Home DIY

Suspicious damp patch and the boiler keeps dropping pressure. Got Homeserve engineer coming out on Thurs but want to be prepared to cut a hole in the roof myself if he isn’t willing.

Any tips for doing it as neatly/safely as possible? Will try to fix it myself after so want to do it as neatly as possible.

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Try and find the nearest joists and cut through the plasterboard down the middle of the joists. Keep the piece you cut out and put it back in if it's not too wet/damaged.

Cheap, shit, and annoying option:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/debox-24a-in-line-junction-box-white/8692H

Less cheap but less annoying option:

https://www.toolstation.com/ideal-industries-in-line-push-in-wire-connector/p87609

In one of these:

https://www.toolstation.com/ideal-industries-in-sure-enclosure/p13986

You’ll need to cable tie the box shut to be fully compliant.

Don’t forget you’ll need to sleeve the earth cable as well.
You can buy short lengths of it on eBay or scamazon if you don’t want the usual long lengths they sell.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115147366562

Nb those ideal connectors only work on solid core cables (which those appear to be). Would need to be the lever type if they’re stranded copper.

I think the other guys got it, but the zigbee stuff works if you have the current generation web bridge (v3). Anything in the Tuyo /smart life approved range of products plays quite well together I've found, quite rare in the UK as suspect a lot of it isn't fully UK electrical certified, but a lot of European countries and many east Asian countries are happy with that stuff. UK also has weird shaped plugs, light switchs and form factor, so there isn't a huge choice for smart stuff vs living in European area.

all sorted with the wagos, will put them in the boxes once the studwork has been reshuffled as i need to disconnect and reconnect them before boarding over.

Any tips for doing it as neatly/safely

Multitool, in case you were wondering.

Smoke alarms... Any reason not to just get the £9.99 ones? All this internet-of-things stuff seems a bit OTT.

What’s upstairs? You’ll repair a patch in the ceiling Ok but it’ll show to some degree, perhaps easier to lift the floor upstairs. Chances are that’s where the [failed] connection was made in the first place if the heating was retro-fit.

Unless you live in a very rural location or it's a second property you don't visit much I can't see the benefit of the "smart" alarms.

You'll have some folks come along in a mo to tell you the smoke alarm downstairs going off didn't wake them when they were sleeping on the top floor. Whether 'connected' smoke alarms means 'smart' IDK, but on balance it seems like a good idea to have all of them go off if one of them does. This should be a feature of £9.99 smoke alarms, but it isn't.

Main priority for me is that you can easily remove them and put them under a cushion when you're browsing meat.

We've got a few of these and when I test them, it basically shakes the house... There's no way you could sleep through one of them going off downstairs

put them under a cushion when you're browsing meat

🧐

I agree with this. Very sensible to have alarms interconnected.

You can wire the £15 ones together if that suits or get more expensive wirelessly linked ones, you don’t need them on the Wi-Fi.

You can wire the £15 ones together if you happen to have stripped your house back to the brickwork

Wirelessly [non-wifi] linking them together should be a feature of the cheapest reg-meeting alarms. The tech to do so is ancient.

Cheers for the various slab cutting suggestions. Trying to avoid buying an angle grinder so may just have a go at it with big drill and a chisel (although Ryobi ones do come up cheap sometimes).

I think the problem is they're under quite strict regulations so not allowed to be linked through a potentially flakey wifi.

I have the Google ones as I live close to my work and figured I'd want an alert if my house was on fire rather than waiting to smell smoke. Not sure I'd recommend (disregarding the extortionate price) as we've had a few false alarms (I need to clean the kitchen one, had another replaced under warranty) which is pretty scary in the middle of the night. Advantage is it tells you where the 'fire' is so I knew where to look. Also a warning when it gets a bit smokey though I always just end up pulling out a chair and pressing the button anyway as it's faster than finding the app. Night light on the landing is handy for midnight loo visits too though I'm sure that could be done cheaper.

Yep, the main useful thing I found with the smart ones was the the alarm will go off in a minute, do you want to snooze it feature.

under quite strict regulations so not allowed to be linked through a potentially flakey wifi.

Yes - wirelessly linking them together on their own proprietary private network is how they should work, and the tech for doing so has existed forever, see any multi-device wireless burglar alarm from the 90s.

You can get a set and heat pad for like £150 or something and they are all wirelessly linked no wifi or anything.

Directly below the shower tray in a bathroom with slate tiled floor, could be the cause, but my bets are on a heating pipe.
Either way, I can’t access from above.

Before I buy one, does anyone have a heat gun going spare? I imagine they're the sort of thing you use for a project and then never touch again.

Depending on how hard core it needs to be you can sometimes get away with a hairdryer.

Not particularly hardcore, but will be used for quite a while - stripping paint from a staircase - so I think I'll probably destroy Mrs Sparky's fancy hairdryer if I try.

You can borrow mine for as long as you need if that helps. I will likely need it again, but I have nothing in mind in the immediate future.