Recent content by ChrisJP

Oh I do - I live in the US west and have a house with a shingle roof. Everyone on my neighbourhood has needed these shingles replaced after around 15 years and, after strong winds, individual rows of shingles often need replacing before that. The trussed rafter roofing timbers on my house are...

No it isn't, and the OP made that completely clear in the first post, so not sure why you need to re-state it.

I've found that Bostik Flexacryl in black or grey is a good covering to paint onto discoloured lead flashing. Unlike normal paints it doesn't flake off.

US roof construction is significantly different from the UK - in particular tiles and slates are rarely used - instead roofing felt shingles are the normal roof covering. These have a typical 15 year life and routinely get replaced at this interval. The low weight of the shingles allows US roofs...

I think you'll find all central heating radiators are water filled. The options for heating the water are natural gas, heating oil and (rarely) electricity. There is no such thing as an "oil fueled" radiator, or a gas fueled one for that matter. If your oil tank was "smelly" then it probably had...

If it's not leaking, why worry about it? It's certainly not worth disturbing to "fix" it. That might well cause the joint to leak when you remake it. If it aint broke don't fix it!

You need to remove the cap so you can have a good look at where the leak is coming from. If it is from the shaft, then the gland nut can be nipped up and that MAY stop the leak. If it doesn't then you probably need a new valve. If the leak is from the valve connections to either the microbore or...

That was the point I was making. There are still houses with combined domestic HW and radiator circuits which cannot have inhibitor in them. Of course, if the radiator circuit is self contained and separate from the domestic HW circuit and has its own header tank, then it can have inhibitor. I...

I think that's missing the point. The new towel radiator is probably recommended to be used in a system with inhibitor in it, to limit corrosion. However, if the system is direct (that is: the domestic HW and radiator circuits are combined and not separate) then clearly an inhibitor can't be...

I don't follow this comment. Climate change may cause more frequent water shortages and hence outages of domestic water supplies. If that happens surely storing water in a loft mounted cold water storage cistern is going to be an advantage and not a "bad idea"?

PTFE on compression joints doesn't do anything - in fact it may make leaks more likely. The seal in a compression joint is made by compression of the olive against the pipe as the cap nut is tightened up. The threads on this have no part to play in sealing the joint.

If that's what he did, then he had no business calling himself a plumber. Cowboy would be a better description. An AAV should be OK though and its strange that its been failing, but just fit a new one - they're not expensive One point though - you say you got "sewer smells" when thew soil pipe...

This style of toilet is the usual one in the USA and Canada, but VERY rare, if not non-existent, in the UK. Since US soil pipes are normally smaller diameter than those in the UK (it allows them to conceal them within hollow studding and plasterboard walls), it would be interesting to hear how...

Yes it is - when installed as the house is constructed. But in an existing house it requires all the floors to be dug up and then relaid and most people don't want this sort of total upheaval, which will probably require them to move out of the house while it takes place.

I agree. I had a larger version of the Milano tubular radiator in my main bedroom and, although its BTU rating was adequate, it failed to provide decent heat. I've now replaced it with a Type 22 convecting radiator of similar overall dimensions and this is much better at heating the room.