Home DIY

Had a braided hose incident last night. Panicked phone call from the missus at 11:30pm when I was out on the piss saying there was hot water spraying across the bathroom... Neighbour managed to find the valve and stop the water. Boiler pressure then shot-up and pressure release valve kicked in, spraying water outside.

The hose seems to have failed right at the bend, so I'm guessing a heavier duty and longer one might be in order. Is it normal for them to fail like that? Was a bit worried about the boiler over-pressuring afterwards but it seems to have stabilised – I drained the central heating to bring the pressure gauge down and re-filled it, even though its a separate thing. Heating works...

Gira was exactly what I was after. They look lovely!!!!
Thanks for all of your contributions to this thread.

So the next chapter in our bathroom remodel, (day 15 of a quoted 7-10 day job with no sink, toilet or shower, no floor and half the walls tiled).

The dad of the original plumber has taken over the tiling. He’s doing a much better job but I’m still spotting (minor?) flaws like brick pattern tiles not quite lining up and slight overlap of the plastic edging.

Given we’re paying market rate, how much do I pick at these details? And if I’m still not happy, what is the recourse? Fire them and get someone else in to finish it?

And if we do fire them how does payment work? In fact given the job is likely to run to double the quoted time how do we resolve payment anyway?

Part of this is I just don’t know how hard it is to get perfect lines on metro tiles in a Victorian house with less than perfect walls. And I am very detail oriented so these things jump out at me.

I've got wonky sockets, wonky tiling in my kitchen. It's annoying and I spotted it immediately.
But I've got 2 kids now and the mess on the walls and the marks from shoes etc in the hall bother me WAAAAAAAY more.

When you sell the house/if you sell the house, the new person won't give a fuck and will rip it all out anyway.
If you're renting it out, the tenants won't give a fuck.

Everbuild wonder wipes for marks on paintwork. Best rags evah.

Sockets, if you loosen them slightly you might be able to move one side or the other up or down a bit. Often a problem with sockets on tiles and you notice it more at kitchen worktop height. Might be they are a little loose and they get adjusted whenever a plug goes in or out.

I wouldn't want to be your tiler. It's very difficult to reach the level you're expecting. Tiling in general is one of the areas that cause trades problems. I've done a lot of tiling and most of it meets the householders expectations but it's the one area where you can easily lose a client through disappointment and in most cases with the best will in the world no one is going to meet their expectations. It's also very difficult to alter unlike a lot of work.

In some cases planning makes a difference, i.e. you tell the tiler start at the window, half tiles in the corner if that's what you want. Specify exactly the edging and trim in advance etc. Choosing tile types and sizes that are sympathetic to the building/room size helps too. I've seen a few trends come and go and the metro tile is full swing right now, by the time every tradesman has done a few rooms of it the rest of the population will be giving it a rest and so the cycle starts again.

tldr, he's probably doing his absolute best and sweating bullets. If it's not grouted yet then I'm afraid you'll have to wait to see the end effect as grouting makes a big perceptual difference, especially to gap imperfections.

MUCHOS on the wonder wipes.

I think the sockets are pretty much wonky.

On another note. There's a socket behind the door that hasn't got a plate on it.

How do I do this myself?

Where is the braided hose?

Are you paying day rate?

Were they recommended?

Under the bathroom sink connecting the taps to the copper pipe. It's only two years old so either a lemon or too much bend.

Or twisted during install.

Yeah, this was my suspicion and I have no idea how hard it is. I think we lost a lot of trust when they did the initial bit and now are nervous about any perceived imperfection.

As was said up the page, it isn’t the end of the world and it helps coming here to vent/set proper expectations.

You might need to be more specific. Do you have a back box blanked off and know what's inside or you have an open back box with wires in (unlikely with children in the house).

If you have a blanked back box with wires in then you can test to see if it's connected to a circuit and buy a suitable 1 or 2 gang 13 amp outlet, wire the L,N,E according to the socket and fannies your mothers sister.

If you need to add it to a circuit and you have the capacity to get a wire from one of the other sockets to this one then you can do that (just don't break the simple rules for routing the wire). As long as you work safely (power disconnected, check your work etc.) you are allowed to extend an existing circuit (except outdoors and in a bathroom).

If you needed to create a new circuit coming from the CU that would not be allowed as it needs certifying.

We're all on a learning curve. Quite often my older and more experienced clients naturally stick to simpler designs because they've been through problems getting more complicated designs to work.

If I was specifying a bathroom tiling job I'd 3d model it and give exact instructions/drawings to the tiler. Sometimes you start a tiling job and you just eyeball the start point from a couple of possibilities only to find out later the client sees it completely differently.

will take a pic later.

it's more a new face plate. there's a plastic interface where the plug goes in, that's all in. then the decorative bit that hides it.

when you don't know the words it's hard to explain...
it's not a big job thogh.

Plastering repair question - I'm digging out trunking (that contains a mix of coax & badly splice mains cables...) and am stuck on how to patch it up.

The problem is that it is brick (from a previously outside wall), covered by lime & hair plaster (with no lath), and then skinned with something, and then skimmed with gypsum plaster.

So do I just fill it with modern gypsum plaster, lime plaster, or a combination of both. Or just polyfilla. Or just hang a painting over it.

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That will be too deep for polyfila just get some mortar and it should be fine.

Hard to tell how deep it from the pic. Most builder would use grip fill or expanding foam if the client is not present. And skim it jobs a gooden mate.

Gyproc easy fill.

Pack it with rubble, old newspapers and the wrapper from your lunch, then a bit of lining paper over it and bosh.

Don't be an idoit, newspapers date the repair, use plain paper ;)

Or is that just for cars?

Is it just silver bit over that?

I think so. I'm tired though. And had a beer.

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Face plate is missing, I'd replace the socket for a nice one with usb sockets.

USB behind a door and that close to the floor?