Home DIY

I think we were all wanting to know how best to escalate the situation for you. It's not trivial but it's also beyond belief..

Assuming you dont need to put the batten back on, Cut it off from behind the batten with an appropriate multitool blade.

beyond belief

Kind of not. The new install ticket was closed within SLA. The fault ticket isn't linked to that.

That's a lot more than I know or are familiar with..
Geezer just unplugged his internet and plugged it into nextdoor.
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Get a flathead behind the screwhead or the batten to apply some outward pressure

Does the screw still rotate?
If 'Yes', the rawlplug is rotating in its hole in the brickwall.
Best non-destructive option: multi-tool with metal-cutting blade to cut the screw flush with the plaster.

Use a drywall sander with a vacuum attachment.

Pull on the batten outwards while spinning the screw with an electric screwdriver.

Pull on the batten while turning the screw. Or just cut the batten away and push the screw into the wall.

Remove entire wall and fill wall shaped hole with whatever Toupret Airhead says

Or sell house

Lots of different ways, hard to say what would be best without getting a feel for what's happening with the plug.

Pull on the batten while you unscrew it is a good starting point.

Sometimes I drill the head off and drill around the screw with a hollow tile drill that I've cut teeth into. You can make something similar from a golf club shaft.

Thanks all. @dbr 's comment wins - flat is sold, I just need to remove the batten and fill the resulting hole before the end of the week...

The screw is absolutely definitely not moving. I've tried with a power driver, and a manual driver, and I've even tried making noises while I try to turn it. But no luck.

Father in law arrives tomorrow with a reciprocating multitool, so it'll be gone by lunchtime...

So we’re reconnected.

The technician arrived and I just let him do his thing; didn’t make any suggestions to what had happened and he said “I know what’s happened here - they’ve disconnected you to connect next door”.

He wasn’t overly surprised: “yeh some just want to get in and get the job done as quickly as possible. I reckon they saw a poor signal*, decided a splitter wasn’t appropriate but couldn’t be bothered to run a new connection from the street”.

*there has been noise on the line all weekend apparently

He tested everything, fitted a noise suppression thing on the back of our router, and connected everything back up (including the new neighbours). Customer Service are calling me this afternoon - with the technician’s report, it’s not just my word that a Virgin employee took the shortcut and disconnected us (and came into our garden without permission).

I’m going to ask for this month’s bill to be cancelled and a chunk of change as an apology. Let’s see… a Yorkshireman with money in the crosshairs is a formidable force.

flat is sold, just need to

cover the whole thing in expanding foam an walk away without looking back

We're with Plusnet, the other day the internet went off. Spoke to them, problem on the line somewhere near our house so booked an engineer to come the next morning. Engineer doesn't turn up, I call to find out why and they said it was cancelled because Openreach made a note that it's a bigger issue and marked critical. Ended up taking 1 1/2 days to resolve, I reckon someone had snipped an optical cable. Just had an email saying because of the cancelled engineer they're giving me £30 credit. I'm not mad at that, a world away from the experience I've had with Virgin Media in the past.

cover the whole thing in expanding foam an walk away without looking back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Qz73_m0_o

Surely there must be some sort of chemical that can dissolve it?

I would either try and snap the head of the screw with an impact, or drill the head off with a big HSS bit. Then when the batten is off, either hammer what's left beneath the wall level or twist/pull the remnants out with vice grips. Then fill whatever fresh hell has been left behind.

That’s not a bad turnaround and goodwill gesture, tbf. Glad you’re back online now - it’s a bit of a pain with hybrid working being the norm for anyone with a desk job!

Yes, but it'd be madness to use chemicals on that much foam. And the resulting slurry would be harder to deal with than solid foam.

Good point.

I'm normally all up for slightly pointless projects that get a unique result. But in this case, I couldn't help but think this was a colossal effort for a moderate result.

He also should have saved some time and money by leaving a ft of the old foam as the insulation.

After the recent drill chat and advice on here, I did my first drilling into brick this morning ... OMG new Milwaukee drill is amazing! Wish I'd bought one sooner, would have saved me a decent few hours.

A decent drill is a revelation.

Correction: any decent tool is a revelation.

Uh, that's why you just flush it down the toilet.

That video is always a great watch though.

I imagine it's a bit too flammable and toxic to be used for that.