Smashing.....

[root]

same thing happened to me when fixing my leaking tap last week bloody bodgers just putting the caps back on

[BillyGoat]

Will sort some pics tomorrow towards the end of the day, but before it gets dark.

Went after work and wasn't concentrating. The lighting circuits went in yesterday night alongside the old cabling to give me time to get other stuff sorted. Was doing this:

- Taking off old light switches
- Chopping the plaster off at the top and bottom of the chase (think i done pics of this earlier)
- Pulling the old cable up and pulling the new one down so the walls can be bonded/plastered up
- Putting the light switch back on the old cable so we had lights to work with in the meantime

Well...had a problem where some of the galv capping was too high up the ceiling to pull cables out, so I was using an angle grinder and metal cutting disc........ Forgot to pull the cable up, cut through the capping and the heat burnt the cables all the way up to the top - not enough slack to get them back and cut back

Took my work light stands up, but it's annoying carrying around big yellow stands and to be fair, 1000W of lighting tires your eyes very quickly!

Oh well, was bound to happen sooner or later!

BG

Forgot to pull the old cable out first

[BillyGoat]

Greeting campers!

Been hard at it this week after my snaffu with the lighting 'chop'. Now have lights in, so I'm happy again....just need Mr Sparky to come sort me some consumer unit action and do his magic with some other stuff.

Lots of bonding/plastering been going on....feel like progress!

Huge chunks of missing wall put back:

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Light switch drops and sockets filled in....

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Wall lighters in place in the living room.....nice simple plaster things. Bitch to fit - awful design, but can be painted to match the room easily....

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Large chunks of missing wall being put back from where the damp had seriously attacked the wall. Damp all fixed, walls dry and ready to make good.....

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Plumbing

something had badly disturbed this isolation valve and I'd not been told.....reckond someone had stood on it and pulled it hard. Fixed and should be dry tomorrow in time for the bath to go in.....

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Speaking of baths, I've drilled out the holes for the taps and enlarged the overflow hole for the trap. taps fitted and ready to be put in position. Support battens have been put on the wall and a base has been made for the bottom (no legs - bath was 20 odd quid!!!! not bad for a big brand new P shaped bath perfect for the room)

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Outside

Fish are doing well....think there is an eel in the pond. Yet to confirm. Lots of goldfish though....

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Heating

New boiler been running without any issues now - fixed the leaky rad spud with some loctite string, not pukka. Boiler holding a steady 1.2 pressure in the mornings so floors can go down. Took the oppertunity to remove the old beast....

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HOW HEAVY!!!!!

Some boiler porn....

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Finally, somthing that drove me mad today (fixed with the meter, but still annoying).

Light switches - is this normal? The one way and three way are NOT like this, just the two gang/two way switches....

Living room was not playing ball with the wall lights or ceiling lights. Checked the switch drops from the rose and sure enough, no continuity from the switches - odd, I thought. It's just yer standard loop in loop out - all the other rooms were fine.

Took the switch off the wall and all looked well. Toned it out and to my surprise, it was wired up like this:

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I would have thought top and bottom would have been to the norm - no markings to indicate it was setup as such. Is this normal?

I think it's odd as the three ways are NOT like this. Still, fixed now.....just annoying!

Right, I'm off....got to get stuff ready for work - 4am start!

[wine~o]

Err..not entirely sure pic 2 is going to meet the regs..sure one of the pro sparks will enlighten?

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Edit....and if there are Eels in the pond the goldfish wont be there much longer..

[BillyGoat]

No?

It's a verticle drop - light is 1200 from the ceiling, what doesn't look right?

I'm hoping the eel was a giant tadpole.....looked like an eel!

Cheers,

BG

[wine~o]

No?

It's a verticle drop - light is 1200 from the ceiling, what doesn't look right?

I'm hoping the eel was a giant tadpole.....looked like an eel!

Cheers,

BG

Eels are carnivores...

Please bear in mind I'm not a pro...but i'm (Fairly) sure you need to be a certain distance from a corner..something like 350mm..(I could be barking)..but there is deffo a minimum...

[BillyGoat]

There are safe zones in the corners, but Mr spark has no problems thus far.....I'm just cutting out what he's asking for.

Would mean my house is not to regs, it my parents either?

Bg

[wine~o]

Nope...just me getting my permitted zones all confundled...

http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/routi ... le.htm#The latest requirements for running cables is below-




Apologies BG...oh ..but the Eels will eat the Goldfish once they're big enough...

[BillyGoat]

No worries. It's all within permitted, so it's all good in the hood. Cheers for concern anyhow.

I was a bit sceptical about the heights for sockets too.....they looked like they were going to be half way up the walls, but I kinda like them now. It's growing on me. 450 to bottom of socket, from memory......put your finget on the wall where you think that is! lol

I'll keep my eye on the eel situation. Need to look up some pics/info. Still......won't be my fish to look after, although that'll be one fat eel if it does eat them all, must be about 40+ fish in there!

BG

[fin]

didnt sockets used to be put 300 from the floor? thats what the sparky told me. but beleive tis changed to 450 now as mentioned above?

light switches 1300 from the floor.

[wine~o]

didnt sockets used to be put 300 from the floor? thats what the sparky told me. but beleive tis changed to 450 now as mentioned above?

light switches 1300 from the floor.

Thought that was new builds only???

[fin]

ahh our sparky told me to jus do it like that. it does look better imo like.

[BillyGoat]

It's full steam ahead here. Just packed up for another night - some pics of current progress. Feels a bit like we are getting somewhere now.

Dining Room

Floors have gone down, walls whitewashed and being filled where they need it. Decided to line most of the walls anyhow. Will give a nicer finish we think. The house has got super hot now there are no freezing draughts coming up from the airbricks....

Not sure what I'm going to do with old backboiler/fire place yet.

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Kitchen

Doors been put on, sockets, switches, filling, painting. Lots more to do.....

Before:

All walls were soaking, damp and the kitchen was soaked and stank of mold/smoke.

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After:

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Bathroom

Waterproofing boarding going up....floor holes been filled in. Shower up next!

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Something important to mention here. There was a FCU on the wall for the old immersion that was powered from a juntion box under the dining room floor. I safely disconnected it and removed the old back boiler after testing it was dead. It was.

Took the face plate off and out of habit, checked it anyway - IT WAS LIVE! Connected to an unrelated circuit to form some kind of ring (it wasn't). Needless to say, cutting through a live cable with no RCD protection and a 30amp fuse wire would have more than likely done some serious damage (read:death).

ALWAYS CHECK FOR DEAD WHEN WORKING ON ELASTICTRICKERY - NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING!

Master Bedroom

Flying along now here. Floors down, sockets all in palce, lots of filling/sanding going on.

Before:

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Current:

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Top marks to Razor for making me feel guilty enough to use copper tails on the rads. Plastic would have looked guff.

This was the room with the wardrobe and rotten walls/skirting boards. Turned out to be caused by the roof - the felt had rotted away and the water was creeping down the walls under the render. Fixed now though. Blown plaster removed, wall nice and dry too. Got bonded and skim coated.

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Skirting boards in the room needed matching or replacing - a quick visit to a timberyard and it turned out they matched a certain length size of timber exactly - they arn't skirting boards at all. They looked OK and half the rooms were done, so we stuck 'em in. Lick of paint, who will know!

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Decorating

I hope I got the right stuff here to line....saw this mentioned on the deccies bit. Feels ok.

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Living Room

You may remember the front two rooms were full of bricks, rubbish and set with concrete.....

Reminder:

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Well, all the rubbish was removed and air bricks were restored. Joists replaced where needed and the new floor has gone down. I think you'll agree it's a top job!

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Other

New consumer unit should be installed next week, which is mega news. Lots of little jobs to do.....I can feel the decorating tasks coming closer with each day. Not got the patience for it though.....No matter how much prep I put in to EXISTING room, I can never get it how I want. I prefer a newly boarded/skimmed room myself....I HATE seeing marks on the walls.

What's this then....4 weeks or so? Not doing TOO bad.

BG

Oddly

[steviec_lj]

Blimey fella.

You've certainly got a shift on doing that!! I just wish our Landlord had the same attitude as you and got the problems sorted before they become major issues, although you are sorting out the major issues but you haven't left them to come to a head really.

4 weeks is an amazing time frame. I personally can't wait to move into a bought property and crack on with things like this.

[BillyGoat]

Cheers Stevie.

Everyone thinks I'm nuts for doing so much as the plan is to knock it down in 3-5 years time. My theory is simple though....if it's all new and done correctly, it means I get 3-5 years of total peace. I don't have to deal with "x is broken" or "the lights flicker" or any other rubbish - old stuff out, new stuff in.

It's good fun sometimes being able to do what you want, other times it's a total bore and you wish it was all finished.

BG