

Sorry I should have said, I wouldn't diy the final electrics, just the heavy lifting as it were.

Thanks buddy. Seems to be the grey is unused, still sheathed. I will test them though.

You're probably right, I have basic electrical experience, installing single phase coffee machines, but nothing to do with lighting. I've touched enough coffee boiler elements (one), to always work with the power off though.

I'll give it another look and outsource if necessary.

All sorted. The live cable had broken about an inch inside the sheathing. I had correctly wired it but there was no feed.

Well done, just worth bearing in mind that the colours mean very little in lighting installations. It catches everyone out as it seems like a regulated industry would have some rules about that kind of thing!

The best way to go about that would be to contact an electrician first and then discuss with him how much of the installation you could carry out. Problem is finding one who doesn't mind doing that.

I had a funny electricians rate sheet at one point which went something like :-

£50 to fix the problem
£100 if your mate already had a go
£150 if you had a go
£200 if you want to watch

It's tongue in cheek but of course there's some truth in there.

Totally.

But finding and paying an electrician to remove tiles, put in flooring, tile, etc. seems a bit odd.

Yes, I guess it's the kind of thing that usually gets carried out during refurbishment where the electrician is part of the team and works around the guys fitting the floor. Possibly having competent electricians on site and a registered electrician signing off their work. It might be why you don't see a lot of bathroom underfloor heating.

If you strip the floor and prepare it for installation of the mat, then they come and install and test the mat, then you fit your floor covering. Of course you are then taking on the risk that the fitting damages the heating mat. You also have to time everything around them which brings me back to finding one and discussing it with them.

Just been gluing cork onto hardboard to make a pinboard.

That impact adhesive is quite moreish, isn't it...