THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

GreyQueen

Sometimes people offer to do work as an excuse to get around the back of the property and case the joint.

Plus there are the rogue traders. One of them offered the other year a 'roof tile cleaning service'. Apparently, this is a 'thing' according to the chancer offering the service. Dad, who used to work in the building trade in his younger days, points out that roof tiles don't need cleaning, to which fly-boy insisted they did. Needless to say, he got nowhere.

Frankly, letting some numptie clump around on your roof is a good way to get dislodged or broken tiles. A building surveyor colleague confirmed to me that roofs don't get cleaned and that they're best left alone unless/ until they cause problems.

DigforVictory, my gardening tools are on the allotment, my tool tools are under the bed. I have experimented with a baseball bat (borrowed from my pal with the juntique shop) and confirmed my opinion that they're too big for close-quarter assault and battery in my tiny bedroom. As was the sabre and the napoleonic war bayonet. Plus, you couldn't really claim having those at home was reasonable. Although, since I have no real need for a rolling pin with my cooking habits, that could also be made a point in law.:D

The rolling pin, however, is just about right for a bit of close-quarters fighting and thus rests against the headboard behind my pillow. If someone came through my only outside door, I would have a just few seconds from the start of the rumble until it got very personal, hence having the 'pin to hand.

Last year, an incident did rouse me from the Land of Nod in a hurry and I was on my feet, braced with the 'pin held in fine double-handed stylee faster than I would have believed possible - I astonished myself.:rotfl:

maryb

Oh Lordie he did offer to clean the roof tiles:eek:

GreyQueen

maryb wrote: »

Oh Lordie he did offer to clean the roof tiles:eek:

Please, report to the police asap. They need to know this kind of thing is going on. No good comes of tradesmen door-stepping householders. Decent tradesmen are booked weeks/ months ahead. Only dodgy ones are on the prowl.

Keep the burgers off the roof. They might cause some damage up there and offer to fix it for a substantial fee.

If this kind of thing happens again, maybe you'd want to pretend to be renters rather than owners. You could chuckle ruefully and say something like; I can't see my skinflint landlord stumping up for that, but you can leave your business card if you like and I'll give it to him next time I see him.

maryb

Don't worry, I had no intention of letting him through the front gate, let alone on the roof!!

Witless

GreyQueen wrote: »

Plus, you couldn't really claim having those at home was reasonable.

Whilst not advocating law breaking of any sort I'm always greatly surprised when preppers don't have a fire extinguisher (preferably CO2) to hand.

A must for anyone, especially those living in HMOs or flats (irrespective of what floor). Totally reasonable to have one in the bedroom, the kitchen, inside the front door ...

A word of caution though - they're fairly heavy (mine are 2.5kg) and quite solid; accidental discharge towards the face / eyes can have very unpleasant effects.

Just saying, like. :cool:

GreyQueen

maryb wrote: »

Don't worry, I had no intention of letting him through the front gate, let alone on the roof!!

Smart woman.

I get very cross whenever I read in the newspaper that someone has been fleeced by cowboy builders/ tarmackers/ whatever.

Heck, years ago the estate where my parents lived was even beset by cowboy carpet fitters, of all bizarre things. Literally, guys who drove around in a van with rolls of carpet and pulled up alongside folk walking on the street and offered them a nice bit of broadloam, ask me no questions, very reasonable prices, guv. I was one of the people it happened to.

Lovely peeps, always watch out for the glass of water for my poorly old mum/ pregnant g/f/ dog/ whatever. It's a classic ruse.

Sadly, three guys pretending to be from the water board robbed one of my great-aunts at her isolated cottage earlier this spring. Distraction burglary, no violence, big haul of cash from the bedroom. Lovely thing for a woman in her eighties, hey?:(

ETA; Witless, you're a bad person. In the nicest possible way.;)

I'm always pleased if our council's tenants ring to call centre to query whether a letter or a visit from X person or company pretending to be from 'the council' is authentic and tell them to always ask, better 999 false alarms than 1 bogus caller getting into someone's home.

maryb

B*rstards!

ivyleaf

We've been known to do that quite often - someone comes to the door offering a service which may or may not be genuine but in any case we don't want it. We live in a shared ownership house so we can say with perfect truth that we are tenants

Witless

GreyQueen wrote: »

ETA; Witless, you're a bad person. In the nicest possible way.;)

:eek:
Moi? Having seen the boot of [STRIKE]the war wagon[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]my Chelsea tractor [/STRIKE]my modest vehicle you honestly believe there's an ulterior motive for the strategic placement of my fire fighting equipment?

ivyleaf

GreyQueen wrote: »

Smart woman.

I get very cross whenever I read in the newspaper that someone has been fleeced by cowboy builders/ tarmackers/ whatever.

Heck, years ago the estate where my parents lived was even beset by cowboy carpet fitters, of all bizarre things. Literally, guys who drove around in a van with rolls of carpet and pulled up alongside folk walking on the street and offered them a nice bit of broadloam, ask me no questions, very reasonable prices, guv. I was one of the people it happened to.

Lovely peeps, always watch out for the glass of water for my poorly old mum/ pregnant g/f/ dog/ whatever. It's a classic ruse.

Sadly, three guys pretending to be from the water board robbed one of my great-aunts at her isolated cottage earlier this spring. Distraction burglary, no violence, big haul of cash from the bedroom. Lovely thing for a woman in her eighties, hey?:(

ETA; Witless, you're a bad person. In the nicest possible way.;)

I'm always pleased if our council's tenants ring to call centre to query whether a letter or a visit from X person or company pretending to be from 'the council' is authentic and tell them to always ask, better 999 false alarms than 1 bogus caller getting into someone's home.

The exact same thing happened to my frail elderly neighbours 2 years ago. Unfortunately we were away on holiday, or they would have rung and asked one of us to accompany the "plumber" who went upstairs