Grump of the day

[DJH]

New cars here have kilometres only on their speedometers but there is an option to alter fuel consumption, distance travelled and amount of fuel left to miles... :?

Road signs...yes, you're right. Around here there was a mixture of signs in miles and kilometres but the former ( which were the old fashioned cast iron ones) have been stolen and now appear in car boot sales and end up abroad, usually in America, and the modern aluminium kilometre ones have been nicked for scrap.

The maxim seems to be that if you know where you're going you don't need a road sign and if you don't know where you're going then you don't need one either..

Doug

 

[Feltwell]

New cars here have kilometres only on their speedometers

That must be great for the car manufacturers - the only country in Europe to want right hand drive cars with km/h speedometers :roll: Must do wonders for the prices as Eire can't be the biggest car market around. Does make you wonder why they didn't just stick to miles, especially with the UK showing no inclination to change.

Road signs - I did once get told in deepest County Cork that "Everyone round here knows where they're going anyway". Made me nostalgic for Norfolk!

I used to go to Guernsey occasionally on business and asked one of my contacts one time why there were so few street name signs. He reckoned they took them down when the Germans invaded and never got around to putting them back up again!

 

[Penners]

why does plumbing have to be such a pain in the @rse.

If it's giving you a pain there, Feltwell, I think you need to be more careful about what you're doing with the pipe.

Plastic plumbing is so convenient that I'm prepared to risk the neoprene seal problem that concerns you*. Threading it through awkward places is a doddle compared with copper.

*But not me. I lined a pond with neoprene sheet 27 years ago, and the pond is still watertight.

 

[xanthe]

Duh, sorry - £2.5k per square metre not foot

 

[Flyfisher]

Phew!

Do you know if that was for the ground footprint (and assuming a two storey building) or whether it was for the combined internal floor area?

 

[Flyfisher]

Plastic plumbing is so convenient that I'm prepared to risk the neoprene seal problem that concerns you*. Threading it through awkward places is a doddle compared with copper.
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While I'm sure plastic plumbing O-rings will see me out, I can help thinking that they are an inherent failure waiting to happen at some time, whereas a soldered joint must surely last as long as the pipe itself. Given that we're in the business (so to speak) of centuries-old houses, is it really a good idea to install such plumbing systems?

There's no doubting its convenience though and I have used it in temporary situations when working on bathrooms and kitchens, but I just can't bring myself to leave it permanently in place.

 

[Penners]

a soldered joint must surely last as long as the pipe itself

I think that depends on the quality of the soldered joint. Copper pipes (as of course you know) expand and contract constantly with changes in temperature. It's far from unknown for this to cause hairline cracking in a soldered joint which can eventually lead to a leak. Of course plastic pipes also expand and contract, but my feeling is that the inherent flexibility of the neoprene seal is better able to cope with this.

 

[Feltwell]

Hmm - still not convinced though. Copper and solder just seems a lot more permanent to me!

My one exception will be when I finally get around to plumbing my sink and water heater in the garage - there I will use plastic throughout, on the basis that it's more likely to cope better than copper if the pipe ever freezes - plus a leak would be less disastrous than in the house. I'll still lag the pipes well mind!

 

[plasticpigeon]

My idiot neighbours who have been smashing up their house for months, have now removed their original front door frame to fit a plastic front door. The builders they are using are Indian guys from India and apparently charge £60 to plaster a room!!!!

 

[Penners]

when I finally get around to plumbing my sink and water heater in the garage - there I will use plastic throughout, on the basis that it's more likely to cope better than copper if the pipe ever freezes - plus a leak would be less disastrous than in the house. I'll still lag the pipes well mind!

A year or two ago I found it necessary to run water supplies from one lean-to outbuilding to another. The pipes necessarily run along the outside of the house walls (in a fenced-in area where the oil tank resides, so no aesthetic problems). I used plastic plumbing, insulated with polyethylene foam sleeves but, during the coldest part of the winter, the pipes still froze - with no bursts! I have today finished boxing the pipes in and stuffing the boxing with a thick fill of rockwool.

 

[Flyfisher]

a soldered joint must surely last as long as the pipe itself

I think that depends on the quality of the soldered joint. Copper pipes (as of course you know) expand and contract constantly with changes in temperature. It's far from unknown for this to cause hairline cracking in a soldered joint which can eventually lead to a leak. Of course plastic pipes also expand and contract, but my feeling is that the inherent flexibility of the neoprene seal is better able to cope with this.

I entirely agree about plastic/neoprene being more durable in terms of expansion/contraction. Indeed my only serious water leak ( previous house) was a direct result of this where hot and cold copper pipes were touching and the movement had worn a small hole in one of them leading to sustained leakage thT we only discovered when the plasterboard ceiling below collapsed! I suspect the problem dated back to the 50s when the house was built and it took that long to wear through the pipe.

But while I'm confident that plastic pipe itself is more resilient to bursts when frozen, I'm less convinced about the joints. Yes, the neoprene will 'give' slightly but I once had an elbow fitting pushed right off the end of a plastic pipe by expanding ice within the pipe. Fortunately I noticed before it thawed out. I guess much depends on how long the neoprene fitting retain their flexibility - decades certainly, but centuries?

As for freezing pipes, I recall once hearing about a method of freeze protection that involved inserting a small thin plastic pipe inside susceptible pipe work. The idea was that as the ice expanded, the air inside the plastic pipe would be compressed and this would relieve the pressure within the pipe. I can't remember where I heard about it though.

 

[DJH]

You can use compression fittings with plastic pipe quite happily. I'd be more concerned about our furry friends snacking on the pipe in the future..

Doug

 

[Feltwell]

You can use compression fittings with plastic pipe quite happily.

Really? I thought with compression fittings it was the squishing (technical term) of the olive against the copper pipe that made the seal (and olive to fitting) - the olives are certainly stuck fast to the pipe when you take an old fitting off. With plastic pipe would they not simply squish the pipe and not make a good seal? Some of the plastic pipes need an insert to reinforce them even when used with their own bespoke fittings.

Rodents is a fair point, try as I might I never seem to get rid of mice completely out of my garage for long. Just as it's been several months and I've not caught one, I go in there and notice a trap with contents . They haven't attacked anything to my knowledge so far - the wild bird seed that the first lot found that clearly tempted them in has long since been moved out of their way. I guess mice aren't as destructive as some other bigger rodents though.

 

[DJH]

They work quit well with plastic pipe. An insert is always required to maintain the roundness of the pipe even with push fit fittings. The exception would be when the fitting itself seals by having a spigot that goes inside the pipe.

Pussies are very good keeping our furry friends away. I'm sure even Penners would agree with that...

Another grump...why do our puddy wuddys still think me and Mrs DJH are kittens that need feeding and deposit bodies of various creatures on the doormat for us?

Doug

 

[Feltwell]

On the way back from seeing Father Christmas at the local steam railway today (we know how to PARTY in Shropshire y'know...) the car starts emitting a blo@dy awful scraping, graunching, squealing, metal-on-metal noise from one of the rear wheels. Nothing untoward can be seen, so guessing what it is I carry on for the short trip home at a sedate pace, attracting "What the hell is wrong with that car?" looks from all that we pass.

A little tiny stone had got itself wedged behind the guard for one of the brake discs, and was trapped there rubbing on the disc. It had happened to me before on another car - if you're lucky, just reversing the car a short distance will free them, if not then it's jack the car up, wheel off, possibly caliper & disc off in order to free the little s@d. Why can't they design the disc guard so it's closest to the disc at the leading edge and then tapers slightly away from it, so any stone that gets in there will just pass through and pop straight out... :evil:

 

[xanthe]

Phew!

Do you know if that was for the ground footprint (and assuming a two storey building) or whether it was for the combined internal floor area?

The guy told me to add the entire footage of all floors - so I was working on 1400 sq ft for a 4 storey building - not just the footprint.

 

[xanthe]

You can use compression fittings with plastic pipe quite happily.

I guess mice aren't as destructive as some other bigger rodents though.

Surveyor pointed out where squirrels had been sharpening their teeth on the lead flashings round the chimney stack - I'll never have guessed that the pesky things would do that.

My sister lives in Australia and no longer thinks that possums are cute furry creatures...

 

[LadyArowana]

Surveyor pointed out where squirrels had been sharpening their teeth on the lead flashings round the chimney stack - I'll never have guessed that the pesky things would do that.

My sister lives in Australia and no longer thinks that possums are cute furry creatures...

Where my mother in law used to live the squirrels chewed through a neighbors telephone wires. MIL used to put out nuts and seeds ( for the birds, but the squirrels ate them too ) though, so they left hers alone :lol:

 

[DJH]

Sorry, I seem to be turning into a serial grumper but why is it that every time I get a battery powered tool out to use it the battery is flat...grr

Doug

 

[Keith Bowman]

Sorry, I seem to be turning into a serial grumper but why is it that every time I get a battery powered tool out to use it the battery is flat...grr

Doug

Something to do with moving to Murphy's very own law making territory?