Home DIY

After a recent catastrophic fire on my street I'm looking at escape ladders (flat is on the second floor and the only route out is a single shared staircase). We've got really thick walls so I'd like to install some anchors for a ladder rather than the kind you hook over the windowsill, but I'm not sure what to search for. Are climbing bolt hangars the best way to go?

Here's what the fire did: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-50379853

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Caving/pot holeing ladder would probably fit the bill. They are really shit for most other uses, but having a 45 foot ladder tucked away behind the sofa isn't very practical.

Climbing wall brackets for clipping a carabiner into would work depending on the fixing you used to bolt it to the wall.. Or some M10 ring bolts screwed into the floor joists

I have gymnastic rings hanging from a pair of these. Although I'd probably like a longer thread if climbing out a second floor window.
https://www.diy.com/departments/forged-ring-bolt-l-55mm-dia-10mm/1521212_BQ.prd

Oooff. How thick are the sills?

About 60cm, and awkwardly shaped - too thick for me to be comfortable with those ladders that have a hook contraption for the top of the sill. Plus they're a pain to store.

@Spxtz for a second floor tenement you're going to have a pretty hefty set of ladders. Storing those is quite an undertaking.

I was in a second floor tenement for a few years in the West End and felt some sense of ease after I got a key to get roof access - in most of Glasgow you can walk from tenement to tenement on the roofs in a gully in the centre which is why seagulls love them so much. So if you couldn't get down the stairs you can always get on the roof and move a safe distance away.

Its a lot more costly but some tenements have also had metal stairs installed which might be a move some factors push for given the last few fires that have sadly happened in the city.

Something like this maybe https://www.safelincs.co.uk/easyscape-fire-escape-ladders/ although I'm not sure if this specific one is long enough.

Or this for the comedy description https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ladder%EF%BC%8CEmergency-Carabiner-Children-Balcony%EF%BC%8CEmergency-Ladders/dp/B07VN64R76

I can't find the exact product, but we used to live on the 4th floor of an old house and had a mechanically slowed abseil machine under the window, you clipped in and jumped out the window and it lowered you slowly to the ground. Could be an option?

https://skysaver.com/?v=7516fd43adaa

Unfortunately our roof access hatch is 14ft high in the close, we've got a ladder that can reach it but by the time we've set it up we may as well have walked down the stairs.

@aggi I was looking at these ones for ease of storage: https://www.safelincs.co.uk/kletterfix-fire-escape-ladder/ and I see they come with their own wall-mounted bar too.

@Bumperoo do you mean an auto-belay like you get at some climbing centres?

Radiator been leaking I suspect from that joint.

I was thinking to replace the whole pipe. Cut it just above the ground. Solder ornpreasfit connection.

Or not to bother and look at the trv and pfte the threads

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Exactly, it worked really well. It was set to a max weight and you could jump out the window and slowly descend.

It's just a compression joint. I'd give it a bit of a tighten and see if that helps before doing anything drastic

I suspect it’s the trv I just removed it and it started weeping a bit

Few layers of ptfe and tighten it up it should be fine

Quote sanity check required. No heating or hot water with a 6 month old in the house so time is of the essence;

Following David's recent visit to your property, please see below our full boiler installation quote.

Quote brief

Supply and install Vaillant ecoFIT Pure 825 combination boiler
Free 7 year manufacturers warranty (parts and labour included)
Free registration with the Gas Safe Register and local building authority
Total price £2,295 + VAT including initial visit discount

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Established for over 12 years PGS offers expert advice, installation and aftercare.
All work fully insured and supported by our customer satisfaction guaranteed pledge pgs-services.co.uk/service-level-promise.
If you choose PGS we will make sure you are happy throughout the process and long in to the future.
Please confirm receipt of this quote and any queries you may have. I would be very happy to assist you and help organise a convenient date for the works.

Thank you in advance for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

PGS Boiler Installation Quote

Date: 20-11-2019

Recommended boiler to be supplied & fitted
Vaillant ecoFIT Pure 825 combination condensing boiler

Installation details
Remove and dispose of existing boiler
Locate new boiler in same location
Run condense to existing condense pipe
Re-use existing Hive controls
Carry out a full system cleanse
Notify new appliances (as required) with the Gas Safe Register and the relevant Local Authority

Parts, materials and heating controls
Magnetic filtration unit
Standard flue kit
System cleansers and inhibitors
Electrolytic scale reducer
Copper pipe, fixtures and fittings

Manufacturer warranty details
7 year FREE extended manufacturer's warranty: covering parts and labour for all boiler breakdowns or malfunctions
Price £3,045 + VAT
Discount for initial visit £120 + VAT
Total discounted price £2,295 + VAT

The joy of going to argos to buy drain rods to try and unblock a kitchen sink drain pipe that has too shallow drop.

From the top of the trv? Or the fittings either side?

Just been informed washing machine isn't functioning (just as I've gone away for a few days on a shoot). From the description it sounds like the bearings have gone. Idea on cost to repair? Not sure I trust myself doing it. It's an old (from the look of it I'd say 8-10 years) hotpoint but I can't recall model number. Was there when we bought place. Prefer to repair rather than replace for reasons of 'the environment' but is this throwing good money after bad at this stage?

We're also after a dishwasher so could be an opportunity to just buy both new and have done with.

Lower end white goods, in my experience, have a shelf life of about 8 to 10 years. If you are confident enough to diagnose the fault and source replacement parts yourself then you may be able to eek another few years from it. Personally I'd never get an engineer to look at something that old when there is a decent chance you'll be calling on them in 6 months to repair something else.

Looking at it from an environmental standpoint if you make sure it's properly recycled, then the act of buying a new machine will be better for the environment and your wallet as running costs and energy consumption are MUCH lower. Especially with the more spendy (A rated and upwards machines). We had to buy all new white goods when we moved a year ago as our old ones had to stay at the flat for the tenants. We went for the best we could afford rather than the base models and Mrs Bobbo's spreadsheeting skillz have decreed that we recovered the extra outlay after about 9 months because they consume that much less energy.

Top of trv

To which I showed my plumber mate who’s advised me that it’ll need replacing.

So might take this opportunity to replace the rad while at it

Also had a question artex ceilings. So the rad cause the ceiling to swell. I’ve removed the areas where it cracked. Underneath is like a plasterboard is that artexy stuff or just the swirling pattern stuff (shite explanation I know)

Good call on energy consumption, that'll do it for me. Will take a look what's around.

Going to be a pig to replace it - up 14 steps from the street, 5 ft travel, then 3 more steps to the door, 4ft in the porch to 3 more steps to another door, 50ft corridor to the kitchen, 2 steps, 35 ft to 4 very narrow tight steps (going to have to take down a shelf that's half blocking it) then 8 ft through another another cramped door. Tempted to get it delivered while I'm still away : )

Do it .gif

AO deliver to the kitchen...

And think if you buy from AO via their eBay page then they will take the old one away for free too, and there's a 20% off code at the moment on eBay that'd probably work

You still get a proper order number from them and all the usual support

Thanks for the tip - will check it out. Though I did have nearly a year of phone calls from AO selling me insurance when I bought (integrated) at the last place.

Might see if we can stomach it until 'black friday' though there are some decent looking deals at the moment (AEG prosteam something or other seems fun and reduced on JL assuming I don't want to spend 2k on a weird spaceship prop from LG).

Delivery time could be longer once everyone waits for BF deals and want delivery too.