I fixed my firewall so you should all be able to see this:
formatting link
far, temporary power on surface run cables (ie builders and me can see them). 2 lights so far, will add more next weekend, do a final "Megger" on the whole lot and write out an electrical installation cert which will prove useful in dealings with EDF. Then I'll be able to kill off the old CU completely. At least we have RCDs now...
Worked like a demon yesterday to drain down heating, chop off and cap off 4 radiators + bath and refill heating and check for leaks. Also move bolier over to a fused spur from temp socket circuit to make walls safe for Pete the Builder to put a diamond cutter though some of them for doorway alterations. Got home at 1am, ate and bed at 2:30 (good film on telly). Now I am dead, so please excuse bad typing.
Pete and Darren of Broadbeech Builders,Tunbridge Wells, have been very busy digging new drains. As there were so many drain alterations, I asked them to run a completely new set with 3 pits, and they managed to maintain a connection to the old drains so the loo still works (hurrah).
I'm glad I subbed this bit out - along with the building of new walls. Until I go full time on this project in Feb 2009, it's nice to see some leaps in progress that I couldn't manage myself at such speed.
There are a couple of questions spinning off from this, but I'll ask those later whern I'm awake.
Your late nights sound like my father who bought an old Scottish house near Edinburgh in 1953, and would come home from work, have his tea and then travel 12 miles to work on the property which had nothing done to most of it since the 1750's. It took 4 years to make it partially habitable. Childhood memories of walking across open floor joists and pulling cables through conduits.
ARWadsworth coughed up some electrons that declared:
Ta. Must get this stuff into a blog...
I can imagine.
Other things I learnt on Saturday:
1) No matter how long one can use fine wirewool barehanded, nothing prepares you for the myriad skin abrasions caused by coarse wirewool. Gloves next time.
2) Going well prepared is good - enough other stuff will go wrong without setting yourself up for a fall ;-> I have cheap stackable Tesco's toolboxes (also in Wickes for more money) - 1 Plumbing, 2 Electrical tools, 3 Electrical odd bits (sleeve, earth blocks, random stuff), 4 Screws and rawlplugs, 5 Screwdriver and power driver set. Means I can grab and stack the right boxes for the jobs. I'm told buckets also work quite well.
3) 1950s paint on pipes is indestructible by both wirewool and flame - see (1). Next time I'll just scrape it off and solder a cap on.
4) Subbing out select work is good if the budget permits. More happens at the beginning when the destruction and partial reconstruction is happening. Destruction is bad. Seeing stuff go back together is a great mood enhancer. Also makes you do your jobs quicker, ie disconnect electrics and pipes so real men with big tools can chop your walls to bits.
5) Communicate with often with anyone you invite to do work. I'd marked up a wall for a 76cm door. I meant 76cm door which requires an opening of maybe
85cm. Men on job had read this as a literal 76cm cut which would take a
71cm door. I'd nipped down before work today so I was able to explain this. Not their fault - we both read it in different but quite reasonable ways.
6) Give the men doing the work an outline of what you are aiming for, even if it's not work they'll be doing. I'd positioned two drain pits to allow a theoretical conservatory to sit between them. Because I'd pegged out the corners of the conservatory and explained my plans to Pete the Builder, the following happened:
He needed to bring the pits a little closer together to use a single 3m pipe between them (less joints is good, especially if they are under a building). However, because he knew what I was doing, he managed to bring them together in a way that doesn't impede the conservatory. The conservatory might never get built, but if it does, I don't have to mess around with the drains - they are already correct.
7) I like JG Speedfit for quick jobs like the lashup to the bog. I can see its merits and the fittings do feel very positive on both copper and plastic. I may be converted. Jury's out. I tried it because Screwfix had
30m for 11 quid and bags of 10 fittings for 9-10 quid. Bending the coiled stuff straight is a bit painful, but being able to run long unbroken lengths is good.
8) Every tool I've bought for the job has been used in anger, except the wall chaser and box sinking chisels. Although Saturday was a long day, it progressed without the frustration of past jobs, because I had a means to do most things directly to hand.
9) Can anyone recommend a good opensource blog system for Linux (ie runs under Apache)?
Flame followed by scraping with a staley blade to remove the worst of the paint, then the wire wool. Most of the paint may scrape/chip off whilst cold with a big flat screwdriver.
Nice
Polypipe and Hep20 pipes are a little more flexible than JG
3m? No I meant 6m pipe. It's angled so gives about 5m wall-wall clearance for a wide but not deep conservatory, or more to the point allows some wiggle room for a smaller one.
ARWadsworth coughed up some electrons that declared:
That's an idea.
I did find it chipped off with a screwdriver - but I was worried about gouging the pipe prior to using an o-ring based fitting which is why I didn't.
OK - as I said, the JG was opportunistic as I knew it would be a temporary item. If I decided to use plastic for the finished job I'll certainly look into the two you mentioned.
Heh - I'll enjoy it even more when I start wiring up and laying floor tiles.
I've got a lot more mess to get through first. I'll do the wall chasing and box sinking in a few weeks and take down a couple of suspect ceilings (old bathroom ceiling is some funny crap with what looks like brown fur inside, though that might be glass wool poking through, and surface framing.
Wonder if that's anything I should be worried about?
The bay windows never liked paper stuck to them, always fell off, rumours of asbestos cement - but it might just be poor insulation above letting the surface get cold and damp, so I'll have one of those off too and see if it's worth doing anything to them.
Also need to take the ceiling board off the little sloping rear rooflet where the shower's going to replace with aquapanel or something else that's really water proof.
Gloves all the time when plumbing! (box of latex examination gloves are ideal for plumbing - stops all the metal oxides getting ground into the skin).
Yup, I concluded it was worth having boxes dedicated to tasks, even if that meant duplicating some tools. It just gets to complicated if you start borrowing things from one kit to do another job (says the man who had to use a mini pipe cutter the other day because he took the big one out of the plumbing bag to strip some SWA and forgot to put it back!)
Flame and pipe brush usually works. (it strikes me there is a market for a pipe cleaning bush that can be driven from the end of a drill)
I don't know, destruction of something that was seriously ugly, or bodged can be quite therapeutic. ;-)
You will probably find real mean with big tools left to their own devices would also "disconnect" electrics and pipes rather quickly. (the mess may take more cleaning up however)
Speedfit I have used enough to trust now - only ever had problems on copper when you can't insert it straightly, and you can tell by feel that it is wrong when it happens. Tried some cuprofit the other day - that worked well. I also used some "Floplast" but I was not very keen on
- very hard work inserting the pipes, especially with inserts in, and you never got that feeling that the joint was a good one. Still to be fair, it has all held and no leaks yet.
It certainly was when I chipped off the last of the dark brown tiles in my kitchen with a kango hammer. That was 20 years ago, and they were so awful, that I refused to fit any tiles to the new (dry lined) kitchen. With upstands at the back of the worktops they haven't seemed necessary.
On the van I carry a 'first response' bag with tools likely to be used every job; tape rule, hammer, stanley knife, screwdrivers, level, filling knife, scraper etc. I have a plumbing bag, an electrics bag, a drill/fix bag (combi, driver, charger, spare batts, screws, about 9 types/sizes of fixing).
It does double up on tools sometimes, but being able to grab that bag & know I have everything is a real boon.
Then plastic boxes holding plumbing stuff, electrical bits, silicone/gripfill etc.
Just inside the workshop is the decorating box, laminate floor box, tiling box etc.
Its the only way I can keep organised, I can't be doing with going back home for something.
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