Home DIY

Im amazed at the northern and polish delivery dudes. Started at 330, with 4 deliveries before mine. Absolute beasts.

4'9" Bulgarian dude with a body like a soviet dead lifter delivered my kitchen up a hill from the road (about 2 metres steep climb) which he just ran up carrying 3meter long oak work surface. I tried with some boxes from the truck and slowly scrambled up. It was after 11pm (they were late) and by the end of it we were both in hysterics.

laughing at your attempts?

Just at how ridiculous the situation was - I was panicking all day as the carpenter had come in and waited as I'd been told delivery would be by 9am so was thinking how it would fuck up the schedule etc. By midnight with all the neighbours peering out there was a monster 18 wheeler parked in our tiny, narrow street with little and large running a kitchen up a hill. We had low fences at the time between ours and next door and next doors (giant) Alsatian was outside lurking. He's called Thor and normally is very vocal but he went very quiet - I should have remembered the stories my grandad told of when lions go quiet - you're fine when they roar but when they go quiet watch out - the fucker lept up as I carried a piece of work surface by and bit my arm. Installed reinforced 7ft fences the next week.

Work started at my place for paving the front and removing pebbledash and render then paint .. I completely (like a twat) forgot to inform neighbour and my builder just told me that they are annoyed .. whats the best way to resolve this without causing friction? I have noticed one of their fence panel has been destroyed by wind and they havent replaced it .. could offer to do that as a way to apologise .. I am not 100% certain but I don't think they are the owners so not sure if they'd care.

I should really be a responsible adult and stop riding the fucking bike at every chance I get

A bit of vintage vice restoration today.

My 2p worth. I'd go round in person and apologise. Have answers to obvious questions ready (how long will it take, when will it be noisy etc). Overestimate times a bit, better to finish a job 'earlier'.

If they are removing pebble dash the'll be stone flying everywhere, make sure the builders have Made provision for protection to prevent any damage to cars / windows etc.

Id keep things polite and formal at this stage until you gauge the vibe. A bottle of something if it's appropriate at the end of the job might be a nice gesture.

What Sacredheart said. It's a genuine mistake so be friendly, apologise etc. Explain how long it's expected to take and how they're going to be really careful and keep noise to a minimum.

Smooth Blue

I've just had a new immersion heater fitted, but it's on the blink: only worked twice.

It heated a tank of water once, but not the next time: I reset it using the red dial.

Heated a second tank, but not a third: resetting hasn't solved the problem.

The plumber is in Spain and I'm starting to smell.

Any help gratefully received (especially by all I come into contact with).

@sacredhart

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Looks like that immersion is linked to the timer, and the timer is set to 'timed' obvs question is it actually on? Check the timer.

Are you on economy 7 tarif as you will only get power at night?

If you have a multi meter check for 20ohms resistance between these two prongs with power off. If not element is knackered.

Check across the stat for continuity turning the stat up and down.

Did the plumber replace the whole thing or just the stat?

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... and the timer is set to 'timed'...

I was about to reply "No it isn't, I don't use the timer, just turn it on & off via the switch on the right."

But looked again at the photo.

It seems the timer unit switch has "gone South": it slips down to the timed position.

I'll try taping it into position...

Thanks for the prompt and comprehensive reply!

I did just that plus arranged to clean their car(s) .. it was partially builder's fault too. Going to give a bottle of wine as an apology too.

👍🏻

Nice rustic plastering.........

Negelct.

Its not an identical match but good enough for me.

nearly there!

the old tiles were just painted over with a couple of layers of primer and a couple of gloss (i think it was paint designed for concrete/wooden floors, but that's what was recommended to us in the shop):

sanding down the kitchen floor with a belt sander turned out to be a promethean task, so we got a chap in to sort that out, looking fresh and smelling nice now. just need to sort a few shelves out on the walls - was thinking about old scaffold boards, but it turns out they don't really use wooden scaffold boards in poland, so we shall have to see...

before:

after:

bathroom floor went down quite nicely too. against all the doctor's (@sacredhart) orders i bodged it a little, 'levelling' the floor by filling in the grout lines in the existing tiles , and then no-more-nails-equivalent-ing it down. i reckon it looks alright for now - time will tell if my corner-cutting will cause woes later on!

i can't take credit for the rest of the bathroom, as much as i would have liked to try my hand at tiling the walls, there just wasn't time.

Square-cornered sinks cause divorces.

The plastic sliders that connect the door and front on my Ikea fridge are squeaking. I was thinking WD-40 or a light oil, but wondered if it would react with the plastic. Any suggestions?

Silicon spray.

Not sure of the spelling Silicone/Silicon. Hopefully someone can clear that up. I'd be pleased to know if there's something better but I've carried a can of this for drawers and squeaky plastic and it's lasted 20 years so far.

'Silicon' is the metal.

'Silicone' is the shorthand name for fluids based upon the dimethyl siloxane repeat unit.

'Silicone spray' contains some low viscosity poly-dimethyl siloxane fluid in solvent, and hopefully some other additives..

Poly-dimethyl siloxane fluids have high surface tension, so do not wet out surfaces on their own, very well, but they are water resistant, so once on a surface tend to persist.

It is hard to argue against 'silicone spray' especially when you have non-matching synthetic surfaces in contact.

Some have moved onto the (sometimes much) more expensive 'teflon/ptfe spray'.

If you have a multi meter check for 20ohms resistance between these two prongs with power off.

I would hope that you have a lot more than 20 Ohms between Live and Earth!