Home DIY

It's a very popular make. The link opens ironmongery direct with all their union products. If you can find the lock+plate combination you have a chance of getting the plate on it's own.

https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/search?query=union

Thanks for that. I will give it a look when I get some peace.

Replacing a single radiator with a double - is there any way I can solve this, other than getting a plumber in to put a step in the pipe?

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@fredtc if you need to bring the pipe further out from the wall, can you determine what direction the pipe comes from? Most have some movement underneath flooring so you could get a bit of the floor board and pull it level with the rad?

Obviously you’ll need to be very careful if you’re taking a chunk of the floorboard out as the pipe is so close.

That worked on the other end but unfortunately the pipe runs parallel to the radiator so no wiggle room on this end

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CORNAT-T591517-4-inch-Connection-Radiator/dp/B00C0M2NVA

seems this is a thing - but no where stocks them. does anyone know of something similar that's available?

Your best bet is likely a local plumbers merchant. Take photo and cross fingers.

@konastab01 is the man round here to ask.

Time for all the trades to roast the IT geek. We're planning to put a plaster ceiling rose up in the living room and because of the horror show of a hole left by the previous fitting, I wanted something more substantial to be able to screw into while the adhesive sets, and in case the adhesive fails. So I took up a couple of boards in the bedroom above and fitted a 1' x 1' x 2" slab of timber between the joists. I also then fitted a length of twin and earth so I could feed that through a smaller hole rather than having to pull EVERYTHING through the ceiling to connect up the light fitting. The size of hole needed for that is bigger than the footprint of the light fitting. You can see the timber through the massive existing hole. And the four small holes mark the corners of that, and subsequently show the inner edges of the two nearest joists. Will have plenty to screw into.

The flaming will come from when I wired it back up. The light being on in the photo was when the wall switch was set to off. Who wants to guess what I did wrong? Took much swearing and head scratching before I worked it out.

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Ok, I'll play.

You connected all the similar colours together instead of the correct wiring for a 3 plate where the switch line neutral is effectively a line conductor and should be sleeved to show that.

Bingo. Wasn't sleeved. And had sat for so long I totally forgot about it. As soon as I worked it out I remembered thinking back to myself 6 months ago saying "I need to remember this....".

I just went black to blue and red to brown. Was easily fixed, and thank fuck for the new CU unit we got a few months ago. However, note to self, test everything before putting the whole bedroom back together in case you need to go into the floor again.

I've been on site with 'professional' electricians who've made worse mistakes this week. Well done for solving it before posting. I can remember a few pictures of 3-plates on here with people scratching their heads.

Cheers. I'm mostly annoyed at the spark who replaced the CU and did the EICR. He had every fitting and socket off near enough. He should have sleeved it. In fact, the two black wires were screwed into one screw connector/terminal block thing. This is the second bodge of his. The pendant in my office wasn't even fixed to the ceiling, just held up by the wires.

I'll admit I kind of know why the fix worked, but I'm still struggling with how it didn't explode more when it was in the wrong configuration. I'll need to draw the circuit out when I can be arsed to see what was actually going on. Anyway, all wago'd up and the connection from the circuit to the length of T&E is in a choc box in the ceiling. I hope that wasn't a stupid thing to do.

The other bollox was finding the bastard roll of earth sleeve I bought months ago. Of course it was in the letter rack. But I didn't see that before emptying EVERY tool or shed related box in the house.

You're very unlikely to find sleeving on switch lines in older properties. It's like commenting code or writing user manuals, absolutely should be done but quite often doesn't unless someone is forcing it. The electrical trade is quite secretive though, there's a kind of pride that they can navigate the perils without any help.

Maintenance free connections like your choc box one are fine as long as you've used Wago's (or similar) screwed terminals are not maintenance free because AC pulsing can cause the screws to loosen. The wires do also need to be secured to make sure they couldn't pull out if for example someone tried to pull on that wire without seeing that connection. Wago make some nice boxes specially for the purpose.

Earth sleeve, it always feels good when you have the right size earth sleeve to hand.

One thing a lot of people do which is not recommended is twist earth wires together, it can cause problems over time if you have to disconnect and rejoin the wires because the copper work-hardens.

I tug tested the connections first, all seemed solid. Also, because the connections aren't in line (they all go in to the same side of the wago), the cables go into the choc box throught the same hole. I then taped the cables together so if you pulled on the single length of T&E, you wouldn't be pulling on the wago connection, if that makes sense.

One thing a lot of people do which is not recommended is twist earth wires together, it can cause problems over time if you have to disconnect and rejoin the wires because the copper work-hardens.

I cut off any twisted portions because of the fear of that.

I'll need to draw the circuit out when I can be arsed to see what was actually going on.

http://www.lightwiring.co.uk/tag/ceiling-rose/

Ta, but I meant the wrong one. I can't seem to visualise what I did without drawing it. Probably just as simple as it being wired straight to the mains. But then when the switch was set to "on", the RCD tripped.

If you dont wanna get a engineer in, take some out the floor board and see if there is room to move the pipe up and down or else you'll have to get a man in if you cannot do it yourself.

Be careful on that option tho that you dont nick the pipe if doing it with the board in.

Personally id probs lift the board id it was me instead of trying to do it with the board in place, unless you've got boards at the house I was at last week that were a fuckin mission to lift as they had used giant nails and had it under the skirting but yours is long ways so should be ok.

anyone ever had a MVHR system in their house before?

Looking at insulation our solid wall 1908 terraced house and have been advised proper ventilation essential to stop internal moisture buildup and everything that comes with that

I imagine what you did was wire the switch line return into the neutral terminal, so you the line went to the switch and back (to the switch on red, back on black), so you essentially put a short circuit in by connecting line to neutral with no load on it.

That’s my guess at least. If I’m replacing a rose or changing a light I make sure to label all the conductors properly, or at least try and bend them in a way that makes it a bit more obvious.

Changing lights and creating a short circuit is an incredibly common mistake that several of my non spark mates have told me about, you’re not alone!

It's not the first, and I'm sure not the last "well that's not fucken right!" moments in this reno.

Truth be told I created a SC when wiring an outside light switch and got the wiring of the indicator LED on the switch wrong. It happens. Least I know their breaker works.

Like an envirovent? Few mates have them, literally just to recirculate air from the loft into the house tho.

like this