Savvy home solutions

GentlePower H8 W946WB UK washing machine with antimicrobic door seal, £609, Hotpoint Q Help! The black mould won’t come off the rubber door seal on my washing machine – is there anything I can do? Salena Harding, Cardiff

ATailang Bu, Category Marketing Manager for Laundry UK/Ireland at Hotpoint, recommends… Applying bleach to a cloth and laying it over the mould in the seal overnight may improve the situation, but it won’t completely remove the mould. The best solution is to get in touch with your washing machine’s manufacturer to replace the door seal – it’s not really a DIY job. In the future, to prevent black mould from forming, dry the door seal after use to remove excess water, run a regular wash with a descaler and degreaser, leave the door open to allow the seal and drum to dry and, if possible, avoid keeping your washing machine in a damp area, such as a garage. We recommend using the Hotpoint Limescale & Detergent Remover, £17.99 for 12 sachets, which you can buy on our website at parts.hotpoint.co.uk, to eliminate limescale and grease. The Anti-Limescale Magnet, £22.99, will also help to prevent limescale building Replacement antimicrobic up on the heating elements and other parts of door seal, £27.29, Hotpoint the machine. If you are in the position to buy a new model, consider one of Hotpoint’s latest GentlePower or ActiveCare models, which benefit from an antimicrobic door seal that banishes up to 99 per cent of bacteria.

QI’d like to have fitted cabinets in the alcoves either side of my fireplace, do I need to remove the picture rail and skirting boards before measuring and fitting? Alina Sani, London

AJohn Graham, Managing Director at DIY Alcove Cabinets, says… Alcove cabinets are a great way to maximise storage space and can completely transform the look and feel of a room. Fitted furniture should always enhance a room, not take away, so we advise all of our clients to leave their original features in place.

Fitted furniture should be designed to work around picture rails, skirting boards and dado rails. The process used to do this is called ‘scribing’ where the supplied material is cut over and around the shape of the feature to give the furniture its ‘fitted’ finish. Scribing is usually done with a jigsaw and is a relatively easy process for a confident DIYer.

When measuring for a fitted alcove cabinet or wardrobe, we recommend ignoring the skirting and picture rails and measuring wall to wall at the widest point. For us, measurements don’t need to be ‘mm perfect’ as we allow a tolerance within the cabinet construction of up to 20mm.

Scribing means cutting fitted furniture around the feature for a neat finish Traditional alcove cabinet by DIY Alcove Cabinets, from £570, painted in Oval Room Blue by Farrow and Ball

NEEDYOURQUESTIONS! If you have a DIY dilemma or home improvement question, email us at homestyle@immediate. co.uk or write to Ask the Experts, HomeStyle, W E Xx 2021 127 Immediate Media Co., Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST.