Onoff

Plasterboard screws are cheap, go nuts... Then spoil it all with crap tiling! ?

You could go SPD and all double pole RCBOs... SBS-Price-List-2021.pdf

How about a good squidge of "sticks like" in the gap, before the beading goes on?

I wonder what percentage trades put on for such pocsterisms?

Does "wood preserver" break down the resins/glue that bonds OSB together? I've used No Nonsense wood treatment on OSB3 and it seems to have thickened and "grown" on the small wendy house roof that I've not yet felted but has a tarp over it.

I hope these mice realise I've my own stuff to get on with! ?

Hand fettled some cranked, 1mm copper sheet for the battery connectors. Tight fit so tapped them in with a soft punch. Vice marks...should have used soft jaws I know! They need to be drilled to accept the wires: Unfortunately the tight fit/my hammering caused the print to start to split and delaminate. The slots were only 1mm wide as is the copper. Now then, anyone care to spot the deliberate mistake? Not insurmountable, I could just split the tool to get the adapter in. I have to any way to solder the wires on. Looks like a redesign is on the cards!

Update...call from the tenant just after 10pm, could hear noise from behind the washing machine. Went over and pulled the kickboard off. Mouse ran out and into the airing cupboard under the door. Got everything out of there and after a bit of a chase THINK it went out the open back door. At least it can't get back in the air brick. Fingers crossed a local moggy gets it! ? Pulled the WM out and found a hole where it had chewed through the expanding foam applied months ago for draught proofing. It appears it was trapped in the house and trying to get back under the floor as all the debris was top side. (I didn't pull the WM yesterday as it was full of baby clothes and didn't want to disrupt them too much). Packed the latest hole tonight with bunched up fine stand copper wire (all I had) and gun foamed in place. If the issue reoccurs I'm going to cut and fit lengths of aluminium angle iron where the floor boards meet the wall (and screw it down to the floorboards). Tenant reckons nextdoor and nextdoor but one have them too. He was very apologetic for calling so late. Whatever it takes, who needs sleep? ?

Never had issues really with PLA warping. Pretty sure it's due to the special qualities of the Anycubic Ultrabase that's "dimpled" for want of a better word and coated with something magic... ABS...different story! Still haven't cracked that. Reluctant to use ABS slurry as it needs scraping off periodically and I don't want to damage the Ultrabase! Got some Kapton tape in desperation but again don't really want to stick it to the Ultrabase. Also bought a hugely expensive piece of chamfered and cut to size, borosilicate glass & clips to go atop the Ultrabase. Plan is to coat that with ABS slurry or the (again) magic tin of "hairspray esque" stuff I bought. A roll of PETG sitting here, untried as yet.

Tbh it's given me the push to do my own air bricks! I shall have to have a count up.

Ah yes, Rat Week! Fly Week will follow soon enough! ?

Update. I popped over to the tenant today and meshed over the 3 air bricks temporarily with some galv mesh held in place with dobs of CT1. Stainless mesh will replace it later on. One bit of good news the tenants report they came downstairs this morning to no signs of mice overnight. I'd like to think I maybe did find the hole(s). Time will tell.

Garden's coming on! ?

I'm assuming those old fashioned air bricks make it easy for them to get in? The holes must be 1/2" square.

Received an email from a tenant about mice. Victorian terrace, 2 up, 2 down with a rear ground floor extension. Seems in the cold weather they've moved in! Other residents along the road are reporting similar. The pest control guy reckons the source is an empty property next to mine. I've contacted the landlord and he's said he'll go round and put fresh bait down though as there's no food on the premises they can't be coming from there... The two main rooms downstairs of my let are suspended wooden floors. Basically a lounge at the front with newly fitted carpet then the kitchen diner at the back, the two rooms separated by the stairs with a cupboard underneath. The kitchen/diner has quite a decent spec laminate floor but it appears the last owner's kitchen fitter put the units up on the old floor boards then only did the laminate up to the cupboards not under. Consequently there's gaps at the edge: I previously went round before letting, getting behind all the cupboards hoovering any fluff, rubbish etc and intumescent foam filling any gaps between board edges and wall. (I appreciate they can eventually chew through foam). Went over yesterday and with an endoscope and by pulling a couple of kickboards off, found a couple of holes under the units I'd missed before. Stuffed with wire wool and intumescent foamed over. Did similar where the mains electric comes up through the floorboards under the stairs. Not immediately obvious but gaps around that "bigger than a pencil". I'm also thinking the air bricks might be an ingress point? I've ordered some 5mm stainless mesh I'll cut to size and CT1 in place. Meanwhile I'll pop back and fit some galv mesh of similar size temporarily. One like this a couple of metres off the deck and two similar at low level. Wait and see now if it makes any difference. I'm quite happy to get a pest controller in but guessing he'll only he putting poison down and hoping for repeat business rather than stopping them getting in!

Finished, it'll do. Only 10% infill which is down to my boy not me. Seems very lightweight. Took about 6 hours.  These "ragged" areas were supported. The quality is to my mind a bit carp. Tbh you don't see these when the adapter is fitted but it still bugs me! Be interested to see prints of other people's "supported" faces.  I'll make the copper strip inserts tomorrow hopefully.

I've a similar drive area I need to do something with. Currently age old compacted scalpings and wood fire ash (don't talk to me about punctures from nails in the ash thanks to the previous owners). You could get the basic block paving for that area for around £500. 30p each, £12.50/m2: https://www.selcobw.com/catalogsearch/results?query=Pavedrive+paver To that you need to add your edging and sand and cement etc to lay them on. This is the best place for best practice, for anything "paving": https://www.pavingexpert.com/ A word of caution though! Before you get too excited you will possibly need to consider the drainage off of that area and might even need planning permission. It's all to do with where the water runs off. You could be looking at drainage channels & a digger for a soakaway to be put in. Then that these miss your mains/gas/electric services underground. (I think btw the previous link are permeable concrete pavers). Is it just your drive you want to do or the front garden too? https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/45/paving_your_front_garden

Maybe if they're in a jam...

Grafted the infill piece to the Makita battery adapter design I've already done. A couple of pretty renderings: Now printing in clay red PLA. Sods Law the new reel was wider than the holder on the 3D printer so I just made a new one out of a st/st door kick plate and some 20mm pvc conduit & fittings plus a bit of 32mm waste and a bfo stainless washer: I'll update in about 8 hours when it's printed!

Some interesting comments here reference the accuracy of Land Registry maps etc. https://www.kemptoncarr.co.uk/news-and-knowledge/considerations-for-determining-boundary-lines/ There's been a heated argument locally over a fence line just recently that resulted in the Police attending. I don't know the full details but complicated by the fence line having been maybe put in to divert round some then small trees years ago, so following a curve rather that a straight line as on the LR maps, 3' into the neighbour's at it's worst. (We're talking 5 acre plots here where front and rear boundary widths don't match etc). It was resolved by a 3rd party (neighbour) saying "Look, unless you want get a solicitor and surveyor in at X cost you'd be best sorting and agreeing this between you". The result is a new, straight fence. Easier to install and looks better from both sides.

American Express is responsible for my Pamela Stephenson fetish. Griff Rys Jones' voiceover still cracks me up:

There's a recent thread on here about that...

Whoever installed the system and didn't put in a mag filter or certainly inhibitor then they are not good guys! 2004, the original install? Boiler replaced in 2018, I'd have expected a flush and the suggestion of fitting a filter then. I'm no expert (as many on here will attest to btw). To me yours is a "modern" system. Having no inhibitor and a dirty system just increases your fuel bills and raises the chance of an issue / pricey call out. The time to add the filter is when it's drained down. Thereafter it is a doddle to periodically remove the filter and wash away debris the magnet has collected and again a doddle to add inhibitor via the dosing pot. This is atypical of a mag filter on the return leg to the boiler. At it's simplest: With the boiler pump off, the black valve either side isolates it. Once you've done that you let the air out on top via a bleed screw (screwdriver). You then unscrew the long magnet that goes down inside the pot. All the crud that was held in the pot by the magnet now floats loose inside the pot. Hold a jug underneath and unscrew the plug underneath (Allen key). The cruddy water falls into the jug. You can unscrew the lid completely to withdraw a gauze screen that catches any big lumps. At the same time you can add inhibitor.....don't forget to put the plug back in underneath. Once done you open the isolation valves and any air comes out the bleed screw. When you see water tighten it up. Takes less time to do this than it did type! Before a flush you want a cleaner running round in there for a bit to loosen everything up. NB: The black crap that comes out will stain anything! Hands, white sinks etc.

Going on 23 years here our oil boiler. Mind you, it's like Trigger's Broom!

With help from the good folk on here I've just power flushed my system. Beforehand you add a cleaner that loosens everything up. When I then flushed the level of muck that came out was impressive. I've also now added inhibitor and a magnetic filter which you can perioidically inspect (without draining down) as the iron based crud sticks to it. End result is a more efficient, quieter system. Parts of my system are 50+ years old and have never been properly flushed or had any inhibitor in. Lots of horrible goop like this in there: I was lucky that I could borrow a flushing rig as this video shows: This then is even AFTER adding the magnetic filter. You can simply, periodically, remove this bit and wash the collected crud off. (After 50 years etc there's a lot of crud in there). Also my downstairs rads are an antiquated, "single pipe" system which are awkward to flush: