Recent content by Gerry555

Indeed, not the same thing. I don't want to call out our engineer a second time only to be told that he won't chance what our builder is proposing. The call out charge is hefty and I can't speak to engineers directly (call centre, who always say something can be done...obviously not). With...

A bay window was removed in the 70s and bricked up - the new wall incorporating a smaller window. All other windows were made smaller and the gaps bricked up. The 'workmanship' is shocking (total cowboys) so they covered everything with render. There's been a serious damp problem ever since...

OK thanks, but can they be supported by a wooden board that isn't attached to the wall? (it's just there to provide stability)

Hi all, need to check the legality of something with you Gas Safe guys. We're having much of our front wall rebuilt/re-pointed. 3 gas meters are screwed to the wall via old render, which has been stripped from the rest of the building. Our builder needs the meters to be unscrewed so that he...

Both patches are near to windows. The render has failed either side of said windows. Exactly the other side of the damp patches, the render is cracked. It is retaining moisture after it rains (it's damp to the touch for the next day or two). Presumably the pointing is dodgy under the...

I know, but unfortunately the property was rendered in the 70s to cover-up the scars of some rather bizarre alterations. Also, the cost of having the render removed is astronomical, so we're stuck with it. There's no point posting pics, because there's nothing to see other than a few cracks...

We've got a couple of internal damp patches due to penetrating damp - the result of cracked, external render. We're thinking of having the render chipped away only where the problems are. The new scratch & finishing coats will be waterproof, but do you foresee any problem in the long term? Or...

Result! It seems that the boiler has dried itself out in the past 2 weeks and is now running!! The new engineer is now just giving it a service (which we needed anyway).

I got the company details via Vaillant's 'find an installer' search. Presumably, they are specialist. If not, how do I find one?? The company in question are C N Plumbing. I have been more than patient and polite with them. They didn't turn up today, made no attempt to explain why and I...

I didn't realise that they did that. Good info to know, thank you. Thanks for the replies everyone.

I'd rather not name them as I'm not sure what the legality of doing that is (slander?). At any rate, I left a disgruntled message on their answer machine earlier today and it did the trick as they just got back to me. Receptionist was hugely apologetic and has guaranteed that the parts...

What is a reasonable amount of time to wait for boiler parts? There was an accidental back-flow of water into our Vaillant Eco-tec 824 and the fan mechanism was damaged. Possibly the gas valve and electrical display too: the later appears to be fine, but the engineer said he'd order a spare...

The outlet pipe for our kitchen sink runs under the floorboards and is really long. It sags under its own weight and, despite using a sink trap, muck accumulates. It blends with limescale and forms thick, chalky bricks over time (usually every three years we get this problem). A past...

Thanks for the replies, I feared as much. Will call our engineer tomorrow. The boiler was installed last year and I totally forgot about its outlet pipe being plumbed into the sink's. The only upside is that we had to get the boiler serviced soon anyway, in order to qualify for Vaillant's...

Hi, the outlet pipe from our sink blocked and when I tried to flush it through, water traveled up our boiler's outlet pipe (plumbed into the same pipe) and started dripping out from the underside of said boiler. Things were alright for a while, but now we have no hot water. Two symbols...