New Grump of the Day

[Feltwell]

Hummpf. Just been told I have to stop working and I'm only seventy three!! I've been in hospital for eight weeks with something called discitis....no, I'd never heard of it either.

Oh well, there's still the forum to read...

New one on me too - Ouch, that doesn't sound nice Doug. A severely dodgy back and heavy rolls of lead doesn't sound like a great combination, I have to say. Never nice to be forced to stop though. Is the passing on of skills, lecturing / tutoring a way of keeping your hand in, part time?

 

[Flyfisher]

Sorry to hear that Doug, I hope your back will be ok as long as you don't work.
Being completely selfish about it, having more time for the forum will allow you to post more wonderful photos of your lead work over the years as well as being our resident lead expert

 

[LadyArowana]

Sorry to hear that Doug, I hope your back will be ok as long as you don't work.
Being completely selfish about it, having more time for the forum will allow you to post more wonderful photos of your lead work over the years as well as being our resident lead expert

Best wishes from me too, I hope the problem eases up over time. Can you mentor an apprentice to be the Skywalker to your Yoda?

 

[Allison]

Anything with an "itis" means inflammation of so discitis would imply severe inflammation of the cushions between your spine, this in turn would causd pressure on your spinal chord meaning extream pain. Hope you get well soon. ( renovating old district nurse)

 

[Feltwell]

How do you renovate an old district nurse? Do you have to polish her Morris Minor or something?

(Behave Penners, if you're reading this!)

 

[Allison]

I certainly need renovating

 

[DJH]

Thanks for your replies...
We have the same problem as you Zebra with the house an icebox and we're sitting outside in the sun! The stoves get lit every evening still 8)

You're right Allison about anything with 'itis' being painful. I'll be avoiding anything with that in it's name from now on. A couple of cracked vertebrae didn't help. I don't recall cracking any although they said they were old ones?

My days of humping rolls of lead around are over I'm afraid but as it happens a chap who worked with me has taken over my workshop and equipment and made me his consultant which will give me something to do. He has some contracts in the pipeline which are interesting.

Doug

Artisan Leadwork Facebook should find him.

 

[Flyfisher]

Some fabulous leadwork on that FB page. It's wonderful to know you're passing on your skills and experience Doug. Long may it continue!

PS: Doesn't seem right posting this on a 'GOTD' topic.

 

[DJH]

Thanks FF . You're right, new topic called Leadwork perhaps?

Doug

 

[Zebra]

Thanks FF . You're right, new topic called Leadwork perhaps?

We wanted you recently, Doug, here: https://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16883&start=15
I was sure you'd talked before about lead trays in chimneys, but I couldn't remember....

 

[LadyArowana]

Why is it so difficult to find a tasteful bird feeding device? Grrrrrr

 

[Feltwell]

I know, the last thing you want to do is feed those chavvy birds with their gaudy bling bling plumage :wink:

I've got my coat..... :roll:

 

[LadyArowana]

I know, the last thing you want to do is feed those chavvy birds with their gaudy bling bling plumage :wink:

I've got my coat..... :roll:

:lol: :lol: :lol: The chavvy birds* around these parts are the gulls, and even the council tell people not to feed those

*unless we’re talking about the non feathered variety which come on the hen party weekends

 

[Feltwell]

Unless you're putting out kebabs I think you're safe from the non-feathered variety. :wink:

 

[RBailey]

Grump of the day ... ... ... Aerial installers



This was just in and around one window FFS :roll:

Two component epoxy will be used to fill the cable holes

 

[Feltwell]

Grump of the day ... ... ... Aerial installers

Can I add please:-

Sky TV installers - specifically ones who drill from the inside of the house out, blowing the face off a brick in the process. (During a previous owner's tenure.)

Gas installers - who to save drilling a hole through the wall, break a pane in the cellar window to put their pipe through, then put Perspex back in cut crudely around the pipe.

:evil:

 

[Flyfisher]

Simple jobs that turn out anything but.

One of our gateposts broke yesterday - the post supporting a 3.5m wooden 'field gate', so quite a lot of strain for well over a decade now plus it was only pressure treated softwood so it was fairly inevitable it would fail sooner or later. So, no real reason for a grump . . . especially as I had some telegraph poles to hand (as one does) as a replacement as well as access to a mini-digger - so what could go wrong?

Well, I knew there was a mains gas pipe to the house in the vicinity of the gatepost so was very much 'on guard' in that respect. What I didn't know was that there was also the water pipe to the house even closer to the gatepost - close enough to be easily broken. :shock:

Fortunately, our water meter is halfway along our lane so I was able to turn off the water very easily and didn't have to involved the water company, which would no doubt have been quite costly ButI had to do a lot more digging than anticipated so as to expose enough of both ends of the broken pipe. Then a quick 25 mile round-trip to the nearest plumbing merchant for a couple of Philmac MDPE couplers and a short length of 25mm pipe. These are supposed to work with just hand-tightening but the first attempt leaked a little so I had to 'nip' them a little tighter with a couple of wrenches and the "job's a good-un" as they say in these here parts.

With that little diversion dealt with I managed to get the sawn-off telegraph pole in place of the old post and half bedded in. I decided to leave the water repair exposed overnight so I can check for leaks tomorrow morning, meaning I couldn't fully refill the hole and the final gate fitting will have to wait until then.

So all's well that ends well and at least it only cost me £10.92 in total, so it could have been a lot worse.

Actually, I was a little surprised it was a blue MDPE pipe rather than a black one - does anyone know when blue pipes were introduced?

 

[Feltwell]

Arrgghhhh!! What a pain FF. Could have been worse, but even so!

Reminds me of drilling a hole in a wall here several years ago, and finding that some eejit had ran a lighting cable at 45 degrees, as I hit it with the drill. Single storey part of the house with no ceiling hatch into the roof space, I had to cut a ruddy great hole in the ceiling to climb up there & isolate the cable!

 

[Feltwell]

Grump du jour...….

When you've stripped down a section of cast iron rainwater goods, due to a broken downpipe socket - then you go to refit them several days later and the S bend from the downpipe out to the gutter is the wrong size, in terms of offset.

You've clearly picked up the wrong one. But it must be that one - have you got any others kicking around? Aha, what's that, another one in the garage. You must have got them mixed up. So you take the other one and climb back up the scaffold, haul the very heavy and slightly precarious pipes back into place again, then realise it's the same size as the first one you tried.

The parts are heavy. Your arms ache. You are beginning to doubt your own sanity. Nothing has changed position. It must be the first one, surely, there are no others and you remember the bottom of it was a distinctive, broken shape.

After further doubts on your mental faculties, it suddenly dawns on you that the reason the pipe socket repair is needed is all down to a conversation from around 120 years ago, that went something like this:-

Arthur - "Bloody bend is the wrong size"

Albert - "Ahh sod it, it'll fit, just knock a bit off the bottom with your hammer and wedge it in at an angle".

Builders :roll:

 

[overlander matt]

Grump of the day ... ... ... Aerial installers

We're looking to install a new phone line soon and I wonder how flexible the installers are about cable routing... I have an ideal internal route for the cable that avoids the unpleasant clips all over the brickwork. The brickwork is still to be repointed too so I would rather not install the cable externally when a more convenient route exists inside.

Anyone have any relevant experience of this?

Thanks,

Matt