Onoff

"The pipe that is barely under the topsoil" Like a parallel life reading daiking's threads!

25-28 turns of PTFE? Preposterous I thought, I've never put that much on all the fitting I've done put together! Erm.....Nick knows best! Did what he said and it just worked. Must remember that in future..... (Brown Sikaflex happened to be handy). Effing smart ar$ed plumb....

I dream of having "proper" plumbing..... .....a decent roof.....insulation.....level floors.....proper drainage.....landscaping.....etc I can only hope my efforts keep the masses here entertained! Seriously, though a clean slate would be great, we'll never knock down / rebuild. Madam would never go for it. The best I can hope for is that one day we can scaffold over the whole lot, re-roof, EWI etc whilst living in a mobile home on site but basically keep the same structure. Best do that Lotto! Still. it's my own fault, I should have done better at school!

Could a faulty 3 port valve have caused the problem in the OP I wonder..... Looking at the diagram above, if hot was letting by the 3 port it would have maybe been heating the water in the cylinder constantly rather than just when the cylinder stat called for it?

I was expecting "Stetson & six shooter" Hot water back on btw.

New valve fitted and off to try the shower, fingers crossed! Surprised by the minimal "throw" of the valve stem on the 3-port with the actuator removed. Guessing moves between 10 and 2 o'clock? (AND Managed to get the wife's track rod ends, drop links, front pads and exhaust sealing cone washer done beforehand too! )

Ta. So do you wind the tap in until it hits the shoulder i.e. won't turn clockwise any more or just until it "feels right"? I'm guessing tighten until it feels right AND you still have access to drill the holes. With a combination of multi tool and junior hacksaw blade I've probably gained 4mm of pipe to push in to the copper push fit elbow. Pretty it ain't! Don't think I've damaged the pipe..... A bead of silicon then a square of woodchip paper should tidy it up.

Pretty sure my red Polypipe formers set the pipes 100mm apart.

Ta. Didn't even consider the multi tool and I've got two I use for just about everything! Was envisioning trying to faff around with a hacksaw blade and not damage the pipe. Copper is wrapped in pvc tape btw. Now a numpty question. I've pre drilled the holes for the union so they're symmetrical. (I can easily fill them in with resin). I was seduced by the fact you can rotate the pipe in the push fit. Is the norm to wrap the tap thread in PTFE tape and screw into the union until tight then a bit to put vertical or use "gasgrease" (other brands are aavailable ) and tighten to the shoulder and then rotate / drilI? I HATE working around the wc. Poxy kids with bad aim!

Haven't got around to finishing the outside tap off until now. Maybe created myself a problem. How could I eff up something so simple you may say.....read on: Solid brick wall circa a foot thick. woodchip paper on the inside and really lumpy, tough render externally. Using a 1/2" hose union back plate to go through the wall, the brass thing with a length of 15mm copper pre fitted: Where I've maybe gone wrong is I've sleeved the hole in the wall with a bit of 20mm pvc conduit (my old man, a gas fitter would always bang on about sleeving pipes) and this sleeve is a tad long. The hole angle too might have been a bit steep. Hoping the push fit elbow is tolerant of that. I had to drag the missus away from playing Candy Crush to help me (the 17yr old being likewise deep in some game with the rest of his nerd herd). I went outside and held the hose union against the wall whilst she pushed the copper push fit elbow on. My worry is the pipe inside might be a tad under length going into the push fit elbow. I can't remember how much was projecting through. With hindsight I'd have had the missus go outside and hold the union whilst I pushed it on from inside. (Trouble is we don't work well together and even the simplest DIY job is one spark away from a row). Think but am not 100% sure that the fitting is a Connex Cuprofit that S'fix USED TO stock but they've now gone over to Yorkshire Tectite. No chance of removing it now. I'm not sure of the insert depth on these fittings?Pretty sure it's in past the teeth and in passed the O ring. I could maybe chip a bit of the resin/render away but the pvc sleeve length would stop me pushing the copper pipe any further into the elbow: Am I worrying too much? (The grey filled btw is Fischer resin). A case I guess of put the tap on, then the water on and see if it holds!

I wouldn't call an Aston, Bentley & a Lambo crap.....

Sounds like D buffering off the back of a lorry is more what you need!

I just think it's going to look dated. A nice chrome or gun metal is what I'd like! She'll be forever bleaching it to keep it white.

Can't convince my missus NOT to have white PVC tile trim!

Read elsewhere the CORGI ones are a bit crap. Not sure ref the valve stem.

New actuator ordered as per original. With hindsight probably false economy, I should have ordered / replaced the whole thing. I wonder if a "stiff" valve was what killed the actuator?

Wonder if this would fit? http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p28639?table=no

Deffo the valve actuator assembly! A Tower VAL328MP. This fell out when I took it off: Doesn't look like the 2-way actuator would work, wires different etc. Just for now I've cranked the valve over to get it running through the coil to get a tank of hot water (no immersion).

Effing typical! Take a few days off with a bit of a plan and it all goes t!ts up as something else crops up! So changed a ball joint on the car earlier, tick one job off went for a shower.....lukewarm for some reason. After a bit of investigating in the loft I don't know whether its just the 3-way valve or cylinder that's at fault. This is the hot water cylinder. +18 years old I do know. Hot feed in from the left is too hot to touch for long. Hot out at the top (and off via the Surrey flange / gate valve to the shower pump) is lukewarm / mildly hot at best even if I run the kitchen/bathroom or cloak tap for a while. This is the 28mm 3-way that feeds the cylinder coil and the x2 22mm 2-ways for the upstairs and downstairs CH circuits (I added these two 2-ways as when we bought the place there was no upstairs heating just a single pipe system downstairs). The thing is the auto/manual lever atop the 3-way is "floppy" there's no "resistance" at all when you move it back and forth like with the 2-ways - i.e move lever to auto and you hear it "whine" then let go and it drives back to manual. The 3-way's lever is loose and floppy. I do appear to have up there (no memory why) a spare 22mm 2-way valve that is the same brand as the 3-way (Tower) so I reckon a transplant of the guts might be in order. The word "Syncron" rings a bell with all this? Any suggestions gratefully received! Off to the loft now. I'll have to put that beer off until later I reckon! Maybe I won't be doing the missus's track rod ends and drop links tomorrow! EDIT: BROKEN MECHANICAL BITS IN THE 3-WAY.....

I know that when I boarded my bathroom ceiling (where the new joists were pretty much bang on level), I attempted to use "proper" double sided membrane tape. It was so thick it threw the ceiling boards out where the VCL joined so I gave up and am relying on silver tape and good old mechanical compression! The tape I used was from TP. Took the far boards down in the picture and got rid of the (black) tape.

They had dropped at least one of the tools from £24.99 to £19.99 I noticed.

In Lidl tonight (for bottled craft ale). Noticed their air tool range doesn't appear to be shifting. Compressors £79.99 plus loads of air tools still. Been there well over a week. Are they crap or something? Parkside brand btw. The multitool I have is a cracking bit of kit.

Cheers. All excellent info. If I'd have known what I do know I'd have made provision to drop the soil internally and out under the foundations. Hindsight eh! Tbh if ever I get around to it I'd sand blast all the paint off the (bulletproof) render and re-render it flat. Drives me nuts the present varying finish.

Gay Best Friend? Got a link? Yes I really should get back onto the bathroom I suppose!

In the words of Ms Minogue "I should be so lucky!". The elevation in the photo has one solid brick wall nom 300mm thick then the bathroom wall which is a later added cavity wall.....that's a mix of brick and breeze. Other elevations are solid brick then 9" block. Even the external render is different. The only thing consistent is the paint colour on the wall.