www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

lol i smoke. but i always go outside.

one job i did the woman was a mega heavy smoker. we were doing out the bathroom. above the toilet the ceilling was a different colour to the rest of the ceiling. green above the toilet and yellow elsewhere in the room.

i sugar soaped the ceilling before i skimmed it. and the green stuf was dripping off my arm

Pictures tomorrow or wednesday.

today was a bit of a ground breaker as I finally got the heating fired up - my god the Intergas boiler can kick out some heat!!!! It went from two tshirts and jumper/hat to shorts and t-shirt in 30 minutes!!!!!!!

Will do some more pics/detail soon....had a bit too much to drink to give much detail.

Nice thing though - only had ONE minor drip out of the whole system. Not bad for my first attempt, I don't think!!

Downer - the wireless theromostat is ballsed.......no control at all, it's either all or nothing. Need to get a replacement. :(

BG

The boiler shouldn't really have jumpers or hats on it unless its really cold

What a huge suprise the secondhand 'stat doesn't work

Great job sounds like they will be moving in soon, what a reward for all their hard work

Erm I hope the leak was on YOUR pipes

I'll take some pics of the boiler with it's hat on

In all fairness, my parents don't really get ANY form of tech....kettles are sometimes a stretch. the old stat was taken out as it had more than 1 button....they didn't actually realise it didn't work. Although, after a spot of reading tonight (after the words kindly stopped moving) it turns out it has a 'lock' feature that may have been enabled to stop it being reset. Shall investigate tomorrow - all the syptoms seems to fit, just need to go and see.

Yep there was one leak on MY pipe....the other 492....well, don't want to say

Not bad I think, considering it was my first go at such things!

Okie dokey....in no particular order, some pics of "progress". Had one day off on Christmas day (didn't stop thinking about it though) and was FORCED to have half a day off for boxing day, under threat of death.

I'm back at work from today, so it's back to evenings again starting from tomorrow. Nothing better than finishing your day job and then doing something different at night....not.

Massive thanks to farther in law though....he's about just about every other day now, he's been a total diamond!

Old heating

Decided to get the old back boiler removed and covered over now it's all disconnected. There is a good airflow down the chimney, so no probs with damp. In fact, it's too good.....bloody freezing!!!!

Hit a stumbling block though...I've lost my good hacksaw. Suspect it's under the floor somewhere. It'll show up....eventually.
Bathroom

Now fully boarded out, shower and 10mm elastictrickery supply is in place for the shower. Ended up with a Triton Cara or something (9.5k) and a separate mixer on the bath taps as a backup - just in case. Covering all bases here.
Bath is being set-up ready to put into place too - going to put bath up, then the waterproof walling on the top with a lovely seal in place to stop splashes going down the back. Back and side panel on order, should arrive in around 8 days.
General Stuff

Doing a white wash on the walls....shows up fillings/bad bits nicely. Everything is going to be turned into a magnolia box when it's ready. Thinking of going to Johnsons for it......best place?
Floors

The whole of the bedroom floor came up in the end. Had to replace another joist that was rotten through so ditched the whole floor in the end. It has been replaced with T&G chipboard as it worked out at roughly half the cost of floorboards. Going to have an access hatch put in - just in case.

Rot shouldn’t be an issue - all new joists are treated, twice and airflow under the floors is now mega - opened up all the blocked up air bricks and removed the blocks between the front and back of the house, so it's got an draw all the way through.
Freezing when you're sat there doing things.
These are going onto the other floors, for patchup and repair as there is nothing wrong with those.
Electric

Had PME fitted to supply - temp lash-up to old CU to get the boiler happy. Gas/Water bonding in place with 10mm and CU fed with it's old dangling 6mm as a stop gap.
Plumbing

Right....boiler all filled and fired up.

Thermostat has broken, so it's being replaced shortly. Picked one up on the Tradepoint account tonight, just need to switch them. Apparently the Danfoss RX1's are well known to just stop pairing with the wireless unit - piece of crap.

The garage is in stage one of insulation - this is going to have a box built around it and filled with insulation - non shall pass (cold, that is)!
This is one of the main thoroughfares of pipes in the house....need a bit more support, but that's being done over the next day. Plastic goes all flobbly when hot.
Copper tails do look more pleasing to the eye....been playing around with the torch, these will be hidden behind the skirting board.....
Finally, the dropping pressure from my other thread. Had a look around ALL joints before they are covered - everything is bone dry. No air in the system at all - eventually tracked it down to this.....
The valve that goes into the rad is dribbling. REALLY slightly, but I think it's enough to need fixing while I can. Going to drain down and re-do this.

So, if this is the only problem (1 dribble and a slightly bad connection), then I'm a happy bunny for my first attempt at a system install. Still, could be much nicer in copper.....but it's not a permanent thing and it's doing the job nicely.

House was wonderful to be in today when I visited and the walls are starting to dry too.

TV order arrives tomorrow from http://www.satcure.com. I ALWAYS get my stuff from there. Backplates are screened, the cable has REALLY good screening and braid coverage and the service is top notch. When it arrives, I'll put a pic up to show why I use their cable and not the local sheds stuff....it's pretty amazing, especially if you have a bad Freeview pic - not all cable is created equal!

I'm off now, sorry to waffle!

Cheers,

BG

Glad you're getting along so well...I do have to point out there is no such word as "Flobbly"
Quote..
"Plastic goes all flobbly when hot."

...though there probably should be...

Wibbly wobbly?

I'm open to suggestions....thought I'd try and introduce a spot of onomatopoeia to the proceedings. Should exist though...then you could do the jelly like impression when you use the word.

Hmmmm..how about describing it as a wee bit Bambi...remember the ice scene from the film??? Kinda wobbly???

(Now I'm gonna go and look for that on you tube..I will be gone some time...)

BillyGoat wrote: you could do the jelly like impression when you use the word.

Chez wants some new youtube videos

Nowhere near enough PTFE on that spud! (Rad tail)

I'm sure I mentioned that you should use yellow gas tape 'cos it's sintered and only needs one wrap

But on the other hand I have been drunk since then

No need to drain, just turn off the lockshield at the other end and either turn off the TRV or replace the shut off cap it came with

looking good mate.

maybe a small piece of advice. when we do plumbing and we have to cover it over before we can fill it all up my dad invented a little tool made up out of a bit of pipe. a push fit fitting. a compression fitting and a tyre valve.

we then use a small compressor with a tyre pumper uperer to put a small amount of pressure into the pipes and see if its holding. less likely to get water all over. cheap and handy tool.

Each to their own Fin but please don't get the plumbers started about air testing it's not safe and proves very little

Razor wrote:

BillyGoat wrote: you could do the jelly like impression when you use the word.

Chez wants some new youtube videos

Nowhere near enough PTFE on that spud! (Rad tail)

I'm sure I mentioned that you should use yellow gas tape 'cos it's sintered and only needs one wrap

But on the other hand I have been drunk since then

No need to drain, just turn off the lockshield at the other end and either turn off the TRV or replace the shut off cap it came with

Top banana.....went with the consenses of around 15/16 wraps of normal PTFE - is that not enough? Can't remember anything about gas tape though Will have to remember if I have to do anymore.

I wish I'd use that loctite string if I'm honest....quite like it. I've used it all on my own bathroom re-fit and not had any problems at all. Seems to do the trick - anyone else use it?

I'll give it a go without the drain.....sound advice!

BG

Yep the loctite 55 is great stuff

Can't remember the last time I used ordinary PTFE the gas one is soooo much better

Hmmm heard that air testing was quite dangerous with the pressures involved. It's all uncovered anyways, so wet testing was fine. To be fair, aside from the kitchen there was very little that could have got wrecked.

Sorted tomorrow though.

One other question though.....

I learn reasonably quickly, but for some reason there are two things I can't get my head around - seems stupid really....

1. Extractor fans (don't ask - bit of a joke really)
2. Thermostats on boilers.

I've got the Horstman HRFS1 wireless jobbie (cheap, I know, but it's ok for what I need - not my house!!!) and need to switch.

Can I have a dumb persons explination of what goes where? Is it volt free or 230V switching?

http://www.horstmann.co.uk/downloads/El ... mostat.pdf

Live, Neutral and earth are no problem - get that bit.....

After digesting the boiler manual, user manual and two thermostat manuals this morning I've come to the conclusion that RGI's are very clever chaps!!!

Help!

BG

Post me the details what you have and I may tell you where to stick the wires.