First-time house renovation

stolt

hello everyone, had the plumber in at the wekend, mains stop !!!! moved now.... next probem, the pressure for showers has dropped, playd around with the gate valves in the airing cupboard, no joy well maybe a tad, theres a isolation valve on the cold feed into the cylinder and thats leaking from the little scew that you turn its on the open position now but thats not affecting the pressure in the showers, hopefully can get the plumber back tomorrow or at the weekend to take a look at why the pressure has dropped so much.... why always me..

typeractive

you'll get there stolty!

I had a nitemare of a day! one merchant tried charged me £70 for like to like materials to another (when I called to check the other merchant - could have gone through the roof!!) straight back to sort it out. Manager to the front desk (not as I demanded), and luckily sorted it out. I looked (and felt) silly, but there was just no way I'm letting them rob me of that money. The cheeky b1tches! Plumber was doing my head in aswell - grumpy, twisty pain in the butt! He laid pipes above the floor boards when he was last over, and I wasn't pleased - everyone has said it looks terrible (which is is ) so I asked him today to put them under the boards, to be greeted with a bit of a mood. I helped to notch the joists - took 5 mins with a little electric saw I have! Then relaid the pipes - looks LOADS better, just having them pop up out of the floor.

And then - another robbing !!!!!! on ebay - I enquired about a product on ebay yesterday that I have been looking at for a while. He has replied, confirming my questions. I looked at buying it tonight and the price has shot up £30!!! (buy it now - and has loads). The thing is the options that are bigger, aren't even this price. It's almost as if he's thought - I can make an extra buck here, for nothing! So I've asked him to lower the price back to what it was, when I enquired. I think it's fair.

So, at least your problems are kind of acceptable - technology based (to an extent), where is mine is all to do with greedy, moody, humans that want to line their pockets and do sweet "F" all for it. Makes me feel sick!

stolt

typeractive wrote: »

you'll get there stolty!

I had a nitemare of a day! one merchant tried charged me £70 for like to like materials to another (when I called to check the other merchant - could have gone through the roof!!) straight back to sort it out. Manager to the front desk (not as I demanded), and luckily sorted it out. I looked (and felt) silly, but there was just no way I'm letting them rob me of that money. The cheeky b1tches! Plumber was doing my head in aswell - grumpy, twisty pain in the butt! He laid pipes above the floor boards when he was last over, and I wasn't pleased - everyone has said it looks terrible (which is is ) so I asked him today to put them under the boards, to be greeted with a bit of a mood. I helped to notch the joists - took 5 mins with a little electric saw I have! Then relaid the pipes - looks LOADS better, just having them pop up out of the floor.

And then - another robbing !!!!!! on ebay - I enquired about a product on ebay yesterday that I have been looking at for a while. He has replied, confirming my questions. I looked at buying it tonight and the price has shot up £30!!! (buy it now - and has loads). The thing is the options that are bigger, aren't even this price. It's almost as if he's thought - I can make an extra buck here, for nothing! So I've asked him to lower the price back to what it was, when I enquired. I think it's fair.

So, at least your problems are kind of acceptable - technology based (to an extent), where is mine is all to do with greedy, moody, humans that want to line their pockets and do sweet "F" all for it. Makes me feel sick!

ha ha, yes we have all come across people like that. wel i'm here on google reading about hot water cyclinders and how they work in conjunction with the central heating system!! deep joy....

typeractive

stolt wrote: »

ha ha, yes we have all come across people like that. wel i'm here on google reading about hot water cyclinders and how they work in conjunction with the central heating system!! deep joy....

hmmm :think:.....:eek: (that face was as close to a yawn as I could find - I'm off to bed. hope this company reply and drop the price!!! fingers crossed for the morning!!)

stolt

typeractive wrote: »

hmmm :think:.....:eek: (that face was as close to a yawn as I could find - I'm off to bed. hope this company reply and drop the price!!! fingers crossed for the morning!!)

Did they drop the price, had a result, the youngest had a hospital appointment this morning, it overrun so when we came back i re roofed the kids playhouse with new felt and got the fake grass back on, plumber can round and at 4pm and cured the air lock which made the pressure drop in the shower, also changed the gate valve on the hot water cylinder and then changed another gate valve in the loft as it was stuck and only ltting a bit of water through. Plumber wouldnt take any cash off me for that, said a he did the moving the mains these things happen, if anyone needs a plumber in around essex london area i said i'd pass his name on really top bloke to deal with, spent three hours here today and no charge.


Getting itchy feet, lookng at the front gaden, driveway is part tarmac'd i want a gravel driveway, and theres my problem so ideally need to take up the tarmac, but trying to work away around it but think it will be too slippy with just gravel over tarmac....

latecomer

@TM - glad to hear TD is doing ok.
@andyb - didn't realise you were so close. Fingers crossed everything goes to plan.
@stolt - you seem to have as much luck as we do. hope your plumber comes back gets it sorted.
@typer - i'd buy somewhere else on principle. thats the sort of pathetic thing that gets my goat.

On our front, we got our carpet fitted yesterday. It looks good but when its been "tucked in" at the edges its fotced one of the skirting boards out at the top. not very happy about but I guess it means it was n't that well supported an the bottom or it shouldn't have happened.

Does anyone know what to use to seal a join in a worktop? I'm sure i've mentioned the problem we've got and I really need to stop it getting any worse. The joiners originally talked about using colorfil to finish off the minor imperfections so I was wondering wether its what I should use?

On an un-related subject, just agreed to buy a 2nd hand DSLR to take lots of pics of LLC. might even manage some of house too - although getting them on the blog is entirely another matter

stolt

latecomer wrote: »

@TM - glad to hear TD is doing ok.
@andyb - didn't realise you were so close. Fingers crossed everything goes to plan.
@stolt - you seem to have as much luck as we do. hope your plumber comes back gets it sorted.
@typer - i'd buy somewhere else on principle. thats the sort of pathetic thing that gets my goat.

On our front, we got our carpet fitted yesterday. It looks good but when its been "tucked in" at the edges its fotced one of the skirting boards out at the top. not very happy about but I guess it means it was n't that well supported an the bottom or it shouldn't have happened.

Does anyone know what to use to seal a join in a worktop? I'm sure i've mentioned the problem we've got and I really need to stop it getting any worse. The joiners originally talked about using colorfil to finish off the minor imperfections so I was wondering wether its what I should use?

On an un-related subject, just agreed to buy a 2nd hand DSLR to take lots of pics of LLC. might even manage some of house too - although getting them on the blog is entirely another matter

what DLSR did you buy ut of interest, i upgraded our camcorder at the weekend with a HD camcorder, blown away by the quality on the HD tv, i was only messing around videoing birds on the feeders in the garden but my girls were transfixed looking at how close you could see the birds, usual garden birds like robins, blackbirds, starlings but up close the markings are incrediable

andrew-b

latecomer, kitchen fitters used colorfill (a cream/brown colour) along our worktop joins though i'm not sure it's that great as some of it loosened out of a join on ours from cleaning within a few months as there is a very minor step of less than a mm between the worktops. I had one of those wax furniture sticks (curpinol one i think) that was a good colour match...rubbed it along the join to work it into it and carefully scraped off the excess. It's been fine for a few years so far. I suppose you could use colorfilll then try a clear wax on it if it does start to come out like mine did.

aliasojo

latecomer wrote: »

Does anyone know what to use to seal a join in a worktop? I'm sure i've mentioned the problem we've got and I really need to stop it getting any worse. The joiners originally talked about using colorfil to finish off the minor imperfections so I was wondering wether its what I should use?

I have one join that was filled/sealed with colorfil. Useless stuff imo, just doesn't stand up to wear and comes off eventually.

The colorfil join (which incidentally was also glued underneath) has absorbed moisture and has swelled at the edges. No way to fix that now unfortunately.

I went over another join with hard wax and it's been perfect ever since. This stuff comes in loads of colours and you can melt it together to get an even closer colour match. My worktop is a bluey/black so the kit I got had black, white, grey and dark blue sticks in it. Dead easy to use.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Konig-Furniture-Repair-Kit-Hard-Wax---Light-Wood_W0QQitemZ140329608409QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=149258248009&rvr_id=149258248009&cguid=bf3c1cf11280a0aad2142044fe8b77fd

andrew-b

stolt wrote: »

Getting itchy feet, lookng at the front gaden, driveway is part tarmac'd i want a gravel driveway, and theres my problem so ideally need to take up the tarmac, but trying to work away around it but think it will be too slippy with just gravel over tarmac....

There are all sorts of coatings these days though they are mainly used commercially. Resin-bonded aggregates may do the job over the top of the existing tarmac. Have a look here. But only go over the tarmac if it's in good condition. This is the sort of thing they use to do those different tactile type coatings on roads for bus lanes, pedestrian crossings etc i think.
Loose gravel isn't great for a driveway IMHO as some will end up lost to the road or embedded in your tyres and it's not the easiest of stuff to walk on.


Oh yeah and yesterday our car wouldn't start. Power to electrics ..but not enough to start it. Phoned club toyota..AA had a new battery in within the hour ..think it helped that i said "pregnant wife needs to pick up a prescription at doctors" (not that she made it in time as they closed early for staff training!)...£71.49 ugh