Graham's Top Tips

[Flyfisher]

Plumbing in a new basin in three easy lessons:

Lesson One

When plumbing in a basin, it's recommended that both hot and cold pipes are connected to the taps before testing the joints. This will ensure that, having connected only the cold supply, opening the hot water stopcock instead of the cold water one won't cause any flooding.

Lesson Two

After mopping up the water from lesson one, it's recommended that, when only the cold water supply has been connected to the mixer taps, the hot tap is turned off before testing the joints in the cold water pipework. This will ensure that opening the cold water stopcock won't cause any flooding from the unconnected, but open, hot tap connection.

Lesson Three

Mop up the water from lesson two and have a break for lunch.

 

[Schoolmarm]

:lol: :lol:

 

[AMc]

When tipping lime mortar from mixer into wheel barrow...
DO ensure the barrow is on a flat even surface, otherwise a slightly lopsided pour will cause it to tip over on it's side spilling mortar on the ground.
DO NOT attempt to grab the wheel barrow as it tips over, it's too heavy to stop with one hand especially at the front by the wheel.
DO NOT bring the other hand into play as this sets the mixer free to pour most of the remaining load onto the side of the barrow and all over the wheel.

DO spread a spare piece of DPM under the mixer and pouring area and try and keep it reasonably clean, this will allow you to rescue most of the mortar rather than start another mix immediately losing best part of an hour.

DO keep a pressure washer handy to clean the mixer and the barrow at the end of a long hard day laying paving.

 

[Penners]

Oh dear, AMc. So much to learn and so little time.

 

[Feltwell]

It's been a while......

When taking tiles off quite a large strip of roof so you can climb up the roofing battens to fix a leaking roof window, do not forget that even machine-made Victorian roof tiles vary in size quite a bit.

Otherwise, when you've finished fixing the roof window, you will find yourself with a very large jigsaw puzzle. The permutations and combinations are almost infinite, and ensuring that everything fits back together nice and snug with no real gaps will take you hours. Plus, you have the added bonus of having to complete this challenge whilst up on a roof, which is a deeply deeply uncomfortable place to be.

Whilst completing this challenge it is also a good idea not to knock one of your carefully balanced piles of tiles with your foot, else you will discover that above all else gravity is reliable and that roof tiles are breakable.

 

[Penners]

up on a roof, which is a deeply deeply uncomfortable place to be.

If you're up on a roof, wouldn't "highly, highly..." be a better choice of words?

I agree with you about gravity. I've always felt that it has a major design flaw - no 'off' switch.

 

[LadyArowana]

I agree with you about gravity. I've always felt that it has a major design flaw - no 'off' switch.

No, I'm sorry but that would be a really bad idea, boys would always be forgetting to flick the switch to "on" in the bathroom. :shock:

 

[Penners]

I agree with you about gravity. I've always felt that it has a major design flaw - no 'off' switch.

No, I'm sorry but that would be a really bad idea, boys would always be forgetting to flick the switch to "on" in the bathroom. :shock:

But girls could save a fortune on certain under-garments, which would become un-necessary.

 

[AMc]

When scoring the old lining paper to strip be careful to ensure that the previous decorator hasn't cheated and not lined the strip above the door frame. The seam on both sides may be a build up of paint against the paper edges where they did line the wall.

If you do this too late then you will score the bare plaster thus ensuring you will have to strip more paint than you wanted to and also line that bit when it's your turn as there are now pretty X marks in the plaster.

 

[worms]

...also check if the wallpaper was applied directly to gyproc with no skim or paint to warn you that the next layer of paper is the facing sheet of the plasterboard!

 

[AMc]

Oh lordy :shock: :lol:

 

[AMc]

The soil pipe from the utility room sink/water softener/washing machine runs through the wall and quite a distance almost horizontally into a gulley. We replaced the gulley when we reworked all the soil pipes and manholes as part of major works year before last.
The gulley was installed a bit carelessly by the groundworker who left it a couple of inches higher than before. The pipe had a small 'smile' which collected water at a joint. The heating engineers working on the utility wall inside and out damaged the support brackets making the smile worse.
Last winter it froze solid causing the washing machine to fill the sink from below - thankfully we noticed before it flooded the utility. I then spent an unhappy few hours defrosting and unclogging (and cracking) the smelly pipe.

All spring/summer/autumn it's been on my mind to dig out the gulley, cut a couple of inches of the vertical pipe and refix the utility outflow to the wall.
Of course that job never made it to the top of the list.

Last night we got back from a family visit and were about to start the washing machine when I decided it would be prudent to run some hot water down the sink and make sure it was clear...it wasn't.

This morning I've spent another couple of hours running the wallpaper steamer hose up the pipe defrosting it, digging out the gulley, hacking the pipe and putting it all back together. The old detergent and fluff from the washing machine stank as it was steamed free and my knees and hands were frozen from digging around in the frozen soil.

Moral of this story - don't put off until tomorrow a job you can do today. If I'd assembled the number of minutes I've spent thinking about doing this job into actually doing it I would have sorted the problem in April - as Homer would say "Doh!" :lol: :lol:

 

[Penners]

as Homer would say "Doh!"

Actually, Homer said, "It was built against the will of the immortal gods, and so it did not last for long." (The Iliad)

But both quotes would seem to be appropriate. :wink:

 

[CatherineB]

Two top tips:

1) Don't bother washing and straightening your hair the night before you strip wallpaper off ceilings. You will need to "rinse and repeat"...

2) While up the ladder, stripping said wallpaper off said ceilings, don't let pieces of soggy wallpaper fall onto the lower steps and stay there - you will inevitably slip on them (in my case twice, having failed to learn the first time!) when making your descent. Ouch

 

[Penners]

If you're going to use paint stripper on an old door, explain this to your Best Beloved before you start.

Otherwise, when you've popped indoors for a cuppa, you risk her running in with a worried expression, saying, "Quick! That stuff that you've put on the door - it's taking all the paint off!"

 

[skier-hughes]

or, "it's taking all the skin off my hand!"

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:

But oh dear, we don't improve.

Remove sticky-outy nails. I just gave myself a black eye.

Fortunately, it wasn't my eye but the lid, and gives me an excuse to do wonderful smoky smouldering eye make-up for a bit.

 

[Penners]

With all those fires burning, I'm surprised you need make-up.

 

[Flyfisher]

Remove sticky-outy nails. I just gave myself a black eye.

Ouch, ouch, ouch! :shock:

I'm glad to hear that you escaped that one with just a black eye. It could have been very nasty.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thank you. It was quite a blow and is very sore and swollen but is showing no signs of becoming infected - perhaps because I cried so hard! It was a nail in the henhouse and will certainly have been in contact with them as it's just above their perch. But I think I'm going to get away with it, and yes, feel very lucky it wasn't 1cm to the right.