Well that didn’t go as planned.

[Phil Pascoe]

I went out to pick up a beehive with a retired mining lecturer/geologist. We passed a van doing a mundic survey, and he made the observation that in many cases what was thought to be mundic deterioration was in fact nothing more than weak mortar mixes caused by the cement going home in the boot of someone's car.

 

[Peri]

Anyone got a story of a successful build?

I heard about a guy called Cheops who built a pyramid - apart from a tiny bit of subsidence it went great. Longest lasting building on the estate.

 

[Grandad455]

We were rehoused from a 1st floor flat to a bungalow, (My Best Beloved has MS) First problem, the space in the bathroom was not wide enough for her to get to the toilet, in the wheelchair, (a narrow one I had adapted for her), result, she had to have a commode in the bedroom.

No room for her to be hoisted into the bath so she had to go to a local Leonard Cheshire home for a bath. OT said we will get a wet room installed for you and a hoist.

18 months later, said wet room was installed, wonderful, toilet accessible at last. Hoist, one in the bedroom, well you get out of bed into your wheelchair and stay there for the rest of the day!

I obtained another hoist off the bay and installed that in the living room, to transfer from wheelchair to armchair.

Two years later, waste pipe in wet room blocked, reducing flow from basin to over a minute. Further investigation revealed that the cowboys that installed the wet room had allowed the waste pipe to sag when they put the concrete over the top and all the residue had built up.

No rodding eye, no access point. Had to remove the basin waste and fit a ‘upstand’ to the outlet in the drain outside and fill the system with Spirits of Salts and allow it to ‘cook’ for best part of a day, which I now have to do every 18 months or so. Also discovered that the shower waste grid was supposed to have 2 nuts and screws to stop the waste grid popping off. No, they weren’t there either.

Been waiting two years for the OT to come and sort out my Wife’s seating, as she can’t sit up straight any longer and three years for the wheelchair service to do same with wheelchair.

I had a wet room installed by my local Housing Association contractors, as I live in a 'bunglehouse' they had to install a pump. After about 7 yrs the pump stopped 'sucking':- the Housing Assoc. sent their plumber who came & looked then called electrician who checked pump function - all OK. He, 'sparky', then shone a torch down the shower drain & noticed verdigris! The contractors had only buried copper pipe in concrete!!!!!!!!! Resulting in perforated pipe & pump sucking air. End result was the fitting of an above floor level shower tray (= 4" high 'trip hazard") Another bodged job. The Housing Assoc. were under new management & not interested in my loss of my 'wet room', so I got referral to the Occupational Therapist who then arranged for an independent plumber/builder to rip out the old bodged job & install 'all new'.

 

[MikeJhn]

We have changed around the configuration of our conservatory which means I need a new power socket in the porch, there is a socket on the other side of the wall in the living room which I installed about twenty years ago, what's the betting I will hit the cable when drilling between the two, wall is 900mm flint.

 

[Ozi]

Just about to try out a new builder, need a garden wall rebuilt at one house and a kitchen fitted at another, would do the jobs myself but I have tenants in and me turning up after work for the next four or five weeks wouldn't go down to well, just hoping I've found someone who knows what he is doing... I will let you know.

 

[paulrbarnard]

Just about to try out a new builder, need a garden wall rebuilt at one house and a kitchen fitted at another, would do the jobs myself but I have tenants in and me turning up after work for the next four or five weeks wouldn't go down to well, just hoping I've found someone who knows what he is doing... I will let you know.

Good luck.

 

[Lefley]

We were rehoused from a 1st floor flat to a bungalow, (My Best Beloved has MS) First problem, the space in the bathroom was not wide enough for her to get to the toilet, in the wheelchair, (a narrow one I had adapted for her), result, she had to have a commode in the bedroom.

No room for her to be hoisted into the bath so she had to go to a local Leonard Cheshire home for a bath. OT said we will get a wet room installed for you and a hoist.

18 months later, said wet room was installed, wonderful, toilet accessible at last. Hoist, one in the bedroom, well you get out of bed into your wheelchair and stay there for the rest of the day!

I obtained another hoist off the bay and installed that in the living room, to transfer from wheelchair to armchair.

Two years later, waste pipe in wet room blocked, reducing flow from basin to over a minute. Further investigation revealed that the cowboys that installed the wet room had allowed the waste pipe to sag when they put the concrete over the top and all the residue had built up.

No rodding eye, no access point. Had to remove the basin waste and fit a ‘upstand’ to the outlet in the drain outside and fill the system with Spirits of Salts and allow it to ‘cook’ for best part of a day, which I now have to do every 18 months or so. Also discovered that the shower waste grid was supposed to have 2 nuts and screws to stop the waste grid popping off. No, they weren’t there either.

Been waiting two years for the OT to come and sort out my Wife’s seating, as she can’t sit up straight any longer and three years for the wheelchair service to do same with wheelchair.

It's really nice to have free health care. tax funded health care. But like Canada we wait in a line. As limited resources. Wife just got phone call to see a hip surgeon. Been three years wait, with a 20 year old hip replacement which has given her cobalt and chromium metal poisoning. Recalled ta boot. We could have drove across to the USA and had done for $35,000 in two weeks. But who has the disposable money. In hindsight with lost wages. As she can't work now with all the side effects and pain. Would have been cheaper to take out a loan.

 

[TRITON]

Did a couple of cellar conversions a good while back. Lots of stud partitions against the brickwork for sheeting with gyproc and double sheeted on the ceiling.
What had to be the last nail on the ceiling on the second sheet the boss put the nail right through a water pipe.
Of course we didnt realize at first but within a minute a wet stain appeared on the board and we(or he rather) had to rip down that area as quickly as we could to get tot he pipe and stop the leak.

That wasn't our only water faux pas. In what was going to be the en suite of one of the bedrooms we needed to re-route a mains water pipe. Just the simple blue stuff and there was enough of it in a loop to be able to move it to tuck it behind one of the partitions.
Took hold, moved it slightly, when the join split sending cascades of mains pressure water into our nearly finished bedroom.
Nowhere to put it, no way to stop the water and the new double glazed window had went in that day.
So to save the gyproc and flooring we chucked a lump hammer through the new glazed window and fed the pipe out through it.

It looked like the ***** plumber had glued to sections together instead of using a jointer, and left alone it might have been fine, but of course we needed to move it and just that simple action caused the two halves to come apart.
It was a fun job.

 

[okeydokey]

We have changed around the configuration of our conservatory which means I need a new power socket in the porch, there is a socket on the other side of the wall in the living room which I installed about twenty years ago, what's the betting I will hit the cable when drilling between the two, wall is 900mm flint.

Would you be able to take out socket no 1 and the metal box and drill from that side? bring your cable through the hole, install socket no 2 , reinstall no 1 and all good

 

[MikeJhn]

That is the plan, the trouble is the existing socket is on a spur wall so is sideways on to the required new socket, so it looks like power off, socket off, back box removed and the drill through, main trouble is OH has just decorated the porch so not will be very pleased with the break out, may have to neatly cut a back box into the porch wall first, did I mention that the main wall is 650mm flint.

 

[Just4Fun]

I have something fixed to a floor with brackets. The screw is missing from 1 bracket. I occasionally notice this and my initial thought is to add the missing screw. Then I remember that underneath that location is a pipe for the under-floor heating. Sooner or later I suppose I might forget that, with undesirable results. Except that reading this thread has made me paranoid so I have just cut the top off a screw and glued it in place on the bracket. Now it looks like there is a screw and I will never be tempted to shoot myself in the foot. So for me this has been a useful thread to read.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I have something fixed to a floor with brackets. The screw is missing from 1 bracket. I occasionally notice this and my initial thought is to add the missing screw. Then I remember that underneath that location is a pipe for the under-floor heating. Sooner or later I suppose I might forget that, with undesirable results. Except that reading this thread has made me paranoid so I have just cut the top off a screw and glued it in place on the bracket. Now it looks like there is a screw and I will never be tempted to shoot myself in the foot. So for me this has been a useful thread to read.

I’ve done the same trick with a glued in screw head. The radiator/towel rail in our bathroom has feet with three screws. Of course I lined them up nicely but put the single hole at the back and not the front. No way I could drill through the tile floor without taking the radiator back off so it’s fixed by the two front screws and a screw head is glued in the back ones.

 

[Valhalla]

As an apprentice I was told to clip some bell-wire up the side of a front door in a flat conversion. In those days the incoming main to a property quite often ran up the side of the door frame and I was lucky enough to be working in one of those. Well the loudness of the bang when I pierced the incoming main with the nail that was in the clip could be heard at Westminster (we were in Hammersmith!!) - the plasterer fell of his hop-up because just as the main went bang, his trowel hit the the supply to the gas meter and he thought he'd caused an explosion and I lost my eyebrows (and very luckily not my sight).

The nail pierced the incoming electrical main before the service cut-out (so unlimited current) to the property. The supply company had to dig up the street to replace the cable. It took ages for my eyebrows to grow back. Needless to say I never did it again - oh - and the plasterer survived. I have now left the electrical industry behind......

 

[okeydokey]

Maybe a 12mm drill through then you can find the centre for your back box and then neatly cut it in you can then drill out/enlarging the flint hole from both sides; Ive never tried drilling flint - don't tell me how easy it is!!

That is the plan, the trouble is the existing socket is on a spur wall so is sideways on to the required new socket, so it looks like power off, socket off, back box removed and the drill through, main trouble is OH has just decorated the porch so not will be very pleased with the break out, may have to neatly cut a back box into the porch wall first, did I mention that the main wall is 650mm flint.

 

[XTiffy]

On the electrical front as an apprentice in the RN. Working on radar, we had large conversion machinery (rather like a very large generator), which stepped up frequency and voltage. I was to carryout planned maintenance. I removed the large bakerlte fuses, one for each phase. The "Fuses" were actually strips of aluminium or somesuch material, as I lifted one away the fuse dropped off its carrier into the fuse box. Right I thought, take out long black 12 " insulated screwdriver and hook it out. Result large bang and flash, once I could see, I was holding a screwdriver now 3" long! Absolutely no idea where the rest went too.

 

[Lefley]

On the electrical front as an apprentice in the RN. Working on radar, we had large conversion machinery (rather like a very large generator), which stepped up frequency and voltage. I was to carryout planned maintenance. I removed the large bakerlte fuses, one for each phase. The "Fuses" were actually strips of aluminium or somesuch material, as I lifted one away the fuse dropped off its carrier into the fuse box. Right I thought, take out long black 12 " insulated screwdriver and hook it out. Result large bang and flash, once I could see, I was holding a screwdriver now 3" long! Absolutely no idea where the rest went too.

And that's why I never went into electrical. If you can't see it, I dont want to work with it. I friend of mine was working a truck craning concrete forms out of a trench . It was raining and his boom got close to overhead electrical lines. He had control box around waist attached by a cable to truck. Litterly blew the end of his foot off.

 

[TomGW]

Would you be able to take out socket no 1 and the metal box and drill from that side? bring your cable through the hole, install socket no 2 , reinstall no 1 and all good

Or simply remove one of the knock-outs in the back of the existing metal box and drill through that hole.

 

[MikeJhn]

Or simply remove one of the knock-outs in the back of the existing metal box and drill through that hole.

Drilling through the back knock out will just reach the other side of the spur wall not through the flint wall which is at right angle to the spur wall not into the porch.