paul evenden

‘The finest form of defence is attack’ clauswitz A neighbour declared total war on me over an application I submitted. I did everything right, he repeatedly lied. Then he died of a heart attack. oh dear what a pity never mind. then our architect got everything we had taken out to placate him put back in and we built out and sold on. next………

Never seen one was taught the glass cleaner thing by an old boy twenty years ago and been doing it ever since, I’ll google that tool now !

What I do (but its too late to help now) is set the bath up level and mark the top edge on the wall, then if the wall isn’t straight (and depending on the tiles at other times too) I chop the plaster off to rebate the edge of the bath into the wall. Work out the tile spacing, take the bath out and fix a batten one tile higher than the top edge of the bath then tile the wall above the back of the bath (to save standing in the bath to tile it) then fit the bath sticking it to the wall with ct1 or similar (fill the bath while its going off) Take the batten off and put in the last course of tiles, grout, leaving the gap between tiles and bath clear, when the grout is dry, silicone the gap. To silicone ,neatly fill the gap, spray it with glass cleaner and wipe it off with a wet finger (the glass cleaner stops the silicone sticking to the tiles and bath when you wipe the joint) If the walls are studwork or one solid and one studwork etc then silicone instead of grouting the vertical corner joint too as a grout line will crack. Proper tile shops (not diy sheds) will sell silicone to match their grouts. paul

Less than max now as following another posters advice yesterday I’ve turned it down a touch. Prior to that it has been on max for the last four years with no problem until we connected the underfloor system up. So far since turning it down the boiler hasn’t tripped out. The boiler has two thermostats in pockets on the side of the housing. There is no stat on either of the pipes. I’ll measure some temperatures tomorrow. paul

I have one of those valves, its about two feet from the boiler on the 22mm feed and return pipework. I think the point of it is that your single rad without trv’s probably won’t be able to flow enough water to stop overloading the pump, in our case that will be because all our radiator piping is only 10mm. Also in balancing the system the lockshield valves on the by pass rad might need to be shut down a bit making it less efficient as a by pass solution. paul

Thanks Prodave I’ve just been going through the boiler installation manual. It shows a pipe thermostat as ‘optional’ depending on installation, in the wiring diagrams. We don’t have one. I expect if we did that would fix this problem. so I shall get one the wiring is actually very simple. paul

The water tank temperature is set at 65c (the max) and I have a blending valve on the outlet to drop it to 45c and another under the sink in the loo the grandkids use dropping that tap further so that they can’t scald themselves washing their hands. There is a separate control system on the tank for the solar hot water, the boiler only heats the water if the solar hasn’t done so during the day, a programmer turns the boiler on for up to an hour at 8pm with an over ride for when we have a house full of visitors. The water tank is 300 litres. That side of it all works fine. paul

Thank you all. I need to check the temperature on the return then I think in case there is a duff sensor on the boiler. I have some temperature probes in my garage somewhere, I’ll have a look tomorrow. paul

Thanks for that Temp very helpful. The engineer always sets the temperature knob on the boiler to max when he services it. There has only been an issue since the underfloor circuit has been added, its taken off of the feed and return to the boiler before any of the radiators and from the boiler to the underfloor recirculation pump is only about three metres of 22mm pipe. What is happening is that when the recirculation pump for the underfloor circuits goes into recirculation mode and stops accepting hot water from the boiler ,because the underfloor programmer is still calling for heat via its zone valve the hot water from the boiler leaves, goes three metres to the underfloor pump then goes straight back at the same temperature and the boiler overheats and shuts off. If either of the other zone valves happen to be open then the water can go that way instead and so the boiler is ok. What perhaps I need is to wire a thermostat of some sort on the return pipe ,in the wire between the zone valve and the boiler to shut the boiler off when the underfloor pump won’t accept water from the boiler. paul

We took them out as the architect said we could just put them back later as a minor revision on the say so of the officer on site. Which is what we did. Went from a velux to a proper window on the other side too as you are allowed to overlook kitchens and bathrooms as they are not ‘habitable rooms’ apparently. (Still put the velux in as well though in case of a future attic conversion) Paul

I applied to build two flats on a corner plot that I had run as a car sales site for fifteen years. A neighbour that I had been on very friendly terms with the whole time for some reason decided he didn’t like it. First of all he told the planners the site had previously been a petrol station (it never had and a desktop historical survey proved it ) but the planners made me have a contaminated land survey ‘just in case’ £3500 Then he objected to four windows overlooking his house (the other side of the road) so we took them out of the plan. Then after they passed it he had a heart attack (with all the stress he had worked up ?) and died. I let his family use my site as parking for his funeral (I pretended that I didn’t know it had been him stirring up all the objections) My architect had a site meeting with the planners and put the windows back in and we duly built the flats and sold them. You just have to try and ignore the objectors as most of their objections have no basis in planning law. It helps to put professionals in between you and the objectors , the pros will usually know the planners anyway. (Having your main objector drop dead is obviously quite advantageous) paul

Yes I understand that I was thinking though since I recently added the underfloor heating in my new kitchen extension and two extra radiators elsewhere, that a bit more output might be needed . According to our energy performance certificate the house is just over 300 sq metres (which I doubt and intend to check) It hasn’t been really cold yet this year though but it seems to be coping fine at present. When I had the boiler fitted four years ago I went on the principle that a smaller one working hard would be more efficient than the next size up not really being pushed, its only recently that I found that the one I have is only set up on its mid power setting. paul

Thank you Prodave someone else suggested that yesterday too. I turned it down a little last night and so far it hasn’t tripped out again but as it only happens occasionally it may be to early to tell. As we have such a big system for the boiler what would the implications be of me having its output raised next time its serviced ? Is an 18/25 system boiler and is currently running at 23kw ,I believe uprating it to its full 25kw is just a nozzle change and an adjustment ? Or would that make this current issue worse ? paul

I know it locks out as to restart it I have to unscrew the plastic cap over the reset button and press it. I know the water is going through the ABV valve as I can hear it when its happening and alter the flow by adjusting the valve when its doing that. Maybe there is a thermostat on the boiler that isn’t working that should be shutting the boiler off (without it tripping out) when the hot water is coming straight back to it ? Maybe I shall phone Grant when they reopen in the new year. The underfloor heating people don’t understand what I’m telling them so their response was just to send me a load of wiring diagrams. paul

Hi all. I have an interesting issue with a fairly new underfloor heating setup in a new extension. I have a Grant oil fired system boiler running 20 radiators ,a 300 litre hot water tank (which also has solar hot water heating) and a two circuit underfloor system. There are three programmers each switching a zone valve , one for each circuit. After a bit of checking I have discovered that if the underfloor circuit mixer pump starts recirculating water and not accepting water from the boiler, if the zone valves for the other two circuits happen to be closed then the hot water goes straight back to the boiler via the ABV valve and the boiler sees it as an overheat so trips out and has to be reset. The problem occurs infrequently, the issue seems to be caused by the UFH programmer calling for heat ( as the floor is not quite up to set temperature) via the zone valve but the heated water has nowhere to go ( because the UFH mixing valve won't accept the hot water). Any thoughts please ? How can I stop the programmer calling for heat even though the room isn't up to temperature when the mixing valve shuts off the hot water feed ? If of course either of the other zone valves happen to be open then the lock out doesn't occur because the hot water has somewhere else to go. Is there a boiler fault ? Perhaps it should just detect the water coming back very hot and stop trying to heat it further ? Paul