Home DIY

is it something needle nose mole grips could manage?

I tried some needle pliers but the arrangement of the jaws mean that grabbing something end on and turning anti-clockwise means the jaws more easily spread apart than if it was clockwise. Tried to then also frankenstein them with some molegrips (holding them shut/stable) and an adjustable spanner to do the turning. No dice. There is not much room around the nut in the recess.

But keep 'em coming. Willing to try out/debunk any and all suggestions.

Aaaaand the plumber has just responded about the TRV swap. Will see how much he wants for the job.

It's pretty depressing being on the other end of this thing too. It's taken me a few weeks to get used to the amount of work I have ahead of me and the problems if deadlines start slipping. The weather is not helping as there's generally 2 years of exterior problems to fix as well.

I hope it works out with your plumber.

Whoops, double post.

I am sympathetic, to a point. And again if it's "I don't know when I can do this" or "I'm too busy to be there any time this month". Then at least I can manage my expectations.

But I suppose this (my reaction) is the thing that you are saying depresses you. Hopefully my builder and plumber have a similar forum where they can rant about how much of a cunt I am.

I think painters and other trades are booked a lot further in advance than people doing heating/plumbing from experience. Who can wait 3 months for someone when they dont have heating or a burst pipe.

Were about 1 sometimes 2 weeks in advance but can always fit in jobs that cant wait to be seen in two weeks. I think the people paying £100 an hour for an emergency plumbers are a bit daft and also the folk charging that are fuckin at it but thats just my opinion.

I think you're outside of London, Scotland right? £100 per hour and that is per person on site! I did think it sounded pretty high. I'm guessing the guys working for Pimlico Plumbers and the like have a fair bit of downtime in order to be able to attend within an hour and work on small emergencies. They do also carry out longer works at the same rate though, that does add up fast.

There is a massive shortfall in skilled trades in London at the moment and an increase in demand so everyone is getting a bit desperate. The money is not even close to amounts a lot of people earn though, I have to put in a lot of hours to pay my dentist for example. Even at £100 per hour I'd have to put in more hours than he does.

It does depress me a bit that I'm charging so much less and allowing people to engage me in long term projects but that's my choice and I have to change my approach if I want to! Over lockdown I did a bit more emergency work and didn't enjoy it much.

Trades do get together and complain about the rub of the green that's for sure but the guys I know are generally like me, managing properties for the long term and dealing with clients they know well. If a regular client calls me to report a leak I'll attend asap, if it's someone I fixed a light switch for then maybe not.

The depressing part is not being able to get more done faster, please the customer and earn more money.

I have a particular plumber I use for small jobs (leaky tap, valve swaps etc) as he said to me that's the kind of work he prefers. He just doesn't like being on the big installs for weeks at a time as he gets bored. It must be that he just has a lot of small jobs on at the minute.

My builder is a new firm and I met him before he broke away from his old one and we had a frank conversation about the fact that I am looking for someone long term as there is A LOT to do in this place and then the continuing maintenance and I'm not after the cheapest or even quickest, just someone who can communicate. Just a let down that within a month or so it's gone the opposite way to what he said to my face. Now, obviously he's just taken on too much work given it's a new enterprise, but it doesn't stop it from annoying me. He could be getting a couple of grand a month from us for nothing overly taxing/complex (for a pro) and then a grand or so a year for general maintenance work.

Yeah were based up in Glasgow. Aye at £140 per white filling rn dentists arent short of it, I have to do a fair bit still to make that.

Yeah as you said the ones charging that aren't busy with regular clients they are just looking to go out and make the big bucks on short easy "emergency jobs" and are sitting about doing it or else saying they are moving work and patching the regular paid jobs for the last min big money jobs. I personally would struggle going out and charging £100 for something that took 15 mins to fix, just feels like your a robber.

You also dont make that great money when your on jobs for weeks and weeks I find and folk often take the utter piss and expect that its your only thing and are at there beck and call.

Sometimes you can make as much for fuck about jobs that dont kill you unlike big jobs that can sometimes be brutal.

Some of the small builders I know are looking at minimum £125k to get involved. They have a 9 month order book. It depends on the number of staff but that seems to be normal if you have 12 or more.

I'm more in the ballpark you're discussing for the majority of my clients and I'm on my own so that's enough work with just a few clients like that. I'll end up getting a few months consistent work in one house and the tools will be there, if it's the first big job and it goes well, everyone is happy, then they usually become a regular. I've never had a business card or looked for employment on line, it's all word of mouth. I turn down about 2/3 of the work I'm offered because I can't fit it in. I try to be the tradesman I would like to hire, that's not always the what the client wants but you can't please all the people all the time!

What tends to happen to people doing that is they get involved with landlords and the demand increases and landlords are better at engaging trades, they are more insistent, require lower quality and more easily satisfied plus if they have a few properties they are in contact more often and they can just tell you what needs doing, you do the job and bill them with confidence that it will be paid. I only deal with one landlord/managing agent now through choice.

I’ve got a radiator with the same problem. Except my bleed valve is in the back! So my beefy key won’t fit and with a key which does fit I can’t get enough leverage to shift it.
It’s the last rad in the house I haven’t replaced- but it’s happening this summer (I bought a load of used Hudevad radiators v cheap on eBay)

The right sized square key should get it to move, or Airhead’s socket idea.
Maybe try and get some penetrating oil in there first, you could dam the bottom of the recess with blu tack or plasticine and flood it with Plus Gas ?

Heating it will also help - but it would have to be hot enough to burn off the paint.
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When you are usually fixing problems for the same client for very much less it does sting a bit.

I see handymen are charging £200 for 1/2 a day here as well. I've only got myself to blame apparently.

Like you I wouldn't feel right charging £100 for a 15 minute job. With some of the small jobs I do I let the customer decide what to pay me and I get more than I would have charged!

penetrating oil

That's something I haven't tried yet (for some reason I can't fathom), so will bung some on now to give it time while I await the new key.

For the full nuclear option weld a breaker bar to it ;)

Or reverse tap it then drive it out with an impact driver.

Or reverse tap it then drive it out with an impact driver.

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I was going to suggest a left handed bolt extractor thingy.

There is so much demand for building work - I was speaking to someone at a quote engine the other day (rhymes with Mark) and they have 200 requests per day that zero builders are picking up for extensions.

There does seem to be less work going on though. Especially considering builders have had free reign on the roads and empty buildings of the country.

I think most of them will be needing a holiday.

Tappy tap tap. Get something on it and give it a right whack

Presumably all this will ease significantly when the fishermen and the farmers re-train as builders, carpenters and so forth.

Quick AQA for those the know: should stainless steel render beading be magnetic?

They'll all be in cyber, which means I'll be the one retraining, and I'll turn my ire onto you cunts.

It's way too wee for me to not fuck something like that up. Plus, I don't own any taps small enough. And if I drilled too far, it would fuck the seat of the radiator which makes the seal. These little things are pointed in the other end which I'm assuming mates with a cone. Over shoot and the whole thing goes to the scrapper.

Anyway, the plumber who is hopefully going to do the TRV swap is now playing a delightful delaying game where he doesn't answer the "when can you do it and for how much questions?" By posing his own questions back to me. At least I can't complain he's gone quiet, but it's not quite what I was hoping.