Home DIY

Eugh. Woke up to no hot water and no boiler pressure, after being away for 2 weeks and then turning the heating on yesterday for the first time in ages.

I can’t see any leaks anywhere and the pressure is dropping almost immediately, (it won’t climb up to 1 bar and drops again) which feels fast for a leak - any ideas where else I should be looking?

For the phone number of a boiler dude. It's not going to be a home fix.

Yeah thats what I thought. Any national companies worth looking at? The last local plumber we used was shite.

Try calling the boiler manufacturer first?

If I want to level off some my lawn? I don't think I'm going to put down concrete but would like to use rubble and plastic shed base. Only because cost.

I had a plumber round recently to do a radiator, whilst there he glanced at my boiler - pressure was at zero. He mumbled something about a tap, found some weird little thing that looked like a wine bottle opener, slotted it on to some kind of 'tap' at bottom of my boiler and turned it.

That sorted it - reset the pressure. Sounds same, maybe it's that?

Cock key?

Oo-er. Yeah I guess so. Sounds right.

Got keys to house today, had a poke around and started noting things that hurt my head and (I feel) need fixing sooner rather than later (which of course don't align with the missus expectations i.e. new tiles in the bathroom). My dad is a builder, so I have grown up doing a lot of diy, but there are some things I am aware are far beyond my abilities.

Few questions;

1. There is an existing wired alarm that doesn't seem to have power going to the keypad (that looks like it's straight out of a 1980's arcade). Googled the company name on the exterior siren box and they don't seem to exist anymore. Can an electrician remove an alarm? I plan to fit a wireless alarm myself. Any recommendations for an electrician in SE London? Would be a good opportunity to get some of the messy wiring tidied up at the same time.
   
2. Our front door has a cat flap. While our greyhound would love to be able to poke her head out for a look around throughout the day, I would not like a cat to make it's way into my flat and get ripped apart by said greyhound. Only fix is a new door. Any recommendations for someone to fit new door? Would be a good opportunity to upgrade to a 5 point locking system at the same time.
   
   

I anticipate lots of questions incoming...

All the security!!

We have a great sparky based near Dulwich. He took out our ancient 80s house alarm. Let me get his details and will PM them to you. He also knows loads of the good local tradesmen and has been very handy for the occassional specialist referral.

Also, we have a full Y-Cam security set up if you want to see one in the wild.

No, I tried that. The issue was it didn’t work when I did. Turned out the pressure relief valve had broken. £100 to replace so bit too bad. Thought it’d be worse.

could you pm my his contact details too

As a heads up, just in case you decide to take the alarm out yourself.

Even if the keypad appears to be unpowered, the main alarm box may well still be active. Years ago, in a new flat, I tried to disconnect the alarm which set it off because they have tamper proof mechanisms. Unfortunately, well fitted alarms tend to be wired to power before the consumer unit in a way that the cabling is hidden so that a burglar cannot simply snip cables or kill power to the whole house to turn the alarm off.

We ended up having our alarm going off for about four hours before we managed to find somebody who was able to help us kill it. Not good for a laugh, or for your ears.

^This is pretty much the same explanation we got from our electrician. You deffo need professional help to remove them.

Not least of all because they'll still be live when you've killed the power.

They have backup batteries usually but those are just for if somebody has managed to cut power in the street. Touch the battery and the alarm goes off.

YMMV but we've taken bits of our old alarm out as we've gone through the house with any issues. Was a bit worried about a backup system but an electrician we had in for another job reckoned it was completely dead.

Only fix is a new door

Or just stop the cat flap from opening. Unless you're looking for an excuse to get a new door.

Thing with alarms is the information is out there on how to deal with them but there's very little incentive for anyone with that knowledge to put a handy guide on the internet! If you just want to remove one completely it's not too difficult especially if all the backup batteries are dead and the main box has been switched off for a while. It's recommissioning an alarm which can be a little trickier, even then there's usually information that's available online.

I'm not sure that an alarm could or should be wired before the consumer unit. It would need to have some kind of consumer unit/breaker itself to protect the circuit. Most of the alarms I've seen are connected via a fused spur from a separate breaker on the main consumer unit.

Door locks. Talk to me.

What's the most secure, what are ANSI ratings, what are the keys my mate has that look like a stick of metal with dozens of holes punched out of it etc blah blah etc

what are the keys my mate has that look like a stick of metal with dozens of holes punched out of it etc blah blah etc

Banham.

Chris, please can you send it to me too. I need a good sparky at some point.

Could well have been just our one then. Killing power at the CU and removing backup battery didn't stop it.

Evva DPS, EPS or 3KS security locks are pretty pick, bump and drill-proof. They keys can't be copied without safeguards either.