Home DIY

Walls done in time for Halloween.

Still to do:
⬛ Sand back and paint out of shot cupboard door (found a pot of primer hiding)
⬛ Skirting - fill nail holes and paint... on the whole of the ground floor
⬛ Fit sockets
⬛ Fit architrave around French door
⬛ Paint kitchen

1 Attachment

So our communal heating / hot water is broken in our block of flats and management company think it could be another 6 weeks at least to try and fix it properly. To top it off the immersion isn't working either. A plumber came round today and quoted us 1.8k to fix the immersion, fix a leak and another seemingly small job which seems crazy to me but then everything else does too these days. Is this in any way reasonable or should I be looking elsewhere?

They wrote this on the quote:

To isolate incoming water supply
To carry out full drain down to hot water cylinder
To disconnect faulty immersion element
Descale cylinder service appliance
To supply and fit new immersion element alongside stat
To disconnect faulty leaking combination valve alongside expansion vessel To re pressurise system carry out visual checks
Check for correct working operation

Would appreciate any help as I'm obviously clueless.

I paid that for a new unvented cylinder a few years ago (gledhill 120Lt with expansion vessel not a mega flow) seems a bit toppy as a new element is not expensive and it’s a day of their time.

Any advise on how to cut these two sections out of a piece of wood would be helpful.

1 Attachment

That does seem strong for the work and materials. Is there anything unusual about access?

One of the management firms I work for use a company called Maintracts in London. Might be worth getting in touch with them.

That's a mortice and tenon. You can do it with a saw (tenon saw ideally) and a mortice chisel. It's one of the most basic and useful carpentry joints, there must be thousands of videos and books explaining how to make one.

@Airhead @Mr_Smyth thanks both - appreciate it.

That's a fuck off I dont want the job price that, one thing I will say is sometimes the tank can twist if the immersion heater is stuck in and then you need a new cylinder usually.

Realise maybe not quite thread appropriate but thought as good a place to ask…

Had a new kitchen installed, been using oven for 3 months. Last night it blows out and I can smell burning and find the plug smoking result as detailed in pics.

Contacting the kitchen fitter, but assume I’ll need to contact magnet who provided the oven. Anyone any idea why this would happen? Appliance specific or this to do with how the electrics have been done?

Fuse didn’t go in the main fuse box for the flat, that was still on. I got totally no idea on this stuff so forgive me for any confused language.

2 Attachments

That doesn't look like a correct install for an oven. Shouldn't it be directly into a fused spur? The plug itself looks horribly wired as is - does it even have an earth?

Others will have far more knowledge than me but it looks like a bit of a shonky install. The cable outer has been stripped way back beyond the plug which shouldn't be done. Could be this meant the wire in the plug pulled loose and was making an intermittent connection which can cause stuff to overheat.

Or they may have wired a high draw appliance into a plug, have a look at the specs for the oven to see what the power draw is.

Shouldn't it be directly into a fused spur

Single ovens often draw less than 3KW and can be plugged in rather than wired directly (still obviously a shit plug wiring though).

looks like a bit of a shonky install

Was my first thought too!

the wire in the plug pulled loose and was making an intermittent connection which can cause stuff to overheat

This happened to me with an old hoover. When I opened up the plug thinking the fuse must have gone I realised the neutral grub screw was completely loose. Killed the hoover when it popped which is probably preferable to starting a house fire!

Fair enough.

@greeno - I would be asking Magnet to pay for an independent electrician to come in and review all of the work. Did you get your EIC certificate from the installer?

Thanks all, I did notice the outer cable not housed properly so maybe it’s that. I should add it happened just after I switched a dehumidifier on in the next room but assuming unrelated as nothing tripped at the fuse box.

Just found this regarding the oven specs, and it says hardwired only. Would the installer really have fitted a plug though?! I’d have assumed the oven came with that plug on… but maybe not.

Didn’t get an eic certificate, no idea what that is, like I say, totally out of my depth. This whole kitchen process has totally killed me, literally just got the last bit finished on Sunday and we started in July.

Also spec below says required fuse 16amp and plug says it’s a 3 amp, that’s not right is it?!

1 Attachment

Just found this regarding the oven specs, and it says hardwired only. Would the installer really have fitted a plug though?! I’d have assumed the oven came with that plug on… but maybe not.

16A Fuse, should not be fitted with a plug and a 13A fuse.

My oven is <3kw and has a 13A rating and can be wired in via a plug. The grand rewire will fix this though, in case I want to upgrade the oven in the future. It's a good idea to have it on its own circuit anyway.

I'd definitely be complaining and getting an independent spark in to check on things (paid for by Magnet).

Magnet would have outsourced the installation but they're still ultimately responsible.

Yeah, that's a bodge job.

That's above 3Kw (3.5 looking at the specs) and must be wired into a fused spur, ideally on its own circuit. There's no way that the oven would have come with that plug.

Your electrician is required by law to provide an EIC (electrical installation certificate) if they make certain changes. Re-wiring a kitchen would definitely fall under that law.

16 Amp definitely should not be wired into a plug, maximum is 13A (which I suspect is what your plug probably is).

If it came with a plug 99% it would have been moulded (and if it is that oven it wouldn't have come with a plug).

I would be going back to whoever fitted the oven very hard, it's dangerous incompetence at the best.

Fuck thanks all.
Just spoken to fitter and he is coming round this afternoon, he has been v good but obvs this is concerning.

He says it’s correct it’s done via plug and only the hob is hardwired. Said he put the plug on but it shouldn’t be a 3amp, he said if he had done that it would have blown straight away, but he is coming to check.

Issue I have is because so much other work needed doing in the kitchen to prep it that fell outside of the scope of magnets installation, I ultimately engaged with him privately which I was cautious about and now regretting.

Anyway, he’s coming over, and the above comments have helped me discuss this with him.

Thanks all XX

All the above is correct, and not trying to mitigate for shonky install, but when we had a new circuit/cable put in for our oven, our electrician explained that the total loading figure in watts would only ever be touched if you simultaneously turned on every single element, hob (in our case) ring, and grill element onto full whack from cold, which isn’t actually possible on the oven controls, so while it was still important to install to that spec for compliance, the actual figure was a misnomer.

Doesn’t really make a difference to the above - and the plug definitely looks sketchy - but sounds like your sparky is responsive and communicative which I think is a tick in the positive column vs him being a total cowboy!

What’s the oven model? Some online retailers aren’t always as good at showing the actual specs when you compare to the manufacturer model/documentation as they carry so many similar SKUs and sometimes things getting erroneously translated across from similar models under the assumption that they’re the same.

I'd be more inclined to believe the manufacturer specs than what an unaffiliated electrician tells you.

At the very least, if going with his word, I'd want written confirmation from his insurance company that they would cover any issues arising from an install against the manufacturer instructions.

Thanks for your concern. If:

important to install to that spec for compliance, the actual figure was a misnomer

was not clear: Our electrician installed to spec per the maximum load, and made it clear that he was not and would not suggest otherwise, the discussion was merely academic.

there a are fewer and fewer plug suitable ovens and theyre very cheap now, we had to get a new spur run all the way from the board to our kitchen after our oven blew and the person who came to fit our new oven said that the previous installer should have never installed the last one (previous owners DIYd the kitchen we think)

Thanks all, for the record it’s an AEG BPK948330B which was ‘free’ as part of the kitchen purchase.

Pretty sure your block freeholder / manager is in danger of being in breach of lease with the 6weeks lead time.