Home DIY

As seen here. Had the morning off so pieced everything together and ran a bead of silicone round the worktop. Happy with the result, still need to paint the walls and ceiling (and the drain cover) but things are functional again now.

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Counting this as a success

Damn right, too! We’ve been talking about something like that for ages but never seem to get round to it. Interesting about the overflow going into a pond.

Big cables.

Aha.

I’m not sure where you are or what the nominal voltage is

Sweden, 230V. Not totally uncommon to have 3-phase 380V outlets for heavy duty stuff in peoples garages here. I don’t have any opinions about electricity at all, just that you seemed to find the arrangements here strange/interesting. I know UK plugs have little fuses in them as well, ours don’t.

I fully expect it to cause the pond to overflow when it rains a lot, but I can live with that. The plants around the pond will cope with a bit of wet.

I'm (only slightly) more concerned that the hosepipe won't be able to cope with the full flow if it's properly raining so the butt will overflow but I'll wait until it happens before not doing anything about it.

I did the same thing as @Nef when I saw your post. It would be very unusual to have 3 phase in a domestic setting in the UK. I've seen it in 6 storey houses in Mayfair but it immediately spilts to separate single phase distribution boards.

Our plugs have fuses to protect the cable between the plug and accessory, otherwise an overcurrent fault could cause the cable to overheat and catch fire. I think the UK is unusual in this respect but don't know why it's not normal elsewhere.

Don’t you lot pride yourself on being unusual generally? 😉

In France we don’t have ring mains. Every circuit is radial, and has an RCD and circuit breaker on the consumer unit. Twin & earth is illegal as earths must also be insulated and as big a cable as the other two. Switching is on the neutral wire. There are so many cables!
That’s if your house is up to the normes. Usually you find the most dangerous lashed up mess and have to rip it all out.

Twin and earth has kinda always bothered me as a slightly lazy approach. In the UK its a hard enough time getting 'qualified electricians' to even realise that switching neutral and live at every other point isn't good practice, actually fitting earths to things that should have them is defo a requirement (metal lights, metal back boxed sockets etc) and maybe not holding a 10kw shower cable to the wall by nailing through the centre of it (nailing the earth) to as many different items in a house is also not good. When you question them on these things you'll get the age old 'thats the way i've always done it' retort.

Recently had to pretty much fully rewire my mums house as there was at least 10 points at which the danger level was at the point that if any actually good electrician came in, they would be condemning the structure and using the place as a case study. Lighting circuit was something out of a horror story, in one place I found a nail had been put through some hardboard/plasterboard and the switched neutral for that end of the house was joined by 'hanging it' on the nail from the inside of the wall. On the outside of the wall a picture hung on that nail. Nice surprise! No earths actually really worked, faults and high resistance readings basically everywhere. Phases swapped (3 phase supply, badly utilized into a single phase supply) at every opportunity. 4 ring mains, all of which were crossed with at least one other in some way (neutral or live borrowed into another circuit at random locations). Massively undersized cable in some places, massively oversized cable in others (shower wire being used for lighting circuit). RCD/sensing breakers all wrong types for the duty and just hammered into the consumer unit. Took me 4 days of trying to untangle it before deciding it was too crazy to deal with and replacing everything. 15 days total, no more random trips, blown bulbs and consumer devices blowing up.

It’s just wild that any old dick head can go and buy a consumer unit from screwfix and install it.

There are plenty good sparks out there, but there’s also very little to stop anyone having a go.
Don’t get me started on the minefield that is electrical qualifications.

Switching the neutral seems mental to me, doesn’t that mean a light fitting would still have 230v potential to earth when switched off to change a bulb. Ie, if someone fumbles a finger into the fitting when changing a lightbulb (lamp for you pedants), while holding onto a metal ladder or part of the fitting that’s earthed, they could get a proper belt?

Just been testing a wild house up here. 18 consumer units in the place. 3 phase, 400V potential in some rooms. Mostly installed by a fairly wild maintenance man with questionable qualifications.
He retired at 80ish and didn’t tell anyone how any of it worked. Lots of mad RF switching and controls, age of the installation ranges from newish to 50+ years old.

I think the vast majority of it needs condemned.

Other lols include full bullet proof glass throughout, every internal door is a lockable safety door, and about a million cameras everywhere.

I have no idea how it works. It’s mostly screw in bulbs anyway

Rotten wood underneath glass blocks in the shower, there was a big bead of silicon which wasn’t keeping the water out. Ideas for repair? I’m tempted to fill with cement.

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Desk rebuild/refurb has gone remarkably well. Main reason for wanting to replace the original thing on the right was that the PC didn't fit in it so had always been in front. That's now tucked under the desk where it will keep my legs nice and warm this winter.

Edge of the desk is still unfinished. Intention was to stick a strip of forbo across it and then some sort of beading along the edge. Actually looks much better in its current state than anticipated tho'.

Realise the wall is in a terrible state but since I can't see it again I don't care.

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Anyone got any experience with Evocore laminate flooring? It seems 'nice', but potentially a bit pricey (say £55 per sq/m)? Would I be any worse off with say a Quickstep laminate at half the price?

Does anyone have any particular recommendations for laminate flooring? Kinda struggling with the sheer range out there...

I know I've had some on order for 2 months. Hope it arrives soon so I can finish my damn kitchen.
£55/m seems pricey though compared to what we paid.

My parents have quickstep, either would do though I think evocore tends to have the underlay integrated?

I've had success with repaircare epoxy resin in this kind of situation. You can splice in a new piece of wood or all epoxy or somewhere in between. Price is the barrier to entry. County Chemicals are making one of their own versions now that doesn't need a specialised cartridge gun to dispense it, might be a better option if the budget is tight.

A lot of British electricians think we're far better than everyone else but it seems to me we're in line with the majority of European standards. I think @bq has covered this but France do tend to make us look organised when it comes to electricity.

Yeah it does come with integrated underlay, but I'm still baulking at the headline price. Though it's my first time doing this, so I might be wildly naive?

We only paid about £38/m seems prices have risen quickly

Well up till recently we all should have been installing to euronorm standards so the install quality should all have been the same in the EU. I don't think we've diverged at all yet.

Sounds like you were working in a serial killer house.

Sparks are a different breed, trying to get one that's reliable is hard enough never mind one that's reliable and good.

I need to buy a track and mitre saw. Anyone bought anything on the more budget end that does a good job? Titan, evoloution etc?
Other option is buying a big table saw.

I've got an Evolution mitre saw which has been great. Not as smooth or quite as quick to start up as the Festool at work but very good value for DIY. Also got an Evolution track saw recently but haven't used it yet! Seems good though.