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  1. O

    yale type night latch is frozen.

    Got a phone call from my mum. She got home, went to unlock the front door. The key would not turn in the cylinder. She had to ring the doorbell. My stepfather was unable to open the night latch from inside. Mum once a similar problem years ago. When I was working on the front door, she...
  2. O

    led fluorescent tubes

    Hi all. The landlord of my local had an old skool fluorescent tube that stopped working. He replaced the starter motor (using several that are known to work). The local store only sells LED equivalents. Is there a LED equivalent that can replace the starter motor?
  3. O

    Heating but no DHW

    Hi all. My mother has heating but no domestic hot water- actually, the DHW water is lukewarm. My limited experience is, erm, limited to combi boilers. I suspect that the diverter motor is stuck. She will phone the plumber tomorrow. In the meantime, can the little lever be slid over to allow...
  4. O

    Who needs supports?

    There is a 20ish story new build under construction near where I am current living. I noticed that someone decided to pull backwards one of the thinner concrete supports. Why would that happen? Just wondering...
  5. O

    Nitromors paint stripper- why bother?

    Just spent £12 for a tiny (375ml) can of Nitromors. The instructions say that the paint will start to bubble after 5 to 10 minutes. 4 coats of the stuff and absolutely no bubbling after 30 minutes. A complete waste of time and money. I had burnt away most of the paint and wanted to remove traces...
  6. O

    PCNs issued by the wrong council.

    The bar manager in my local has just mentioned that he was issued a parking ticket. He lives near Covent Garden. He pays Camden council for a parking permit. The road that he parked on is, one side Camden, one side Westminster. He was parked on the Camden side. The parking attendant from...
  7. O

    Hardie backer as fire proofing

    I was chatting to a friend today... He wants to move his gas fired pizza oven next to his shiplap shed. He asked if Hardi board screwed to the external face of the shed would suffice. I told him that I don't know if it is fire rated and suitable for exterior use, and that I would defer to...
  8. O

    cannot ping router gateway

    Really odd. The wifi in my local is playing up. IPCONFIG/ALL shows a gateway address of 192.168.1.1 Even after a reboot, once internet access is restored, I cannot ping the gateway. I can however ping 8.8.8.8 I think the router is a Vigor. How can it be that the router is declining pings to...
  9. O

    Flying ant day part II

    As a decorator, I hate flying ant day when working outdoors. They stick to the gloss and leave their legs behind. Over the years I normally find that it takes place over one day (in any given area). The exception being when the winged ants come out and the sun disappears. They seem to need the...
  10. O

    Reciprocating saws with dust extraction

    At some point I "need" to buy a reciprocating saw. The other day, whilst engaging in tool porn, I noticed that the new Festool reciprocating saw has a dust extraction attachment. https://www.festool.co.uk/products/cordless-products/cordless-reciprocating-saw/576947---rsc-18-eb-basic#Overview...
  11. O

    Leaking steam stripper

    I purchased my steam stripper about 18 years ago (Earlex Steam Master). I seldom use it these days. I loaned it to a friend a while ago and he mentioned that it has a slight leak. If I identify the location of the leak on the tank, will something like Millput putty work? It says it is good up to...
  12. O

    Amazon prices

    A year and a half ago, I was browsing through the Amazon "warehouse" (now known as "resale") section and found some stoopidly cheap abrasives for one of my Festool sanders. It was £10.60 for a box of 100, 7" disks. Unfortunately, only one was available. It should have been about £60-70. I...
  13. O

    Push down taps sticking

    It was cold on the scaffolding this morning. I left early and went to my local. Being cold makes me thirsty... anywho, I noticed that that push down hot water tap (in my local) would not close. I took the upper assembly off and noticed that the lowest washer had, slightly pulled upwards on one...
  14. O

    Where is the external stopcock?

    Hi all, I am currently working for a family friend. She mentioned that she had received a letter a few months ago saying that she was being moved on to a meter soon. That piqued my interest. I went out to the front of the property. I could not see anything in the pavement other than a cover for...
  15. O

    Thanks Google- you scumbags

    Earlier this week, my mum decided to sort out the road tax for my stepfather's car. She typed in the correct URL into the search box in her iPad's Chrome browser (the URL in the letter from the DVLA - it was verbatim). Inadvertently, she clicked on the first result. She hadn't noticed that...
  16. O

    Posting threads and having to refresh

    Am gonna type this quickly If I don't the site will ask me to refresh the page- and I will lose my post. Only noticed today
  17. O

    Bathroom locks that don't have second bolt

    Sorry, the title is vague. I am working for a family friend. She wants me to replace the existing door handles. The bathroom and separate WC have regular tubular latches. The thumb turn simply prevents the handle from being pushed down, rather than projecting a bolt into the frame. What are...
  18. O

    123-reg

    Ok, my bad... I accidentally allowed my primary (email) domain name for my email account to expire. I rang 123-reg,co.uk once I had noticed. They now want me to pay £95 to their parent company (Godaddy) to act as a go between who will "negotiate" a price with the company who purchased bulk...
  19. O

    Fitting basin wastes- weeping

    I recently had to replace a (slotted) click clack basin waste. It had a plastic back nut and thin rubber washer for the underside. Previously, each I have purchased, had an additional conical foam washer to prevent the water from running down the thread. I bedded down the upper chrome part...
  20. O

    Snide yale locks

    My brother is selling a rental property. He purchased new "front" door. In reality it the inner door in the porch. To keep costs down, I ordered a cheap night latch from tool station and a Yale branded mortice lock. I have only ever fitted a hand full of night latches over the years. Each of...
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