Grump of the day

[Feltwell]

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

Precisely why I ended up splashing out on Lithium Ion tools where the same battery can be used across the range. Best tool-buying decision I've made in a long time, I've always got a battery that's got charge, the battery lasts for ages, when they do go flat they recharge in the time it takes to have a cup of tea and a KitKat, new tools aren't too expensive to add to the collection as you don't buy the battery or charger, and finally because it's a popular trade range various people are making pattern batteries now which are a lot cheaper than the genuine ones and which means I should be able to buy new batteries for the foreseeable future.

All of which makes me a smart arse, and absolutely none of which helps Doug in his current predicament and probably just increases his grumpiness :wink:

 

[Flyfisher]

Which 'popular trade range' did you plump for in the end?

I have the same issue with my old Axminster drill/driver batteries and replacements are so expensive I might as well buy a whole new tool. I've been thinking about Makita but a builder friend uses Milwalkie and says they are very good, though I had never heard of them.

Alternatively, I've seen companies on the web offering to refurbish and/or 're-cell'.

 

[Feltwell]

Makita LXT, the 18v version. There are lots of different Makita ranges but the LXT stuff seems to be the most universally available. I've been pleased with all the tools I've bought so far in that range. I've 3 batteries now which is plenty.

I've heard of Milwakie, don't know much about them other than they are a quality brand. The thing I like about the Makita is it's so popular now that they would have trouble discontinuing it, and even if they did the support for batteries should carry on for a long while afterwards.

Shop around, there are bargains to be had. The first set I bought, and by far the most expensive of what I've bought so far, was a drill, impact driver, charger and 2 batteries. About £100 off the usual price on Ebay direct from Makita's own returns operation - whatever was wrong had been fixed or replaced and it came with the same Makita warranty as "new" kit.

I've found when buying "bare" tools (i.e. no battery or charger) that there are sellers on Ebay and Amazon who clearly buy them as a set with battery and charger and sell the parts separately, which makes them cheaper than the "official" Makita bare tools. http://www.toolsave.co.uk have been good, as have http://www.tools4trade.co.uk

Not sure about "re-celling", never had that done. I tried a "battery rejuvenation" trick on some old ni-cads, it did work but didn't improve them by enough to make them really useable.

 

[Feltwell]

Just for balance, here's "Wonder of the day".......

"Yay, sprouts, I LOVE SPROUTS" says 4 year old Bill, the youngest & cheekiest of the little Feltwells, yesterday at a family get together. Followed shortly afterwards by "No thank you Nana, I don't like fizzy drinks." Other virtuous comments followed throughout the day.

I think he's trying to lull us into a false sense of security prior to Christmas Day....... :lol:

 

[Me!]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to try and offer me helpful suggestions to my grump! I have been reading them, and have also just re-read them all again now before replying.

I totally accept that insurance companies are in business to make money, and I don't have a problem with that at all. I just have a problem with them changing their payout after a claim has been made.

FlyFisher and I seem to be on the same wavelength with this grump, but hopefully I can win over a few of the doubters as well

But in general a £1m house represents twice the risk of a £500,000 house.

That statement is probably not mathematically correct, but I understand your point and totally accept that it is much easier to do £500k of damage to the Shard than it is to my house. However, if I owned the shard and chose to only insure it for £500k then I should be allowed to do so

The above is just morally wrong as far as I can see,

You are missing the point that even though you say you are covering your house to the extent of £500,000, you are actually expecting the insurers to cover the whole value but get away with only paying half-price.

No. I'm perfectly happy to pay an agreed premium for an agreed value and an agreed risk

Classic car insurance has for many years now been different from normal car insurance and is the closest parallel that I can think of.
If for example I had inherited Great Aunt Maud's old Austin 7 and it then got crushed some years later by a falling tree, then I could buy another one in the same sort of condition for about £5k. But, I don't want another one to replace it, I want Great Aunt Maud's one to be fixed again so I may choose to insure it for £25k. There is no way that the car is 'worth' £25k commercially, but the Classic Car insurers will calculate me a premium based on that value and their perceived level of risk. If after an accident it actually costs me £25k to fix, they will pay me £25k, and if it costs me £50k to fix then they will pay be £25k. There is no argument or even any further discussion about the value at the time of the claim. It has all been agreed beforehand. Why is it like this for Classic Cars, and not Classic Houses?

So, ... rather than just having more of a grump, I'd like to follow up on some of the comments and suggestions that people have made please.

NFU has been mentioned by several people as being good, but that they have recently got much more expensive. Is this the case for all NFU customers, or are there still happy NFU customers here on PPUK as well?

Lark has also had a couple of good comments from people. I can find this Lark who are insurance brokers but not underwriters. Is this the one people are referring to, and if so who are the underwriters that they have given you please?

Talked to a specialist insurance company the other day for Listed Buildings - who we are going with as their deal was significantly better (and cheaper)

Who is this specialist company please?

Hiscox have been mentioned during previous insurance discussions on this forum but at that time -

I have obtained a quote from Hiscox in the past. My eyes are still watering

and

I was very disappointed with Hiscox when I tried to insure with them. They wanted to see the structural survey I had paid for when I bought the place then refused to insure it as it has had some structural movement in the past

Is anyone here insured with them? The current policy that they offer has my dream clause in it "To help make sure you're never underinsured, our new home insurance provides unlimited cover"

 

[xanthe]

Lark via the Listed Property Owners Club.

We're currently with Hiscox for our 1993 London flat - they nearly had hysterics down the phone when I said that a 450 year old timber-framed cottage had had historic movement, wanted copies of the survey etc. They were over £200 more expensive that the Lark quote for a worse deal, and I don't total trust a company that has zero knowledge of old buildings and who didn't understand why I would want it written into the contract that we could use our choice of conservation builders rather than their choice.

I didn't dare send the the survey - once they discovered one of main walls needs totally rebuilding and has daylight showing through in places I imagine they would be :shock:

 

[worms]

Today's Grump...

Why do I have to instruct a solicitor to get the Building Society off my title deeds at the end of my mortgage? You no longer need to do this in England, but it is still a solicitor monopoly in Scotland. It's just a form for goodness sake. AND you can't just use any solicitor, it has to be one on the Society's approved list! Why should the legal profession believe that they are the only people who can read and write!

 

[Keithj]

Why should the legal profession believe that they are the only people who can read and write!

You don't need an answer to that, do you?!

I suggest write to that nice Nicola Sturgeon and ask her to fix it.

 

[worms]

Why should the legal profession believe that they are the only people who can read and write!

You don't need an answer to that, do you?!

I suggest write to that nice Nicola Sturgeon and ask her to fix it.

Only problem with that is, like most politicians, her background is as a solicitor!

 

[Feltwell]

Not sure that would be my description of the background of "most politicians" :wink:

It does seem daft that you have to instruct any solicitor, let alone an "approved" one, to perform what must be a very simple administrative task. Jobs for the boys.......

 

[Flyfisher]

Given that mortgage lenders include an end of mortgage 'admin' fee at the end of the mortgage, and given that in Scotland a solicitor is necessary to remove the charge from the deeds, I'd have expected the admin fee in Scotland to include that cost as well. But little would surprise me in such matters.

This article may or not be applicable to your particular situation:
http://www.scotsman.com/business/finance/mortgage-fees-ruling-paves-way-for-further-claimants-1-2828548

But for £180 or so, I think I'd just pay the fee, have a good old grump, but then forget all about it and enjoy your unencumbered deeds.

 

[Keith Bowman]

Given that......

But for £180 or so, I think I'd just pay the fee, have a good old grump, but then forget all about it and enjoy your unencumbered deeds.

I'm not sure that I agree. Whilst a financial rip-off might not be one of the worst evils around: "For the triumph of evil it is only necessary that good men do nothing". It must be worth a letter at least.

 

[a twig]

Grump of the day:

Builder's merchants who according to their website are open until 5:00, but apparently when you get there at 4:30pm are shut and have been all day...

 

[Feltwell]

Pack the kids & better half off to the mother-in-laws for the day so I can drain the heating down and finally connect all our new radiators. Everything prepped as much as possible. An entire day spent a couple of weeks ago working under our ground floor, putting pipes in - not a pleasant day - cramped, filthy, cold conditions, crawling around on 100+ year old building rubble, bending 22mm pipes (what a sod they are to bend when you haven't even got space to sit up properly!) and soldering. All in the aim of being able to have nicer looking radiators in better locations in our main ground floor rooms, and no visible pipes running down the wall, unlike before.

So, spend all day today working flat out, still don't get the job done in time for the family's return. But, about an hour later, all is finished - now spend bloomin' ages refilling the system. All looks well, until - "There's a drip in the kitchen" comes the call from downstairs.

Yes, the one & only joint where I decided to de-solder an old joint and remake it at the same place is leaking. All my other joints, on lovely virgin bits of pipe, be they new or old, are fine. So, it's 9:30 at night, kids are in bed, the house is cold, and I now need to sneak into my son's room and start cutting pipes about and soldering and then refill & bleed the whole system again. Joy!

A slightly fed up Feltwell.

 

[88v8]

Oh dear.
Yes, I too have had problems re-soldering old fittings. I recall one on the mains feed to the attic that blew off when I turned the water back on. That was in the dining room of our first house.

I suppose you can't freeze the pipes to avoid draining, and losing all your expensive inhibitor?

Ivor

 

[Flyfisher]

Oh dear indeed - a very worthy grump though.

I hope you managed to get things sorted and that warmth had returned to Feltwell Towers.

 

[Feltwell]

Warmth is finally returning as I type!

 

[Flyfisher]

Hoorah

So, lesson of the day - never remake a copper plumbing joint. See how easy these things are with hindsight :wink:

 

[Feltwell]

Indeed! It was actually a brand new fitting - but going back onto a pipe where a fitting had previously been, and traces of solder remained. Despite being well abraded and fluxed, clearly it still didn't like this. Luckily no inhibitor was lost, as I was filling the system with water only to flush any muck and flux through first.

To make matters worse, I actually rebuilt the section late last night - very late. On soldering it though it seemed that the solder just didn't take - I have a decent propane gas torch, but with 22mm pipe it just didn't seem to be getting it hot enough for it to solder properly. On refilling it leaked worse than ever

So, this morning, a trip to the local plumbers merchants relieved me of £50 for a MAP torch - propane on steroids would be the best description! It's propane with additives I believe, and by'eck it's hot. So the third attempt went without incident, the MAP torch soldered the joints very quickly indeed - so quickly that great care was needed not to over-heat them, I used the torch to heat the pipe alongside the fitting rather than the fitting itself. My propane torch is OK for 15mm pipe but for 22mm, especially with other pipes branching off nearby to suck the heat away, it's just not quite up to the job. The MAP torch came with warnings that it can melt the copper pipe if not used with care :shock:

Anyway, Feltwell Towers is once again a warm & cosy place to be, the new radiators are working well and look a lot better than the manky old panel rads we had before.

 

[DJH]

Best really to remove the fitting to warm up the pipes enough to melt the solder wipe the excess solder around and off with a quick movement. Same with the fitting. This will leave the pipe and fitting tinned without any residue of old flux or, in the case of lead solder, the chance that the lead and tin have separated as can be the case if overheated.

I can't prove any of this scientifically but it works for me...

Most modern 'blowlamps' have a cyclone effect which, if the torch is held with the flame just right in relation to the pipe/fitting, directs the flame around the back of the pipe heating it to the same temperature as the place where the flame is pointed. It's still worth moving the flame from front to back of the pipe/fitting just to be sure!! It's also worth applying the solder wire to the rear of the fitting joint first . If it runs then the joint must be hot enough all around.

A heat mat held or fixed behind the area where heat is applied will also help distribute heat all around the fitting.

Lesson over... Sorry. I got carried away...

Doug