I Have A Real Wet Room
The picture shows the floor of my en-suite shower.
I Have A Real Wet Room
It is Jerry at his best and it shows how the water flows from the shower area to the rest of the room. It also shows why I must put shoes on to go to the toilet.
Another Clue In The Mystery Of The Rogue Central Heating
Yesterday, I had a guy from G4S call looking for a Mr. Smith, who supposedly lived in the flat above my house. It was about non-payment of an energy bill to British Gas.
Now, there is no flat above my house, I’ve never dealt with British Gas and the guy said he was looking for a prepayment meter, which doesn’t exist.
So after an amicable discussion, he made a few notes and left.
The whole episode got me thinking. When I moved into this house, some of the wiring was unusual to say the least. So did someone crudely split the house into two separate flats to maximise his income.
This would certainly explain the very dodgy and crude wiring in the heating manifold.
So perhaps, I’m wrong to blame Jerry in this instance, when it appears it was some amateur, who had a possible grudge against me.
An Example Of Jerry’s Wiring
We found what was wrong with the heating this morning. Jerry or more possibly a tenant, has bypassed the controls and wired the underfloor heating valves permanently open.
In other words, they have been set to give someone a good boiling.
An Example Of Jerry’s Wiring
As the picture shows, it wasn’t even wired up properly. Note that the junction box was just screwed around the jumble of wires.
With the valves permanently open, the temperature will of course just rise and rise, as the individual zone controls can’t switch the water off.
Note for safety reasons, I’ve swirched the whole system off, using the big red knob on the right. Once boiled, twice shy.
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.
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!
Getting The Blues
The tiles in my house are pretty tired. Mainly due to ten years hard wear with innumerable tenants, but also I suspect because knowing Gerry, they weren’t the best tiles to start with.
Getting The Blues
So I’ve decided to get rid of the hideous tiled skirting board and replace it with an oak one and put down a proper carpet.
This afternoon, I went to John Lewis to see what they’d got. I chose a Brinton’s carpet in a shade called Coast. Mainly because the book had been left open at that shade.
It was only after I left the shop, I realised that it might have been the same carpet, we used to have around the Chinese carpet in our house at Debach, nearly forty years ago. In that case though, we bought the blue carpet first from a shop in Woodbridge and then bought the Chinese carpet in Hong Kong.
My only problem, is was it C or the Chinese, that made someone leave the carpet book open at the page? A Chinese friend at the time, said that the carpet was a lucky design.
Jerry Strikes Again
I want to replace my washing machine with a washer-dryer, so I have more space in the garage by selling the tumble-dryer there, but it’s not as easy as it looks.
Jerry Strikes Again
As you can see it looks a bit tight. Note the floral monstrosity on the right. It’s an ironing board. Real men like me, don’t iron! We pay someone to do it, or buy a new shirt, we can wear out of the packet!
Note how the plumbing seems to have been bent around the washing mashing and the crude stand, that it is supported on. Here’s some detail.
Crazy Pipework
If you think this is bad, then the outlet pipe is a masterpiece of bodging!
A Masterpiece Of Bodging!
I dread to think what you would have to do if the pump above the washing machine failed and had to be changed.
As it is, I think I’ll have to sort this mess out before I change the washing machine for a washer-dryer. I’ll also need to change the crude stand that holds up the machine.
I also am getting fed up with moving wet washing through two doors from the hall cupboard into the garage to get it dry. currently, if there’s a car in the garage, I can’t really use the tumbler-dryer, as the door can’t be opened.
I can’t abide bad design and workmanship.
Will No One Rid Me of this Terrible Builder?
Obviously, the title of this post is with apologies to King Henry II
I needed to have my daily lukewarm soak, this afternoon, and guess what, I was bitten again by some junk that Jerry had installed, that masquerade in the name of taps. There’s a video of them here, but it doesn’t show the cold top falling off, because obviously so many people have been fooled by it’s unusual direction.
The Anonymous Widower 