Search results

Here is a question, what do you do if the water mains coming into the house is plastic, goes under the living room floor before emerging in the kitchen where it is then turned into copper? Clearly there is no point in bonding it where it enters the property as it's plastic and it travels...

Depends on whether the oven needs to be fused at 16A in the first instance. In the second instance unless you have 4mm² flex already hanging about it will probably work out about the same as a 16A MCB. In the third instance it might not be that easy to replace the flex on the oven as 4mm² flex...

You either need to change the MCB in the consumer unit for a 16A one, or replace the cable on the cooker for something able to take 32A. Personally I would change the breaker in the consumer unit for a 16A one. That should only cost ~£5 for a replacement MCB. However unless you are confident...

I guessed you meant that, but I figure a test triggered at a socket is a better. However I don't see that selling my separates and getting some second hand calibrated unit is a good idea. I am not selling my multimeter period, it would be more sensible to get that calibrated again but even...

Nope it was Ashley, who have I believe since been taken over by Hager. However I replaced them with MK which has given the house a more uniform appearance.

Sure 38 years is good for a service life, I guess the issue is given they don't last forever and given they can fail rather spectacularly and without any apparent issue right up till the point of failure, and that most home owners will have no idea how old a socket is what is the right way to...

I do but what difference would an EICR make? The insulation resistance test passed, the other side of the socket was fine, there where no loose cables in the socket. Right up till the point when it went bang it worked just fine. Even dismantling some of the removed sockets of the same type that...

After an incident at my mothers where a ~38 year old socket went bang and issued smoke and flames after being switched on, I was wondering what sort of life span one could reasonably expect from a socket or light switch? The issue seems to have been the switch in the socket itself, hard to...

Yeah, reading comprehension fail there, and I realized shortly afterwards. However there is in there another option that gets rid of the need to terminate SWA in the plastic CU which is to use BS 8436 flex from the consumer unit to the outside sockets. The viability of which would depend on how...

The other factor is dealing with the 17th edition requirement for the cable to be RCD protected, or buried 50mm deep, or in earthed metal conduit or using cable to BS 8436. My understanding is that that the RCD only protects for up stream faults, so an RCD in the socket outlet is no good for...

Hum, reading comprehension fail. If he had drilled out a nice clean 150mm core using the method I suggested then it would not have been a problem. However he chiseled it out using an SDS drill broke bricks etc. and now has insufficient space to drill holes for fixing. To the OP fill the...

Math's fail. A 150mm hole is 75mm radius, a 160mm grill to the corner is 113mm. Specifically it is a right angle triangle of sides 80mm, so the hypotenuse is by Pythagoras sqrt(2*80*80). That is 38mm in which to fit your securing screw not 5mm and should be perfectly possible. That said if...

Rubbish, I have just checked and a Manrose wall vent for 125mm spigot has a 160mm grill, which by my calculations is larger than the 150mm size of the core that I suggested drilling. So just drill the 150mm hole, fit the pipe through, seal it with what ever takes your fancy and fit a an...

Getting a 125mm diameter pipe down a 127mm core drilled hole is not going to be easy, if at all possible, it is a 1mm tolerance around the pipe. I you can find one a 140mm diameter core drill might be a better choice. However if the vent cowl you have for a 125mm pipe does not cover a 150mm...

Hum, I would core drill it out. The problem is the existing hole, so get a sheet of thick sheet material and using a hole cutter cut a 150mm hole in it. Fix this securely to the wall and then use it as a guide to get you started with the 150mm core drill. If you do this from both sides you won't...

The OP wanted to do "plug" a flue. The suggested method does have some issues as using plain concrete will add several tonnes to the building structure which it may not be able to take. I suggested another option of using foam which adds minimal mass and would not have these problems. You...

I was trying to provide rational explanations as to why the OP might want to do this. As such noise in the chimney is one, and I was explicitly thinking of wind generated noise. It won't eliminate all the wind generated noise in the chimney. To do so would indeed contravene the known laws of...

Wind noise can only be eliminated by removing the chimney or blocking it completely. Any suggestion otherwise contravenes the known laws of physics. If the chimney is in a bedroom this is to me a very good reason for wanting to fill it completely. A good nights sleep is worth a lot and if the OP...

I would be concerned about the extra weight all that concrete would have on the building. Are the foundations up to taking all that extra weight. My back of the envelope calculations suggest that it would be in the order of four to five tonnes of concrete. An idea I have had to "fill up" an...

My method is to treat it like a worktop and use a router with a fresh sharp blade. A bit of melamine faced chipboard will give you a straight edge when clamped to the panel. Use a scrap piece of wood to work out the offset from the router bit to the straight edge of the router's base plate.