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Show us yer house and house-related meddlings

Red Cat a ridiculous amount of nails were plucked out of the stairs & fingers crossed we got them all. Stairs seem to be in good condition. In coming months the plan is to rip up carpets in 3 bedrooms & hall upstairs & all being well just painted floorboards there too.

ETA: nope not got all the nails out! Found 2 hiding under paint as I walked up the stairs.
 
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Epona said:
check your stopcock
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and for that matter, find the bloody thing if you haven't already.

one place i lived, some twat had boarded over where it was. i had to ask neighbour where the heck stopcocks were and make a modification to previous owner's bodge... (fortunately for a routine task not an emergency)
 
Puddy_Tat said:
I needed to read that twice...
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Lol, I think I had 6 lodgers in total, 5 of them female (one referred two of her friends to me so I must have been a good landlord), but not sure that either of them or indeed my male lodger would have wanted to see that particular plumbing equipment
 
Plumber is here (well, sort of, he's gone to Screwfix to buy a new tap). Dripping tap needs to be replaced - not sure why but it's old anyway so I picked one off the screwfix website and he's gone to get it. I think he charges by the hour so hope he doesn't take his time too much. The leaking ceiling isn't as bad as I thought - the bath doesn't fit to the wall well so when I take a shower (and it was a long one yesterday), water goes through the gap. Fixing it would involve taking the bath off and on so not really worth it as at some point I'll get a new bathroom put in. He recommended just being careful and perhaps taping it up as a temporary measure.

He also quoted me £4-5,000 for a complete new bathroom. It clearly hasn't been updated since the block was built in the 50s (?) 60s?
 
miss direct said:
Plumber is here (well, sort of, he's gone to Screwfix to buy a new tap). Dripping tap needs to be replaced - not sure why but it's old anyway so I picked one off the screwfix website and he's gone to get it. I think he charges by the hour so hope he doesn't take his time too much. The leaking ceiling isn't as bad as I thought - the bath doesn't fit to the wall well so when I take a shower (and it was a long one yesterday), water goes through the gap. Fixing it would involve taking the bath off and on so not really worth it as at some point I'll get a new bathroom put in. He recommended just being careful and perhaps taping it up as a temporary measure.

He also quoted me £4-5,000 for a complete new bathroom. It clearly hasn't been updated since the block was built in the 50s (?) 60s?
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Is he looking at the boiler as well?
 
I need a new kitchen tap too but I had unexpected boiler issue that cost £160 & chimney sweeped for £50 so it’s gonna drop for quite a while longer.
 
New potentially silly question.

I have no idea how to work the boiler. I've fiddled with it and just can't get it going (various friends have had a go too.) No idea if it's broken or I'm doing something wrong. Obviously need to get this sorted now it's colder. Who am I meant to call? Am I looking for a boiler service? A boiler repair? Googling isn't helping :(

Should I be signing up to some sort of plan?
 
You need a gas central heating engineer. In the past I used one as sent by my gas supplier (British Gas) was as cheap as the others.

checkatrade website gives some idea of local to you
 
I tend not to get boiler insurance plan, get a handful of cash and if its a straight repair casually ask if i can pay cash and i wont require a receipt. The chances are you will need that tradesman again and then you have a relationship that may be cheaper than monthly insurance

Discount for cash should be at least the VAT part of a bill
 
miss direct said:
New potentially silly question.

I have no idea how to work the boiler. I've fiddled with it and just can't get it going (various friends have had a go too.) No idea if it's broken or I'm doing something wrong. Obviously need to get this sorted now it's colder. Who am I meant to call? Am I looking for a boiler service? A boiler repair? Googling isn't helping :(

Should I be signing up to some sort of plan?
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Is your hot water working? I assume you have a combi so it should be near instantaneous. Is that so?
 
Boudicca said:
I did suggest earlier in the thread that you download the manual for your boiler?
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I did go on the manufacturer's website, which has videos to help with common problems, but they all relate to a much newer model than mine, with a fancy digital screen.

I'm not at home now so can't look it up again but will try when I'm back.
 
Have you sorted out the error message?

danski said:
Oh, poop. If it was just heating then it might have been a timer/ programmer/room stat issue which is a lot easier to diagnose.
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Could be a programmer problem if both heating and hot water are turned off.

Make sure the room thermostat is turned up and the programmer is set to continuous and see if it works.
 
Ah yeah, there's no error message anymore. Just a red light/dot thing.

I did fiddle with the thermostat, but it's possible that the batteries have gone. Will check once I'm back before calling anyone in.
 
miss direct said:
Ah yeah, there's no error message anymore. Just a red light/dot thing.

I did fiddle with the thermostat, but it's possible that the batteries have gone. Will check once I'm back before calling anyone in.
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You might need to press a reset button if the gas has been off for a bit. On my boiler, the red light indicates that you need to press reset.
 
Can you post a photo of the panel with the red light? Like just a shot of the controls and various lights on your boiler.

It might be something really simple like a safety shut off thing that needs you to press a button to revive the boiler.
 
miss direct said:
Ah yeah, there's no error message anymore. Just a red light/dot thing.

I did fiddle with the thermostat, but it's possible that the batteries have gone. Will check once I'm back before calling anyone in.
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Have you tried to reset the boiler? There may be a mode in between what looks like a radiator and what looks like a tap. Turn the knob to that position, wait 30-60 seconds and turn the knob back to the radiator symbol.

Or post a picture of the control panel on the thread so we can see what type of boiler it is.

You may need to search more widely than just the manufacturer's website to find the manual - try a Google search for the boiler make and model number plus manual.
 
Yes, I have tried to reset it and nothing happened. Will try all the other things mentioned when I'm back.
I have filled in something on checkatrade so will hopefully get someone booked in for tomorrow or one day this week. I've been away since August and am only back now.
 
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