EADD Plumbing and DIY Thread v. Screwing Some Old Boiler Up Against the Wall

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Yes!! I deffo want that T-shirt

 

[BecomingJulie]

Looking good in the loft, Felix!

When I boarded out my loft, with the help of my "mate" I've mentioned before who still calls me Simon (mind, so did I, then .....) we used purpose-made T&G loft flooring boards (unfaced chipboard), for want of any scrap wood to recycle. I also got an electric table saw, which we used in the corridor at first until we had laid enough boards to stand it on. The job went much quicker without having to run up and down the ladder to cut each end piece to size.

 

[felix]

Cheers!

Loft project is on hold while I wait for the acquisition of more materials. Yesterday, on the way home from a shopping trip, I finally decided to snaffle a big sheet of OSB that's been lying above the nearby river. It's currently in the downstairs hall drying out. There's also a couple of pallets in the same area I've got my eye on.

Today I'm having a cunt of a job refitting a bedroom door handle. The door is a crappy cardboard thin piece of shit, and the fucked-up holes for the handles aren't quite matching up. I've just bought some M5 x 70 countersunk machine screws to finally clamp the bastard handles together properly (not pretty but effective), but I've made life difficult for myself by choosing M5. If I'd chosen M4 the job would be done by now. I need to ream out the fecking holes in the door and the handles so I can get it all to match up perfectly. Having a break before I deploy the drill and monster things into place perfectly. :D

 

[Shambles]

Aha. Just the thread I was looking for

Am wondering if some of you wrench-wrangling types may be able to sate my curiosity regarding a curious incident wot occurred at Chez Sham t'other night. It was howling a gale and pelting rain outside (which may or may not be relevant) when I heard a loud gurgling sound emanating from my bathroom. This gurgling went on for long enough for me to want to go investigate but - naturally - just as I got to the bathroom door the gurgling stopped and there was nothing to be seen in bathroom. Returned to liviing room and a few minutes later gurgling started up again so this time I scuttled off sharpish and caught it in full gurgle.

Both sink and bath plugholes were definitely gurgling but what was really odd was the toilet bowl. It too was gurgling but in this case you could clearly see bubbles... bubbling up from beyond the u-bend. Have never seen the like before and just as I turned to head back to living room there was a one last long, loud gurgley-belchey sound and the stream of small transparent bubbles was suddenly replaced by what looked a lot like bubble bath foam. Yes, I did sniff it... smelled of nothing of note. Nothing sewary certainly, but also nothing soapy or anything like that either.

Any idea what was afoot, me plumbchums?

 

[Jackal]

Pennywise trying to steal your sanity and make you his minion?

 

[BecomingJulie]

Almost certainly surface water entering the foul water sewer (if they're even distinguished in your area), and pushing more air in front of itself than could escape via any vent pipes between it and you.

Vacuum eliminator valves only do half the job of a sewer vent pipe. They let air in when there isn't enough, but they don't let it out when there is too much .....

 

[koneko]

BL is a wondrous thing, when you can come into a thread and actually SEE what all that noise is about in your own home Pics and everything :D

The last time I went up that loft I came down via kicking the ladder over and falling causing some nice bruising, pain and a script of cocos from my GP 8(......silver clouds, linings n' all that. Ok, mxe was involved 8)

It was me who pulled the door handle away this time, though I blame my manchildren who used to cave in those rooms - they never were delicate lads. Oddly we have some beautiful hardwood glassed doors elsewhere, its just these bedroom ones that seem to be shite. Trend of their time at the build.

Thanks Julie - we must get back to you on the plumbing and how are you on plaster cornice?

*puts ear plugs back in*

 

[Shambles]

Pennywise trying to steal your sanity and make you his minion?

Hmm... certainly possible but I think they float rather than foam. Both bubblish but not really the same thing... although the foam was floating on the water so remains a distinct possibility

Almost certainly surface water entering the foul water sewer (if they're even distinguished in your area), and pushing more air in front of itself than could escape via any vent pipes between it and you.

That sounds entirely reasonable but is there any reason why it would produce so much foam? Really was like bubble bath foam - fairly thick froth with rather small and very uniform bubbles. Also lasted for several hours and took a few piddle 'n' flushes before it was gone. I wouldn't have thought plain water could maintain a foam for so long.

Flash of inspiration: Just occurred to me that my upstairs neighbour appeared to be bathing around this time and this froth appeared shortly after the sound of her bath emptying. Maybe the unusually large volume of rain water happened to bump into the remains of neighbour's bathwater and it looked like bubble bath cos it actually was - feasible?

 

[felix]

Happy to report that my spare bedroom door handles are now bolted together for eternity. Nobody's gonna pull them off again!

For some reason, the fucking latch plate was fitted upside down too. 8) Now we can close that door properly at last, like you can do in a normal house.

Can't believe how long that took.

 

[BecomingJulie]

Totally feasible.

I live in a very hard water area. One time on holiday in Cornwall (soft water) I used far, far too much washing up liquid while washing up in the facility block; and the foam bubbled up out of a drainage grid on the other side of the camp site. It scared a bunch of kids, who thought it was a sea monster!

 

[felix]

Hey Jules: how about this DIY Deus Ex Machina? :D

Re. the loft project. After a chance encounter with one of my lovely neighbours this evening, I have been given a metric shitload of Canadian hardwood tongue & grooved floorboards for free.

He was given it by a friend of his who'd gutted out a house. Neighbour had planned on using it to make a shed at his allotment, but has changed his mind and is now going to buy other stuff instead. Hence, I can have all this hardwood to do as I wish.

I'm gonna have to rethink and maybe re-do what I've done so far, cos I now have an abundance of exquisite timber at my disposal for the continuance of the loft project, as soon as I'm free of this man-flu.

Life is good. :D

 

[JimmyW]

No idea what could be causing that shambles....

Ive just bought a flat and done it up to a pretty tidy standard.... Spent an absolute fortune on the bathroom and kitchen cos MrsJimmyW wanted the most expensive everything....

Anyway the house (downstairs flat) backs onto some woodland and I've been having a problem with finding woodlice in the bathroom.... This really freaks out the missus as shes a clean freak...I've tried to tell her that they're harmless and don't spread disease but after spending £5k on a bathroom you don't expect to be sharing it with the local wildlife.

I've read a bit on woodlice and they are obviously coming up through damp wood somewhere and there are wood fixtures around the skirtingboard area...I've plugged every gap with silicone and repainted everything with a thick gloss...I'm sure I've sealed all possible gaps in the woodwork at the lower end of the garden facing wall but I'm STILL finding the little Bastards in the bathroom..... Any tips.

 

[felix]

Some horrible, nasty, chemicals of some sort?

No experience with woodlice, so I dunno. In our last house we had a nightmare with fucking slugs invading the place all the time, so I know what it's like. Spent a year trying to seal the house up with sealant, metal gratings, and slug-genocide chemicals, and the little slimy cunts still kept invading and crawling all over the cat food and living room carpet. Thank fuck we live in a second floor flat now. :D

 

[JimmyW]

I've looked into that mate but the only chemicals you can buy kill them after they've walked through it (by which time it's too late as they're already in the house). Apparently they die of dehydration really quickly once inside and many of the ones I find are dead...I've been into the garden and stripped back the plants, grass and trees from near the house but I'm thinking I'll have to rip up all the wood fom the floor and start again

 

[BecomingJulie]

Nice find, Felix!

As the owner of a wood burning stove, I have discovered not only how many of my friends are closet pyromaniacs, but also just how much wood is available for the effort of transporting it. Some of it too good to burn .....

 

[felix]

Re. the loft project. After a chance encounter with one of my lovely neighbours this evening, I have been given a metric shitload of Canadian hardwood tongue & grooved floorboards for free.

Update # 2323

It's not "Canadian hardwood" or "oak"; it's fucking mahogany. And there's about 30 square metres of the stuff.

I'm beginning to think I've bit off more than I can chew. There's so much of it. I need to learn how to put down floorboards in the proper manner. I'll probably need to rip up what I've done so far, and use this stuff instead. Fucking hell. :D

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Tell ya what, give us a tenner and I'll take it off yer hands for ya. I'll even let you off the tenner if you deliver....

 

[BigG]

Mahogany costs a fucking fortune....

 

[felix]

Tell ya what, give us a tenner and I'll take it off yer hands for ya. I'll even let you off the tenner if you deliver....

That's really kind of you, but I think I'll just hold onto it.

This is just some of it. A bit battered and unsympathetically taken up, but good enough for the loft:

Look at the density:

It's like fucking metal. \m/

 

[felix]

Just invested in this lovely two-pack of JCB crowbars from B & Q. Fuck knows how I've managed without crowbars so far.