What "man jobs" have you done today?

[BUDFORCE]

Completely emptied the loft of the 90% crap and other stuff that was put up there when we moved in. That took longer than I thought it would!

However that's just the start - need to remove all the flooring and bin it as it was so poorly installed by the previous owners (nailed directly to the joists, compressed insulation, warped boards etc). First I think I'll rearrange the light fittings I installed a while back as the spread of light isn't ideal at the far end. Then that damn extractor fan and it's venting needs rerouting at some point too.

Perfect place to store guns, you can screw the gun cabinets to the gable end.

Now go find your local gun club and get involved.

 

[Richie]

Maybe I need to restore my faith in roofers!

i thought they just replaced on of the tiles with a vent tile so you dont have a big pipe sticking up from the roof? I certainly have a low profile vent tile in my roof so it look slike a standard tile with a small vent on top.

 

[Mysterae_]

Perfect place to store guns, you can screw the gun cabinets to the gable end.

Now go find your local gun club and get involved.

Nah, I've enough hobbies!

i thought they just replaced on of the tiles with a vent tile so you dont have a big pipe sticking up from the roof? I certainly have a low profile vent tile in my roof so it look slike a standard tile with a small vent on top.

They probably do, that's just an image from the Vent Axia website.

 

[RedMogg]

Perfect place to store guns, you can screw the gun cabinets to the gable end.

Now go find your local gun club and get involved.

My Dad (ex Royal Navy, "the service that use special boats") did pretty much exactly this - my old bedroom (top room, 4 storey Victorian terrace) now sports several serious looking safes. When I finally get a chance to visit without three monsters joining me, I'll get some photos.

 

[RedMogg]

Well, we've had a bit of drama over the past 48 hours: the new kitchen was installed end of June/start of July, including new pipe runs from dishwasher, washing machine & tumble dryer outlets.
We reported a minor leak from the dishwasher, about 2 days after the kitchen was finished, which was "fixed" and signed off.
We then started noticing a damp smell and tiny midges/flies over the next few weeks, but thought it was just the back of the unit needing to dry out.

(Before)






When we lifted the protective flooring on Monday night and started to rip out the old laminate, we discovered the leak had NOT been fixed, but had just seeped under the kitchen sink unit, slowly working it's way across the old council vinyl tiles (under the underlay/vapour barrier).
Everything is saturated and rotten:











Postponed flooring chap whilst we sorted the damp/mould and arranged the kitchen fitter to come and repair the mess (properly).

After we cleaned/mopped/vacuumed, I took the time to run the media unit cables down though the wall:





Absolutely knackered!!









(Edit: pictures appear out of sequence - I'm too tired to care about fixing them!)

 

[RobK]

Disassembled our robot vac in order to remove a lump of dust and dog hair that was blocking the fan intake. It works so much better now

 

[aVdub]

Just remember to ensure you have enough room around (particularly at the back) of the pipe to get the tool in.

And enough room to get the tool in front as well

Well, we've had a bit of drama over the past 48 hours: the new kitchen was installed end of June/start of July, including new pipe runs from dishwasher, washing machine & tumble dryer outlets.
We reported a minor leak from the dishwasher, about 2 days after the kitchen was finished, which was "fixed" and signed off.
We then started noticing a damp smell and tiny midges/flies over the next few weeks, but thought it was just the back of the unit needing to dry out.

(Before)






When we lifted the protective flooring on Monday night and started to rip out the old laminate, we discovered the leak had NOT been fixed, but had just seeped under the kitchen sink unit, slowly working it's way across the old council vinyl tiles (under the underlay/vapour barrier).
Everything is saturated and rotten:











Postponed flooring chap whilst we sorted the damp/mould and arranged the kitchen fitter to come and repair the mess (properly).

After we cleaned/mopped/vacuumed, I took the time to run the media unit cables down though the wall:





Absolutely knackered!!









(Edit: pictures appear out of sequence - I'm too tired to care about fixing them!)

I wish there was a combined like/shocked smiley.

Talk about 1 step forward and two back

Opened the understairs cupboard and one of the shelfs decided to give up and collapsed onto my stacker boxes
Instead of taking out the bike box for a quick 5 minute job I ended up taking out a few and rebuilding the shelf, which took an hour.

Bike done as well.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

That would have been the ideal solution (aside from getting rid of the condensate which I'll bring up shortly) but I don't do roofs nor do I trust roofers!

Despite insulating the fan's solid pipe work condensation still formed inside the ducting and then leaked out the fan as it's not a sealed unit. So I kept getting this, more so in the winter with the loft being colder:

This is caused by not just the moisture from the shower but also the general moisture in the air of the house from people, pets and cooking etc. As the fan's not running 99% of the time it just condenses in the ducting and fan.

As I'm redoing the flooring I'll reposition the fan and fit a condensate trap to it as well as making sure as much of the ducting is insulated.

It would have been cleaner and simpler to go through the roof as previously mentioned.....

Maybe I need to restore my faith in roofers!

Can you not go out the eves? It will make the run far shorter and reduce the risk of condensation.

The ours run up to the loft and the fan and ducting are under the insulation, further reducing the risk.

 

[RedMogg]

And enough room to get the tool in front as well




I wish there was a combined like/shocked smiley.

Talk about 1 step forward and two back

Opened the understairs cupboard and one of the shelfs decided to give up and collapsed onto my stacker boxes
Instead of taking out the bike box for a quick 5 minute job I ended up taking out a few and rebuilding the shelf, which took an hour.

Bike done as well.

We had a similar, expensive shelf failure a few weeks back; the PS4, Xbox, CCTV NVR & AV distribution hub above my study TV (intended to be out of reach of our dopiest Persian, Cooki) took a 7ft dive, landing in the cat's water fountain, whilst the shelf swung into and smashed the TV screen (brand new 65" mini-LED!)...

Before:


After:




Claim photo:


The culprits:



My insurers were excellent (M&S Premier/Aviva) and swiftly covered the full cost of replacements (both consoles were limited editions), plus repairing the damage to the new flooring & plasterboard, but I know the ***** of Consequence is going to arrive very much unlubed (renewal quote is due in November - I'm already gritting my teeth).

As I told my Wife at the time: it could have been worse; the stuff could have landed on the cat, which would have been another massive vet's bill...

...and now we feel like we've had our money's worth out of both policies

 

[Mysterae_]

Can you not go out the eves? It will make the run far shorter and reduce the risk of condensation.

The ours run up to the loft and the fan and ducting are under the insulation, further reducing the risk.

I don't want to put a hole in the eaves or soffits as they were replaced a little while ago. If I could be certain that putting the fan and ducting under the insulation would guarantee no leaking condensate then I would do the same. There's a hole at the gable end with a pipe already present (previous water tanks install) that I'll be using for the condensate to exit, just need to think of the routing.

 

[NickK]

It looks like those plugs don't have any grips

I have some heavy shelving on plasterboard. I had to use the flare out bolt types to stop the bolts from pulling through. I ended up using long plugs with long bolts through the wall plaster to prevent them pulling out on a two-person-fit mirror.

I tend to avoid using the plugs that come with shelving kits now.

 

[katie279]

Totally agree. However the previous owners made a number of mistakes that caused all sorts of problems.

Ah, well that's the best way to de-value a house then, do things badly!!!

 

[katie279]

Well, we've had a bit of drama over the past 48 hours: the new kitchen was installed end of June/start of July, including new pipe runs from dishwasher, washing machine & tumble dryer outlets.
We reported a minor leak from the dishwasher, about 2 days after the kitchen was finished, which was "fixed" and signed off.
We then started noticing a damp smell and tiny midges/flies over the next few weeks, but thought it was just the back of the unit needing to dry out.

Nightmare! I've actually started using these little water leak sensors around the house, they're very cheap and batteries last for years and years, but I prefer the peace of mind of sticking one behind the plinth in the kitchen, utility room and so on so I know immediately if there's a subtle leak like this!

 

[RedMogg]

Nightmare! I've actually started using these little water leak sensors around the house, they're very cheap and batteries last for years and years, but I prefer the peace of mind of sticking one behind the plinth in the kitchen, utility room and so on so I know immediately if there's a subtle leak like this!

Great suggestion, thanks - Neos sell them and we already use their app for the cameras we have in the study (for monitoring the cats/keeping an eye on kittens). Will order a few.

 

[dlockers]

Decent day for small snagging jobs. Got the bathroom false wall boxed in reasonably well with some oak I bought. Also finally got the radiator plumbed in - a right headache given the 90* fixing for the electric probe. I'll get that wired in tomorrow if I can find the flex plate.

Also finally collected the deep freeze that has been waiting 15 days lol.

At some point I'll fit skirting and touch up the paint...

Edit: I also got up the ladder and refitted the airvent cover that fell off. It'll fall off again for sure. And silicone'd in the waste pipes/drains I have cut in over the last 18 months (finally). There was a leak from my retrofit drain pipe into the waste too, which I have fitted. Soil pipe was poo free which is a relief so the drop is OK!

I have some cutoff of skirting board I found yesterday so may do that, or start tiling the porch. See how my ADHD behaves

 

[RedMogg]

Our chippy got started on the flooring yesterday - managed to get 90% of the lounge laid, whilst we organise the kitchen repairs (borrowed a commercial dehumidifier to try and shift as much damp over the weekend as possible).

He downed tools at 3:30pm - it was Friday and the kids' first week back at school (he has three as well), allowing everyone to wind down after an extremely hectic week.

Also managed to put the 3 seat recliner together (the two seater is still boxed up in my study) so we've at least got somewhere to sit over the weekend - the pair were £600 during the Prime sale. We considered spending more, but between kids, dogs & cats, I'd prefer to buy stuff that we can just run into the ground and not stress that it's going to take 4 years to pay off...












I'm pretty impressed; it's comfy and supportive, the reclining mechanisms are sturdy and the fabric appears fairly resilient, but a closer look at the internals show where the costs have obviously been cut. I paid extra for Amazon's warranty, so when it does inevitably fall apart, we're covered.

 

[Macky]

Anybody dealt with a lead flat roof repair before? I can see a few fatigue cracks and the falls don't look quite right so water is pooling in some places.

 

[Buffman]

Got about 13.5 tonnes into this now (near 700* those 20kg bags!) . Just need the final levelling /filling/compacting nkw

Might have 500 kg spare (i ordered 14 tonnes)

Got about 4 tonnes of paving stones and primers/grout coming tomorrow.

I've got about 20 pallets on my drive... Anyone know an easy way to get rid of them? Put them on marketplace and had a few taken

 

[aVdub]

Got about 13.5 tonnes into this now (near 700* those 20kg bags!) . Just need the final levelling /filling/compacting nkw

Might have 500 kg spare (i ordered 14 tonnes)

Got about 4 tonnes of paving stones and primers/grout coming tomorrow.

I've got about 20 pallets on my drive... Anyone know an easy way to get rid of them? Put them on marketplace and had a few taken

I'm guessing the option to buy 1 tonne bags wouldn't work for you there?

Looking good.

Put them on social media (pallets) and they would probably go pretty quickly.

 

[Buffman]

I'm guessing the option to buy 1 tonne bags wouldn't work for you there?

Looking good.

Put them on social media (pallets) and they would probably go pretty quickly.

Yeah what I've bought is more expensive than the one tonne dumpy bags but I had to carry these through the house! (no garden access to my garden as its extended and built over the boundary wall)

I think in gonna do the same and order it in bags for the 5 tonnes of grit sand and cement.