Recent content by ade11

I may have answered this myself, having done some reading on UPVC windows. I did not realise the seals could fail long before anything else, looking at the small window I found one corner of the seal lifted by muck jammed under it, which would definitely let water into the frame.

There was too much water for condensation, it only occurred during rain and ,so far only with these specific windows. Pointing the lintel the first time it happened seemed to stop the ingress, for a while at least. What and where are 'weep vents' ?

Last winter I had an incidence of water coming through a UPVC window frame by actually filling the frame then dripping onto the interior ledge. This window is on a gable end, upstairs, the house is stonebuilt, 1921, and there is a stone lintel above the window. Re-pointing the top of the lintel...

My cordless certainly is not man enough for whatever the almost black,rock hard stuff is that lies beneath the plaster here,nor the stone on the outside. My Makita SDS is plastic bodied,my question was hypothetical,something that one of these new DIY enthusiasts might have done in the 60s after...

But then the RCD would cut the power wouldn't it ? If someone hit the live leg of a cable with their vintage metal B &D DI drill,not tripping the MCB,they would have no protection, surely .

Yes,this is something I was made aware of at the age of 10,in the 60s,when my Dad received a hefty belt off one of our new central heating radiators when something made it all live. Probably that sort of situation is why Black and Decker double insulated their metal drills back then, instead of...

yes I mean the TRV,by bridged I mean from the pipe to the rad,across the fittings that connect those things. My thinking was that the metal should make a good electrical connection,even if PTFE is used,as that only fills the gaps,if any,between the threads. This was done by a large company...

It goes from a clamp on the pipe to a little clamp on the edge of the radiator, bridging the thermostat connections. He had to cut it at some point,so why coil up 40 inches (just measured one),tie with a tie and shove it up the inside of the rad.? Times 9 of them is about 24 feet of excess...

This is just a question to satisfy my curiosity. As it is getting cooler I decided to clean dust balls from the middle of my radiators. They are,of course,earth bonded,(the rads.,not the dust balls :D)but each bonding has a couple of feet of cable, coiled and cable tied, shoved up inside the...

I lived in a bed sit in the early 70s which had the usual coin fed meter for electric,but we found a 2 pin socket, hidden behind the bed,which ran off a different circuit,probably for the LL to vac up between tenants. Of course we were soon running an electric fire off it,surprised we didn't...

This was the 60s,so I think double insulation was a new thing,were Black and Decker the first with the DI drills with their various attachments ? The iron was metal with a Bakelite handle,I doubt there was earth. There was a switched adapter so the bulb could still work with the iron on. We had...

Maybe, as lighting preceded sockets. When we moved into this house,1989,the only upstairs socket was a single on the landing,in case we had one of those new fangled vacuum cleaners I expect.

I bet that didn't last long. I recall the fabric covered twisted light cord from my childhood,and my Mum climbing on a stool to plug the iron into the light socket,why I don't know,we had three types of socket to choose from.

Well,they were s***t. It is two key elements of a castle,one is what you might do with mum when secrecy is needed,the other is wet. Didn't mean to turn this into a quiz,just not naming a crap company outright, I had to get them back to redo every single job properly,plumbing,exterior doors etc..

Thanks for the comprehensive replies, I appreciate that one should always test before touching,just had no faith in these guys after having lights flashing on when switched off,shocks off switches,a cable crushed between floorboard and joist and labelling downstairs sockets as up and vice versa...