What "man jobs" have you done today?

Starlings were still getting into the roof, so pulled another flap of lining down and filled gaps with wire mesh. Hoping that sorts the issue.

Also bought some insulation and topped up the ropey areas in the loft.
 
Hey guys. Anyone any experience with underfloor heating electric systems? Since we moved into our house I've always wanted to know the spec of the under floor electric heating matt/pad/coils in our downstairs toilet. It's obviously a very small room probably only about 1 by 1.5m squared at most. I've always shied away from using the underfloor heating in there due to me thinking it would cost loads to run. But that room gets very, very cold due to where it is in the house. Whoever did the install must have done away with the original very small radiator, opting for floor tiles and an under floor electric system. It works fine. Not as good as our kitchen wet system as takes much longer to get up to temp and warm the tiles and eventually the room.

I had a look online and I found some places that suggest a kit that is rated at somewhere between 50-200watts for that small a size of room and dependent on whether tiles/wood/concrete. I would think the electrics are directly under the floor tiles but I don't know as I'm not lifting them to check. They are very cold, wood look long tiles. It has a progammer/stat in the hallway to control it. I don't have a smart meter. Any way I can measure the draw of it when in use? I can't put a multi meter across any points anywhere on the back of the controller can I? That's only going to show the draw of the controller I guess?

Assuming worst case of 200w running 24/7, I guess it's still only £50 per month ish at the moment. We only would run it for the next couple of cold months. Might be worth it for a warm number 2. Little treat for the fam.
 
jaybee said:
Hey guys. Anyone any experience with underfloor heating electric systems? Since we moved into our house I've always wanted to know the spec of the under floor electric heating matt/pad/coils in our downstairs toilet. It's obviously a very small room probably only about 1 by 1.5m squared at most. I've always shied away from using the underfloor heating in there due to me thinking it would cost loads to run. But that room gets very, very cold due to where it is in the house. Whoever did the install must have done away with the original very small radiator, opting for floor tiles and an under floor electric system. It works fine. Not as good as our kitchen wet system as takes much longer to get up to temp and warm the tiles and eventually the room.

I had a look online and I found some places that suggest a kit that is rated at somewhere between 50-200watts for that small a size of room and dependent on whether tiles/wood/concrete. I would think the electrics are directly under the floor tiles but I don't know as I'm not lifting them to check. They are very cold, wood look long tiles. It has a progammer/stat in the hallway to control it. I don't have a smart meter. Any way I can measure the draw of it when in use? I can't put a multi meter across any points anywhere on the back of the controller can I? That's only going to show the draw of the controller I guess?

Assuming worst case of 200w running 24/7, I guess it's still only £50 per month ish at the moment. We only would run it for the next couple of cold months. Might be worth it for a warm number 2. Little treat for the fam.
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Do you have a smart meter? Easy to view how much is being used with one.

You can get WiFi enabled thermostats for not a lot of money now. Makes it a lot easier to control.
 
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jaybee said:
It has a progammer/stat in the hallway to control it. I don't have a smart meter. Any way I can measure the draw of it when in use? I can't put a multi meter across any points anywhere on the back of the controller can I? That's only going to show the draw of the controller I guess?
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Depends where the controller is wired to.

You can't read current in parallel, the meter needs to be "in" the circuit rather tha just touching the points.

I think your best bet might be a clamp meter that you clip around the live wire feeding the device. You might be able to find if it's on its own circuit from the consumer unit (fusebox)?
 
I was getting pretty pee'd off with all the shoes by the front door and realised the understairs cupboard just had all the floor space covered in IT junk. Nothing major, maybe 20 mins of effort here. A new consumer unit needs to go in at some point, so this'll need rejigging. Most of the comms will go in the attic.

Unsure how I will pull the fibre back through the wall without cutting off the connector...

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I went to my parent's house and was supposed to help move a phone line, then realised the phone they have doesn't need a connection (only the main base does) but while I was there I asked them if their boiler normally makes the noise it was making, because it didn't sound normal to me. Sure enough their condensate pipe has frozen on their brand new install.

The condensate goes up into the loft space with a pump and it was the pump making the odd noise. We siphoned the pump reservoir, which had started to overflow, and turned off the heating.

By the looks of it the guy wanted to connect it to the soil stack in the loft space but just couldn't get to it because the roof is too low there, and instead fed it outside to the north facing gutter. My parents live in quite weird micro climate next to some woods, it's always a degree or two colder down their road than the rest of the area.

I've found a piece of kit called a condensate tracer, which is a little wire/heater and thermostat, it turns on when it gets down to -3c and keeps the pipe warm. I've suggested they ask the plumber to install one for them. Hopefully that should sort it. Until then they are a bit stuck, even with a kettle we couldn't clear the ice all the way down the pipe completely.

After that I helped them pick out a new TV and plugged it all in for them then headed home, only to hit a muntjac at 70mph and wreck the front of my car. Washer fluid everywhere too. Luckily I had cable ties to secure the bumper and got home fine, just in time to see england lose.
 
Fair play Simon!

A far cry from me getting grief for a cold and draughty house when I was told to stop working and put the house back to "normal" for Christmas :cry:
 
Went to the pharmacy, washed up and put some washing in whilst the Mrs goes to hospital to have surgery on her ear. Don't do much regarded as "manly" apart from a few things that are a bit too adult themed to be on this place.
 
I bled the rads yesterday and then topped up the system. Annoyingly it is a digital visualisation of a pressure gauge (Vaillant Plus). I unlocked the filling loop for a second or two and it recovered to an arbitrary bit of shading between two lines. Then when the heating was triggered at 10pm nothing happened... I climbed into the loft again (lols) and it said fault low pressure....small brown trouser moment as I played out every bad scenario of pipes popping off etc. to just twitch the levers on the filling loop again and it seemed to go back to correct pressure instantaneously.

Put it down to a glitch...
 
Simon said:
Rebuilt my gable last week. Was leaking and wood rotten. All done do started painting the new gable front today at -2 on scaffolding :o:o:(
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No safety harness? Dare I ask how much the scaffolding is costing? Someone I know got quoted £3k for a week, sounds expensive!
 
Yesterday, moved one of the light switches before the plasterer permanently ***** it up.

He cut all the marked ends off for 3 of the lights :rolleyes: thankfully they were still long enough to reach to desired location. The black line is about 90cm off the floor which is roughly where the worktop will be. Laser level coming in handy for it's first official job!

hu3ssPql.jpg fer2jnSl.jpg

Butchered the builders 'table' and prepped it to become our 'temporary island' with a £5 Facebook marketplace find.

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sigma said:
No safety harness? Dare I ask how much the scaffolding is costing? Someone I know got quoted £3k for a week, sounds expensive!
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That will be a top hat, a few hundred for one ive got for a few weeks, no ones in a rush for scaff right now anyway.
 
sigma said:
No safety harness? Dare I ask how much the scaffolding is costing? Someone I know got quoted £3k for a week, sounds expensive!
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3k for a week having a laugh.

Pay to put up & take down the scaffold and then a small weekly rate on the tubing/boards etc and weekly inspections.

Usually want to agree a hire period upfront 4,6 weeks etc, if you overrun then it will cost you loads extra over if you’d hired those extra weeks upfront. Might end up being left a few weeks longer before they take it down anyway, depends how busy they are!

The industry will be a bit more cowboy for domestic works… usually for domestic and small stuff they can use predetermined designs and calcs so there isn’t even any of that to do which increases costs.
 
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