Home DIY

Well, our mattress is also on the floor if that gets you going.

Someone posted on here about a paint stripper that apparently is the old nitromors formula that is good. Was on ebay im sure.

Heat gun was useless, the black paint came off by scrapping. Paint stripper got off the white layer but the terracotta floor paint is firmly attached and impervious to sanding, scrapping and heat .

I've got to be honest I preferred it how it was before. Soz.

I can see daylight through my roof.

I just had an image of you being confused by a velux. As you were.

This. 1/3rd is expensive wine we brought from London that needs to be kept for a few years, but the other 2/3rds is €3-4 a bottle bought on special offers. Mostly cheap Bordeaux which is the local stuff, but also about 8 cases bought at Lidl when they had an Italian week, because it's impossible to buy decent well-priced Italian wine here.

Basically how you live in France is wait till the thing you want is on special offer somewhere, then buy as much of it as you possibly can. Otherwise the cost of living is rather high.

Ha ha :-D

All of our radiators are good, apart from the one in my study, which only heats up around the TRV although there's obviously hot water getting to it.

I've bled it, it's not the TRV and the radiators either side get super hot. The pin for the TRV seems to move up and down fine and not be stuck.

So rebalancing is the only thing I can think of, but it sounds like a right faff to be honest.

Any other ideas?

Which forbidden lifehacks did YouTube reveal to you?

I’m pretty sure it’s not completely banned in the EU (we have several tanks full at work) but maybe it is for consumer purchase/use.

Is it blocked?
I've no idea of the hassle this would entail but can you remove it and flush it out with a high pressure hose?

Or buy a new one.

Yep, sounds like it’s full of sludge. You can get a powerflush done on the whole system relatively cheaply.

Is it blocked?

Hmm, quite possibly yes from my googling. I don't think an unbalanced radiator would be as cold as this one is.

Thanks both, I need to get my friendly plumber/heating engineer in anyway...

Worth powerflushing the system anyway as will make more efficient - dunno if you’re keeping the boiler but maybe add a magnaclean at the same time?

Think it's already got one but need to remove a panel in the kitchen for a better look. Boiler was only fitted in 2018 and inhibitor was put in then, so I'd be surprised normally if it needed a flush already, but nobody was living here for the last few years which might explain a gunked up radiator?

Sounds like a job for Peter the plumber anyway as I want to get him into to move a radiator or two and talk about adding a hot water cylinder.

Definitely planning to keep the combi boiler as it's a £1300 Vaillant that was fitted in October 2018, just want decent bath filling capacity...

We're also in the process of getting our loft done and I was told today that building control are now tightening down on the implementation of the regs. So whereas you used to be able to get away with keeping your old doors and having linked alarms in all rooms now they are insisting on replacing all internal doors.

You could fit the cheapest-possible fire rated doors, then replace with originals after building regs inspection.

Good to know. I’ve found something I can probably tolerate. Would like to be able to see something in person before having to buy something that I’m going to have to look at constantly throughout the house.

https://www.vibrantdoors.co.uk/door/-78-x-30-traditional-victorian-4-panel-oak-fire-doors

I think what’s probably more important is the hardware, so will have to get on the case for some nice reclaimed or repro stuff. Like the porcelain look.

2 Attachments

Well a plumber will know better but if you take a look at the magna clean filter and it looks dirty then you could take that out and clean it and see if that improves the situation

You could fit the cheapest-possible fire rated doors, then replace with originals after building regs inspection.

What happens if you then have a fire and some sort of inspector starts digging? Could you end up uninsured?

You didn't hear it from me boss..

There is a vid of twenty uses for the tool - none of them individually earth shattering but it gives an idea of the versatility of it. One of those ‘I don’t know what I did before I had it’ type things.

Prolly me. Starchem Synstrip. Full PPE and lots of ventilation required though. It's properly nasty stuff.

Just open the balance valve a bit and see what happens. Turn it back a bit if it's too much.

I think they can get blocked up if only cracked open during initial balancing. We've had a couple like that!