I'm still alive.....just.

[spark]

Hi all,

My house purchase finally went through and I've removed most of what

was left in there and starting from scratch. It's not habitable at the

moment (hence why I've not been on here trying to tackle all the leeccy

questions) and being an electrician doesn't really come in too useful when

I'm attempting building work or plumbing etc, but I'm glad to say the only

trade I'm going to end up paying for is a plasterer and a plumber to do the

gas bits. The plumbing has taken a while, I had to move the water main

by digging down though the concrete past the damp proof membrane,

joining onto it and re-routing it below the concrete to where I wanted it. All

of the rad's are plumbed in, I've joined onto the existing hot and cold

water pipes in the house and the boiler is hung though it was a little

daunting positioning it perfectly for the flue to exit vertically through the

tiled roof. I've learned loads about plumbing just by buying all the stuff

myself and I've found it easier than I thought. Just waiting for the corgi

man to visit to run the gas pipe, fit the flue and commission all the

unvented bits and pieces. I've got to (at the request of the afore-

mentioned corgi man) run a 28mm discharge pipe for the unvented

cylinder; this seems a bit big to me (15mm outlet and 22mm leaving the

tundish supplied with the unvented kit) but then I'm not a plumber..... I've

removed the huge electric warm-air heater from a cupboard which was in

the middle of the house and knocked the wall down which formed the

cupboard for it, making the kitchen about 1sq. metre bigger. I've been left

with numerous large holes all over the place from removing all the ducts

from the warm air heating. Ended up ripping the kitchen out because it

was just not quite bearable and I'm going to fit a new one next week after

it's plastered. Had virgina creeper all over the front and back of the house

most of which has now been removed and left horrible marks behind.

Started the rewiring this week which should be done in a week or two (lots

of data, alarm, audio, TV cables etc...). I was told by the insurance

company that they could not apply discount for it having an intruder alarm

if I installed it myself ! I know that I can install my

alarm better than any staple-gun toting, skirting board-clipping, sling-it-in

alarm fitter. The second fixing has been arranged and will be done by a

NACOSS company and will be connected to a voice dialler and monitored

phone line and will have certificates to say so. This is not good enough

though apparently , it must be installed by them too. Hoping to

move in sometime early in the new year once I've got heat and electricity

and sort the rest out once I'm in; storage is really expensive and I hate

not being able to lay hands on the things I need because they're boxed up

in a locked storage unit. Have a good Christmas.


spark

 

[DavidH]

I don't think you said how big your new place is but are you future proofing in any way by flood wiring for things like all house video, audio, phone, computer connectivity etc. or even any of the home automation stuff?

 

[supersparks]

Wondered where you had got to....

AR

 

[DavidH]

Doh!

Should have used a pseudonym.

I bet you didn't like the matrix either

 

[masona]

I was told by the insurance company that they could not apply discount for it having an intruder alarm if I installed it myself ! I know

I got £3.78 discount from my insurance by having the alarm fitted by professional
See how much discount you would get to see if it worth doing it yourselves.

 

[breezer]

to behonest about it, nacoss and similar insurance approved companies are a waste of time for a domestic premises, as the discount you get is not worth it, and also once you start with a nacoss or who ever company and your insurance company know about it, you are stuck with it.

yes you can always change butthe new alarm co ma not be able to support the existing alarm so you spend more money.

may i suggest you change your insurance company and dont tell the new one about the alarm, and still put it all in your self

 

[Haggy]

Often it is not worth mentioning to your insurers that you have an alarm. The discounts are usually minimal, and if you did by chance pop round to the shops without setting the alarm and someone turned your house over then they would cut the payout by a given percentage.

 

[spark]

Insurance companies seem to vary in the discounts given for the alarm. Sun Alliance offered a 12% discount with the alarm. The NACOSS alarm company is my mates company (but he's still a staple-gun toting, skirting-board-clipping, sling-it-in alarm fitter in my book!). I may well not bother telling them about it though for the reason Haggy gave; even though I never once forgot to set it on my flat, there's always a first time and sods law says it will be the one day Mr theiving b*astard scum bag decides to pay a visit.

As for flood wiring, all I've done is wire an extra Cat 5 cable to every phone point from the loft (in addition to the conventional daisy-chain phone wiring). All of my speaker cables, sub-woofer cables etc are installed in flush 20mm conduit in the walls to every necessary point in my lounge. As for multi-room audio, you can buy a stand alone Denon mirco system for £200 these days it's just not worth all the hardware upgrade and bother of installing speaker cables to every room when you can have an adequate system in every room for much less than decent multi-room hardware. All of my cables are quite expensive anyway so going to every room would cost a small fortune; I've already gone well over budget for the time being!