I have these past few weeks, completely remodelled my main bathroom. It involved new close coupled toilet (removal of a rather over ornate overhead cistern) moving the soil outlet, moving the cast iron roll top bath, new basin and cupboard, plastering, plumbing, 500 tiles*, and flooring. I am now doing some final snagging, main problem is the monobloc tap in the new sink had come lose.
Its that silly type with a long screw thread and an elongated brass nut crimping up the mounting plate.
Without buying the correct box spanner, I could just get some mulgrips up there. I managed to grip the mulgrips onto the back of my left shoulder. Literally, locked onto to a pinch of skin hanging painfully (and as I found out bloodily) from my shoulder.
I was laying on my back with my shoulders in the sink vanity unit, the mulgrips were in the base of the unit behind my left shoulder, and in reaching over to grab them I freakily locked them onto my shoulder.
Not sure how I explain the wound to Mrs Z when she gets in. Wiped up the blood from the vanity unit tho.
*500 tiles. Metro type brick style= 150 metres of 3mm of grouting to be done so I thought I would try a new tool and use a grouting gun. Anyone wants technical thoughts on that - let me know.
|
Just redone the kitchen. The tiles took ages and I didn't manage to get all the grout off, so would be interested to hear your thoughts on the grouting gun as I still have two bathrooms to tile before Christmas.
Only disaster in the kitchen was a loud bang and a flash when I accidentally drove a screw through the live when putting the sockets back on the wall. The RCD tripped, but interestingly not until *after* the MCB. The screw ended up welded to the wire and the metal lug. D'oh!
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Mon 30 Nov 15 at 16:45
|
|
I have found that a 10mm combination spanner is best for that type of tap. It is small enough to be used in the confined space. What are mulgrips? Do you mean mole grips?
|
I wondered which pedant would spot that first...
tic
|
Touch wood not really had any major disaster, I almost drilled through a mains water pipe though but the worst thing I knew it was there I just forgot about it when I was up on the ladders drilling!.
|
October 2015. Cutting wood in sawbench. Using gloves. Wood jammed, took hand off push sticks to free it, wood unjammed. Caught glove and pulled in hand.. Lost 2/3rd left index finger and lacerations to thumb.
Just been to hospital 6 weeks later = all ok..
.
Lesson don't wear gloves, always use pushsticks.
|
>> I wondered which pedant would spot that first...
>> tic
>>
I thought he meant mulegrips - they have a nasty kick.
|
>> What are mulgrips? Do
>> you mean mole grips?
No I mean Locking Pliers.
|
>> No I mean Locking Pliers.
>>
Ah, self locking pliers.
Cheap wriggle. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 30 Nov 15 at 18:19
|
>> Just redone the kitchen. The tiles took ages and I didn't manage to get all
>> the grout off,
Which is why I thought about the grouting gun.
>> so would be interested to hear your thoughts on the grouting gun
>> as I still have two bathrooms to tile before Christmas.
Right, I bought this one.
www.pccox.co.uk/en/component/virtuemart/single-component/ultrapoint/ultrapoint-manual-detail?Itemid=0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRKcAW1OTnk
I used Tops Tiles grey powered grout with a Liquid Mortar Plasticiser. The gun came with two nozzles, a pointing one (wide) and a bead/grouting one with a 2mm aperture, this I cut to three MM for my chosen tile gap.
Loads of issues with it, I mixed the mortar runny, so runny it drooped out of the tile gaps, I mixed it a bit thicker, - either way getting consistent and controllable flow out of the gun was a PITA, often blocking, and then coming out with a splurge. I'm sure the pneumatic one works better, but using this manual one with a 3mm nozzle is obviously two small for satisfactory use. Plus you have to clean the thing out after every fill otherwise your sets in 30 minutes grout will jam it up. Its also a PITA to fill.
I did get some joints done, and when working well its super filling behind the tile and the gap with a nice clean bead, too hit and miss tho.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 30 Nov 15 at 18:28
|
What you really neded to avoid injury was this set
www.builderdepot.co.uk/rothenberger-box-spanner.html
at the price you mignt as well buy them now for when the tap becomes loose!
Whilst basins are difficult, that is nothing when when working at the back of a kitchen sink! A 3/8 socket set with extension pieces and super deep sockets is a must.
|
>> What you really neded to avoid injury was this set
>>
>> www.builderdepot.co.uk/rothenberger-box-spanner.html
Yes that was my fallback position if i could get any other tool in there. I didn't know the Molegrips/Self locking pliers/Vise Grips were going to take on a life of their own and attack
me.
|
>>at the price you mignt as well buy them now for when the tap becomes loose!
As we all know, the simplest of jobs becomes a nightmare without the right tools.
I remember how many disasters and how much pain I went through for the want of a ball joint splitter or hub puller when I was younger.
Here they bodge everything. Tightening or loosening an unusual nut with an old screwdriver and a hammer is commonplace. every mechanic, even on modern high tech cars, has a blowtorch in his tool bag.
I am quite seriously considering equipping myself with a bunch of cheap but correct tools from the UK and setting myself up as the most expensive, but ultimately reliable, plumber / gas fitter / handyman in Chile.
I feel that there is a business opportunity except for my doubt as to whether they will pay extra or quality here.
This is the sort of market where a Poundshop is always going to be more successful than M&S.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 30 Nov 15 at 18:55
|
Just done that. Buy the right box spanner, there are many and varied items. Buy a quality item. All of mine are Cattle Trucked and I too used the Molegrip method.
There is a problem with some modern (swivel) taps in that the tightening point, where it keeps the tap secure AND allows it to swivel is so fine that over tightening results in no swivel and not quite tight enough results in every ruddy thing moving.
I hate Plumbing, but love drainage. Each to their own......
|
When we moved into our St Leonards on Sea gaff back in 1987 (same week as the Big One!) I was fitting an electric cooker in place where there was a gas cooker before.
There was this thick greyish pipe in the way ... so I took the hacksaw to it.
Hissssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!
|
>>A Grey Pipe Snake?
The way the ole woman flew out the front door and left me to open all the windows, you'd have thought it was a snake!
|
|
Sure it wasn't a one-eyed trouser snake that terrified her?
|
|
She's never had any trouble handling one of those TBH.
|
I expect just finding it is her problem !
|
The list of disasters is a long one bit the most notable and most stupid was when I purchased a table planer / thicknesser. Of course it would have been rude not to spin it up after unpacking which I duly did with the machine sat on the drive. Suitably impressed with my new 'man toy' I bent down to switch it off and rested my hand on the top bed. Guess what? It took a chunk out of the end of my finger. Knobhead!!!!!
Fortunately my neighbour is an A&E Consultant and his wife now a GP so I nipped round for a bit of triage but really to see if it was worth an A&E visit and 5 hours of my time. It really wasn't. They did dress it and clean it out every day which reduced the scarring. Bit of private health care - result!
|
Never move a stepladder when you have a can of emulsion resting on the top step.
If you are in the bathroom one evening and you could swear blind you can feel a very fine but invisible spray of water on your arm every time you pass a particular spot do not shrug your shoulders and think you must be imagining it.
Don't ask me how I know either of those things.
|
I'm amazed I can't think of anything to go on this list. There must be lots of things.
Of course, the reality is that things take 2 days the first time, but if you go back and re-do them they all too often only take a couple of hours the second time.
|
Know your limitations. Do not even speculate as to which is the business end of a screwdriver, lest you have to run from the room with your apron over your head squealing like a schoolgirl. Get a man in.
Is my advice.
|
>> Know your limitations. Do not even speculate as to which is the business end of
>> a screwdriver, lest you have to run from the room with your apron over your
>> head squealing like a schoolgirl. Get a man in.
>>
>> Is my advice.
One never knows ones limitations until one has reached ones CiUp level
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 1 Dec 15 at 19:49
|
>> One never knows ones limitations until one has reached ones CiUp level
I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the mention of "screwdriver" and would, as exhibit A, present to him a permanently scarred finger.
The other permanently scarred hand is a result of a strimmer spontaneously falling off the wall in the garage many years ago when I had the audacity to go in there in the faint hope of youth that the marriage of my skills with a paint pot would result in anything beneficial.
|
My wurst DIY disaster by far, was when I took the heads orf my V6 Capri to do a decoke and grind the valves in. Upon ass-embly the distributor drive shaft fell out and away into the sump!!
I didn't have the facilities to remove the engine, which was required to remove the sump, so I towed the car to Fry's of Lewisham with my Autotune van with the missus in the driving seat of the offending article ... having kittens!!
ISTR we did the journey very early in the morning to avoid all the traffic.
|
Doing minor stuff / engine bay dusting. while the engine was running whensteam appeared!!.
The piece of old shirt ( recycling back then) got snatched by the fan and the button left on the rag wacked the radiator so hard , hence the steam from it impact point.
A bit less dust at the cost and effort of a replacement rad ;-(
Lesson - cut of all buttons etc from old shirts etc prior to re-use.
|
>> Fry's of Lewisham
No customer experience of them whatsover but do remember the 'Frys of Lewisham How Can we Help You' jingle on Capital/LBC in my early days in London.
|
"Currie Motors; nice people to do business with" has stuck with me all these years.
As well as "Michael Aspel makes your morning, Michael Aspel makes your day"
|
= = > youtu.be/xKL-ea4dQUk
Yoos just made me feel quite old.
|
>> Yoos just made me feel quite old.
Remember the ads for Richard Shops and Bournes Bournes Bournes is more of a store.
Nicky Horne's Six of the Best on a Saturday evening (when there was nothing better to do) is another happy memory.
194 I remember well, even had it on a sunshade in my Pug 104 but when was it on 539m?
|
|
It started on 539 didn't it?
|
>> It started on 539 didn't it?
Wondered if it was that or whether at one time London was split between two wavelengths. IIRC the current 1548khz Gold Frx is as near as you get to 194 metres allowing for the imposition of 9khz channel spacing in the eighties.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 1 Dec 15 at 21:13
|
|
One ad that I'll never forget is "The Queensway big Q sale is now on" and on it went for weeks, months and years :o)
|
Similarly Bournes who's closing down sale went on for ever.
Other regulars on Capital were the Hounsditch Warehouse and Arding and Hobbs (Clapham?).
|
Has your daughter 'discovered' Trago Mills in Newton Abbot & Liskeard yet :)
www.trago.co.uk/
|
>> Has your daughter 'discovered' Trago Mills in Newton Abbot & Liskeard yet :)
>>
>> www.trago.co.uk/
Yes. Describes it as Aladdin's cave. I'm promised a trip next time I'm down there.
She's on holiday in Oz at the moment though.
|
This is where the owner, Bruce Robertson lives, built by his father, Mike, who started Trago Mills:
www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Bodmin+Moor,+Bodmin,+Cornwall+PL30/@50.5059367,-4.6171056,152m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x486b7e475c63fa21:0xa996fb7bbaf79661
Just below that gaff on the map is where the explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison lives.
|
>>She's on holiday in Oz at the moment though.
Couple I know of spend every winter in Oz travelling around in a motorhome say "that the flies are so bad in the heat that the only way they can eat their lunch at times is to take it in the sea" ... stuff that :(
|
|
Sub aqua lunching? Bit messy!
|
>>Sub aqua lunching? Bit messy!
Sharks are rather partial to a bit of mess :(
|
|
Their first day they broadcast was the middle of October 1973. It was a Tuesday I am sure because I was laid up with a broken ankle from a rugby match the day before. I pretty much listened to Capital every waking moment from then until I first left the UK in about 79.
|
>>'Frys of Lewisham How Can we Help You'
My 83 year old sister who lives within walking distance of what was Fry's says there are flats built on the site now.
|
Feeling pleased with my plumbing exploits replacing the rising main in a third floor flat so that all elbows were eliminated so that the flow should improve, I opened the stopcock.
All seemed good until a shout of " Water running down the stairs!!
I had not done a final final check and one connection was loose in the loft.
Mild panic!! Iit is one thing to damage your own property but potentially two more is a bit concerning.
Much use of towels on the stair carpet followed by days of concern but we got away with no reported damage except to pride.
|
Just been doing stuff in the bathroom and discovered a family of baby spiders scuttling down the wall (there are a lot in a family, makes asylum seekers look like a small gathering) coming in through a previously hidden behind the cistern air vent.
So In I goes with the Vacuum cleaner and sucked all the little critters up.
Meanwhile while looking around for more, the voracious cleaner hose dangling in my hand is proceeding to suck all the toilet paper in. I only noticed when the madly spinning roll started to make whizzing noises as it approached the sound barrier.
|
>> proceeding to suck all the toilet paper in. I only noticed when the madly spinning
>> roll started to make whizzing noises as it approached the sound barrier.
Bin there.......
|
Hired cottage very near Clyro (Kilverts Diary territory) in the dim and distant, and was attempting to fix a slight problem. Water running into house from loft. Farmer had allowed his cattle to modge up the stream which fed the house via a pump taking water from the very stream. Into the loft to clear the water tank inlet valve of mud and dung, prior to mopping up water flowing through the ceilings. Traversing the joists, I came eye to eyes with a large spider, and instinctively ducked. Hit forehead on projecting nail in a rafter, and lost balance. Straddled a joist as I toppled, demolished the ceiling directly above the bed of the in-laws. Water
cascaded onto bed. We left the next day. Mother in law in high dudgeon, and farmer walking wounded from verbals.
|
>> If you are in the bathroom one evening and you could swear blind you can feel a very fine but invisible spray of water on your arm every time you pass a particular spot
Ah, old lead pipes... we had some of those in the basement in the Grove. Very tiresome indeed. Cost a lot to put right.
|
Chest freezer.
Internal partition loose: fixed by pop rivets. Gets out B & D drill to make new hole for inserting a new pop rivet.
Applies drill bit very close to existing hole.
Hissing noise as refrigerant escapes. Oh, bother :-(.
Red face.
Ordure, thrown by wife, hits fan.
It's a Sunday, before Sunday opening was universal. In any event we are in far West Wales (Cosheston, Pembroke Dock) so no appliance shops handy, even if open.
Local paper perused; Hallelujah, a used chest freezer for sale!
Frantic phone call; shortish drive to collect; food saved; wife simmers down. (A bit!)
Dog house occupied.
|
I remember in a previous house needing to get up some floorboards, near the wall in the bedroom (upstairs) one weekday evening. I used a jigsaw to cut through where required, did the job and put them back down, went and watched telly then to bed and then work.
On return from work the next evening the ceiling wallpaper (yes, ceiling) was hanging low and heavy, full with lots of water, where I'd nicked the rad pipe with the saw.
None had actually leaked through so we got big buckets and some plastic sheeting, and punctured the wallpaper (ceilingpaper?) with a needle and drained it. Within a couple of weeks it had dried out and returned to it's original place. I think I have it a lick of paint but it really was none the worse for the experience.
My other one, the thought of which which still turns my stomach, was when I was trying to remove old tiles from the wall alongside father in law's bath using a wallpaper scraper. The scraper jumped over the tile and I took off all the skin right down to the bone on three knuckles. Copious amounts of blood on the bath but again the damage eventually repaired itself.
Oh yeah, and there was the time I Stanleyed across the base of my thumb, again to the bone. Lots of blood made SWMBO too distressed to drive me to hospital so I had to drive myself...
|
Ah yes. Blood. So much fun!
Skewered thumb doing something silly. (These things always happen when you're doing something silly, over a cup of tea in the kitchen. In the workshop there would be gloves on/pliers used, but impatience says 'what happens if I just try...' OH BLOOD!)
No steristrips in the house, which is mildly annoying, so Boots will provide. Girlfriend meanwhile goes into state of shock, and has to be accompanied to Boots. Which is fine, but she reaches the bus stop without her bus pass, so (left thumb clamped over right thumb to staunch bleeding) I go on my own. Paying for the blasted things gets blood everywhere, but hey this is London so nobody cares - and nobody will help. On account of exercise, blood pressure now somewhat higher, so daren't get wallet out to pay for bus so have to walk home in slight ill temper. To find distraught girlfriend at home... who is in too much of a state to be any use.
|
>>there was the time I Stanleyed across the base of my thumb, again to the bone. Lots of blood
Did that in the 70's when I used to work with Stanley knives, just looked at my LH thumb and the scar is still 'risible'.
|
....a pressure washer cuts through skin and flesh very cleanly.
.....and it doesn't hurt.
.....for a few seconds. :-(
|
|
Removing old cast iron bath from my first house. It was suggested the job would be much easier if it was broken into pieces first. Turned it upside down and took a sledge hammer to it. After a few blows, a satisfying crack started to appear. As I took another swing, the crack suddenly lengthened, the bath fell in half, the sledgehammer missed completely and continued through the adjacent wall.
|
Wicked old smack addict Bill Burroughs was missing the top joint of (I think) his left ring finger. He had chiselled it off deliberately to 'impress someone I was interested in at the time' or words to that effect.
Certainly wasn't the worst thing he ever did though. I liked him a lot but he sometimes made my blood run cold.
|
Alcohofrolic I used to go on pub crawls with all the way from Woolwich to Walworth back in the 70's got me to stub a fag out on his hand ... and hold it there for as long as *I* could stand it.
Crazy SoaB, gawd knows what he was trying to prove. He was approx. 28 I suppose, I was about 18 or 19.
Fridays were the worse - my wages were mostly pi$$ed up the wall well-before midnight.
|
Not a DIY disaster as such but, there was I, sitting by my new multi-fool stove, reading the local rag to see howl many clowns had been banned for DD when, I could smell wood burning.
What a nice smell, thought I, so much better than all that Taybrite I usually burn.
'king log basket was burning-bright :) ... lucky I was in 'ere, or the whole lot wood have gorn up!
:o)
|
|
On a similar note I have recently installed a new fan assisted log effect heater in my living room. I only discovered how hot its output is when I found my parked vacuum cleaner had begun to melt. Oops!
|
2kw usually, I bought this thing on eBay for 50 notes, mainly for the glow:
imageshack.com/i/5tp1000252aj
|
On a similar note I have recently installed a new fan assisted log effect heater in my living room. I only discovered how hot its output is when I found my parked vacuum cleaner had begun to melt. Oops!
Reminds me of the family dog when I was a nipper. On a cold day, he'd lie in front of the fire, and if you didn't move him on in a while, the smell of burnt dog hair would ensure somebody would. My brother and I both had mental pictures of a blazing dog, still luxuriating in front of the fire.
Last edited by: Slidingpillar on Fri 11 Dec 15 at 23:00
|
|
Had a cat with 'brown' fur from similar experience!
|
>> Reminds me of the family dog when I was a nipper. On a cold day,
>> he'd lie in front of the fire, and if you didn't move him on in
>> a while, the smell of burnt dog hair would ensure somebody would. My brother and
>> I both had mental pictures of a blazing dog, still luxuriating in front of the
>> fire.
I have seen a damp black Labrador physically steaming in front of a fire.
|
Years ago took the lads with me playing ball on the field near our house.Wife shouting water leaking from the ceiling.
I am rushing home managed to get in the loft,took a wrong step and went through the ceiling back on the bed.Ball cock faulty and now a big hole in the ceiling.Iam ok soft landing.
|
|
One of our cats sits so close to the stove pipe he curls his whiskers.
|
|
Ball Cock faulty and a big hole in the ceiling. Sounds an interesting life Dutchie!
|
>>,took a wrong step and went.through the ceiling back on the bed
Friend had similar incident while insulating loft at what was then Bradenham Youth Hostel.
Claimed to be first hosteller to into rather than out of a top bunk.
|
|
Dog, that happens on a regular basis where I live. Peeps bring in logs to dry by the fire, leave a few days, dry out, then catch fire on night. Happened only a few weeks ago to someone in the locality.
|
Tis the log basket which caught first: m.flickr.com/#/photos/43576259@N04/23680275261/
T'was much closer then and, yes I have splits piled up all around the inglenook.
I put the log basket there to stop the two mutts sticking their noses around the back of the fire, looking for bark (bark!) to chew up and make a God-awful mess everywhere!
Stove is a new Hunter Herald 8 made of steel which gets 'otter much quicker than my olde cast iron jobbie, and of course doesn't retain the heat like a cast iron stove.
I have wired smoke and heat alarms all over the owse but ... not much good if I'm out walking :)
|
DIY Disasters. - Fursty Ferret
