New Grump of the Day

[a twig]

At the risk of this turning into Twitter, Ivermectin was only shown to inhibit Covid-19 at phenomenally high doses, and those tests were done in vitro, i.e. in test tubes, and at 35x the human approved dosage level. While Ivermectin has a pretty wide therapeutic window, it ain’t that wide, and overdosing on Ivermectin has some pretty hideous effects on the brain, including hypotension, ataxia and seizures.

Nothing particularly hilarious about it in my opinion.

Can’t we just stick to damp walls, creaky floorboards, dodgy renders and complaining about plastic paints etc?

 

[Toby Newell]

And yet there have been many studies:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/644031/print-ready-nasal-carcinoma-and-occupational-exposure-to-wood-dust-iiac-report.pdf

...That have found a link with hardwood, but not softwood.

Sure, there may be a study in the future that finds its something else, but we should use the evidence we have until better comes along.

As for trades... I too have found a lack of care for dust exposure generally, and noise issues as well.

You seem to be missing my point, all is moot, the studies are correlative, not causative, there is no proof, just a reductive assumption.

Like red meat, saturated fat, cholesterol all inferred, all incorrect now we understand the scientific mechanisms that showed us the flawed assumptions.

Show me the studies listing statistical correction for confounding social factors.

Also show me the studies that isolate particle size.

Using basic knowledge (and my direct experience of working with several thousand kilos of both dusts over thousands of hours) hardwood species are made up of many different sensitising compounds, yet no difference postulated. But, in general, hardwoods break up into smaller and finer particles than softwoods.

There are less finer particles and hence less volume of dust that would be airborne.

Softwood at a microscopic level, is removed from the wood more as a curled shaving whereas hardwoods tend to fracture into finer structures.

Again, using my general knowledge, seeing as many softwoods contain a very much higher (orders of magnitude) concentration of resins, which contain, amongst others, terpenes and aromatic hydrocarbons some of which are known to be bioactive and / or mutagenic (cedar contains bio toxins) there should be studies measuring TWA's for both softwood and hardwoods with similar particle sizes.

I am not saying there isn't a link, I AM saying the science is very weak and poorly elaborated.

Oak sawdust is around pH 5 which is very weak, might be slightly more for green sapwood, the caustic nature of lime, cement and plaster dusts is much greater.

My point is ALL dusts are bad and it is possible particle size is the differentiating factor, again, using common knowledge, wood being probably the most widely used material in the history of hominids one would of thought any specific mutagenic compounds and their mechanism of action would of been found by now.

Cholesterol and saturated fat are essential nutrients, fit humans with good diet show high cholesterol levels, now we understand the mechanisms we know that it is poor diet and other concomitant pro inflammatory factors like stress and excess energy consumption that is to blame.

I agree, I hate working on site and with other trades because I constantly have to clean up after them.

Noise, I am not sure we can do much about, I guess apart from getting away from the impact driver fallacy.

 

[Toby Newell]

At the risk of this turning into Twitter, Ivermectin was only shown to inhibit Covid-19 at phenomenally high doses, and those tests were done in vitro, i.e. in test tubes, and at 35x the human approved dosage level. While Ivermectin has a pretty wide therapeutic window, it ain’t that wide, and overdosing on Ivermectin has some pretty hideous effects on the brain, including hypotension, ataxia and seizures.

Nothing particularly hilarious about it in my opinion.

Can’t we just stick to damp walls, creaky floorboards, dodgy renders and complaining about plastic paints etc?

twig dearest, I think the point is lies, damn lies and statistics and the propoganda that labelled a UN essential medicine whose use in humans garnered Nobel prizes for it's proponents as 'horse dewormer'.

It's efficacy being immaterial to the argument.

My point is that sausage sandwiches are class 1 carcinogens with a known and proven scientific mechanism of action whereas wood dust still has no mechanism.

I am not saying overdoing either of them are good for you, just interesting how one thing is labelled bad whereas others are not.

My overall point being it might be intelligent to treat all fine dusts as being rather bad for you, in addition to wood dust, until further research isolates the mechanism and gives us the all clear to breathe in other dusts like smoke, lime, cement, plaster, brick, paint etc.

 

[a twig]

Point well made Mr Newell, I’ll post here again, no one has called me dearest in years

 

[Toby Newell]

Point well made Mr Newell, I’ll post here again, no one has called me dearest in years

Dichloromethane anyone? When something smells that good... remarkable how it took them so long to 'realise' it was bad for you... when they knew about the mechanism of action of the very similar chloroform for decades...

 

[Toby Newell]

Here my (current) rant endeth.

How may it be that concrete dust, a highly caustic material that contains both silicates and hexavalent chromium is not yet also catagorised as a class 1 carcinogen?

I am sure it could not possibly be that being humans' most widely manufactured and used substance the dust control of which would be prohibitively detrimental to the GDP of all countries it hasn't been investigated as much.

Carry on.

 

[noj]

Water based paint in ferrous metal tins...

 

[Toby Newell]

Water based paint in ferrous metal tins...

:/ plastic not exactly great for the environment... still, we have baked beans in metal tins... tin-zinc plated of course.

 

[paulc]

Removing the last bit of ceiling in the hallway (it was full of cracks and close to falling sown), a few of the old laths needed cutting before I could remove them. Out with the multitool and coarse blade... Cut about half of them, and then heard a very load thud in the dining room. A big chunk of ceiling in there had given up and fallen down. Rats. More mess, and another ceiling that needs patching.

 

[a twig]

Trying to install a new 3m cubed soakaway for rainwater as our existing one is 40 years old and woefully inadequate. Will need to be connected by 2 8m runs and 1 10m run to three downpipes which will need new gulleys.

I costed it DIY as £1600 inc VAT for materials, £500 for a week’s mini digger hire and reckon it would probably take me 3 or 4 days to do on my own.

Decided to get quotes in as it’s not a job that fills me with much enthusiasm - first one arrives - operations manager from a fairly large and well reputed company based in the area - sucks his teeth and then tells me it will cost £8k!

Seeing my expression he then gives me
his mobile number and says that if I call him there are “other ways of doing things” *nudge nudge wink wink*

Even with two ground workers both on a day rate of £250 and both working for 3 days I’m struggling to see how the job should get past £4K, let alone £8k! And then the cheek to ask for brown envelopes as well…

Genuinely angry - I’ve found the CEO on LinkedIn and will be letting him know what his Operations Manager is up to

 

[Lacan07]

Trying to install a new 3m cubed soakaway for rainwater as our existing one is 40 years old and woefully inadequate. Will need to be connected by 2 8m runs and 1 10m run to three downpipes which will need new gulleys.

I costed it DIY as £1600 inc VAT for materials, £500 for a week’s mini digger hire and reckon it would probably take me 3 or 4 days to do on my own.

Decided to get quotes in as it’s not a job that fills me with much enthusiasm - first one arrives - operations manager from a fairly large and well reputed company based in the area - sucks his teeth and then tells me it will cost £8k!

Seeing my expression he then gives me
his mobile number and says that if I call him there are “other ways of doing things” *nudge nudge wink wink*

Even with two ground workers both on a day rate of £250 and both working for 3 days I’m struggling to see how the job should get past £4K, let alone £8k! And then the cheek to ask for brown envelopes as well…

Genuinely angry - I’ve found the CEO on LinkedIn and will be letting him know what his Operations Manager is up to

everything is way beyond expensive these days

 

[a twig]

I totally accept that things are more expensive - the days of labourers on £50 a day are long gone, and I am more than willing to pay a fair price for good trades so that they can keep on trading & feeding their families etc while mortgages/energy prices carry on doing their thing, but trying it on with a quote that is at least double where it should be just makes me angry. I forgot to mention that the £8k didn’t include VAT either!

 

[Lacan07]

I totally accept that things are more expensive - the days of labourers on £50 a day are long gone, and I am more than willing to pay a fair price for good trades so that they can keep on trading & feeding their families etc while mortgages/energy prices carry on doing their thing, but trying it on with a quote that is at least double where it should be just makes me angry. I forgot to mention that the £8k didn’t include VAT either!

yeah, that was my point really, I think a fair few tradesmen are trying it on. I think rates have gone beyond basic inflation but as you say I think that bloke has plucked a figure out of thin air. My neighbours a young builder and he rolls his eyes when we get trades round to quote. He usually winds up doing it himself, last summer he re-tiled the Oast house roof we share, saved me a fortune.

 

[Lacan07]

When your house is upside down and you spend the bank holiday weekend weeding the garden (again)...!

My house came with a sizeable garden and very fertile soil. Over the last few years during renovation I've weeded it numerous times when the buggers got so high it was embarrassing. I didn't want to let the garden go because the former owner was a keen gardener but similarly I really had no time for it with the renovations. This time I gave in! I'd let it go for well over 8 months and the weeds were like something out of a horror film and I was fed up with the work. I've just spent roughly 6 days weeding the garden and approx £200 on weed control fabric and bark, including the entire bank holiday weekend.

Meanwhile my lofts still don't have any insulation, lol. Don't you just hate those jobs that aren't really important but they kind of are. There's 100 other jobs on my list but I just couldn't face weeding that garden anymore.

 

[Cubist]

When your house is upside down and you spend the bank holiday weekend weeding the garden (again)...!

My house came with a sizeable garden and very fertile soil. Over the last few years during renovation I've weeded it numerous times when the buggers got so high it was embarrassing. I didn't want to let the garden go because the former owner was a keen gardener but similarly I really had no time for it with the renovations. This time I gave in! I'd let it go for well over 8 months and the weeds were like something out of a horror film and I was fed up with the work. I've just spent roughly 6 days weeding the garden and approx £200 on weed control fabric and bark, including the entire bank holiday weekend.

Meanwhile my lofts still don't have any insulation, lol. Don't you just hate those jobs that aren't really important but they kind of are. There's 100 other jobs on my list but I just couldn't face weeding that garden anymore.

Yep, and if I ever read the book, see the movie or have to wear the T shirt again..... You know has that goes.

Keeping this place in check needed a big gun so over the first 12 years I've used a petrol engined brush-cutter with both steel blades and nylon cords to get on top of and keep the weeds down, but resorted to an even heavier ride on brush-cutter a couple of years back. Both are much better and faster than me being down on hand and knee - I always worried I may never be able to get back up.

 

[Lacan07]

Yep, and if I ever read the book, see the movie or have to wear the T shirt again..... You know has that goes.

Keeping this place in check needed a big gun so over the first 12 years I've used a petrol engined brush-cutter with both steel blades and nylon cords to get on top of and keep the weeds down, but resorted to an even heavier ride on brush-cutter a couple of years back. Both are much better and faster than me being down on hand and knee - I always worried I may never be able to get back up.

Yeah, I've reached an age where I'm compelled to emit an audible sound every time I reach or kneel down or get back up.

Your brush cutter sounds good, I've often dreamt of buying a flame thrower to tackle my weeds - slash and burn!

 

[Cubist]

Yeah, I've reached an age where I'm compelled to emit an audible sound every time I reach or kneel down or get back up.

Your brush cutter sounds good, I've often dreamt of buying a flame thrower to tackle my weeds - slash and burn!

One of the fringe benefits of the brush cutter and similar tools is that it masks the creaks, squeaks, moans, groans, oaths and curses of the operator.

Re; flame-thrower, great minds - I bought one of those gas powered lances with the same thought in mind, waste of money, time and still wasting shed space.

 

[LadyArowana]

Re; flame-thrower, great minds - I bought one of those gas powered lances with the same thought in mind, waste of money, time and still wasting shed space.

If we can have another PPUK BBQ next year I think there would be a case for truly "flame grilled" burghers.

My own grump of the day is that it seems the industrial abseilers have not fixed the leak in the roof at the apartment. I thought the surveyor's assertion the cause was "some loose cables" was rather improbable, but apparently the chaps found nothing else. I suspect the culprit may be at some distance from where the leak is manifesting

 

[paulc]

Have been chasing round the local timber merchants trying to find some skirting board to replace some that is either rotten or badly damaged after removal. Found one that is a very close match, but at £4.50+VAT per metre and another £25+VAT for delivery, just too damned expensive. Found a router cutter that will give me near enough what I want, except I need a router table... Fortunately, not a difficult thing to fabricate out of some MDF offcuts. Had four lengths of planed to size timber delivered earlier in the week, so was all set.
Router table set up on the patio with a vacuum cleaner to suck up all the dust. A short length run through multiple times, and the profile looks right along with a reasonable finish. Got half way through the fourth length doing an initial pass, and the router stopped. Checked the fuse, continuity of the cable & switch, brushes, all OK. Popped the speed control module out, and found not one, but two capacitors floating around loose. After working out where they came from, soldered back in place and reassembled everything.
Router is still like the proverbial Norwegian Blue.

 

[Lacan07]

Have been chasing round the local timber merchants trying to find some skirting board to replace some that is either rotten or badly damaged after removal. Found one that is a very close match, but at £4.50+VAT per metre and another £25+VAT for delivery, just too damned expensive. Found a router cutter that will give me near enough what I want, except I need a router table... Fortunately, not a difficult thing to fabricate out of some MDF offcuts. Had four lengths of planed to size timber delivered earlier in the week, so was all set.
Router table set up on the patio with a vacuum cleaner to suck up all the dust. A short length run through multiple times, and the profile looks right along with a reasonable finish. Got half way through the fourth length doing an initial pass, and the router stopped. Checked the fuse, continuity of the cable & switch, brushes, all OK. Popped the speed control module out, and found not one, but two capacitors floating around loose. After working out where they came from, soldered back in place and reassembled everything.
Router is still like the proverbial Norwegian Blue.

Ah, skirting boards...the one thing I wish I hadn't thrown in a skip when I first bought my house,