Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

My car clock is manually changed, god only knows how though, so I never touch the clock. When I drive it later today the clock will be correct because I never put it forward for BST. It's perpetually on GMT

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

...

The fear is multi-faceted. Everything from gas leaks and water leaks, to something not shutting off and then getting "stuck" into an escalating system (pressure going up, water flow rate exploding).... so fear of what could happen if it failed to do what it intended.

Having said that, the sight of flames scares me - and the sound of it, knowing that there are flames that I can't see....

I'm a lost cause I think.

Central heating isn't something I grew up with, seeing, knowing, so it's all new-fangled ....

I probably expect that with every bath I'll go into the kitchen to find the boiler didn't shut down when I turned the tap off upstairs ... and I'd expect to find red flashing lights ... and maybe 2" of floodwater on the floor with water spraying everywhere ... and/or a horrible banging/rattling noise .... and I walk into the kitchen "expecting" any/all of those every time I go in there. Sometimes I go in just to check

lemonjelly

LydiaJ wrote: »

Yay! Lemon is back... or was back ... while I wasn't here. How exciting - I get to carry on working through the month's posts while waiting to see whether he is still around on the thread by the time I get up to date. Am hoping he is.



Awesome! Let me think... I bought in Jan 2011 and was MF by Aug 2014, so that's 3 years and 7 months - you win. :T

I didn't exactly do it in the conventional way, as long term NP are well aware, of course.

I'm about, although more a lurker than a prolific poster these days. Good to hear from you though, and I do hope all is well with you.

Us unconventionals and our bizarre house buying!

I've had the 2 toilets plastered. I then tried putting skirting boards in myself.
After trying for 2 days and damaging the plaster that was freshly done, I realised that skirting boards wasn't for me, and in future, I am likely to tile to the floor.

Have decided to wallpaper the 2 toilets, then lino the floor to try to create warmth in them.

Next job will be the radiators hopefully. Need to contact my plumber friend, but will give him a week first.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

The fear is multi-faceted. Everything from gas leaks and water leaks, to something not shutting off and then getting "stuck" into an escalating system (pressure going up, water flow rate exploding).... so fear of what could happen if it failed to do what it intended.

Having said that, the sight of flames scares me - and the sound of it, knowing that there are flames that I can't see....

I'm a lost cause I think.

Central heating isn't something I grew up with, seeing, knowing, so it's all new-fangled ....

I probably expect that with every bath I'll go into the kitchen to find the boiler didn't shut down when I turned the tap off upstairs ... and I'd expect to find red flashing lights ... and maybe 2" of floodwater on the floor with water spraying everywhere ... and/or a horrible banging/rattling noise .... and I walk into the kitchen "expecting" any/all of those every time I go in there. Sometimes I go in just to check

No need to reply, but if we cross out each individual fear as you post it, you may feel reassured.

If the boiler didn't shut down, it would carry on heating the water to the temperature set by the water temperature regulator. Other than having more hot water than you need, nothing scary will happen.

Water comes out of taps - no reason for it to come out of the boiler just because you have filled the bath.

We have had a pressure valve fault on our boiler. All that happens is a safety valve opens and releases the pressure. Apparently if the safety valve had developed a fault at the same time as the pressure valve the boiler would have shut down.

and calm.

silvercar

Have decided to wallpaper the 2 toilets, then lino the floor to try to create warmth in them.

Next job will be the radiators hopefully. Need to contact my plumber friend, but will give him a week first.

I'm sure the radiator will provide more warmth than the wallpaper!

Any reason why you've decided to wallpaper rather than tile or paint?

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

My car clock is manually changed, god only knows how though, so I never touch the clock. When I drive it later today the clock will be correct because I never put it forward for BST. It's perpetually on GMT

We have 7 months of BST each year and only 5 of GMT

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

No need to reply, but if we cross out each individual fear as you post it, you may feel reassured.

If the boiler didn't shut down, it would carry on heating the water to the temperature set by the water temperature regulator. Other than having more hot water than you need, nothing scary will happen.

Water comes out of taps - no reason for it to come out of the boiler just because you have filled the bath.

We have had a pressure valve fault on our boiler. All that happens is a safety valve opens and releases the pressure. Apparently if the safety valve had developed a fault at the same time as the pressure valve the boiler would have shut down.

and calm.

Yes. Modern boilers are designed to have loads of cut-off safety features.

One boiler I have a connection to developed a fault 6months ago, with a flashing error number coming up on the display. I looked up what the error message was in the user manual. I couldn't deal with it at the time, and so it stayed, flashing the error code for 6 months, until I could deal with it. All that happened was that there was no hot water water or central heating, which didn't actually matter.


You know, Pastures, knowledge gives you control, so it might be an idea if you were to find out from a friendly heating engineer, or even research it online, (you're good at that!) how a boiler works. Knowing what each bit is for, what the noises are, what the safety cut-offs do, would, I'm sure, help you to be in control of some of the fear at least.

This link gives very basic info which you probably know already.

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/gasboilers.html

I'll see if I can find something with a bit more detail.


Edit...This has a bit more detail, although is still a it basic......

http://www.aphc.co.uk/UNDERSTANDING%20CENTRAL%20HEATING%20SYSTEMS%20Dec13.pdf

mystic_trev

lemonjelly wrote: »

I'm about, although more a lurker than a prolific poster these days.

Another lurker here!

I trust all you NP's are well and enjoying the Autumn sunshine?

Like lemonjelly I've been busy house renovating these last six months. When I bought I thought I'd move in within a couple of months, alas it didn't happen. Stripped wallpaper and most of the walls blew. As the house needed replastering I thought I might as well get the place rewired first. As time went on I found other things needed doing, such as installing a wet room, but now the end is in sight. Downstairs carpets have been laid and I move in on Thursday. It's the first time I've ever 'gutted' a house and will certainly be the last! I've taken little pleasure in the process, but have had some brilliant Tradesman doing the work.Not one of the is on Checkatrade, but they don't need to. All of them have got work scheduled well into next year and I've certainly called in more than a few favours.

In other news I've found out that doing Probate is relatively simple and certainly not worth using a Solicitor unless the Estate is particularly complicated.

Now I'm off to see where to place the 'minor mullions' I bought at the Canterbury Cathedral auction last month.:rotfl:

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/canterbury-auction-galleries/catalogue-id-srcan10025/lot-fba46ddb-ac47-4f01-a94e-a67500a0233b

I'll still be popping in from time to time, although it's just not the same place since Gen got red carded.

Pyxis

mystic_trev wrote: »

Another lurker here!

I trust all you NP's are well and enjoying the Autumn sunshine?

Like lemonjelly I've been busy house renovating these last six months. When I bought I thought I'd move in within a couple of months, alas it didn't happen. Stripped wallpaper and most of the walls blew. As the house needed replastering I thought I might as well get the place rewired first. As time went on I found other things needed doing, such as installing a wet room, but now the end is in sight. Downstairs carpets have been laid and I move in on Thursday. It's the first time I've ever 'gutted' a house and will certainly be the last! I've taken little pleasure in the process, but have had some brilliant Tradesman doing the work.Not one of the is on Checkatrade, but they don't need to. All of them have got work scheduled well into next year and I've certainly called in more than a few favours.

In other news I've found out that doing Probate is relatively simple and certainly not worth using a Solicitor unless the Estate is particularly complicated.

Now I'm off to see where to place the 'minor mullions' I bought at the Canterbury Cathedral auction last month.:rotfl:

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/canterbury-auction-galleries/catalogue-id-srcan10025/lot-fba46ddb-ac47-4f01-a94e-a67500a0233b

I'll still be popping in from time to time, although it's just not the same place since Gen got red carded.

Oooh! I love those mullions!




I don't rate Checkatrade, ever since a tradesman told me that they didn't check any of his references, they just took his subscription!

chris_m

mystic_trev wrote: »

In other news I've found out that doing Probate is relatively simple and certainly not worth using a Solicitor unless the Estate is particularly complicated.

It certainly is simple and is clearly explained in the forms and associated documents. When I did Dad's estate the only thing for which I used a solicitor was to witness me swearing the oath.
I could have avoided that too if Winchester Probate Office hadn't had an eight week backlog for swearings, so I decided the estate could stand an extra £15 to pay a local solicitor and do it the next day.

The only real pain was HMRC, who took months to come up with the final income tax bill - gawd knows why, my own calculation which I used in the Probate application was exactly the same as theirs when they finally got around to sending it.

The one real concern I had was a timeshare they'd bought in the eighties and had been trying to sell for years, with no luck. All the Googling I did revealed all sorts of horror stories about estates being liable for service charges for years or even decades, even when the estate "pot" had been emptied completely. When I did bite the bullet and tell the company it turned out that it was only a company for tax reasons and was effectively a "holiday club" - their response was that the committee had agreed to take the timeshare back and leave us with no further liability whatsoever. Phew !!!
You can be sure, I've kept that letter very safe