Home DIY

BOOM!

My relentless hording is vindicated.

Old bolts from the old gazebo left by the previous owners fit.

Still missing some kind of spacer thing I think, but it'll do for now.

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It's political correctness gone crazy :)

I had a spare socket so I swapped it and that seems to work. I didn't know socket testers existed though so thanks for the tip.

It's usually phantom power triggering your tester because it doesn't place any load on cable it can detect voltage at tiny amperage. It gets picked up by cables running alongside each other. Fancy multimeters can discriminate it from real voltage.

On the other hand, in your case it seems like a faulty socket. Socket testers are well worth having especially if they make a noise. You can plug them in and then switch off circuits at the consumer unit until the tone stops.

Looking for some advice pls.

Am I allowed to chase into the wall the cables between these 2 boxes? Should I buy some sort of protective metal channel rather than rely on the plastic pipe they're currently in?

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In defense of smart TRVs (which I need to do to justify my own spending...), they pretty much do the same as zoned heating, just with more granularity. And less pipework.

Tricky one. Those 2 boxes are your main fuse or cutout which you are not allowed to pull and nor is your electrician although many are willing and able to do it. The second box is your meter. Strictly speaking you don't own those or the cable between them and for obvious reasons the electricity board likes the connection to be simple and accessible.

You have a little spare that you could get it in the walls but I can't remember any reference to these types of 'accessory' in the regs because normally domestic electricians don't deal with them.

I think there would be a problem because there's no rcd protection possible there and there needs to be or sufficient mechanical protection which is going to be hard to meet. You can of course bury a wire horizontally or vertically from accessories on a wall, but again these are not normal accessories.

You can forget putting it in any other conduit because you'd need to break the law and risk that fuse flashing over and blinding you or setting you alight. I'm pretty sure you're not up for that.

(p.s. it very likely will not cause a fiery death but there is a small percentage chance)

Thanks very much for explaining. I guess I'll have to live with it (or box it in a bit)

Anyone seen any neat solutions to hiding away this hideous problem?

You're welcome. I'm up on this subject at the moment because my neighbour just had to have the pavement and their own path dug up to replace that main service cable because their existing one had failed dramatically at a join builders had illegally made over 20 years ago in order to move their main fuse.

It's not a small undertaking.

My approach would be a larger slim cupboard that could house things like pair of steps. Small fiddly boxing costs more in time to make and rarely looks better. Maybe design it in sketchup to see how it would look.

Maybe some of that silicone mesh you use to line drawers cut out and put inside the joints. Less messy than applying silicone from a gun.

Is there anywhere else you can move the main fuse and meter to? Maybe a box outside or something? Although that probably costs lots to the electricity distribution company.

Hide the boxes behind a tall piece of furniture with the back cut out simply as camouflage?

If it could be outside that would be dreamy. I imagine the fact it comes up from a concreted floor will make it tricky!

90% of my day job is CAD. DIY is my break...

Haha. Maybe a grandfather clock !?

Maybe a tad expensive at £36 grand but something like this crossed my mind lol.

https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/2013/mackintosh-cabinet-offered-without-reserve-takes-36000/

Sorry about that! I use 3d cad to design any furniture I make these days. I would like a 3d scanner to scan the room and then use a cad system to cut the trim etc.

When we had our loft extension above our bathroom we had the chimney removed/ lowered.
We are considering renovating the bathroom, any idea how much it might cost to have this now top section taken out?

Made the first baby steps in to sorting out my landing and stairs. Was thinking of painting it all but waxed treads might be nice, and the Newell posts seem too nice to cover up. Boards will be replaced with new T&G eventually and painted.

My cheapo sheet sander packed up, so I'm in the market for a new one, do I just go for another sheet sander? That Makita one is still £50 at Screwfix. Will an IR stripper help at all on the stain? I've not tried it yet but I do have one.

Also Zinsser primer straight over stain? The spindles seem pretty new so the surface is good enough to paint without standing.

There's a few bits of damage to the skirting profile. Was thinking of shaping some sort of filler, or cut and splice in a closely matching profile.

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silicone mesh

Good shout. Cheers.

While we're on the subject, can I pick your brains a bit?

Currently plan is to move the main fuse slightly closer to the door/ wall and integrate its box, visually, to the door frame. Then reposition the meter higher up next to the CU) and make the boxing for those two much smaller (it's currently right at/below head height which is not great).

Do either the main fuse or meter have to be set off the wall at all, or can they be screwed directly to it?

I'm not doing any of this of course, but I think I know an electrician who will.

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I think they have to be on a board and the board is the property of your electricity distribution network operator.

If it wasn't people like UKPN wouldn't offer to replace damaged ones for free: https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/electricity/replace-meter-board

Cheers goes off to find hammer

Really though, it seems like I can pay them to do this, although looking at the set up it'll need to be the whole board really which probably means I need to get the supplier in at the same time to move the meter. Gah.

Can they extend a supply cable do you know? If I could move the whole lot up a foot that'd be a much better resolution.

Edit: when I looked in to it last I don't think you can, which is what landed me at the above plan.

Thanks bro, could have said that earlier.

I would have but you just kept talking at me.

Brotherly love, lol 😂

We got two Nest zones and the Nest itself is silent, there is a tiny very quiet click from the little box it connects to when things turn on and off, but we only hear it if the cupboard they're in is open. If you get zones though you'll need two port valves.

Honeywell/Corgi ones are nice and quiet and well built, Honeywell slightly better. Our builder used non-Honeywell/Corgi for two in our cellar, one died and was replaced with a Honeywell and the other still works fine but is annoyingly noisy. Any two port valves installed in new house will be Honeywell.

£85 in Screwfix but I got our replacement one new from Ebay for £40.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/honeywell-home-v4043h-2-port-motorised-valve-22mm-22mm-compression/31480

On the subject of Honeywell boilers.
If I’m setting the program, is the second number when it goes off?

Eg:
1) 7am 20deg c - goes on
2) 8am 20deg c - goes off

Or should I set it to:

1) 7am 20 deg c
2) 8am 15 deg c

So the boiler will only top up the heating to maintain 15 degrees after 8am until the next command in the evening.