Owning your own home

I used to live in a terrace. Then the girl next door got a new boyfriend who made her very excited. A lot. Over and over again. I now live in a detached house.

If you're talking about Landman Way I dropped a few bits off there on foot last week without raising any eyebrows. They hate it when you call it 'the tip' though, so avoid that. It's a 'recycling centre'.

Rocked up to the Croydon one, showed them my license with my address, they slapped a sticker in my windscreen and have been no bother ever since. I suppose it's hard too look like you're dumping commercial waste in a Panda with a childseat in it.

Yeah that's the one, good to know they aren't as strict in person.

A few years ago I did tours of the Southwark Recycling Centre and the Lewisham incinerator on Open House weekend, a must see for all South East London waste enthusiasts.

We have a damp/humidity/leak issue on outer and inner wall. The area is small and close to drainage pipes. Does anyone have a reliable contact in east London?

Greenwich council charge £10.51 per item for bulk waste and give you a date they'll pick up.
So you stick your stinking old debris out the night before and all is fine until some folk notice someone is doing it so lets join in and add our shit to the pile.
Council say "you're taking the piss".

I've lived next door to it (practically) for 5 years. Our building is probably the closest residential property. I have never done the tour, to my shame.

The recycling centre also has a goldfish pond, maintained by the staff. Well worth a look on your next visit. The fish will appreciate it.

@madbrad

i put out a call to 4 damp fixing sorts about 2 weeks ago. 1 got back to me

https://www.dampproofinglondonsouth.com/

nice fella came round when he said he would who identified himself as a surveyor rather than a sales mook, poked around with his damp-u-lon 5000, explained what he thought the problem was in small words, took pics and went on his merry way.

Got a quote 2 days later, 1700 bois to fix the lot. not sure if that's a lot or a little to be honest, but their customer service thusfar can't be faulted.

More than a decade ago, Hackney put official skips around the borough (probably not everywhere, but in a lot of areas) on a regular basis. So many houses (and gardens) were so full of crap that the skips were filled in no time. When they were replaced, the new skips likewise were filled in a couple of hours. If Greenwich did that for a short time, they would probably tackle much of that problem, but obviously with 'austerity' having led to councils having to charge for basic services, they probably couldn't afford to. When I last looked, the bulky waste charge for Hackney was £15 per call-out, not per item, but I bet that this, too, is causing people to hold on to items (or to flytip them somewhere if they don't know private waste is accepted by some dumps free of charge).

😲 Oh! you called it a 'dump' !

I think there is a bit of the 'I pay an exorbitant council tax/service charge' so sod 'em let them sort it out attitude going on as well.

Yeah, someone tipped me off. :)

Has anyone had internal doors acid dipped? If so what was the rough cost.

Google says £15-60. Which is quite a range.

Our 2yo Samsung tumble dryer with heat pump has stopped heating and therefor working.
It’s £50 for booking an appointment, £50 when the engineer arrives and then £ for what might need replacing in soonest appointments time 1 month.
Anyone with experience of how much this might cost?
Are there any good/ cheaper repair people in SE London for this sort of thing?

The machine a new equivalent machine is £600

They hate it when you call it 'the tip' though, so avoid that. It's a 'recycling centre'.

@Sharkstar

:)

It's probably the heating element. Take it apart, disconnect the element and measure the resistance with a multimeter. It should be tens of ohms but will probably be off the scale. The other failure mode is it goes short circuit but that tends to trip your RCD. Buy new element online. Fit.

There are loads of videos online that show you how to do this. Your exact model probably isn't available but likely one that is similar enough that you can follow it.

The videos make it look pretty simple.
I don’t have a multimeter though and it’s been some time since I’ve used one.

Have you done this?

We've used Steve the spindoctor for a few jobs on washing machines and dishwashers.
Reliable and reasonable.
We're in Peckham think he does most of SE London
https://londonspindoctor.com/

Not great news but amazingly helpful just called him. He said it’d be uneconomical because it’s a heat pump not a regular dryer.
Basically advised to kick up a fuss with Samsung.

I don’t have a multimeter though

Any multimeter will be good enough for this. Cheap ones will probably be inaccurate but good enough for this.

and it’s been some time since I’ve used one.

Shove the dial to ohms. Check the probes read 0ish when directly connected. Test across heating element.

Have you done this?

Not a tumble drier and not a Samsung but a Bosch washing machine and a Siemens dishwasher.

I did cut myself on some sharp metal on the dishwasher. Dishwasher are a lot harder to service IMO.

Interesting. I wonder why.

Have you looked at the price of parts somewhere like https://www.espares.co.uk/ ? You should be able to put the model number in that. Or https://www.samsungspares.co.uk/laundry/catalogue.pl?path=627424 ?

Blimey, they have a 5300 W element in some models. How do you connect that drier?

Thanks, having spoken to Steve he said it’ll be uneconomical to fix as the heat pump works like a fridge it’s not a heat element. Based on that I see a battle with JL or Samsung :-(

Do you have a current project thread for this bathroom reno BRO?

Would be interested if so...

Ha! Didn't think it would be of interest,
If I ping one up you'll be the first to know

Warzone soon?

The circulon pans we already had don't work with our induction hob :'(

Oh 100%, do it!

And yeah, I've been dabbling a bit... think this is what you'll need to add me Chris#214551

add me Chris#214551

Excellent. Got an exam coming up so still revising but should be on later.
Can use lfgss discord