A Liverpool Facelift
You’d think it would be something like an Essex facelift, which appears in Wikipedia as a Croydon facelift. Although, I’ve never heard of it with respect to Croydon.
A Liverpool Facelift
But as the picture shows, it’s not that at all!
Liverpool University Electrical Engineering and Electronics
One of the purposes of the day was to open the refurbished foyer of the Liverpool University Electrical Engineering and Electronics building.
In some ways it surprising how well the building has fared, since I arrived in 1965, when it was almost brand-new. To me it is one of the better 1960s buuldings, but I can’t find out who designed it.
One major change outside, is that there is now a pedestrian crossing, something that fifty years ago, the University couldn’t get the council to install. In fact classically the council did a survey in the summer and concluded that it wasn’t needed.
Plumbers/Electricians One House Nil
We’ve finally got somewhere today in my battle with the killer central heating system.
The team of expert electricians and plumbers have just left and they found the following.
The pump that controlled the hot water to my showers was jamming, which explained the occasional non-hot water problems.
The room thermostats have no effect on controlling the hot water to the underfloor central heating. So if the master switch for downstairs is set to warm that part of the house, you get full flow upstairs. Hence the top floor just gets hotter and hotter.
I’ve now switched the heating off upstairs permanently and it is still holding at 23.5°C, which is a bit hot.
But at least we’ve won the first battle against Jerry.
What I can’t understand is why he didn’t fit underfloor electric central heating. We had that in the flat in the Barbican in the 1970s and it was as reliable as the finest Swiss watch.
This Heath Robinson system of pipes should never have been installed. I must say I’m tempted to rip it all out and replace it with an electric one.
The only thing against this is the running costs. On the other hand the house is so well insulated, that fixing the current faults in the system will probably be enough to make the house comfortable.
A Building Firm With Foundations
I thought this was an article from the BBC’s web site, that needed reposting.
R Durtnell and Sons are now in the hands of the 13th generation of the family.
To contrast, the builder who supposedly built my house is unnamed and untraceable.
Removing The Old Bathroom
It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
But some of the wood was a bit rotten and probably was causing a smell.
This House Has Form
I’ve said that this house is trying to kill me, by boiling me up. Look what the builders found in the back of a cupboard in the bathroom.
This House Has Form
So I wasn’t its first victim.
My House Is Trying To Kill Me!
It’s cold here and I put the heating on. Unfortunately, the heating system has a mind of its own and doesn’t seem to have any idea about how to control to a reasonable temperature.
- Sometimes if it’s been off for a few hours, the floors are icy cold and take another few hours to show any heat.
- Often the boiler doesn’t start on the timer and I have to switch it on and off a couple of times to get it going.
- Today, it has been showing another of its traits and is just pumping more and more heat into the floor, without any regard for my comfort. A few hours ago, the temperature was 27 degrees, with the heating turned off and the windows wide open.
At least the air-conditioning has got it down now to 25 degrees.
The plumber came round and they felt something must be jammed. As the builder is coming tomorrow to gut my bathroom, they’ll be back then to find the fault, hopefully.
The builder is starting the deJerrification of this house. Hopefully, they’ll finish it before the house puts me in hospital again. Or even worse!
How To Fit A Toilet
I’m thinking about using a Geberit Monolith toilet in my house.
My builder and I liked the video about installation.
But you don’t buy a toilet because of the video! On the other hand, you might, if you were installing it yourself.
CrossRail On Open House
Whilst finding out about the archaeology, I also found that some CrossRail sites are to be thrown open to the public on the Open House Weekend. Here’s their summary.
On Saturday, 22 and Sunday, 23 September, we will ‘open the doors’ of the Bond Street station work sites, the Canary Wharf station work site and the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy (TUCA) to the public as part of the Open House London weekend.
TUCA is an interesting one, as it is a legacy of CrossRail and is effectively a European University of Tunnelling. I have talked about it before.
The Anonymous Widower 