Home DIY

I replaced a boundary at our place that was made of this stuff. In London it tends to get full of filth and starts looking bad. I wouldn't recommend it. I ended up putting in a picket style fence I made myself with timber.

Yeah - combi.
It's not just a stain, right by the pipe, it's about 15mm thick.

If it is the condensate outlet, as the condensed liquid is acidic, it is meant to be plumbed into your foul/effluent drain.
The stain/growth is probably some acidophillic algae/moss/lichen amalgam.

Should I be worried about this cracking?

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I want to replace some double sockets with ones that have USB power points; will the cheapo Wilkos/Homebase ones burn down my house, or are they all much of a muchness?

I hope not, as I have the same. My reading said it was fine and almost unavoidable at the ceiling/wall joint. Its why coving was invented. The cracks in my kitchen are almost a millimeter but appeared almost as soon as we moved in and haven't worsened in over 2 years. Out place was done up very cheaply before we moved in so we have quite a few hairline cracks that I just need to get around to attending to.

Getting there slowly with stripping the door surround in the lounge. Left is how it's looking now, right is how it was when I started at Christmas time. So slow and painful. Not sure if I'll bother with any others in the house.

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I think (will bow to superior knowledge) that the USB aspect of the sockets are not regulated in the same way that the power sockets are, so it is worth buying from a reputable name to make sure you get non risky ones.

How olds your house? We have just refurbed a whole house and have tonnes of cracks, just the process of plaster drying and timber shifting slightly. If you have done any works recently leave it a year then get your filler out.

Don't worry about a crack unless you can get your hand in it!

Also look out for what ampage they produce, cheap ones may only share 1.5a across the two ports, for good charging speeds you want double that really.

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   That plaster was redone and painted over 2 years ago I think. The door (sliding) has been slammed a number of times.
   

They are often deeper. Make sure you 35mm deep back boxes.

Houses have movement with moisture and temperature. Nothing to worry about unless it's get structural. And new plaster takes while to settle too. Let it crck untill it stabilised, then get some elastic filler and it'll be fine.

25mm back box size are common now. 2.4A is now fairly standard.

Personally I'm not convinced. No one has produced a USB C version yet and swapping faceplates to keep up with tech updates gets expensive.

I want to install a 3 way ceiling rose and run three lights off it. Can I just replace the existing light thats there or do I need to do anything special? (Existing light is a rancid 6 spot LED thing on a metal rod)

Where people get into trouble is copying over the existing wiring to the three plate design. You may just have power for the light there but if not you need to know which is the loop in, loop out and switch line, the colour of the wire will not make much sense and if they're not sheathed with the correct colours don't make any assumptions about blue being neutral.

Read up on wiring a three plate and label your existing wires once you've identified them.

The regulations are falling back on the coverall health and safety aspects to ensure these sockets are not dangerously installed. There are a few eyebrows being raised by experienced electrical system designers about the added risks of the transformers etc. but the regs have yet to include a special mention for these sockets. Try to buy a reputable brand like MK as they are likely to be more concerned about safety and isolation of LV from ELV currents.

The great thing about a plugin charger is the fuse, transportability and ease of replacement if it breaks, the fuse helps to make safety easier to ensure. In the future your phone could be intermittently tripping the electrics in half your house because your charging pad is occasionally overheating, little problems like that will be a good earner!

Thought you might be the man to know! Your thoughts might be what I had picked up on. My view is (having just had a whole house rewired at significant cost!) is that I haven't gone with them. I have instead used multi-bank chargers so 4xUSB from one plug socket, means I am not stuck having to change them in the future. We went Hager everywhere.

That's what I'm doing, I use an xtar model, 6 way and stays cool but can provide quite a few amps to all the usb sockets simultaneously. Of course it looks neat to have them on the sockets and non technical people love them but there are some pretty obvious design problems building safety and a decent transformer into the back of a plug socket. I assume most of them will be consuming current constantly too.

Thankfully mine is all hidden away in an under eaves cupboard (natural cooling!) with router, 2 3 switches, 5 x amps, 3 x sky boxes and a lot of cables...

ok thanks @Airhead - so if the power is just for the existing light, can I just switch it from the current setup and install a 3 way rose type thing. I basically want to remove this:

and install this:

I've fucked up somehow. I was clearing the fridge out yesterday and left a can out on the side. I've woken up this morning and it's left a black ring on my friends brand new worktops. I don't even understand how, it was dry.

What do I do?

edit, Unless condensation got me

Admonish them for their terrible choices regarding worktop durability.

Solid wood worktop? Unfortunately it's a sand a re-oil job usually, but only where the ring was.