Home DIY

Pro tip for combi boiler owners for the future; if you literally have no water flow from your hot tap it’s not going to be a fault with your boiler. It’s something physical preventing supply, I.e the stop cock or similar valve has been shut off, and probably by you - it’s not going to be some electrically driven thing.

Unless your plumbing is really ducking weird anyway.

If you have water flow but no hot water….then it’s almost certainly your boiler.

Maybe mark the valve, (with nail varnish etc) to show where 'Open' is,
or,
cable tie a reminder to the valve with the note
' No hot water? Check this is open'.

that's an excellent idea. or it would be if I was 100% sure which one I'm not supposed to touch

Pop up a photo.
The pro-sumers/fellow Combi owners are sure to be able to help.

Try YouTube. It had mine on it.

That wouldnt cause no water at all, if it was fucked. Have you accidentally turned the hot stop cock off under the boiler? @dinosaur

*seen you got it sorted, common mistake when folk go under it and start touching stuff.

If it had been the diverter failed set on CH would you still expect some water flow on the HW side? Would it be cold water?

You would just get cold water at supply pressure. The diverter changes the flow of CH water from the rads to a heat exchanger which then takes the heat and passes it to the clean water which is in its own circuit. There isn't really a good reason for the combi to have the ability to shut off the clean water flow.

You can test this. Have your combi run the CH. Turn off the power to boiler, run the hot tap.

Good point. Every day's a school day. Thanks for the explanation.

Heh, there's nothing better than a post-ride hot shower that suddenly goes very, very cold because your 20 year old combi has breathed its last!

I'm dealing with an aging megaflow in one property at the moment. Looks like this summer might be the time to change it.

Combi boilers are still a bit of a mystery to me although the expansion tank in the workshop boiler needed changing around this time last year and that was a learning curve diagnosing and repairing.

Take a photo of "factory settings" before fiddling with anything that analogue.

Aye just cold wouldnt cut it off all together. Howards explained it below simply.

I have a brick wood store type thingy that needs a new roof. The old one looks like it was tiled at some point but the battens have bowed and there is a lot of rotten timber. Tiles have all been removed.

I have some corrugated metal roofing left over from another job as well as some timber I can use for creating a large "batten" top and bottom edges, leaving an air gap at the sides (overhang of roof would stop rain getting in but allow air movement). I was thinking I could just notch the timber over the brick walls then screw the roof sheeting to those so the whole roof would essentially just rest on the top.

It's in a sheltered spot so the wind lifting it off isn't a concern ... But I feel this is mega bodge territory and there must be a better way that doesn't require a roofer on site for several days?

Might be worth having a timber top plate on the wall.

Then it would be easy to have tiedowns / straps holding the timber to the wall, and trusses / upside down hangers to hold the rafters to the top plate.

Tiles have all been removed.

As in gone, gone, and you don't have them any more?

Sadly I didn't get my router. More unfortunately my mum was knocked sideways but that bad cold going around. On the mend now though, so all good there.

However, the real gift was no longer having to procrastinate over what to buy. She's fucking brilliant at researching shit like this, so I was looking forward to what she'd chose.

Back to the drawing board. But I'm thinking about suggesting that Bosch one posted up thread.

They have been stacked neatly in the garden, so I could re-tile the roof, assuming there are still enough. It looks like it was done properly at some point in the far distant past with lead flashing making the rear edge water tight - it's against a larger wall which forms the back of the store.

This would mean paying for some materials, and learning how to tile and do some basic lead work. Which I'm not against but would slow me down. It's a case of quick and ugly or slow and good looking and probably longer lasting.

Yeah that makes sense and would allow me to fix the sides a bit better whichever roof finish I go for.

Not at home ATM but can post some pics when I'm back after Xmas.

My folks fixed the roof of an old pig sty that sounds similar - albeit a stand alone building. Luckily a neighbour had their roof replaced so they were able to pick through the rotten battens for usable ones.

Anyway point of the story is 1) if they did it in their 60s I reckon you can. 2) It's a wood store, so you can keep it simple Idk if you need to get into lead work. But obviously I'm just imagining the job vs my folks pigsty

Also I think roofing battens are still relatively cheap.

So i nearly bought the fuel m18 multi tool from milwaukee like a few weeks ago, but it was out of stock so I didnt bother. Got given the non fuel multi tool today, so it'll do and ill just use it for work till it dies and then get the fuel version.

If anyone uses Worx power tools let me know- I bought the wrong charger but foolishly threw away the box before realising.

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Is replacing an electric shower as simple as connecting up the existing elec and water supplies and sealing with appropriate bathroom sealant?

As long as your cable is the right size and you an turn the water off its relatively straight forward yes. If your going to do that make sure you get one that the water connection is on the same side as the existing one.

Thanks, will check both before ordering a replacement! I can always turn the water off at the stop cock if there is no isolation valve closer to the shower unit.