blonde poker forum

I'm not one for New Years Resolutions, but last year I set myself a target to get financially literate in 2012. I'm pleased to say I managed it (IMO) and I now know my ISAs from my elbow and all that. I consider myself very good with money now, I'm pretty much in the top 3 best buy for bank accounts, bills, savings, ISAs etc etc

Anyhoo now that that leak in life is plugged I have a new, much bigger aim for 2013 - to get 'handy'.

I amaze myself how I have survived the last 33 years barely able to change a lightbulb. I think I'm probably of the first generation where these 'man skills' are not mandatory in life, and I must say it is quite emasculating always having to call someone in for quite basic tasks.

Changing tyres, putting up shelves, bleeding the radiators, flat pack furniture - I can't do any of them.

A few months I managed to fix a blocked toilet, I was so proud of myself I would tell anyone who would listen even though all I was really doing was bragging about the fact I blocked up a toilet.

So my aim for 2013 is not to turn into Handy Andy, but at least put myself in a position where having a crack at it myself first is a viable option. I'm buying my first house early next year so now really seems the time to do it.

So I've started this thread to create some accountability to do it, as well as to hopefully get some advice and most of all to let you all laugh at my incompetence.

It starts today as our shower hose has broke, which seems like a nice easy job to get started.

Would really love to get advice from people who are good at this sort of thing. YouTube seems like a great starting point for learning handy skills. Anyone know any other good resources?

Also thought I might get myself a tool kit - what would everyone say are must have tools for house and car maintenance?

Useful advice from people ITT:
Bleeding a Radiator (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=59669.msg1676047#msg1676047)



Man Skill Merit Badges:
Fixing a shower hose (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=59669.msg1676682#msg1676682)
Both blocking and unblocking a toilet (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=59669.msg1676966#msg1676966)



Disclaimer: Not everyone posting advice ITT is a trained professional so please seek advice before carrying out any repairs mentioned. Blonde poker nor any of the posters accept liability etc etc.

thread has potential

Hope RED DOG is handy. He might be needed

Sighs. Thought you were gonna become a cage fighter.

Very best of luck to you from a fellow member of the illiterati.

I play in a pool league with a group of lads who are all labourers, sparkies, gas engineers and so on. They find it hilarious/unbelievable that I can't wire a plug or fit a fuse.

Apparently "it wasn't part of my degree" isn't a defence.

They turn, incredulously and in a state of bewinderment, to me and say "all you need to do is..." and then there is some sort of noise after that, with hand gestures, something about flux capacitors or cam shafts or two-be-fours, before "and that's it!"

I nod as though I had the faintest clue what they just said.

At least when I explained Pythagoras' Theorem to them the other week I did it using beermats and actually made it make sense.

Unless they were doing what I did...

Anyway, am now subscribed and am looking forward to an education.

Guess I'll just be starting another fat thread  ;ashamed;

Great thread

As son of a plumber I like to think I have some degree of ability, but with 3 brothers as plumbers, am often embarrassed by my inability (by comparison).

This thread should be a pic fest, also can wait to see some of the cock ups ;0)

Shower hose is a nice easy start, just a screw fitting at each end (make sure you don't lose the washers, those little fibre/rubber circles are not "packing bits"! You might need a set of grips to loosen the existing hose, especially if in a lime scaly area. I would just hand tighten when you refit thou (maybe just 'nip' it tight with grips if you aren't happy)!

Gl, let us know how you get on

Ok challenge one should be easy. The 'holder thingy' on the end of the shower hose has broken. So the first challenge is finding out what you call the end bit, as I presume it is not 'holder thingy'.

(http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/32/photopub.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/41/photopub.jpg/)

So far I have taped it back with duct tape. Believe it or not, I'm proud I got this far.

(http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/3083/photo1ek.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/339/photo1ek.jpg/)


So it looks like from my research it's just getting a new hose. I've seen the actual hose which came with the shower for 17quid, and then generic ones seem a similar price. My question for the forum is, are the 'holder thingys' almost all one size fits all? They certainly look that way.

Will follow with interest, I can't do anything myself & it's embarrassing. Looking forward to the bleeding radiators section as mine need doing, I don't want to call the landlord as they will see what a mess the dog has made of the carpet...

Have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy this thread.  

To save us rambling off things we'd consider obvious, what tools do you currently own?  Hammer, tape measure, etc...

The only way to learn how to do this stuff is to do it.

Much prefer doing electrical stuff compared to plumbing, but will give most things a go until I decide I don't have the right tools (stock excuse) and so go out and get some more.  I have a lot of tools.  My favourites are my table saw and my drills - and my hammers, obviously.

We have some random screwdrivers lying around here and there. Got a very good set of allen keys. Think we have a hammer. Got a tape measure. Probably have a lot more stuff which I cant remember.

B&Q easiest for the shower bits.

Sov, pic of boiler (inc dial) and pipe set up directly beneath pls.

Bleeding radiators:

(my concern here is just how unable are we all?)

You will need

1. a radiator key
2. An old towel/rag

You will need to bleed rads bottom to top ( as in ground floor then first floor)

Look at the radiator and there will be a "nipple" usually to the top right hand side. Take the rag and place it behind the rad to protect the wall from spray.
Take the key and loosen the nipple (or screw). In more modern rads this has a plastic surround/housing. DO NOT TAKE THE SCREW ALL THE WAY OUT!

When you loosen one of 2 things will happen. If it needed bleeding it will hiss as air escapes. If not water will start to squirt out (likely to be very dirty/black). Once water starts to squirt you can retighten the nipple, you have completed task one. Now repeat for each rad in turn.

VERY IMPORTANT

Your boiler has a pressure guage on it. If much air was released pressure will have dropped. You will now need to "top it up". Your boiler should have a filling loop, a flexible coiled pipe with a tap on it.

Locate the pressure guage. This should be set to 1 bar! THATS ONE BAR! Do not over fill!

If less than 1 bar, open the tap SLOWLY, you will hear a hiss as it fills. Watch the needle move and turn tap off when it reaches 1 bar.

NOTE: do not bleed rads if you are unwilling/ unable to top up pressure as no pressure is likely to mean no heating at all

Having typed all that on my iPad I'm realising how tricky this thread could be, maybe videos are the way forward!

I've always had someone else to get to do the stuff for me previously. My Dad was pretty handy but sadly he is no longer with us any more (Another reason I want to be good at this is in case my Mum needs help with stuff), my landlord is also my next door neighbor and also a builder, which has been perfect from a getting stuff fixed point of view. So I think knowing I'll be buying my own house soon has made me realise how alone I will be in this regard pretty soon. Also there are a bunch of things which need doing round here in order to make sure I get my renters deposit back, which I will be doing to get me some practice in for the new place, including:

A tap broke in the kitchen (Cosmetic, it works, just the red bit to signify hot has fallen off)
Painting skirting boards
The garden needs a good tidy up
A button needs replacing on the oven
Our wooden gate is expanding a bit in the cold and you cant always shut it.

Also on the 'want to know asap list'

Changing a tyre (actually did this when I first learned to drive but have completely forgot)
Bleeding a radiator (for SovietSong)
dissassembling and reassembling some of our flatpack furniture

 

Shower attachments are generally universal.  Chance asking at B&Q if you can buy the connector bit on it's own.  Can't remember if they can be got as an individual item or if they only come with the hose.  When you do get the new bit...don't use any tool to tighten it!!!  Hand tighten only or you'll be sorry later.  

Flat pack furniture disassemble

 rotflmfao. Gl with that!

 ;D

Changing a tyre :

OK - this is the bones - each car will be slightly different


Firstly - locate your spare wheel - if in the boot - this is usually just secured with a plastic screw bolt - unscrew and lift out - jack and wheelbrace will either be in or under the wheel or located elsewhere in boot  - see manual. Also see manual for how to use and where to prop the jack - THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT

If the wheel is under the car in a cradle, the nut to release the cradle will be in the boot and the nut is released using the wheel brace.

Note: - many cars have space savers nowadays which is basically a thin steel wheel - usually red in colour - this is only sufficient to get you home really - go straight to a garage afterwards.


So we need:

Spare wheel
Locking wheel nut fitting (if you have them)
Wheel brace
Jack
Real man strength (possibly optional)
4 arms (or another person is helpful)
grease (if doing at home)


whilst the car is still on the ground - "crack open" the wheel nuts - (that is take the strain off them but dont wind all the way out). If there are 4 nuts, you should do this in a "crossed order", so for example do 12 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 3 o'clock 9 o'clock. Use this throughout the exercise when loosening and tightening nuts.

Now ensure the hand break is on and the car is in gear.

now place the jack and lift the flat tyre wheel off the ground. IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT YOU GET THE POSITONING RIGHT. Follow your car manual. This is for 2 reasons, firstly so not to damage the car, secondly, so that it is stable when you lift off ground

Once jacked up, take the wheel brace and unscrew all nuts (if you have a locking wheel nut, you will need the adaptor to slot into your wheel brace to take this nut out). Leave the 6' o'clock nut till last. this will hold the wheel on the car. When taking this nut out, try and hold the wheel on with your foot (or if you have another person ask them to do it). You will see what I mean when you are unscrewing the last nut.  - lift wheel off and set aside. (having re-read that - Ive made it sound easier than it is in practice (if on your own). This is all fiddly but be persistant.

Take new wheel and lift into place. WHEELS ARE HEAVY AND THIS IS A PAIN IN THE ASS TO GET IT ON AND HOLD IT THERE WHILST LINING UP THE HOLES. be patient.

If you have 4 hands at this point your life is easy, if not your foot to hold the wheel in place (at the bottom) and you mouth to hold a nut will suffice

Get one nut in (12 o'clock if you can), then try and get the others in (just turn a  few turns at first by hand to hold wheel in place). Tighten all of the nuts using the "crossed" method described above. Once you think they are tight, go back and check them again.

Now release the jack and give the wheel nuts a final tweak, hand tight is sufficient thou, no need to stand on the wheelbrace.

Leave the damaged wheel in the boot as you will need to get the tyre replaced asap anyway. Also get the garage to check the balancing on the wheel you have just fitted.

I'm with him.  Pleeeeeeeeeeease don't try to disassemble flat pack furniture if you ever intend to use the furniture again.  Once flat pack is put together, that's it...don't mess with it.

Actually funny you mention it, one of my proudest moments came last year. I've only had a couple of car problems and one of them was leaking power steering fluid. Last year I went on a stag do with about 15 mechanics and my mates car started making a funny scrapey noise. All of them took a look at it and couldn't work it out, I casually mentioned 'sounds like leaking power steering fluid to me' which it was. I felt like a badass.

Shame I have somehow forgotten how to parallel park, which they all witnessed.  

ok, thats one for 2014 perhaps.

I have an outside overflow pipe leaking (out of the bathroom) intermittently.

I think this is a stopcock in the toilet cistern that needs replacing?

I refuse to call a plumber, but I don't want to appear stupid in a hardware shop

Help

This should be easy enough, might not require replacing yet.

When dealing with a cistern, be gentle, the plastic degrades and can snap easily - so featherlite touches please!

NO tools required - (maybe a screw driver)

OK  - remove the cistern lid. If you have  a flush handle, the lid will just lift off, if you have a fancy "recessed dual flush", you need to unscrew this out first (just twist the outer ring by hand and you will feel it wind out). Lift out, set aside and remove lid.

So we can now see inside the cistern. The floating plastic ball is what tells you cistern when to stop filling. If it doesn't stop in time then the cistern will overflow. However this ball is attached to an arm, and the other end of this arm is a "screw and nut arrangement" - which if you look at closely (you can move the arm up and down to see how it works, this is just an adjustable "stop" point.

So all you need to do here is screw the plastic nut adjuster so that it stops the arm just a little bit sooner than it currently does (if this is still there is usually a little slit for a screw driver to twist the threaded bit). No need to adjust it too far otherwise you will limit the water going into the cistern and have trouble shifting those "sunday morning" episodes!

So simply adjust the nut to limit the arm - this will just be trial and error - but should solve the problem. But remember go easy on the fittings.

I can talk you through replacing the whole cistern diaphragm but that shouldn't be necessary quite yet

On some (Standard I think), it doesn't just unscrew out - you need to pop-out the flush buttons using a flat screwdriver to get to a screw that needs to be removed before you can take the cistern lid off.

I can so identify with this, particularly as my Dad is the polar opposite and can pretty much do everything himself.

I remember him showing me how to change a wheel when I was about 16yo.  About 3 years ago, I drove over a shard of metal which pretty much made the car undriveable within a mile.  I think it took me about 45 minutes to change the wheel, much of this being prevaricating over things and making sure I'd remembered it all.  I can't describe how great I felt to make it back home with the space saver wheel on (despite the nightmare scenario of holding up traffic on a national speed limit road, due to not really wanting to put my skills to the test above the 'max speed' of 30mph that is plastered all over the wheel.  Naturally, the first thing I did back home was phone him to describe events in great detail!

This thread may become required reading, especially if Red-Dog gets involved!

Sorry to be a party pooper on this (its the professional in me) but is it worth throwing in a disclaimer on page 1?

Done

@ Guy

Isn't the pressure thing with the boiler only applicable if it's a combi boiler?

1.5 imo

Yep

Little tip with the wheel changing thing. Keep a pair of gloves in the boot. It's ridiculously messy!!! I know it's manly to do it bare handed but you really don't want filthy hands on your steering wheel.

I even used to keep a stupidly cheap waterproof overall in the boot before I had run flats. It cost about 4 quid. Never got used but the thought of changing a wheel in the pouring rain on my way to the airport made it worth the effort.

Also if you own either an Audi or a BMW there's a huge chance you'll struggle to get the wheel off once you've undone the nuts. This probably applies to other cars or maybe any car with Alloys I'm not sure. Seen it first hand with Audi and BMW though.

If you get this problem you need to put the nuts back on very loosely. Just enough to stop the wheel coming off.

You then need to slowly lower the jack so that the wheel goes back to the floor and takes some of the weight of the car. Do this really slow. You want to put enough weight on to 'crack' the seal but not all of the weight of the car. This seal isn't meant to be there. It's just where the wheel has fused to the

A stuck wheel can be really dangerous with the crappy jacks you get in your boot. Don't start kicking it to try to move it. The car lowering thing is much safer. Even better if this happens is ring the AA or RAC if you're a member.

The AA advice is pretty good: http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/breakdown_advice/got-a-flat.html

I looked at this after I'd typed my bit out. The something to kneel on bit is great advice.

Wouldn't worry about that. It'll only be a tenner for the full hose and if the connector's gone something else will go soon anyway.

What's your shower head like? Does it spray the same as when it was new? If not you should either clean it or change that at the same time.

Really easy job to change the shower hose as others have said. Can't stress the 'hand tight' thing enough.

Thanks everyone so far.

Yes the shower head itself is fine, but will give it a clean anyways.

I assume the 'holder thingy' is the bit where the shower head screws in to the hose?

I don't know if there's a technical term with showers but to me it's just a thread.

You get 2 types of thread, male and female. The male thread is the bit that enters the female thread. The female thread in the case of a shower is always on both ends of the hose. The shower itself and the shower head will both have a male thread.

Great great thread. Can relate ALOT!

Yes it's the female thread then. Hardware shop round the corner from mine, will have a crack at it tomorrow afternoon.

The holder thingy has been bugging me.

I'm going for "the female thread of the shower head and hose assembly" when describing it to the hardware store fella.

Anyone got a better description?

Don't forget you'll need the bit for your locking nut on your alloys if you're changing a wheel. Make sure you know where it is (and that place should be somewhere in your car, rather than at home in a cupboard).

Take the hose off tomorrow and carry the broken piece to the shop with ya.  Then you don't have to worry about it's formal name.

That's not the proper 'man' way though is it?

Barry needs to turn up at the shop with the wealth of knowledge required to achieve his task the way a real man would.

Turning up and saying "can I have one of these please" just doesn't cut it.

Yes holding my own in bloke conversations is of paramount importance. Especially with mechanics whom I mistrust, gotta speak the language if I want my car to pass its MOT.

Yeah get out. Men talking. ::)

I don't know how to offer advice in this thread.

It's kinda like this. When I was growing up there was never any money to spare to pay tradesmen, so we did everything ourselves. Not only that, but when my dad did something, I would be along side him either helping or hindering, but always learning.

If we were not doing things for ourselves, we were working for someone else as tradesmen.

Of course my dad didn't know how to do everything, but the things we didn't know we learned as we went along, and we knew how most things worked in principle. It's kind of an accumulation of basic knowledge that you draw on for each new task. 

Over the course of a lifetime you end up doing thousands of jobs that in part at least, relate to other jobs.

Someone earlier in the thread talked about bleeding the air out of a radiator, well that's the same principle as bleeding a diesel engine after it's ran out of fuel and let air into the system, or bleeding a car brakes when you have to change the master or slave cylinders. OK it's not exactly the same, but if you're done one, you have a better chance of being able to do the other.

Another thing that experience gives you is the ability to cope when things don't go as the manual (or these days the youtube video) says they should. If for instance, it says  "Remove bolt A"  but bolt A is seized, or the threads strip, it doesn't matter whether you're changing a clutch or fitting a gas cooker, if you don't know how to undo the bolt, you're fecked.

Now let me give you an example. Before cars had alternators, they had something called a dynamo, which is like an alternator but not nearly as efficient, which was OK because back then cars didn't have so many electrical gadgets..  But I digress..

The thing is, a car dynamo used to have four copper 'pads' inside. Each of these pads weighed about half a pound, so that's two pounds of copper per dynamo. I used to buy them at just over scrap iron price, strip out the copper, and then weigh the scrap iron back in. During the course of a week I would probably buy about 50 of these, which produced about a hundredweight of copper. This would sell for about £25. A very nice little earner.

The trouble was. these pads were held in place by a half inch thick countersunk screw with Philips head. These screws were always seized solid, and because they were countersunk you couldn't get at them with mole grips or a stillson or anything. They drove me crazy. Then one day my dad saw me struggling with them and showed me a trick. He hit the head of the screw smartly with a ball pein hammer and told me to try undoing it again. It came out as easily as if it had just been fitted yesterday.

I've used that technique on hundreds of seized bolts since then, and I've transferred the principle to other things. For instance, We has some flooding the other day and later, when my daughter tried to move her car, she found her back wheels were seized solid. What had happened was the water had caused rust to form on the shiny metal brake disks, this rust had kind of welded the brake pads to the disks.

Her car is front wheel drive, and the rust-bond was so strong that when she drove the car forward, the rear wheels just dragged along behind without turning.

I removed the wheel trim, poked a sturdy drift through one of the vent holes in the wheel, gave the brake disk a good clout and ping, the calliper sprang open to release the wheel. It looked pretty impressive, like Fonzy hitting the jukebox to make a record play, but really it was the same trick my dad did with the seized bolts in the dynamo.

There are thousands of little tricks like that. Like scoring a tile so that it breaks in the right place, or filling a pipe with sand (or ice) so that it doesn't kink when you bend it.

To the uninitiated, some of this stuff looks really clever, but it's just what I grew up with.

Let me put it into perspective. These days people use technology like its an extension of their arm. They mess around with the workings of computers, mobile phones etc without a seconds though.

If have a problem with my phone or my laptop, I call for my daughter. She messes about with some settings and boom! It's working again. To her it's simple stuff. To me, it's alchemy.



 

Our flood.




(http://i48.tinypic.com/350jtwg.jpg)

My biggest bit of advice is get a really good book.
When I bought my first house 13 years ago, my dad gave me a big think Readers Digest DIY book.
Before I start any job, I read the section in the book.
Have used it for fitting a kitchen, hanging doors, laying a laminate floor, basic wiring, brick laying, plastering, wall papering, skirting boards, etc.

I often follow up with trawling youtube to see what ever job I'm about to do for the first time done for real, but the problem is, it's often tradesmen who make it look really easy.

Just finishing off my kitchen, which I stripped down to bare brick, plaster boarded and skimmed, moved plug sockets, put cupboards up, painted and tiled. Just got the floor to sort out.
The only parts I got professional help with was plumbing in the sink (because the original plumbing was a right state) and the Mitre joint of the worktop (just too important a job to get wrong).

My work's not professional quality, but it's satifying to get your sleeves rolled up and Do It Yourself.
Good luck

I totally agree with Tom - man skills are very much learnt and repeated/reused. Someone with Toms wealth of experience could probably turn his hand to most things just due to having "done stuff".

Everytime I have written something on here I have thought I could have added to it. However, I also believe that anyone wanting to try these things will just do it (like Barry). The other end of the scale of course (and I am sure is the reality) is people will have a go when they NEED to.

The day I passed my test, my dad made me rotate all 4 wheels on my mums car before he would let me take it out. Rest assured I would obv never have done it without being forced to. My driving reality is I have had 7 flat tyres in 20 years of driving (I run bad), but i am thankful for my dad making me do it.

I am sure that no-one not needing to change a tyre will be out on a sunday morning doing it for fun, but Im happy to be proven wrong. Still lets hope that we get fedback within the thread that it is useful.

I am keen too up my man skills too. Im sure Leethefish and Evillpie will have much to contribute. Electrics are my uber weakpoint. TO be honest I am frightened of them. All I have ever done is one lighting fitting change. As for Lee - I did once sand down 2 bits of skirting into a mitre joint - was quite proud of that one  - but my joiner mates did laugh - alot - for a long time!

Really appreciate all the heroes posting ITT. I currently obviously have a lot of enthusiasm to do this so I'm going to try and get as much done round the house/car while I have this momentum about me.

Good luck boss.

I always think i can do anything and take anything on despite having no actual training or knowledge - at some point during the process i usually swear never to attempt it again.
I refurbed an entire house a few years ago - built a new kitchen, plastering, tiling, plumbing etc, i don't think i'd take that much on again though - it nearly broke me a few times.

One tip is don't go to B & Q - such a rip off - find the independent stores of which there will be loads near you, often on industrial estates. They are able to help with advice as well far more then B & Q type places.

My number one man skills tip - Use the right tool for the job.

Tools. Oh God I love tools.

You can buy some fantastic quality second hand tools at car boot and farm sales.

I'm talking real, properly made craftsman's tools which have already lasted a lifetime and are ready to last another, not this modern mass produced pap.

i love quality new tools, they make me really happy.

I splashed out on a quality socket set recently and its like christmas everytime i need to get it out to do something.

Details man. Long or short reach? AF, Metric or combination? 1/4 or 1/2 drive? Chrome Vanadium?

Pics or it didn't happen.

Wow, four pages already.

Anyway the shower hose was a complete success. Bring on the next thing. 

(http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/4765/photobjh.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/31/photobjh.jpg/)

How chuffed do you look?

:D

Getting the good times in now ahead of the 'I flooded the kitchen' picture in a few months time.

#whataboss

new stars avatar tho

I need a new apprentice come work with me for a couple of weeks ill teach you all you need to know !

www.ljwcarpenter.co.uk

Can't believe you sacked him just for being a muslim.

Don't forget he once had a go at a poor shopkeeper and sold a dodgy van.
;)

Lol you pair of bastards !!

Tried to find a George Costanza DIY quote but found nothing :(

Did have fun trying, mind.


Great thread already, sir.

Trick question, everybody knows that's a myth.

Great news everyone, to keep the momentum going I blocked the toilet up this morning. One of the few man skills I have in the reserves (Both unblocking and blocking toilets I consider manly). The missus didn't get quite my enthusiasm for either.

Please assure me you haven't blocked the toilet with your missus

Assuming its an upstairs toilet, just go and get a metal coat hanger and rubber gloves.

Uncoil coat hanger and bend it into a shallow u shape poke around until released? Roberts your dads brother

Try flushing too whilst creating air release hole with hanger

Your unstoppable force came up against the immovable object?

Whenever we have a shower downstairs there is a pong eminating from the drains. Any advice?

Blockage in your stench pipe?

It looks like this and the top is open (Except for an anti bird-nest cage) to allow smells to escape.


(http://www.draindomain.com/Images/www.draindomain.com_soil%20vent%20pipe02.jpg)

That so sounds like a euphemism

I'll have a look. Cheers. Drain cleaning rods probably required?

Usually the blocked bit is right at the top of the pipe.

It could also be a build up of gunk in the U bend under the shower drain.

Try some of this.


(http://www.ocado.com/catalog/images-hires/17501011_H.jpg?identifier=b9e08b025ef074f1404952480e6fa92a)

This seems like the right thread for a question.

The dishwasher drawer is metal coated in a plastic to protect it from corrosion.  Part of this plastic has split (looks like something hot melted it) and exposed the metal underneath, and this has started to rust very quickly as you'd imagine in the hot and humid dishwasher.

So, what's the best thing to use to re-seal it (the bit that's exposed is about an inch long)?  Some sort of plastic heat-shrink?  This is one occasion that I don't think gaffer tape will quite cut it.

Try Isopon Bumper Filler. It's tougher than a Scottish pansy.

Got some of that in the garage.  It'll be OK with the heat in the dishwasher?

I'm guessing it will.

What's the worst that can happen?

It lands in Lyndsey's favourite cup and damages it?

I'm a brave man anyway - and will go for it. 

Wash Lyndsey's favourite cup (and all the other crockery) the old fashioned way until you've tested your repair.

Can't do that!  Detest washing up, and think of my hands ffs!

Just stick Lyndsey's favourite cup in and hope for the best then. Sometimes we DIYers have to walk on the wild side.

 rotflmfao

Ok Gents and Laxie, next odd job. Can you glue metal onto metal?

The top has come off my kitchen tap. It originally had some ridges underneath where it clearly fit into place, but they have broken off. So in my mind the easiest thing to do is glue it back on, but can you glue metal to metal, or shall I just buy a new tap alltogether?

(http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/5576/photobrn.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/photobrn.jpg/)

You can glue metal onto metal, but I'd suggest a new tap upgrade!

That looks like an 'old' washer-style tap, and the ones with ceramic discs instead of rubber washers offer a lot of advantages.  They don't have a rubber washer to wear and they're easier to use - usually a quarter turn from off to fully on (rather than having to turn the tap lots of times).

You can get individual or mixer-taps that use the ceramic discs, and you'll want to match up the holes you already have in your sink/worktop if you're replacing them.  They don't have to be expensive (although they can be), lots of shops selling them on ebay for example.


Or just stick the bit back on the tap and not go with the expense of new taps!

Although Kinbo offers sound thoughts, Im sure barry said he rents, in which case def go for the sticking option

Blu-tac it is then :D

I use this. It sticks anything to anything. I stuck Bridies car door back on with it.


http://www.bostik.co.uk/diy/product/evo-stik/Serious-Stuff/22

Another thing - i think we dont do these things because of fear (certainly my reason) (or just lazyness) - so i think if you can break it down you should tell is why you havent tried already?

Did you think you would glue the tap closed?
  ;D

Thanks all.

Yes I rent, but I actually think it might be +ev for me to do things like get new taps because A) its good experience and B) my landlord is a builder and a good bloke, whom I would likely use for stuff when I buy my own house.

Reason havent tried it before is pure laziness on my part.

I'll probs go with glue or blue tack for this un though

Is epoxy resin something for metal on metal? Trying to cast my mind back to GCSE Design Technology...

Yeah, it's good.  You can get specialist epoxy resin for metal as well - but I think that's more for specific jobs.

Having little man skills myself, I'm enjoying this thread.  I managed to sort out my own leaky overflow the other day (thin I know) and it made me feel like I'd achieved something good.  It'd taken me about 4 weeks to get around to it, but nevertheless it's a good feeling being able to sort stuff out providing that stuff only takes a few minutes, I don't want to be bogged down with all day jobs that's for sure.

Keep up the good work.

When I can actually get someone to find and repair the leak in the roof, I will have to sort this out.  What is the best plan?

(http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/9306/fkdceiling.jpg)

get a plasterer in  ;)

My firend has one of these in his dining room roof, its been there since he bought the house 6 years ago, every time i go round he tells me about how he's going to fix it this way or that, procrastination ftw.

Slightly scary Man-Skills task in progress.

Report to follow....

Barry's skills have been showcased on Facebook and twitter today.  Hope he posts his accomplishment in here as well.

(It won't be as manly as the task you're embarking on Tom, I can pretty much guarantee that)

I am abs terrible at this stuff. One day I was out shopping with the missus after a heavy night on the sauce, we saw a rather nice ceramic lamp which we ended up purchasing. Once home, I picked up the lamp and went to put the bulb in, obv being the genious I am, I had already plugged the lamp into the mains.. after about a minute of trying to get a bayonet lamp into a twisty slot, I couldn't work out what was wrong, so decided to put my finger into the hole to get a proper good feel for the thread.. skip to me being flung across the room and subsuquently dropping and smashing said lamp after having however many thousand volts rush through my entire body. After half an hour of listening to the missus pissing herself, I regained my composure, jumped in the car and bought the exact same lamp, this time with the correct fitting light bulb..

Moral of the story "Don't drink and DIY kids"

On the plus side I have a spare lamp shade for said lamp.

Also I am pretty sure I knocked about 10k of the value of my house trying to put up a curtain pole.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A9bF85JCQAAfqN7.jpg:large)

Yeah this is what I did today

Lol but I feel I should report you to the RSPCA

That is brilliant!  Forget showers, this is where your talent lies Barry!

Made me laugh, very good :)

You can glue metal to metal but it's a pretty terrible idea.

There's a reason that the top of the tap comes off. It's to make it accessible for maintenance. There's a little screw in there that does exciting things when you turn it.

If you permanently bond it then it's GG to ever getting to it again.

A couple of new basic taps will probably set you back £10 at most. Get them bought and pass the cost on to your landlord.

Our caravan has gas central heating, (Don't get me started on the price of gas) but we also have a little electric fire in the 'living room'.

We don't use the electric fire very often, but it is handy to put on for an hour before bed on summer evenings when we don't want to fire the central heating up, or on these cold winter mornings as a source of instant heat to take the chill off until the radiators warm up.

Just lately though, it's been playing up. There seems to be a sort of safety cut-out that I assume is intended to switch the heater off if it overheats,  but it's started kicking in when it's only been on for a couple of minutes. Very annoying.

So I decided to take it apart. I had no idea what I was looking for, I'm not that hot when it comes to heaters (No pun intended) but the call out fee for an engineer is like ~ £60, plus labour, plus parts, plus VAT. More than enough to motivate me to try to fix it myself.



(http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/6906/dscf4337w.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/585/dscf4337w.jpg/)

One of the most difficult thing was actually finding a way in to the bloody thing. I couldn't see what held it together or what held it in place. Eventually I did spot a couple of tiny grub screws hidden behind a grille and we were away.

Here's a bit of advice for all you budding DIY'ers. Buy yourself a good inspection lamp. (I would never have found those grub screws without one).


Get a battery-powered multi LED one with a magnet and a hook. You should find one for around a tenner.

(http://images.toolstop.co.uk/product/d84aec2e28c72abc7e107f8e8147bf6a.jpg)



If I couldn't find any screws initially, I ceartainly made up for it later on. There were dozens of them.

Another tip for newbies BTW - Lay out all parts, screws and fasteners neatly in the order that you remove them. Then when you come to put it back together, you just reverse the process.


I know I haven't done that in this pic, but with experience, you sort of learn to make mental note of where things go.


That being said, this is always the point where I start to think OMG! Will it ever work again?




(http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/6426/dscf4334y.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/20/dscf4334y.jpg/)

Looks simple enough :D

Blue tacked the tap as suggested, worked fine.

So the hot water went on the blink yesterday (Taps, shower is electric), presume its related to the cold weather. Other than knowing where the stop cock is in the house I don't even know where to start on this one, and my builder landlord has a plumber I can ring 24/7 anyway, so he is coming around today.

BUT, instead of making small talk and making him a cuppa, I'm actually going to annoy the crap out of him and follow him around asking him what he is doing. I presume I'll be non the wiser at the end but if I keep doing it something will stick.

If you don't know how many volts, then you definitely lose several man points.

Why would I want or need to know?

You were pretty lucky by the sound of it.

I'm guessing you touched the live part of the lamp which created a circuit through your body down to earth thus causing you to get flung across the room.

If your finger had touched the 'safe' bit of the bayonet cap first then touched the 'live' bit at the same time the circuit would've been made through your finger. You wouldn't have got a shock through your whole body but it would've been GG finger.

Incidentally if you ever feel the need to stick a finger in something which may be live again it's better to use the left finger. It helps keep the electricity as far away from your heart as possible.

I always thought the heart was more on the left hand side of your body?

Also, when I read that last paragraph it looked more like too late advice for various 70s and 80s celebs

Heart is centre just has larger muscle on one side I believe.

That I did not know Matt. Not sure which bit I touched but it sure sobered me up!

I can think of a few reasons, but it's just one of those things that is good general knowledge.

The plugs used to be at "240 volts" in the UK, but they were reduced 10 volts to fit in with the rest of Europe. So they are now 230 volts.

The plugs in Europe used to be 220 volts, but they got boosted to 230 volts. So now no matter where you take your equipment in Europe it will work. The power is at 50 hertz across Europe.

In 28 years I have never needed to know the voltage of the mains. I admit it's good general knowledge to have but never needed to know and doubt I ever will. Although the more I think about it, I think I might have already known it was 240..

Everybody needs to make sure your house has one of these:

Edit: that google images search was shocking. Let's get another one....

(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/17th-Edition-12way-insulated-dual-rcd-consumer-unit-fuse-box-with-10-Mcbs-/00/s/MzcwWDUzMA==/$(KGrHqJHJCIE8mcfmV7QBPK83COd)Q~~60_35.JPG).

This isn't just a fuse box, this is has something called an RCD in it. (cue someone knowing what they are talking about telling me what it's supposed to be called.

With one of these it's incredibly difficult to kill yourself with mains electricity*- in millidonks's case, it would turn the electricity to the house off so fast that not enough electricity can go through you to kill you.

Although millidonk has been lucky, you stand a pretty good chance of surviving a 240V shock- it's not an instant death sentence.

* not to be taken as a challenge

Volts don't kill.

I has one of these. Maybe that's while I'm still kicking. I flick the switch everytime I knock the power out after digging a crumpet out of the toaster with a knife.

I got a shock from a broken plug bit like Milli a few months ago, scared the shit out of me and tingled for ages.

Just thought id share

Erm..... Oh yeah. I might have meant the other one :D

They didn't actually change the real voltage though. That would've meant changing all the supply transformers which would cost an absolute fortune.

All they did was change it from 240 +/- 6% to 230 +10% or -6%

These might not be the exact %'s btw but it was something like that.

I'm pretty sure that in Europe they would've just changed the tolerance as well.

It's a long time since I've done any electrical work on the tools but I'd be pretty confident that if you test an electrical outlet it'll still be a lot closer to 240V than 230.

Obviously if they install new transformers they'll aim for the 230V but they last a long time so there won't be many that have been replaced.

Does a plug not control how much power goes into it?


Edit: feel free to answer like you would to a seven year old.

Pedant time I'm afraid...... It isn't a fuse box. There aren't any fuses in it. It's called a consumer unit.

An RCD is a residual current device. The RCD is the bit with the yellow button on it. It's been so long since I was at college I can't remember exactly how they work. Basically though it detects a difference between the electricity going in to it and the electricity coming back out. (Electricity flows through the live side, round the kit it's powering, then back out the neutral). If the in bit is different to the out bit then the missing bit (known as the leakage current) might be trying to kill someone so it switches off ridiculously quickly. 30mS is the maximum allowable time by the regulations and it should operate with a leakage current of no more than 30mA. 30mA isn't enough to kill so you'll be all good.

The problem with RCDs is nuisance tripping. The picture shown is what is known as a 'split load' consumer unit. There are 2 RCDs covering 2 separate sets of circuit breakers. The split is usually between lighting and power but doesn't have to be.

It doesn't take much to trip an RCD. Something simple like a lamp blowing can actually set them off. If the RCD goes then you lose everything that's fed from that RCD. If your fridge or freezer happened to be on the same RCD then it's GG to your food.

Ideally you want a consumer unit with separate RCDs for each individual circuit. It's no safer than the other option but it eliminates nuisance tripping. Unfortunately it's a lot more expensive but such is life.

Useful RCD tip that not everybody knows.

If you have a power outage it's often difficult to identify a 'tripped' RCD. This is because unlike a circuit breaker the switch doesn't flip completely to the off position. It'll usually still be pointing in the same direction as 'on' just not fully in position.

To reset it you have to first push the switch to the fully off position to reset it and then switch it back to the on position.

If it won't reset then you may have an electrical item with a permanent fault which is causing the 'trip'.

Turn off all appliances which are fed from that RCD. You should now be able to reset the RCD thus restoring power. Now turn the appliances back on one at a time.

When the RCD trips you've found your faulty appliance. To restore everything else just leave the faulty appliance switched off, reset the RCD and turn everything back on again one at a time.

Note that with a split load board you should first switch off all the individual circuit breakers from the affected RCD, reset the RCD then turn the breakers on one at a time. This will allow you to narrow down your search for the faulty appliance as you'll see which circuit trips the RCD.

If the RCD just resets straight away following a trip then it's most likely a lamp that's blown. The blowing lamp causes the trip but once it's blown the faults gone so it'll reset no problems.

The amount of power going in is purely down to how much the electrical appliance needs to run.

If the item needs 3000W to operate it'll pull that much from the supply. The type of plug on the end of it is irrelevant in that respect.

The reason different items have different types of plugs is that if an appliance uses more power there will be more current flowing through the plug. If the plug isn't rated at the appropriate current it will just overheat and melt.

The higher the power rating of an appliance, the thicker the cables will be, the bigger the plugs will be, the bigger the consumer unit will be etc..

Everything you've typed in the last three posts makes such sense it seemed completely obvious...

... and yet it was all new information to me.

Happy to spread the knowledge :)

Can you please head over to the chess thread. I'm in a pickle.

This is the only tool you need to disassemble flat pack. Disassembling is permanent though.
(http://www.randjbuildershardware.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/320x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/5/4/54029_3.jpg)

You can do it with these too

(http://m.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/Portals/48/product/images/info/prdbfe2a4d0-23ae-4515-aeba-1342a5c9cff0.jpg)

Cracking thread this one. thought I was pretty bad at man skills till I read some of the stuff on here...
Anyway would agree with other posters re: getting a DIY book. I got one for something like £6 from WHSmith, then supplement that with youtube vids, just a case of trying things after that.

Tools- My view is that whilst the expensive, quality tools are way better, for the very occasional Diyer they just aren't cost effective.

Time - One major thing I noticed with the stuff I have done is that they take me wayyy longer in time than the books/forum suggest. Nothing better than finishing something yourself though and doing a decent job in the process.

Have an interesting problem ahead. My petrol cap on my Ford Focus (balla) is stuck. I tried filling it up today and it would not open, I presume it was due to the freezing cold weather. I eventually managed to prize it open, but upon closing it and driving off, its now stuck again. I have a full tank of petrol, so no major rush to fix it, and I presume it is prizable again. Its set to get a bit warmer tomorrow so I am going to take a proper look (lol) tomorrow.

(http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/file/width/630//media/4515430/img_2207.jpg)

Its the little door-y thing, not the screw on petrol cap (The pic isnt mine, Im not near my car atm, thats just a stock photo)

Anyone had this sorta problem before?

As a last resort, a general mechanics would be useless right? Its more of a bodywork thing, possibly for a main dealer? Or would you say best course of action is to buy the part myself and have a crack at doing it myself?

Have you tried any of this?-
 http://www.talkford.com/topic/99493-fuel-cap-wont-open/

I f you go the WD40 route, it comes with a straw that fits in the nozzle which should make application to the mechanism easier.
(http://www.4x4review.com/Portals/1/OldImages/cool-prod/wd40-2-sm.jpg)

Good point, and one of the few bits of kit I actually own.

Don't heat it up with a blow-torch.  Just saying.

careful with WD 40 for deicing - the run off turns to water and refreezes - as does some de-icer

Are you sure that picture represents your fiesta. There is no fuel "cap" per se on that model. Do you mean the "door" cover to access the flap is stuck?

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Needs more love

That rub barely registers with me, I know so little about cars, I genuinely think I have the most pimping ride ever because my car has electric windows.

oops! not a rub at all - sorry

FYP

Gull wing fuel cap ftw

absolutely comedy genuis. I know it's probably not meant to be funny, but this is hilarious!

Yep, if you want you can envisage a scene where a building is collapsing in on itself, with the army, fire brigade and engineers planning on how to safely rescue the people inside it without causing a chain reaction which would destroy the whole building.

"Step back" a voice shouts from the crowd behind them.

I appear wearing some workmens overalls, with a toolbelt with a gift set of allen keys and some WD40 in it.

"It's alright, I have some WD40" I proudly proclaim

etc. that could be a Fast Show character, 'Crap Dad' or something like that.

On a roll today. The toilet seat broke (I am very aware how much it seems my bowel movements are a destructive force in this house), needed something screwing in and another thing hammering in. Sorted.

(http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/1603/photoigtb.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/photoigtb.jpg/)

Also took an extensive look at the petrol cap. TBH couldn't tell you how I fixed it, but it was a trial and error process and somehow it now works fine.

(http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4180/photo1cly.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/266/photo1cly.jpg/)

You gave it some percussion adjustment is my guess.

Having only just read the first post in this it has inspired me to try and become more handy myself, im 19 and live with my parents and my dad is the handy man around the house with him being a joiner. But one day ill have to move out and i highly doubt ill be able to survive without calling him up whenever there is a problem. My dad always gets onto me about my car as well as i never even lift the bonnet up. Hopefully i will learn a lot of this thread.

Anyone get a little misty-eyed seeing those pictures?

Yes? Well GTFO. This is a man's thread. Go on. Get out. Men are talking.

DaveShoelace, this is an heroic thread.

Question for any plumbing experts:

Are all shower fittings standard?

I need to change two showers in our new house, both are out dated and ineffective (pic below). Problem is my wife doesn't want me handling any power tools as:

a) I have very little patience
b) drilling through tiles is something I haven't done before
c) I will most likely cause too much damage
d) it will cost a fortune to put right all the mistakes I make!

(http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397000_378143142275976_1879389804_n.jpg)

So, should I be able to buy a new shower and fit it using hand tools with no extra drilling? or is re-positioning the feed pipes unavoidable?

What are you hoping to achieve?

Two showers that are hot and have a fair amount of power. Basically I have one that's stone cold, no matter what, and one that's luke warm and takes me ten minutes just to get wet.

I'm aware that I could change the washers, etc, but these showers are 15years old and I suspect never taken apart before. so I thought it would be a lot easier to replace with something more modern.

I don't want to install anything electrically powered

If the petrol flap sticking was down to it being frozen ?
Then a little preventative maintenance might be called for to stop it happening again smear a little vasaline on rubber / surfaces that touch when closed

Anyone else read "penetrative maintenance" and "Vaseline" and have a flashback to Freshers' Week?

We have had a button missing on our Oven for about 2 years. Finally decided to order a new one in today. Only cost £4.

Even knowing some of these parts were replaceable was beyond me even a few weeks ago. I know all these little victories of mine thus far are quite small, but even they are quite empowering. Like a few guys itt said, the main part is just having a crack at them first.

Today the missus and I went to view a house which we love and will be putting an offer in for. Doesn't need much doing to it, but all being well I'll be posting a 'how to put up a fence' and a 'how to install an electric shower unit' (the two things it needs if we get it) post early next year.

HELP!!

Have a Xmas tree with all the LED lights built into the branches. There are 3 plugs, for each of the 3 sections and the top section has gone out completely. I changed the fuse and tested the socket but no joy. Have youtubed it, but it's all yankified and requires a light tester gun thing from Walmart.. Anyone any ideas how I can fix this myself? I can't even test each bulb one at a time as none of them light up, this would indicate to me it is a power source problem but apart from change fuse and test socket what can i do? This tree was pretty pricey and really don't want to replace it. Any sparkies out there able to help?

Twist each bulb (in line of the power) (or if they are more modern push pull do that). 1 might be loose

As you go see if any are obv gone (brown staining),

Do you have replacements?

No replacements atm. Gonna try get hold of some tomorrow if i can't fix today, although don't even know what type they are tbh.. checking bulbs now to see if one has come loose. We added a couple of new ornaments yesterday, thinking they might have added a bit too much pressure. fml, darts would be on as well.

Pull 1 bulb out of the working stretches and that will help see if 1 bulb affects the whole run

Found the son of a bitch. One was wobbly the other was blown.

(http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff384/Milligan84/DSCN3570_zpsd130035b.jpg)

Yea, Guy I tried that and nothing happened :(, I am 99% sure when I bought the tree it said even if a bulb goes it wont affect the other lights, that's why I bought it.. Will get some spares tomorrow and hopefully it comes back to life. If not I will cry and see if they still sell the same tree and just have a spare bottom and middle section.

Norrrrrr. The middle section has a couple of lights out and the rest are still fine which means there is something more sinister at work. FML. Xmas is cancelled.

Well you learn something new everyday!

Prep-lit trees are designed to stay lit if one bulb should blow, UNLESS that bulb happens to be the 'fuse bulb' (normally denoted with a white base or white tip!!) in which case none of the lights in that particular string will function.

Houston, I think we have found our problem.

After I replace the fuse bulb with a spare It should be good to go.

Epic Fail Alert

So remember the fuel door for my car? I fixed it right?

Well, I keep checking it, just in case, and it stuck again, FFS. More WD40, no effect this time. Then all of a sudden it worked, then I'd drive somewhere, and it wouldn't work straight after. I've got a mate who is a mechanic whom I had planned on showing it to, and wasn't going to mention it on this thread out of embarrassment.

Anyhoo, I was discussing it with a friend last night and I mentioned unlike all my previous cars, this one doesnt have a lever/button inside the car to unlock the fuel door, you just 'open it'. He said "but, it would be easy to siphon petrol, there must be one" and I said, nah.

I went home, slept on it, went out this morning, it worked fine, went to the gym and checked it at the gym, it stopped working again.

Scientific Barry reasoned "hmmmmm, it must be something to do with the engine warming something up and making it sticky"

Finished at the gym and it just clicked.

Carter, you f^&%ng idiot.

It wont open when the car is locked, it will open when the car is unlocked.

(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSCHu2Rdjsl4iHcdBbdjiSZYmhV3nih8pYxKh9TBnYZCjWXzWL8WL1lQ0fe)

This is what you are up against guys and gals, 2013 is going to be a long year.

(http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/laughing/funny-laughing-smiley-emoticon.gif) (http://www.sherv.net/funny.laughing-emoticon-3068.html)

Absolutely brilliant!

Sure am glad I've spent the last week trying to prize the fucker open with my bare hands.

+1

Barry, I thought I was a numpty, but you are an award winning handyman numpty.

did you sort the over flow?

after a fashion.  I watched it being sorted lol

Love it!  rotflmfao

 >:(

you were right, it needed adjusting not replacing

It's just an issue of confidence really, I am all fat fingers and big thumbs.

Next time I'll have a go myself

do you think you would have tried if I had put up a video rather than text?

Level?

That is brilliant Barry. Made my day!

By the way, to pass an MOT test the fuel system must be complete with a locking fuel filler cap. This can either be one that you need a key to open the actual cap, or one that is opened by a lever inside the car, or one that locks and unlocks with the central locking of the car.

Sorry Barry but I feel this may be my fault. It was the first thing I thought of when you mentioned your problem but I didn't know it applied to Fords.

I only thought of it because I once saw a girl in a petrol station struggling with her filler cap on a mini. She eventually left the station having not filled up. I realised afterwards what her problem would've been as mini's are manufactured by the same company as my car which does the same thing.

I didn't mention it on here because I thought it was too simple and I might get laughed at for stating the obvious.

Where you're concerned I won't make that mistake again.

Nice work.

Let's all follow this advice guys. No matter how simple it may be let's mention it, should anybody mock a simple post we need to refer them back to this incident.

lol, yeah its all EvilPie's fault, lets all laugh at him.

The sad thing is, I actually cant help but feel a sense of accomplishment that I worked out what was wrong.

In other news I replaced a long standing missing button on my cooker today, probs not the right time to brag about it.

I assumed this was the opening line to a much more interesting story from Matt's life.

Sadly no :(

If I'd realised what was happening immediately I could've heroically saved the day for her.

Shame really 'cause she was well fit!!

Alright, Clark Gable!

Thanks Barry, Gave me a proper LOL moment that did.   ;D

(http://www.completeshite.com/davethewave-adverts/1990/dime-bar.JPG)

Wp mohican. One of my favourite adverts.

Smooth on the inside. Crunchy on the outside. Armadillooooooooos

I get some funny looks sometimes when I call someone a 'Dimebar' when they've been/done something stoopid.

A 15 year old advert isn't the most current reference tbf  :)

Wazzzzuuuuuuurrrrrp!

Our wood burner hasn't been burning so well.

I opened the side door (which I had hitherto never even noticed) whilst tinkering with it....and now can't get it shut.

The pronounced inner pannel of the door seems to sink into the frame well enough, though perhaps not completely, and as a result I'm struggling to shut the latch which is controlled by a handle that one twists.

Any ideas?!

What are wood burners like? I'm mad keen to get one (gg house) but a builder friend of mine tells me they are not the monumental money saver they appear.

It gives a really nice heat off - probably sounds a weird thing to say but I'm convinced the warmth from it is different to that which comes off a radiator!

Unless it's just me doing it wrong....they're fairly messy. It's difficult to have the discipline not to tinker once it's running and each time you open/shut the door it makes a new bit of mess (sufficient only for a woman to notice really though to be fair).

We buy our wood from Wimbledon Common where there is a pile from when they conservation-clear or whatever it is they do. Absolute pain to dry - we have a wood store outside but the solution I have settled upon is to stack wood around the burner with the hope that it dries out somewhat before its turn to burn comes.

Axe an essential purchase for the manufacture of kindling.


Re: the latch....essentially it clears the main part of the frame, but there then seems to a node that is has to clear before being shut fully, and it is this that it's trying to pass. My guesstimation suggests that if the latch that twists down pointed a bit more inward it would clear it, or perhaps if it sat a little further from the handle, but I'm not sure if either of these is the correct solution?

First one could be achieved with brute force (ie. the metal manipulated), but that feels wrong and I doubt it's what I should do. The second I think is probably the solution...but I don't know how to do it. There is a bolt on the fireplace side (ie. furthest from the handle) that holds the latch itself in place. Perhaps this needs loosening to allow the latch a bit more 'play'?!

Oldest son wanted to take his scooby doo umbrella to school because it is tipping it down. It would not stay up properly so I said to him give it here and I will fix it. "Shall I fetch the hammer then dad" said one of the 4 year old twins.  :(

Post some photos.

There are also health risks with wood-burning stoves that a lot of people overlook.  I think the more modern ones are a lot better, but older or badly maintained ones are a significant health risk.

So....

The Wood Burner itself:

(http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q677/edgascoigne1/CIMG1330_zps4d9c0826.jpg)

How far the door will shut currently:

(http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q677/edgascoigne1/CIMG1331_zpsfbb715a7.jpg?t=1356003114)

The inner workings of the latch:

(http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q677/edgascoigne1/CIMG1335_zpsaf9551db.jpg)

take a very soft brush and  a hoover and clean out the base of the door reveal, in particular towards the back

That handle does look like it's out of line with the door. Maybe just the angle the photo was taken.

I think that is just the angle.

If you are having a problem with the door on the woodburner, have you checked if the front door of your house is currently locked?

Worked for me with something similar.

 ;hide;

True!!!

Just showing my age.

The insulation strip on the edge of the door could that be protruding somewhere stopping you from fully closing the door?

I did think this but when closing (trying gently or firmly) it tends to make something of a 'clang'. Guess it could be that the insulation strip is pushing the metal into the wrong place?

BTW I don't know anything about woodburners, just trying to help.

Haha, no worries. It's a pretty niche and ridiculous problem as far as they go....!

Seems like perhaps it's similar to when a door isn't quite properly aligned on it's hinges and therefore catches?

Will have a fiddle and hopefully resolve it one way or another....

Confirmed not the insulation seal as I have removed that and it's still 'clanging' at the same point and only shutting to the same degree.

It does sound like the hinges may be the problem. Other than the normal door swing movement is there any movement up or down?

I am Edward Gascoigne.

And I am a man who fixed wood burners.



* DISCLAIMER, it's still not sitting properly on the hinges but having taken the insulation strip out and refitted it, and then twatted the door as hard as I could, I've managed to get the thing shut. *


Thank you thread :)

This is generally the right solution to most problems.

:D

Absolutely essential option to have in the repertoire.

My internal monologue tends to run in the following order...

a) Can I fix it by hitting it gently?
b) If a gentle tap no good, search for a youtube/forum based suggestion.
c) If the above doesn't see it fixed, ascertain timescale/cost for someone to come and fix it.
d) If the answer to the above question is unacceptable, hit it a lot harder than in part (a).

Excellent use of the Brummagem Screwdriver

(http://arielkprice.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/mlss_mario-hammer.jpg)

Oi!!!

Oh Dave that's awesome. I just snorted.

Edward is a serious worry.

Merry Xmas all

I got some meadowhall (big shopping centre here) vouchers for crimbo. Was thinking of buying myself a basic toolkit.

Not looking for anything major, but wondering what everyone thought were the absolute essential tools for handmen like me?

I'm guessing my local hardware store would be cheaper than the majors like B&Q?

Happy Christmas Barry.

How much do you want to spend???

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noSOFIJdfwM

Like this?

Excellent thread, will def be bombarding this thread with questions once I'm back at my place after new year. Loads of stuff that needs doing that I've been ignoring for ages but doesn't seem worthy of calling a plumber/spark out for

I think B&Q will be cheaper as it is manufactured and imported on mass at much lower rates. A local independent trader is a lock to be more expensive imo but at the same time you are also likely to get better quality tools as local stores can't really afford to take a knock to their reputation.

B&Q innit.
If you do go local avoid anything that says blackspur or rolsen on it.

Hey Barry happy Xmas mate ....
Go to b&q they do a really good Bosch (DIY) range that is cheap and I think comes with a 2 year waranty
They also have good prices on dewalt at times (this is a tradesmans brand) however depends on what you want to spend
They used to do for instance an entry level 18v dewalt drill @ £99

Another great place for your DIY tools is screw fix ...either in store or at

http://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/cat830034;jsessionId=tLM5QhRT4Wh414KBy1DZKz862rNghgVxLbhYVm4Jhhlpj6FWcS8D!-384323408!1356517710570?cm_sp=Homepage-_-Categories-_-Tools

If you let me know what your thinking of getting & a budget I can tell you exactly what you should get and where to go

In addition to that post Barry


What every handyman needs is the following.

1,claw hammer......................http://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-20oz-fibreglass-hammer/23264
2, a hand screwdriver set............http://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-cushion-grip-screwdriver-set-4pcs/23014
3,combi drill ......http://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-cushion-grip-screwdriver-set-4pcs/23014    Or
http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gsb-14-4-2-li-14-4v-1-3ah-li-ion-cordless-combi-drill/25293
4,socket set.............http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-socket-set-65pcs/47638
5,assorted spanners & an adjustable spanner .........http://www.screwfix.com/p/adjustable-wrench-set-3pcs/76354
http://www.screwfix.com/p/combination-spanner-set-12pcs/46693

Loads more stuff but obviously but costs a lot !!

Would agree that this is  a gd list to start with, although if you buy a drill, a set of drill bits wouldn't go amiss.
A tool bag would also be a gd idea.Summat like this.
(http://s7g3.scene7.com/is/image/ae235?$p$&layer=0&size=281,281&layer=1&size=281,281&src=ae235/39809_P)
http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-hard-bottom-tool-bag-16/39809#

Thanks chaps. I went in a place called Tool Shed, it was a pretty cool shop but I had no idea what I was looking at. I'll get started with the list above in the next week.

You will find in all shops you will get cheap crap ,good quality DIY and trade tools ....you don't need trade or the cheap
I don't know what you need but if your buying any power tools my advice would be to go for the green (DIY version ) of Bosch the blue coloured are higher quality and obviously £££ more expensive

Not 'getting handy' as such, but we've got a leak upstairs that has got worse of late. There's a brick wall around the outskirts of the roof and one corner is mossy, so it looks as though the water is coming through the brickwork rather than the roof itself.

The plan is for the builder to clear out the moss and put a protective layer over the top of the bricks (I can't recall what), but he can't do the job until February.

I'm not sure if you can see the leak in the photo, but given the recent bad weather and the spread of the leak, is this something I need to get sorted before then as obviously I don't want it to turn in to an even more expensive job.

(http://i437.photobucket.com/albums/qq94/snoopylq/leak_zpsd1e22aa4.jpg)

Well I escaped the 2012 runbad for 1 whole day.. this morning when I got in my car I went to put the window down and the driver's side wouldn't budge. Sighs. They are electric and the passenger side works fine but nothing happens when you press the button on the driver's side. I thought it might be frozen even though it wasn't that cold but after 2hrs of driving it hasn't changed. Anyone know of any common problems with ford focus windows getting stuck?

Gonna have a google around but I am shit with all this stuff.

Can you hear the window winder motor whirring or is it just dead?

Sounds dead. Just hear the button clicking down then nothing happens.

checked fuses?

Mate, I wouldn't know where to look or what I was looking for to do that. I'm an absolute beginner with this stuff. Think sorting this out is gonna be a steep learning curve. Been looking on youtube and it seems the 'window regulator' goes quite often in fords. Looks like a fair bit of a job taking the door apart and all sorts. Arrrghhhh.

Only just seen this snoops, pics of outside, I'm concerned about suggested repair. Is it acropol?

Found a thread http://www.rac.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?2719-Ford-Focus-Window-problem/page2&s=d2787996ea69d84e11b4d7862ae81171 (http://www.rac.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?2719-Ford-Focus-Window-problem/page2&s=d2787996ea69d84e11b4d7862ae81171) where a few people had the same problem as me. Solution "Hit it with a hammer" apparently it works. Plan to take the door panel off at the weekend and give it a good whack. #excited.

I found that thread as well, was about to suggest it. It seems that the fuse would knock at all the windows so I don't think it's that. 'Percussion adjustment' is the techinal name for lumping it hard wiv a hammer. Would suggest you get/borrow a mallet like this-
(http://i.pgcdn.com/pi/74/68/08/746808139_125.jpg)
or protect the casing as you could do serious damage if you lump it with a normal hammer.
BTW, your owners manual should give you a list of the fuses and where the fuse boxes are located.

I actually have a rubber mallet. Sweet. A couple of people said they managed to fix it by hitting the door with their fist in the bottom left corner while operating the switch.. am going to try this first thing in the morning. If not it will be door stripping and Mallet time at the wknd. Cheers for the help mohican. Will give an update as and when.

Doing this might actually lead to me fixing another thing wrong with my car. The controls on the steering wheel don't actually operate the radio/cd player as they should. I always have to lean other and change stations/track/volume. hmmm.

Great thread Barry. Normally I would have just gone straight to the garage and paid through the nose, it feels good to try and fix something yourself.

Problems these are always worth investigating yourself, especially with the internet providing a lot answers for small problems. I've always done oil changes/minor services/exhaust changes myself.
Even did the valve shims on my motorbike with help from my mechanic mate. Internet enabled me to print of a step by step guide from a geezer who'd done it himself,so i just followed that. Probably saved myself £200 just on that job alone.

We have a fence made up of wooden panels in our back garden. 

I am guessing they are 6 ft by 6ft and between them they have concrete dividing poles with slats in the side like this.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/slotted-concrete-fence-post-24m/invt/540063/?source=123_74&tmcampid=104&tmad=c&tmplaceref=PPC_ggl_0006635&gclid=CKC1-6WCy7QCFQzKtAod2RcAXA (http://www.wickes.co.uk/slotted-concrete-fence-post-24m/invt/540063/?source=123_74&tmcampid=104&tmad=c&tmplaceref=PPC_ggl_0006635&gclid=CKC1-6WCy7QCFQzKtAod2RcAXA)

We only moved in last christmas, and in February when it was windy a panel blew out and a couple of fence posts were tipped about a foot from the vertical.  I have no idea how many times this has happened in the past, but my neighbour did mention the previous homw owner normally "fixed" the fence.

When I looked at the bottom they had a small ball of concrete maybe a foot deep at the bottom that was intended to keep the fence upright.  When I looked up fixing fences on the internet, it suggested that the concrete should be at least 2 foot down in to the ground.

I figured if we put them back vertical and made a bigger hole and poured more concrete/postmix in they would have a better chance of staying up. The missus didn't rate my fence fixing skills (probably correctly) and so we got some fencers to come in while I was out. 

They billed us for a couple of new fence posts, some concrete/postmix and labour.  I didn't see what they did, and wasn't entirely convinced that the fence posts were different from the previous ones, but they had certainly churned up the garden around the fence posts. 

This winter we have had some pretty serious rain in the last few weeks, and the clay soil at the bottom of the fence turned pretty muddy and sloppy.

I am guessing we had a bit of wind while I was away for christmas, and the same panel and at least one of the "replacement" fence posts has done the same as last year.  The panel has blown out and we have one post at a 10 degree angle to the vertical (it has probably been gently tipping more and more throughout the year, as before christmas we did notice it didn't look as straight as it once did).  Looking at the bottom of the fence post, the "replacement" doesn't appear to have much concrete around it.

I have also read that the ground can get weakened around the fence posts, so you get a better/stronger fence if you use different holes.

The fence is definitely our responsibility.  The panel that has come out looks a bit worse for wear, but the others don't look that bad/in need of replacement.

What is the best way forward?

1.  Getting some fencers back to do a similar repair to last year.  If so, what should I be insisting on?
2.  The previous plan A, which was bunging something in the hole to strengthen around the base (either more concrete/postmix, ballast or something else)
3.  Building a new fence with different holes.

Finally, should I wait until the ground has firmed up a bit, or do it while the ground is sloppy mud?

I am fairly loathe to do 3, as I guess it is going to be expensive and is likely to be disruptive to all the plants I have just put in.  I am also pretty sure that I don't want to go outside in winter and try to break up the existing concrete balls at the bottom of the fence posts.  If that was the best thing to do, I'd rather just get a fencing firm in (though almost certainly a different one!)

Hope that is not too TLDR, though fear it may be.  Sorry.

Cheers

Bunging some extra postmix in should sort it but you need to do it properly really.

You need to dig a decent sized hole and shutter it off using plywood or similar to make the hole a square shape rather than just a random blob.

The squared edges will offer much more resistance than a rounded off lump.

No problem using the same hole again. If you make it slightly bigger than the old one it's a completely new hole anyway.

Shuttering off is just making the hole square? 

May give this ago this afternoon.

Cheers.

You can always get longer posts as well and dig a deeper hole.

use different fence panels

Sorry for the short response - let me expand

If you are using solid fence posts - they act like sails, and if you have a prevailing wind, that is often strong, this strikes me that this is going to be an ongoing problem.

If you really dislike your neighbour and insist on solid fence posts, then although beefing up the foundations is a good idea, if you are going to go that far as to exposing then again, id be more inclined to design them to stop the "rotation" effect which is causing the problem  in the first place rather than just "load up with concrete"

Hope this helps

I have nothing against my neighbour and was just planning on fixing a fence we already have.  I think you have made a useful point that had got me thinking.

I don't understand why I would redesign fence panels, but maybe there are millions to be made from such an idea. 

We have two children, one currently noisy and irritating, one in the process of learning to be noisy and irritating.  I have also planted raspberries against the fence and other plants that would like nothing more than to move to the sunnier side of the fence.  We are also planing on getting a trampoline.

She is a pensioner. 

So I think most of the irritations are likely to be on our side.

 I will have a think, look at the options, and speak to my wife and neighbour. 

I don't have a pic of the outside as it's tough for me to get up on the roof safely. I'm just repeating the diagnosis a roofer gave. I've managed to persuade the builder to pop round on Saturday though to take a look and perhaps put in a temporary measure until it can be fixed properly. He's also going to redo the lead pointing.

No idea what acropol is, but it doesn't sound familiar. I think the plan is to put some kind of protective coping stones down once the moss has been cleared and hope that stops any more water seeping in to our walls. If not, then I've got a bit of a problem on my hands. In the short-term, I'm trusting him to at least minimise the damage until he can return in February as the recent rainfall is a little worrying when you've got these massive damp patches on your bedroom wall.

Snoops  -PM sent

Oioiiiiiiiiiii. Fixed the driver's side window which wasn't working. Took the door panel off, stripped back ripped up the insulation. Give the motor a whack and hey presto.

My mate and his missus were driving past and pulled over to rail, I felt like I was on an FT and every move I made was being scrutinised..

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXI5tfzPga8

Probs saved myself a couple of hundo. Great thread!

Love the videos you make :)

Kitchen from scratch.
Got professional help with trhe mitre joint on the worktop, plumbing the sink in (original pipework was a mess) and flooring.
Rest is my own work.
Only took from Easter till Christmas

continued

last one

Was thinking of doing my own kitchen, instead of the months it took you,it was done in ten days. Stripped it out myself and painted it but the rest was done by a superb builder/kitchen fitter and relevant tradesman. Have to say with two young kids,it was worth the expense plus the result is far better than I ever would've achieved. Sometimes it's just best left to the people in the know.

Epic rubs

Didn't mean it to be. ;ashamed; ;ashamed;
It was more of a reflection on my lack of kitchen fitting skills. May have to rephrase it.

Great effort with kitchen Adam ...well done

Redraft- I had toyed with the idea of fitting the kitchen in my new house with help from the relevant people in the trade. But seeing as I have 2 young children, the idea of having the kitchen as a building site for months was not one that appealed. So I paid for someone else to do it and the finished result was done far quicker and to a lot better standard than I'd have achieved.
 Big up to AdamM for doing his by himself and doing it well.

I have a wife and two kids myself, so I did try to minimise the amount of time it was a building site.
I made it sound worse than it was saying Easter to Christmas.

I booked a week off work and ripped out the old kitchen, put up new plasterboard.
Plastering only took a bank holiday weekend shortly after.

The new units got fitted over a weekend and a few evenings, then there was a delay before the tiling, flooring and decorations went up.

I'd love to have paid someone to do it, but the budget didn't stretch to it.
Probably in the region of £1500 materials and £200 for pro labour.

Will be finishing it off with the second cheapest cooker in currys soon :-)

These cheap easy way of finishing edge of work top mate

I personally use the edging that comes with work top .....colour match but these can be tricky to fit for DIY !

http://www.screwfix.com/p/worktop-edging-end-cap-black-40mm/39087

Got some metal edges to go on.
Still got finishing touches like that, blind, light, etc to do

Lee, you'd be impressed (or not) as we built a kitchen table tonight with some reclaimed scaffolding wood!

Would be more impressed with pics !

OK will do.

In the meantime, I've been trying to sort a very small problem on my car - one of the registration plate bulbs isn't working. This wouldn't really bother me, except the MOT is due at the end of the month and this would count as a test fail.  Now, this should be a simple task you say, just change the bulb.  However, it's not that easy.  On the Mini, BMW has used a terrible design for the plinth that holds the reg-plate lights and the boot-switch mechanism. Basically, it lets water in.  So the holders of the bulbs corrode over time, and that's what's happened.

I've managed to take it all apart, bodged a fix to replace the corroded holder, and put it all back together.  The bulb now lights up!  But the bulb on the other side now doesn't work, and I've swapped bulbs over and it's not a problem with the bulbs but somewhere in the electrics.  Unfortunately, I don't have anything I can use to check the connections and see where the problem is, and so I'm going to have to get Lyndsey's brother to have a look at it (as he's a mechanic).

#manskillsfail

Invest £3 in a 12 volt tester Kin, or make one from a bulb.


(http://freeautomechanic.com/testlight4.gif)

I've got a voltage tester, but the batteries are dead :(

I've ordered a new boot plinth that contains the boot switch and reg plate lights as I'll need it to be working for the MOT. Before I went out this evening I had another tweak, still no joy. Drove home, and had a look, and it's all working! So I'm not as useless as I thought.

Still gig to keep the new plinth though, as the existing one is still unreliable and with the water ingress,it's only going to get worse.

#notacompletemanskillsfail

nearly on page 3! wtf!

Not very impressed !

My photos are with your diet it seems...

I'm generally pretty handy but lack a good eye for detail (plus lazy).

We're thinking of changing all the door handles (including latches and hinges) in the house to a more modern style.

Should I do it myself or just get someone like leethefish to do it properly?

If the plates and fittings are the same or similar,  it's easy doing it yourself.

In the last house I owned, I replaced all the doors and fittings. Was a big job for a noob, as hanging new doors into old frames serves up all sorts of treats.

As boshi put it changing to doors is a tough job for DIY but just changing the ironmongery for any half decent DIY person is easy!
Just remember if the holes don't line up you will need to pilot the holes first

Bleeding radiators!

I know how to, but require guidance on :

how I find the radiator at the top of the system?

and, should I do it when the heating Is on or is it ok to do it when the system is off?

Read first few pages of this thread! Finding absolute top doesn't matter

Good news Man Skills fans. Don't worry, I haven't abandoned this, far from it, I have just had an offer accepted on my first house so you can look forward to two or three months of calamitous DIY from yours truly. I've got plenty of stuff to do to get my current rented place tip top so the fun starts here.

Moved into our dream home last year, problem is couple we bought it from were there 50+ years and everything needed doing. 2nd problem is I am a reet lazy twat and skint, so its going to be a slow process doing everything.

New electrics and Bolier system + plastering done just the rest for me.

Any suggestions on Apps or books that are a good general guide for most DIY stuff? I reckon I will be putting in an hour to two night for the next 5 months to finish the lot.

Landing needs all floorboards sorting, bathrooms need updating, 3 bedrooms need stripping redecorating, 2 of them all fine and sorted.

good luck with this it took me 5 years and i am a tradesman!!

We are back Gents.

So I've bought a house, hopefully moving in in April. The roof is possibly going to need replacing, we are getting a few quotes.

We've worked an agreement out with the vendor for paying for any potential repairs, but I don't want to get shafted. When arranging work this big, I know you should never pay up front, but can I also arrange a contract to ensure a workman sticks to their quoted budget?

The whole process has really shined a light on how very little I know about this stuff. Don't worry, I won't be attempting to replace the roof myself.

I know a guy.

Found this on the Federation of Master Builders website:

http://www.fmb.org.uk/find-a-builder/helpful-advice/working-with-your-builder/

Hope it is of some use.

Penalty clauses are a bit of a sticky area of the law (bank charges and all that). There are loads of articles about it, but here's one high up on the Google search from a law firm:

http://www.boyesturner.com/news-article.html?id=66

That's the sorta thing I'm looking for cheers

It took me 3 weeks to strip the living room lol this will take me a long long time.

Had my offer accepted on a house today, will be using this thread a bit in the near future

It's well stressful, gl

Biggest problem we are having atm is the estate agents dragging their feet.

We got a homebuyers survey done and it was unbelievably scary, they are really overly critical of houses to cover their own back. Thankfully for us the vendors have been awesome and have pretty much paid to have everything raised on our survey fixed.

Shout out to Outrageous76 for some mad roof tips btw

Sounds like your having a bit of a mare.

Not the first house I have bought so hopefully shouldn't be too bad. Couple we are buying from are buying a bungalow that the same estate agent has sold so should help ease the hassle.
House we buying needs a bit of updating to bathroom and kitchen so 'fun' times ahead

Any one changed their break fluid for their car before?

One for the professionals that I think Ho.

Sure it's easy enough but doubt it's worth the risk.

Any BMW specialists out there?

My 3 series is having real problems starting ....turns over but really struggles to fire up!

Had two separate mates/mechanics put the diagnostics test on it with no faults found !

Send your regards to MPOWER - he's the BMW guy.

Is it petrol or diesel?

Can I ask why you want to change your brake fluid?

Been told u should change it every two years

Is this a lie ?

I'm a complete mug with anything to do with cars

Petrol mate

Yes. Well it's not a lie, but it's an exaggeration. I mean, it would be better to change your tires every week, but it's not necessary.

I have never changed my brake fluid, even on vehicles that I have had for 7 or 8 years unless it has been a necessity. i.e. as part of another job, like replacing a master cylinder for instance.

Unless you're having problems (Like a spongy brake pedal or something) just forget about it and drive on.

spoilsport

Ah!

Had it been diesel I would have snap said heater plugs, but with a petrol it could be one of many things.

To start a petrol engine you need a good battery & starter motor, + fuel + air + spark.

Lets start at the beginning. Does it turn over quickly, like wuhwuhwuh  or slowly, like wuh.....  wuh.... wuh..... ?

ah thank you tom!

Turns over fast Tom but
Some days I manage to get it started but not others !

OK. Once started, does it start all day and run normally?

Sorry for slow replies mate ....just sat down!

Yes just about.....if left a few hours it might take a couple of tries but only trouble really comes in morning !

Today for instance

I tried to start it at 7 am before I went to work I couldn't get it started
Alison tried it at 9 am same no start ...
She tried again at about 1 pm and it was fine and has been all day running fine !

This is going to be a process of elimination Lee.

The first thing to check is the fuel supply. Lift the bonnet and then turn the engine over for 30 seconds or so. Is there a smell of petrol? If not it could mean that the fuel pump is faulty, or that the fuel is running back to the tank overnight and it's taking a long time to draw up again the next morning.

Can you open a fuel pipe at a convenient spot and check if there is fuel coming out under pressure when you turn on the ignition or crank the engine?

My early suspicions would be fuel pump or non return valve.

There is also an electronic cold start mechanism that allows more fuel into the combustion chamber.  (a bit like the old choke) That could be playing up, but I would have expected the diagnostics computer to have spotted that.

Wall Ties

I've been learning about those today (dont worry, I'm not working on them myself).

My overflow pipe had been leaking for a while but had got steadily worse over past week or so.
This is for the second toilet off my sons room, which has the cistern hidden behind cladding etc.

Very old siphon system but found two causes. First was the old screw needed adjusting for the ball float. Did that but still overfilling. So played around with the diaphragm and screw fitting as it was a little loose.

Took about 10 mins and now fixed!!!!

Really appreciate you taking the time with this mate

There is no smell of petrol
I've no idea what a fuel pipe looks like !!

This is Really pissing me off now ....
I think Am going to have to get a specialist to come and look ..what are you doing today red? (-;

It's so difficult to try to diagnose a mechanical problem when your not actually there lee. It must be the same for people who try to help me with my computer problems.

Unfortunately it looks like you will need to take it to a garage and leave it overnight so that they can see the problem first hand the next morning.

Thanks Tom ,

Had a third mechanic look at the car today and he has said he is 90% sure the problem is the crank sensor !
Which is what one of the other guys wanted to try next (he's already changed a relay)
So this is going to be done Saturday afternoon

It was the crank sensor .........yessssss at last !!

So did they re-set it with the computer or did they replace it?

I have a varished/stained wood fire place mantlepiece which has some very historic (6 years+) overspill of emulsion and "splattering" of paint

Anyone got any good ideas of how to remove the emulsion without affecting the varnish?

If I have to affect the varnish, will it patch in or will I need to retreat the whole thing?

They replaced it .........
I think I might of reported the problem fixed to soon!!

Today it didn't start straight away about 4th turn
Noooooooooo!

Not a painter mate but I would say that you would need to retreat the whole thing !

Maybe have a go with a single edged razor blade.

I'm back!

So this week I moved into my new house, it's the first house I have ever owned.

The move went ok, a few flatpack furniture adventures but otherwise straightforward. We did flood the kitchen of the old rented house removing the washing machine.......but before you assume I was up to my usual Mr Bean ways it was actually the removal men's fault.

It did, however, instantly make me find out where the stop cocks were in this house, which brings me onto todays big ask.

Stop cocks are obv very important, but what are the other 'must know' things I need to know about my new gaffe right away for when emergency stuff happens?

I know where the fuse box is. What else should be on my list?

In other news, for the first time ever we have a big garden, which is great for our dog. What should I be doing to maintain my lawn? How regularly should I cut it (it will be often because our Lab likes to eat grass)? How often should I water it?

Do you know how to isolate thd fuse box if needed? ;0) all well and good knowing where it is!

Boiler? Service annually

Garden, as often as you think. Probs fortnightly. Shouldn't need to water the grass unless you want a perfect lawn

Keys for window locks. Keys for all exit doors. You've got the fuses/breakers covered and the stopcocks... you got smoke alarms?

Don't worry about the lawn.  Your Lab will have it burnt to hell in no time and you won't have near as much to cut as you do now.  We cut what's left of ours once a week.

I don't even know what isolate the fuse box means. Basically all I meant there was 'I know where it is the flick the fuse back up' - so might need some elaboration there.

We are probably getting a new boiler this summer so hopefully we will have that covered.

Yep, smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.

Ah, well if you know how to "flip it  back on" you will be fine! Incase of emergencies, if you ever need to turn off all power, then flip the switch to the off position ;9)

phew, yes do know that one.

If your garden's genuinely big I'd invest in a good quality petrol mower with a grass collector.

Don't fuck about with a £50 crappy argos flymo, it just won't cut it. (pun intended).

£250 will get you a good quality, high powered petrol mower that will last for years and eat through your grass even if you accidentally forget to cut it for 3 or 4 weeks.

Cut it every week if you can be arsed. The shorter it is the easier it will be to find the dog shit. Also if you cut it while it's still reasonably short you don't have to constantly empty the grass collector. Overall you save time by doing it more often and it's hardly a painful task.

I tend to do mine every 2 weeks in summer but it really is best to do it every week.

Good luck.

Stop cock is by far the most important thing to know the whereabouts of.

Get to grips with your heating / hot water system as soon as possible. Whatever you do don't wait until it starts to get cold before finding out whether your boiler's going to last through next winter.

Fuse box isn't overly important. As long as you know how to switch something back on you'll be fine.

Is it a reasonably new house?

No it's 1930s. We had a homebuyers survey done and are getting a few small things fixed based on the recommendations (damp proofing a wall and wall ties for the back wall) all courtesy of the vendors

Do you know how to turn on/off the gas boiler if needed. also worth getting fire service to check your house and advise on escape routes in case of a fire etc

Have a intermittent flushing toilet in my house. hasn't flushed for ages(down stairs loo so not used much) and had to use a bucket to get rid of waste. Yesterday it flushed fine. Do I need to replace the valve's inside the cistern?

likely the diaphragm/piston is split/damaged in the syphon. Usually requires to replace whole syphon arrangement inside the cistern. Easy job for a plumber (30 mins)

or to replace youself, isolate water supply, empty cistern (flush), remove cistern, buy new syphon arrangement, install then refit and connect water and open value again

ez

tx

Tx, was planning on doing it myself. Just needed confirmation before i purchased valve thingymebob.

Await thread on how to best clear up flooded toilet.

Not from me swapping the value thingymebob over but there was a bulge in the kitchen ceiling this morning. Found leak under bath fittings. Removed and going to replace. Quick question- is it necessary to use a sealant when fitting one of these or will the rubber seal do the job-
(http://s7g3.scene7.com/is/image/ae235?$p$&layer=0&size=281,281&layer=1&size=281,281&src=ae235/32944_P)
or as I suspect whoever fitted it last has used summat that's gone brittle and that has caused the leak.
I'm sure when I removed this at the last house, the rubber seal was sufficient.

I would always use clear silicone to seal .....however I only do this cos seen a plumber doing it !

Yep with lee

Clear silicone between outlet and fitting always

In laymans terms,the  hole in the bath and the new plughole?

Thoughts please. Below is the bathroom I inherited when I moved into this house. Next weekend, I'm just going to give the room a quick freshen up. So the cork floor tiles are getting replaced and a bath panel fitted. Just need ideas on what to use to panel around the sink and toilet. Eventually, I'll do  a proper refit but, money being rarer than me buying a round,I just wanna make it look usable.
Tx,
Mohican.
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/druid636/26294702-F753-4FC7-B19C-AA4B34714A92-20108-00000FC76EDE6074.jpg) (http://s225.photobucket.com/user/druid636/media/26294702-F753-4FC7-B19C-AA4B34714A92-20108-00000FC76EDE6074.jpg.html)

didnt see this, but yes

what are you doing to the floor?

personally, id take off panelling, plasterbaord/mdf or marine ply the surface then, white tile or cheap lamintae finish

Guess it depends how much effort you want to go to and when you intend to do the full refit? I imagine both these will impact on your choices

Vinyl tiles,there's already a backing board under cork ones so it'll just be a case of swapping them over. I've also seen a bath panel for £20 on line so that's that bit solved.
Just the toilet and sink surround to do.

if the cork tiles are flush (ie edges not lifting), then give them a quick "sand down" and a if you are using a vivyl tile, cross lap the joints and you should be fine (saves lifting them).  The trick is good detailing at the perimeter to prevent any "slippage" of the vinyl tiles

If the cork tiles are poorly bonded then you will need to lift them (they often break up on removal)

Cork tiles are lifting and I'd imagine they have 20 odd years of use in them so I'm like to get rid of them for that reason as well.

only advice I can give is have some kind of sharp lifting tool with a broad leading edge! And hope that the adhesive is 20 years old too! Could be easy, could be a 'mare! GLGL

I haz these-
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31XT9RK11YL._SX450_.jpg)
plus summat similar to this if I need to use percussion removal
(http://s7g3.scene7.com/is/image/ae235?$p$&layer=0&size=281,281&layer=1&size=281,281&src=ae235/81206_P)

will be scraping rather than pecussion

Id also keep it as dry as possible - dont use liquids  - itll just get messy

I've recently replaced a cork tiled floor and they were not at all easy to get up. I used a hammer and chisel. I resealed the floor afterwards with diluted PVA before laying the new tiles.

When I removed similar a few years ago I used a wallpaper stripping tool. Pain in the ass to get all the tiles off too

Because the cork is flexible and tears, you've really got to go in low and hard to split the bond between adhesive and floor. I'd recommend a decent shovel with an edge ground on it preferably. You can put some oomph behind it too.

Best day ever

So I get a phone call, my Mum's boiler is flooding, really badly. Emergency plumber has been called.

I rush round not quite knowing what the hell I can do, if anything. The outside stop cock was turned off, still flooding.

After getting her dog's outside bath to start containing all the water, I manage to locate the boilers own stop cock, which is actually covered by a wooden unit which has been built around it. Screw that off, and now the stop cock itself wont turn. However a bit of the old WD40 and that changed, and I managed to stop the leak.

Proudest moment ever was the call to cancel a plumber because 'my son fixed it' (its quite a new boiler so the guy that installed it will be coming to proper fix it instead).

I know it all seems like obvious stuff, and it is, but last year not only did I not really know what a stop cock was, I barely knew what WD40 was.

(http://b.vimeocdn.com/ts/203/678/203678806_640.jpg)

What a boss!

YAY!!!  Well done you!   ;applause; ;hattip;

Nice one Mr Shoelace.

Anyone have much experience with boilers?

We have a Potterton Promax boiler (think it might be this but will check when I am home http://www.potterton.co.uk/96/).

It turns itself on for about 60 seconds every so often even though we have the water turned off and the thermostats right down.

Should it be doing this as it appears to be using about 0.8-1.5 meter units of gas every day doing nothing!!

I haz this grill-
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/druid636/F87B4DDC-C941-45AE-ADEA-9BD01AEEDD90-2450-0000028DB482F3EB.jpg) (http://s225.photobucket.com/user/druid636/media/F87B4DDC-C941-45AE-ADEA-9BD01AEEDD90-2450-0000028DB482F3EB.jpg.html)
Which is supposed to be covering this hole in my ceiling-
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/druid636/E6D22740-B5E3-4534-897C-163AE567AC8E-2450-0000028DA9BEA7AA.jpg) (http://s225.photobucket.com/user/druid636/media/E6D22740-B5E3-4534-897C-163AE567AC8E-2450-0000028DA9BEA7AA.jpg.html)
but it's not.
What type of screw do I need to attach former to latter,seeing as the ceiling was re-plastered in November.

(http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r600/leeethefish/4c6f3412e50013bd695630c3a78eb564.jpg)

I believe you have switched on 'pre heat'. What this does is tops up the heat of ur hot water in short blasts (regular intervals)...Which comes into its own in winter when the hot tap usually runs bloody freezing cold for ages and u want to run a bath. Should be a setting somewhere. Sorry I don't have experience with your boiler brand.

40 minutes hard graft results in this- (http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/druid636/FF3BC029-5BD9-4A28-BB95-CA6D84C14C72-4602-0000046943A98586.jpg) (http://s225.photobucket.com/user/druid636/media/FF3BC029-5BD9-4A28-BB95-CA6D84C14C72-4602-0000046943A98586.jpg.html)
Small problem is that  the lino we had left over from the kitchen isn't big enough as one piece. Any tips on how to join the edges? Also what's the best stuff to glue it the board on the floor.
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/druid636/05090942-6094-4F94-B5C3-7F6CDE0E5D0E-4602-000004694E7B5A3C.jpg) (http://s225.photobucket.com/user/druid636/media/05090942-6094-4F94-B5C3-7F6CDE0E5D0E-4602-000004694E7B5A3C.jpg.html)
I might just go buy an end of roll and slap that down instead if it's a lot of hassle to join the edges.

(http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/outragous76/ceiling_zps82f75289.jpg) (http://s371.photobucket.com/user/outragous76/media/ceiling_zps82f75289.jpg.html)

I came home from my weekend away to this, which was nice.

My neighbour has been drilling and banging for weeks, and my (50 yo) ceiling finally had enough!

We have decided to go the whole hog and renew the entire lounge, ceiling walls, removing fire etc etc

so...................................

how easy to buy some new sockets and recess them? (im really not massively confident with electrics), I have 2 doubles and 1 single.

and can lee the fish PM me his email address, the joinery requirements are building, probs got a full day for you now mate!

Depends on your existing wiring mate.

If it's reasonably new and wired in twin and earth cable it's easy.

If it's old single core cables in metal conduit then it'll be a pain in the arse.

PVC twin and earth - Easy

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21oldRlzFCL._AA300_.jpg)

VIR (vulcanised Indian Rubber) - Pain in the arse!!

(http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/a/ae/Perished_VIR.JPG)

The lathe and plaster ceiling suggests an old house which in turn suggests possible old wiring. Also only having 1 twin and 1 single socket in a living room suggests it's quite old.

Any ideas if it's been rewired at any point recently?

im going to say it will be older wiring

However the boxes are surface mounted, so i guess there is a small possibility that they are retro and recent?

I did once change a light fitting and that had 2 wires like your VIR pic

i just taken down lath plaster ceiling
moved / added sockets but my wiring is modern

open socket and have a look  if its the old stuff think you should be looking to re wire whole house

Definitely should consider a rewire if it turns out to be VIR cable. It's actually quite dangerous and a genuine fire hazard.

Any chance you could remove a socket front and get a photo of the inside?

Obviously don't do this if you're a bit nervous of electrics. Maybe just get an electrician to have a look for you and make a recommendation.

If it's old wiring you definitely don't want to be making any alterations yourself. It's dangerous enough if you know what you're doing so just leave it alone.

Replaced one valve in this toilet and the Siphon valve in the other and both now work as they should. Managed to lay the lino using double sided carpet/lino tape. Turned out ok I think, especially
as it cost nothing.
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/druid636/F9CECC58-F89E-4F01-BD6F-F53A72705D45-1843-0000018155EB9C91.jpg) (http://s225.photobucket.com/user/druid636/media/F9CECC58-F89E-4F01-BD6F-F53A72705D45-1843-0000018155EB9C91.jpg.html)

Force it or not?


Sup yo.

Ok so new house, obv a new bath. It takes ages to drain after having a shower so obv it needs unblocking.

However its one of these fancy built in plugs where you push down on it to release it (name please?). I cant for the life of me work out how to remove it temporarily. I have tried many a combination of twist and pull, pull and twist, push and twist etc.

So should I force it? I have a bad history of forcing stuff that shouldnt be forced. Anyone got any ideas?

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrOIGlPCgtw
Hope this helps.

lol, I am as thick as pig shit, never actually thought to twist without pulling or pushing.

Sorted, thanks Mohican

Didn't know either, just typed 'pop up plug' into youtube.

Dumb question but no harm in asking.

I've just unblocked the bathroom plug in the new house after what seems like 10 years of the previous owners hair down it (it was rank).

I managed to pull out what I am 99.99% is a woman's hair bobble.

So I am just checking - there isnt a part in a bathroom plug hole which resembles a woman's hair bobble?

I know it's obv a no, but just in case.

One with balls or just a band?

What colour is it?

Generic black band

Could be a seal. Is it rubber or that furry stuff that bobbles are made of?

Bobble.

(http://i01.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/292770479/100-pieces-Black-Hair-Elastic-Ties-Ponytail-Holder-ponies-scrunchies-girl-women-hair-accessories-FS016.jpg)


Seal.

(http://info.parcoinc.com/Portals/148960/images/Single%20Black%20O-ring.jpg)

Yeah it was a bobble, didnt look at all like the other one.

Out of interest what does the seal do?

Balances a ball on it's nose and claps it's flippers. Whaddaya think it does?

Ok, what's the worst thing that happens if I have no seal?

Sorry Barry. Don't worry. There is no seal in there that could come out of the plug hole.

And can anything bad happen if your bath doesn't have a woman's hair bobble?

Only if one of the taps are both the same.

Did the lawn at my new house for the first time, which is also the first time I've done a lawn EVER.

Really enjoyed it, I think the garden could be my 'thing'.

It's looking to be a dry week ahead, how often should I water it? At the moment I am going on a 'when it looks dry' basis. I hear doing it once a week but quite heavily is a good starting point.

In this weather, if your flowers are getting a lot of sunlight, they need watering every day. Lawn I think is a bit less needy.

I have loads of grass. I never water it.

Any advice on how to get rid of Daisies? Millions of the bloody things this year.

Why not keep em? They're very pretty.

I want my lawn to look like a putting green though.
I have always managed to appreciate them in past years but this year is getting silly.

By 'did the lawn' do you mean laid turf? We laid turf last year and the advice we got was water it to death, which we did. It was beautifully lush until the dogs landed :(. If you want it to stay that way you either need to train them not to wee on it or follow them round with a watering can.

Good point. Dad got to the point last year of suggesting getting astroturf!

lol no I just meant cut it. And yes, already noticing yellowy dead patches from the dog and we've only been here a month.

By the time summer's over, you won't have much left to cut if you don't keep on top of it.  We're forever repairing patches in ours thanks to the boys.

How does one repair these pissy dry messes?

You have to rake out the dead lawn and remove it completely.  Scrape the soil a bit to loosen it up, toss on a mix of new lawn seed/soil/fertiliser, then water it.  We use a thing called 'patch fix' that's supposedly resistant to pet urine.  It's got everything you need in the one box.  Best price we've found for it is from Costco.  Have no idea if there's a better way of doing things, but our way seems to be working...it's just a lot of work!  lol

You'll see new lawn popping up in 2 - 3 weeks and it almost looks proper again in about 4 weeks.

Just train your dog to pee in a specific spot and accept that it's never going to look lush and green.

We tried that.  Were going well...for about two weeks.   rotflmfao

Try these, they really work.


http://www.dogrocksus.com/

We tried them, they didn't work.

He'd only let me try one batch.  Hardly enough time to know for sure imo...

Pffft! Show me the science (not the pseudo science). Boshi!!!!!

We just threw them at the dog every time it went on the lawn.

I naturally assumed it was bollox, but you can look up ion exchange on google.  So there is some science behind it, though i can't say I have followed it through to satisfy myself that this will resolve your problem. 

There isn't any science to it.  Looks like complete woo to me.  Happy to be shown some evidence though and am open to change my mind.  Won't hold my breath though...

How to fix a woman. Proberly...

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D WP.

 rotflmfao

(http://dunsterhouse.co.uk/images_db/da591a7cd352d8c04ba2f8792abe0e29.jpg)

build one of this yesterday. abs horrid to do solo took a day.

Did yours come with photoshopped children? :D

Good work getting that done without an extra pair of hands.  Did you do any swearing during the build process?

i took photo but its on phone and cant be arsed sorting it out to upload on here :)

I was frustrated more than a few times, but i laid out and labeled all the bits before hand and had two power drills, multi tools etc to cover any job needed. Had to look after a two year old and 4 year old during the build also, long long day..


My garden has been transformed in a year from an old couples overgrown mess to a child friendly 2 patio, 2 playhouses, bbq safe environment that's fun. Last job is to make a huge wooden arch to make some sort of entrance to that bottom 50ft of garden where all the kiddy stuff is...need to get a plan, buy materials and put it together, plant some creepers/climbers so this time next year it looks good.

A while ago I posted about needing to do summat with the bathroom-
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/druid636/26294702-F753-4FC7-B19C-AA4B34714A92-20108-00000FC76EDE6074.jpg) (http://s225.photobucket.com/user/druid636/media/26294702-F753-4FC7-B19C-AA4B34714A92-20108-00000FC76EDE6074.jpg.html)
Well, finally got around to finishing it. It's ok and looks a lot better than it did. Think it cost me about £50 to get it done and that includes buying a jigsaw power tool thingy.

(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/druid636/toilet22.jpg) (http://s225.photobucket.com/user/druid636/media/toilet22.jpg.html)

Sooooo much better - wpwp

Amazing how you also covered your cork tiles (as I did) with the same vinyl tiles I chose!

haha

Got the same in my kitchen as it's left over pieces of lino from when the kitchen was done.

Our boiler has sprung a leak. It's a Baxi Solo 3 PFL 50 (non-combi). I've not investigated yet but I reckon it's likely to be the heat exchanger. I can get a replacement HE for £115. It's not currently working as the central heating fuse has gone and likely the control PCB has been fried too by the leak dripping onto it. Luckily, I hopefully have a repaired PCB from a previous fault.

When it was installed, only about 7 or 8 years ago, it was a 'drop-in' replacement for a Baxi Solo 2 because it was easy but my understanding at the time was that it shouldn't have been installed and I should have had a more efficient model, possibly a combi, but I can't remember. That would have been a job for a plumber, entailing extensive pipework changes. I chose to do it myself with friends' assistance, none of us Corgi-registered.

A new boiler, installed properly, would cost somewhere between £2,000-£3,000 (depending on type) I reckon, which I'm keen to avoid :). I'd guess having the HE changed professionally would cost around £300-£500. Changing it myself shouldn't be much more that the cost of the HE, perhaps just a tool or two, some PTFE tape etc.

So, with that background, would you entertain doing the work yourself? Is there any point getting a Corgi-registered bloke (or blokette, we're non-sexist at Jaxie Towers) in? Can I just get the work checked by Corgi man? I'm an engineer (electrician) by trade and am confident of being able to do the job safely but possibly with much swearing.

What would you do?

Can you not do it then get a Corgi guy to certify your work?? Or is that not allowed?

That's one of the questions I asked ^^^^

I know it's allowed with electrical work and would assume the same is probably true with gas.

Corgi lost the gig years ago, it's gas safe register now.

Gas shouldn't be disturbed changing the heat exchanger, ( I think).
Try the seals first.

Yes, I knew it wasn't Corgi now but didn't know what the new regime was called.

I'll try the pipe connections obviously but surely the HE is the more likely culprit after 7 or 8 years?

Maybe, was just penny pinching :)

I wall mounted a TV that had been in the cupboard since we moved, also put up a shelf. Proud of myself and feel like a real man.

My house now has x3 >=32" teles; x1 3d TV, x1 sky hd, x1 freeview and soon to be smart TV. No more arguments at Xmas and the mother inlaw can watch her soaps while I sit in peace. wiiiii.

I have some concrete steps that go down to the lower floor in my house, they are slick with years of use, me and the wife have both gone arse over tit on them, i have some grip tape but i'd like to sort them properly. Thoughts?

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Non-Slip-Concrete-Steps

Sharp sand in a clear silicone paint would work well.

If you are going to use a silicone paint make sure the stairs are VERY dry, no retained water

cheers gents, the are very dry, so i'll look at that. I don't want them to look shit though or the wife will pull her face. this will look ok?

Yesterday the toilet would not flush. I've had this happen before years ago in a previous house and I knew that taking the top of the cistern off usually does the trick, which it did again yesterday.

Just wondering for future reference, why that worked? And what the problem was?

It's unlikely to have done much. Is it handle or button flush?

In what was wasn't it flushing? What happened?

Button flush. I pressed down on the button, no pressure at all. I took the lid off the cistern, which immediatley triggered some water to start moving around the pipes (I could hear it) and it worked again. Had the exact same thing happen about three times at a previous house.

oh ok, wasn't expecting button flush

Probably something to do with the syphon not having release properly and when you unscrew it that's what happens.

If it works keep doing it ;0)

I actually rebuilt some brickwork the other day, which in man skills terms ranks in my top 5 achievements for sure.

Its not worthy of pictures, there will be no appreciation of what I have done (no before pics). But I was chuffed !

My toilet flushing thing is like 40 years old, it leaks into the overflow. Have to change it, do i need to turn off the water totally for the house? Its the full ball cock and fittings i need to change.

dereton33 has some useful videos on youtube for plumbing issues,there is one where he explains repairing this valve. The whole valve assembly is pretty cheap, sub £10 I think, so maybe simpler to replace the whole thing.

Worth checking whether the overflow can be cured by adjusting the height of the float first.

I replaced a ball valve recently and my toilet cistern is fed from the cold water tank in the roof (which I think is generally the case) , so you will need to find a stopcock for this. My internal stopcocks were seized so I turned off the mains supply that feeds the tank in the loft and let the taps and cistern run till they had emptied the tank. The replacement is very simple once you have the water off, I would wind a little PTFE tape around the thread that connects to the water pipe to ensure a leak free connection.

thanks! very useful.

Lolz, today I learned cars have fuse boxes! Just need to acquire some fuses and hopefully that will be the cigarette lighter port up and running again. If not it will be getting replaced.

I've finally found where my roof leak is.

To the side of a chimney there is the lead flashing then the slates start.

From the inside of the house there is the brick of the chimney then a bit of roof to the left, then a rafter, then to the left of the rafter there is a line of nails protruding through the roof. 

The water is coming mainly through the nail holes but there is one larger wet patch, maybe about 2 inches square on the same line as the nails.

Anyone know what exactly has gone wrong and how it should be repaired?

Accidentally left my lights on the other night, battery went flat, got my mate round with jump leads, sorted.

Funny thing I've noticed, prior to the battery going flat, the car was limping ever so slightly in 2nd gear. Since I jump started it, the engine sounds loads healthier and more powerful, and the limping has stopped.

Is that a thing that happens? Do cars benefit from running the battery flat once in a while?

No, absolutely not. Totally coincidental.

Awwwwwwwww

I was asking, so I could fool myself into thing I had 'fixed' it.

might have been the battery. Probs worth getting a garage to check the battery to see if it's charging properly

The battery was charged, he left his lights on and flattened it. The he jump-started the car and it charged the battery.

Rather than cast doubt on the efficiency of the charging system, this confirms that it is working fine.

Level?

Not a level no

Had probs with my car earlier in the year and it turned out that the battery starting to fail was the cause. Mine was still charging etc and was only when I went on Holiday and it flattened completely that I found it it was the battery, slowly draining, that was causing the problem.
It probably isn't that but worth finding out imo, especially as most garages will test for free.

Could be related, if the battery going flat and being recharged caused an ECU reset or similar (and the ECU was related to the original problem)?

Sigh...

Today I learned that when you have carried a fridge horizontal you are supposed to leave it a few hrs before plugging it in. Well I never.

could do with pics for a more accurate diagnosis, its likely the lead around the chimney has come away from the chase and might just need tapped back in and sealed with leadmate...(common problem and cheap fix)     i doubt it is the nails, every slate or tile should have a nail, and if the lead is leaking then rainwater will get under the fist slate/tile travel down and the water will try to find its easiest way out (the nail holes).....could be a bit of cowboy work and it is the nails, but with out pics its impossible to tell..............a little trick i use is powdered paint of different colours in different areas of the likely leak area, helps pinpoint awkward leaks ingress points

If your wife points out the bathroom roof looks like it has a damp patch on it, my tip is to leave prodding it until a weekday.  You will still get covered in dirty water as the roof disintegrates, but the plumber will be cheaper.

 rotflmfao rotflmfao rotflmfao

excellent advice

Did an actual lol

tnks

Picked up some manpoints tonight. Not only did I manage to
refit the refurbished alternator into my car, I did the job in the dark with only
a head torch and a old spotlamp clipped to the bonnet. I also probably saved myself
£150 in the process. Yorkie bar for supper methinks.

Just unblocked my first sink, coat hanger jobby.

Yep, I'm still the handyman equivalent of a $0.05/$0.10 player.

Have a super annoying drip in the boiler that keeps me up at night.
Can't see any obvious pipe leaks or wet patches, so must be coming from inside.
Is that just a like-it-or-lump-it jobby or worth calling the landlord?
It drives me round the bend.

The pump in our power shower burnt out - £300+ for a new shower, £86 for a new pump plus £70 to fit it

Fitted it myself with only a very small amount of leakage when i forgot to put the 'o' ring in place first time round

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VRd_zSZxTQE/Svvdys9YvjI/AAAAAAAAAug/S9KD7Q1k6Jw/s400/Man+points+drill.jpg)

Bumping for 2014

Having had a plumber in to fit new boiler and bathroom, am doing as much of the other stuff as I can.

Recently took out all the old bathroom ( new one upstairs, old one was downstairs), sorted the soil stack and pipework . Bricked up/cemented all the holes left by the pipes. Even sorted out the pipes/scrap left over to get weighed in, instead of just taking to the tip.

Got to fill floor where I took the old shower out as it was a cast stone tray that was sunk into the floor. Undecided whether to use concrete or just use cement.

There's something satisfying about getting the grunt work done yourself.

As regards the concrete or cement question, you can probably get an answer here..

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=25486.0

how deep is the hole?

Im going to guess that a modern epoxy based mortar is going to be the preferred solution here. Im also assuming its the ground floor you are referring to?

Also I presume you aren't putting a shower back in? Is the void not useful? Or are you going wet room stylee?

Hole is about 2inch deep in most of the roughly 800mmx800mm square increasing to about 3.5 inch where the waste in the shower was

On ground floor need to level it to use for storage/utility/gym space

Morning all, long-time-no-esmaculate-myself-asking-basic-DIY-questions,

So in the last five or six weeks we have had a load of light bulbs go in quick succession, the fuse box has tripped a few times and now one of our plug points in the house has stopped working. All very small issues, and I presume most of the time completely independent of each other.

But the close proximity to each other now has my missus convinced it could be some wider universal issue with the wiring in the house. So my quick fire questions for today are:

1) Are there any basic health checks I could do to see how healthy the electrics are in my house and to deem if there is any sort of problem?
2) Are the three symptoms I've mentioned ever likely to be interrelated?
3) As you know we only bought this house 11 months ago and at the time did the more thorough homebuyers survey with a surveyor - is he likely to have done much to test the health and safety of our wiring and such?

I think after the infamous petrol cap incident, it is safe to assume we are best off avoiding anything where an idiot could accidently electrocute themselves.

Thanks in advance as always

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oaVN0PXwHo