Home DIY

Switzerland

Ah yes.
I didn’t notice the weird long handled shovel thing. Very unBritish.

We use the long handle shovels down here in Devon, in fact they are called Devon shovels, I love mine, can really get good leverage on one.

also require much less bending over, so saves your back a bit.

Yep, and when you get really annoyed and want to hit something, you can get really good momentum.

Arrrrr.

I’ve used them in the States and I concur they’re easier on the back (short handled shovel was called Dutch Shovel, where I was), not seen them in UK.
Also all concrete and mortar is mixed in a bath with a hoe, none of that back-breaking knocking up on a board shit.

Anyone have any experience drilling double-glazing with blown seals?

I'm 8 stories up, windows aren't being replaced for a good few years, and maybe 50% have moisture ingress and spoiling the view.

I've got a Dremmel and a compressor to blow air through - worth buying a glass drill bit, follow instructions for drilling windows, and cracking on with smallest one first? ....Or get a glazier/drill specialist in, and let them do it with proper kit?

Can you not just pop the double-glazed units out of the frames (inwards) and replace them?

Not as far as I can see - they're box-section alu frames, the glass slid into the 'H' section, with five + windows built/installed in one frame. I think they might be done like this because the building gets an absolute battering from the wind (hence the blown seals) and this prevents any chance of them working free.

....but, I could replace the opening windows (2 out of 5 panels) - and put up with the rest until they all get replaced in a few years.

The alu frames are ridiculous for thermal bridging/heat-exchange, so the need for proper vacuum sealed double-glazing is negligible.

I thought all shovels had long handles. Spades are the short handled ones.

Nah Fam.
Spades are for digging and shovels are for ... shovelling

When I was an archaeologist, we were working on some test pits on the site of the extension of Belmarsh prison. It was all peat bog and we had to take 20m x 5m trenches down through 5m of peat to get to any archaeology. All by hand. I found a love for a long handled, pointed shovel. I was able to be pretty surgical as well as agricultural by the end.

Problem was it was well below the waterline so each trench had to be fully pumped out every morning.

I say we had to dig down 5m. Another site nearby that opened a few years later found one of Europe's oldest bronze age wooden track ways that we must have chopped through (because we didn't record it) thinking they were just bog oaks. We weren't very good archaeologists.

Thanks for the advice chaps, the Festool Systainers seem to be a lot cheaper than the Tanos/unbranded ones, so I've gone for them.

The use case is for my bike tools, with the tote thing being the most used/throw in the car for a day's cycling and the standard box being the longer duration trip/more seldom used tools.

My builder fitted a door for me today in an old frame but he stepped the side out to clear the insulation and it closes itself. Should I kick up a fuss or is it a harder job than I'm imagining?

If I'm going to be British about it and not say anything can those little hinge shims sort it out?

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stepped the side out to clear the insulation

I don’t understand what this means
(?)

It closes itself because the existing doorframe/lining isn’t plumb.
If the hinges are not in line vertically a door will with either stay open or close itself.

few years later found one of Europe's oldest bronze age wooden track ways that we must have chopped through (because we didn't record it) thinking they were just bog oaks. We weren't very good archaeologists.

Great story, did lol.

New insulation came right up to the edge of the frame, so he built out the frame by an inch with new timber. That the bit on the right that the hinges were attached to.

Can you not take it down, shim the frame he added so it's plum and put the door back on, or maybe ask if he would. If you have a spirit level you can check the frame to see how far out it is and in which direction.

I think it’s perfectly ok to ask the guy who fitted it why it is the way it is.
Be careful not to sound like a cunt though.
🙂
The two sides of the frame have to be pretty much on the same plane for the door to look right when it’s closed. He could have set the new half of the frame plumb to avoid it closing by itself, but when the door was closed the top of the frame on the left would have not been flush with the door and the doorstop would need to be set diagonally in the door frame.
Hard to explain.
This situation is common in older houses where walls, windows and doors are no longer plumb.

If I have a tricky job that I realise may not reach a client’s expectation, I try to explain why things are the way they are.
A lot of tradesmen have a ‘never explain, never apologise’ credo however.

If you have a spirit level you can check the frame to see how far out it is and in which direction.

If the door is closing by itself then the foot of the door (as we see it) is out of plumb toward us.

And it only continues, just think of the priceless historical remains you've already obliterated in and around your house. :)

I think he’s fitted the hinges at unusual heights though.
🧐

Me too.

‘What’s all this crappy old wood in the way?’

Could be both though. Looks like it's wider at the bottom of the frame.

If it was written about by contemporaries, it's not proper archaeology.

Yes, that would do it too.
Although to me the stiles look a consistent width.
If the carpenter hasn’t put the new frame in plumb in that plane he’s a twat.