What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

That would definitely be a choice of heating or eating for me on Old Age pension!
I am not convinced heat pumps are economically viable, even less so now electricity prices still increasing, which since we were originally told it was to subsidise wind and solar until established, which we are now told is cheaper than other forms does sound like a like large dose of BS to me.
Neighbour up the road has put exterior insulation and then had it rendered along with many other improvements and claims it to be very effective, although I suspect not cheap

There was an interesting program on TV recently about exterior insulation and the two main points that came over to me is that it's a good way to do it in respect of the fact you can make the insulation as thick as you like without loosing any space inside the house but the down side seemed to be that so many of the conversions had been so badly done that damp - from rain etc - was getting down in between the insulating blocks and the outer walls and causing major problems. Most of the ingress seemed to be around window openings and doors. There also seemed to be concerns about the long term prospect of maintaining water tightness to prevent damp problems.

Our house has problems with cracks in the internal blockwork. The house is cavity wall construction with brick outside and block inside. the inner walls are directly skimmed with plaster onto the blockwork. All the houses on our estate have problems with cracking of the inner blocks and my Civil Engineer daughter has taken a good look at the problem. Thankfully her conclusion is that the cracking has no structural significance and is caused by the different expansion factor of the brick and blockwork depending on various factors, not least of which is the difference in ambient temperature annual temperature. She tells me that the current advice for this type of construction is that the inner walls should be battoned with plasterboard not plastered directly onto the blockwork because of the propensity for surface cracks to appear. She tells me that if we ever want to do something about it there are now some pretty impressive thin insulating materials which could be applied behind the plasterboard so very little inside space would be lost if we ever decide to plasterboard the inside walls thus solving the problem of the cracks and also significantly increasing the insulation of the house. If we were younger I think I'd probably be asking her to get this done for us, but at our age I don't think it's cost effective - the kids will sell the house when we're gone anyway.

 

[portland_bill]

A few days ago, two small skips were delivered next door. Cheap, scruffy skips, from an old, poorly maintained Transit skip truck, operated by an amateur, so unlikely to be provided by the housing association. Puzzling.
Expecting lots of noise and dust, thankfully not so. Yesterday, lots of effort was made to fill the skips. Looks like a general clear out, mostly from behind their shed, with stuff that should have been taken to the tip instead of dumping behind the shed. Local tip is about 4 miles away, so not a big task. Nothing that would not fit in their car.
The tenant, and her three teenage children did not appear to do any work. All the lifting and shifting was done by her sister and brother-in-law and their sone, looks about 8yrs old. (they live 100yds away, and for once walked down instead of driving) Great if you can get others to do it for you.
They seem to have finished. Looks like they could have made 4-5 tip trips instead, surely should be cheaper. No matter, all funded by benefits, so thank you all for helping.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

I think if you have a nice big roof which you can cover in solar panels and some sort of battery storage to store all that nice energy from the sun, then a heat pump makes sense. Otherwise if you are buying power from the grid it makes heating very expensive.

Heat pumps are touted as super energy efficient because you get something like 3 watts of heat energy for every 1 watt of electricity you put in, (they don’t create the energy they scavenge it from the environment)
But they use a lot of electricity in the process and electricity is pretty expensive, where as the likes of gas and oil are cheap.

 

[varesecrazy]

Short version is the Puretech is a chain if the car is a hybrid.

The new variant engine for the hybrid includes among the mods a chain. The none hybrid remains a belt but the none-hybrid is an endangered species and the belt is now on version 5.

Incidentally the tool is largely useless as beyond gen 1 belts spread is uncommon as the design/material of the belt was changed to eliminate it but yes it's on the list of checks.

They remain a pain in the arse

god knows why...it just is).

Magnifique!

 

[bugsymike]

I think if you have a nice big roof which you can cover in solar panels and some sort of battery storage to store all that nice energy from the sun, then a heat pump makes sense. Otherwise if you are buying power from the grid it makes heating very expensive.

Heat pumps are touted as super energy efficient because you get something like 3 watts of heat energy for every 1 watt of electricity you put in, (they don’t create the energy they scavenge it from the environment)
But they use a lot of electricity in the process and electricity is pretty expensive, where as the likes of gas and oil are cheap.

My general thoughts also. Then throw in the installation costs, by the time it has "paid for it's self" it is getting near end of life I suspect, especially if it has come from the usual suspect source that the whole Country will be paying off Covid costs for many lifetimes unfortunately and no danger of redress!!!

 

[PuntoHowTo]

My general thoughts also. Then throw in the installation costs, by the time it has "paid for it's self" it is getting near end of life I suspect, especially if it has come from the usual suspect source that the whole Country will be paying off Covid costs for many lifetimes unfortunately and no danger of redress!!!

To fit everything, solar, battery storage and a heat pump, would probably liberate £40k+ from your pocket, so yeah as you say it just isn’t ever going to be economical, and would only make sense if you are building from scratch and work the costs into the build.

If you’re going to all that effort throw in an electric car as well and borrow a cool £100k just to round it all up.

 

[The Panda Nut]

That would definitely be a choice of heating or eating for me on Old Age pension!
I am not convinced heat pumps are economically viable, even less so now electricity prices still increasing, which since we were originally told it was to subsidise wind and solar until established, which we are now told is cheaper than other forms does sound like a like large dose of BS to me.
Neighbour up the road has put exterior insulation and then had it rendered along with many other improvements and claims it to be very effective, although I suspect not cheap

Even this year which has been poor in terms of solar radiation our 10 solar panels have contributed £1K to the pot, last year it was 1.2K on a good year we would be well in pocket. Inheritance well spent. They dont do a lot in the winter Oct to Feb but give us all we use in the summer +/- a bit and we get around £200 for the surplus sold back which pays for one or two of the winter months. Im still not convinced about the heat pumps either. Brothers electric bills are outrageous even including gas and solid fuel costs I incur they scare me to death. Why the government dont increase renewables even more, INCLUING Hydro in particular I dont know. This should be a national top priority to become energy independent. It seems to be happening in spite of not because of government thinking.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Using wool in the cavity is, by far, the best solution…it’s fireproof, insulates really well and allows the walls to breathe. The only issue is that it’s horrendously expensive, despot the fact that farmers get bugger all for it

Im going for 27mm of celotex backing on plasterboard for my daughters house. Im now trying to get the definitive best method of fixing. This is far from clear atm. Its mighty efficient insulation but £50 a sheet so around £850 or so will need to be spent at a minimum and thats with the huge windows. I dont want to spend the next 6 months picking the dingleberries off the fleeces LOL It might be a going concern in the roof and if you could buy fleeces direct of the farm and launder them it could be very cost effective. The roofer starts monday and new windows and doors (porch) come wednesday so next week will be big in terms of sorting the new place out. I just wish that blasted heating boiler would work, that is going to be a very big hit if it has to be replaced as is now looking likely.

 

[The Panda Nut]

That would definitely be a choice of heating or eating for me on Old Age pension!
I am not convinced heat pumps are economically viable, even less so now electricity prices still increasing, which since we were originally told it was to subsidise wind and solar until established, which we are now told is cheaper than other forms does sound like a like large dose of BS to me.
Neighbour up the road has put exterior insulation and then had it rendered along with many other improvements and claims it to be very effective, although I suspect not cheap

I think thats my brothers expereince. Its great for the planet if you can afford it, and definitely to be encouraged particularly in new houses.

 

[The Panda Nut]

There was an interesting program on TV recently about exterior insulation and the two main points that came over to me is that it's a good way to do it in respect of the fact you can make the insulation as thick as you like without loosing any space inside the house but the down side seemed to be that so many of the conversions had been so badly done that damp - from rain etc - was getting down in between the insulating blocks and the outer walls and causing major problems. Most of the ingress seemed to be around window openings and doors. There also seemed to be concerns about the long term prospect of maintaining water tightness to prevent damp problems.

Our house has problems with cracks in the internal blockwork. The house is cavity wall construction with brick outside and block inside. the inner walls are directly skimmed with plaster onto the blockwork. All the houses on our estate have problems with cracking of the inner blocks and my Civil Engineer daughter has taken a good look at the problem. Thankfully her conclusion is that the cracking has no structural significance and is caused by the different expansion factor of the brick and blockwork depending on various factors, not least of which is the difference in ambient temperature annual temperature. She tells me that the current advice for this type of construction is that the inner walls should be battoned with plasterboard not plastered directly onto the blockwork because of the propensity for surface cracks to appear. She tells me that if we ever want to do something about it there are now some pretty impressive thin insulating materials which could be applied behind the plasterboard so very little inside space would be lost if we ever decide to plasterboard the inside walls thus solving the problem of the cracks and also significantly increasing the insulation of the house. If we were younger I think I'd probably be asking her to get this done for us, but at our age I don't think it's cost effective - the kids will sell the house when we're gone anyway.

Your comments re stuctural engineer comments are gold dust to me just now. I have exposed some cracks in my daughters new place. Its exactly as you describe. I have drilled a series of holes at acute angles along the cracks and injected epoxy resin. It oozes out of the cracks so I can see its getting right in. The result is the walls now seem sound and replastering is minimal. Im happier that my approach is OK and likely to improve things for these comments. One of the walls rattled when thumped. It doesnt do that any more. The down side it the resin is £8 a tube and its swallowed quite a lot. Time will tell if it is a long term fix or problem. Im really just trying to improve things not do structural work. In due course I will tell you exactly what I used and if its effective insulation. The insulated board I used on the other daughters house in Mnachester has stopped all condensation on a conrete lintel in the kitchen so seems a success. I used it where I bricked up a pantry window and she wanted an alcove / shelf leaving and it seems to keep the cold out really well there too. Its backing single skin of brickwork. Its only been there for 4 years but so far no issues at all. Doing a whole house may be different. With internal fitting the issue is eliminating air gaps between the internal insulated board and the wall. Im moving toward dot and daub adhesive and wall fixings. New skirtingwill also assist holding it in place. It may be OTT, but there will be no air gaps and it will stay put. TIme will tell.

 

[bugsymike]

Your comments re stuctural engineer comments are gold dust to me just now. I have exposed some cracks in my daughters new place. Its exactly as you describe. I have drilled a series of holes at acute angles along the cracks and injected epoxy resin. It oozes out of the cracks so I can see its getting right in. The result is the walls now seem sound and replastering is minimal. Im happier that my approach is OK and likely to improve things for these comments. One of the walls rattled when thumped. It doesnt do that any more. The down side it the resin is £8 a tube and its swallowed quite a lot. Time will tell if it is a long term fix or problem. Im really just trying to improve things not do structural work. In due course I will tell you exactly what I used and if its effective insulation. The insulated board I used on the other daughters house in Mnachester has stopped all condensation on a conrete lintel in the kitchen so seems a success. I used it where I bricked up a pantry window and she wanted an alcove / shelf leaving and it seems to keep the cold out really well there too. Its backing single skin of brickwork. Its only been there for 4 years but so far no issues at all. Doing a whole house may be different. With internal fitting the issue is eliminating air gaps between the internal insulated board and the wall. Im moving toward dot and daub adhesive and wall fixings. New skirtingwill also assist holding it in place. It may be OTT, but there will be no air gaps and it will stay put. TIme will tell.

When doing my kitchen some years ago, I used dot and dab plaster boarding, never tried it before, but bought a 110 volt pan mixer from auction for under a tenner s/h and a new matching plastic tub for it @£37 odd, hardest bit for me was managing the 8x4 sheets of plaster board on my own as late 60s then, next was the plastic t & g cladding etc. Then stainless steel catering appliances mostly s/h.
Aiming for the "no or low maintenance" approach.
Nothing professional about it, but only me to please!
Many years ago in my first house, a 200 year old farm labourers cottage, I tried my hand at plastering a ceiling, more on the floor than ceiling so gave up on that trade
More recently rendered concrete block wall with more success, mind you the Tyrolean rendering/skat gun covers up quite a bit of imperfections
So the plaster board and another auction purchase, a long arm orbital sander with vacuum attachment kept me from having to pay a pro, as most wanted silly money and a retired ex customer who would have done a good job at sensible money was at late stages of COPD and Cancer
"Bl**dy inconvenient of him I must say"
We got on great always taking the pi** even towards the end, when I used to ring him saying "I was the news agents and was having a problem pushing the newspapers through his letterbox, that and saying I was just checking he was still breathing

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Your comments re stuctural engineer comments are gold dust to me just now. I have exposed some cracks in my daughters new place. Its exactly as you describe. I have drilled a series of holes at acute angles along the cracks and injected epoxy resin. It oozes out of the cracks so I can see its getting right in. The result is the walls now seem sound and replastering is minimal. Im happier that my approach is OK and likely to improve things for these comments. One of the walls rattled when thumped. It doesnt do that any more. The down side it the resin is £8 a tube and its swallowed quite a lot. Time will tell if it is a long term fix or problem. Im really just trying to improve things not do structural work. In due course I will tell you exactly what I used and if its effective insulation. The insulated board I used on the other daughters house in Mnachester has stopped all condensation on a conrete lintel in the kitchen so seems a success. I used it where I bricked up a pantry window and she wanted an alcove / shelf leaving and it seems to keep the cold out really well there too. Its backing single skin of brickwork. Its only been there for 4 years but so far no issues at all. Doing a whole house may be different. With internal fitting the issue is eliminating air gaps between the internal insulated board and the wall. Im moving toward dot and daub adhesive and wall fixings. New skirtingwill also assist holding it in place. It may be OTT, but there will be no air gaps and it will stay put. TIme will tell.

Daughter made a number of quite interesting observations about cracks in concrete blocks like mine. One I found very interesting is that they never crack "cleanly" ie. the crack isn't just a straight crack as you'd get in metal. The block is thick and the crack "staggers" in three dimensions so, even although cracked right through the staggered nature of the crack means there is still a physical "meshing" bond between the parts which retains quite a degree of strength. I suggested doing what you did with the epoxy and I also considered those twisted ties where you cut a slot in the block bridging the crack and epoxy the ties in the slot. she said "you can try it - can't do any harm" and she went on to tell me of an American system which has been developed along these lines specifically for this problem - but it's not on sale over here and isn't cheap. She said it may not sort the problem though because the problem will remain which is that the brick outer wall and block inner expand and contract with variation in temperature and the brick expands at a different rate to the block. The brick is stronger so the block cracks. If you strengthen the existing crack it'll just reappear somewhere else - simple as! I'm toying with the idea of raking the cracks out and injecting epoxy. Then filler to flat it off and redecorating over the top as the living room hasn't been redecorated since my daughter got married - she has a 19 year old daughter! My engineer daughter says it's worth a try because the walls will be very well dryed out by now since the house was built (and the basic structure was built in the winter so block work etc got pretty wet during the build) Anyway, it's the cheapest option and will be easy enough to do. If the cracks come back then she cam sort it out when they sell the house!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Daughter made a number of quite interesting observations about cracks in concrete blocks like mine. One I found very interesting is that they never crack "cleanly" ie. the crack isn't just a straight crack as you'd get in metal. The block is thick and the crack "staggers" in three dimensions so, even although cracked right through the staggered nature of the crack means there is still a physical "meshing" bond between the parts which retains quite a degree of strength. I suggested doing what you did with the epoxy and I also considered those twisted ties where you cut a slot in the block bridging the crack and epoxy the ties in the slot. she said "you can try it - can't do any harm" and she went on to tell me of an American system which has been developed along these lines specifically for this problem - but it's not on sale over here and isn't cheap. She said it may not sort the problem though because the problem will remain which is that the brick outer wall and block inner expand and contract with variation in temperature and the brick expands at a different rate to the block. The brick is stronger so the block cracks. If you strengthen the existing crack it'll just reappear somewhere else - simple as! I'm toying with the idea of raking the cracks out and injecting epoxy. Then filler to flat it off and redecorating over the top as the living room hasn't been redecorated since my daughter got married - she has a 19 year old daughter! My engineer daughter says it's worth a try because the walls will be very well dryed out by now since the house was built (and the basic structure was built in the winter so block work etc got pretty wet during the build) Anyway, it's the cheapest option and will be easy enough to do. If the cracks come back then she cam sort it out when they sell the house!

Thankyou for that its really useful. It thankfully mirrors what I have already thought so doent add extra stress. I suppose I am expecting these cracks to reappear, but in the mean time the house will be stronger for strengthening. and once it looks and feels more sound I will apply the internally onsulated plasterboard so it isnt going to spoil decoration. I may actually leave expansion gaps by the lintels and infill with expanding foam which will accomodate soem slight movement while keeping draughts out, It seems disproportionately good at holding things together. I did a loose external door frame at work some 10+years ago. Its still there and still looks sound! Ive just finished the first patch. There are three more places that need attention two are under ground floor windows so Im not bothered about structural strength, just being able to decorate and tile without risk of the work being ruined in 6 months.

 

[StevenRB45]

Need a bottle of coolant for the Yota...as both cooling systems are on the min line.

It's not losing any they were when I picked it up and it's done over 1000 miles, but it's a 10 year long life coolant so I want the correct stuff not to stuff it a few years before time. I assume it's Toyotas equivalent of Mazda FL22 10 year coolant.

Thankfully you can get a litre of of pre-mix for 9 quid online but delivery was 6 quid. So I decided to pitch up at my local dealer and buy a bottle. Of course they didn't have one on stock..but they will order one.

Their system told them they had one...they didn't so I got to stand round with my son at the desk for a good 10 minutes.

Not been in a full plate glass main agent for while... Citroën generally have me use the tradesman's entrance rather than having parts in the middle of the new cars. It is bizzare in 2024...there was woman discussing spending 38 thousand english pounds on a C-HR..like it's not insane.

This but Red..

Of course my son then insisted on a photo with it...but anyway. To be fair he was furious as having been involved in 2 different cars hunts now he knows the drill so his immediate response was "Why are we here? We have the black car I like the black car.."

 

[bugsymike]

I hate buying pre-mix versions of anything, such as screenwash etc. To me it is the supplier conning you into buying water under the pretext of "ready to use"

 

[StevenRB45]

I this case I probably need somewhere in the region of 400ml to top both systems off (max and min lines are very close together).

Once done there's a reasonable chance it'll join my bottles of spare Citroën coolant falling off the shelf in the shed whenever I'm looking for something else.

The Citroën isn't pre-mix so you end up with 3 bottles to store rather than one, being the bottle of coolant, the bottle of distilled water and then the quarter bottle of mixed coolant as inevitably you'll probably have a little bit left.

I suppose what I'm saying is...with coolant I'll maybe top up once a year I'm entirely happy with pre-mix as unless your car has problems 10 quid for 2-3 top ups will last about 3 years if not longer and it's less to have lying around. It'll probably not need topping up again given annual mileage of both cars (the Citroën only needs top ups when the annual mileage is over 10k). Screen wash I agree on the basis you can usually get a bottle of neat for a pound more or so than an identically sized bottle of pre-mix and that then comes with the option of using it neat in winter to drop the freezing point and you're using gallons over the course of a year.

This reminds me...I really need to get rid of the ATF the Mazda used to use as power steering fluid...

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Thankyou for that its really useful. It thankfully mirrors what I have already thought so doent add extra stress. I suppose I am expecting these cracks to reappear, but in the mean time the house will be stronger for strengthening. and once it looks and feels more sound I will apply the internally onsulated plasterboard so it isnt going to spoil decoration. I may actually leave expansion gaps by the lintels and infill with expanding foam which will accomodate soem slight movement while keeping draughts out, It seems disproportionately good at holding things together. I did a loose external door frame at work some 10+years ago. Its still there and still looks sound! Ive just finished the first patch. There are three more places that need attention two are under ground floor windows so Im not bothered about structural strength, just being able to decorate and tile without risk of the work being ruined in 6 months.

I should have added, in relation to monitoring the cracks in the blockwork, that civil engineer daughter told me to regularly monitor the outside brick walls for cracks and report back if any start developing. Glad to say, now some 40 years? after first noticing the cracks there is still not the slightest trace of a crack in the brickwork. We had quite a chat about cracks in houses and she told me it's not unusual to find small cracks running from the top of windows and outside doors at the corners and they are nothing to worry about, but that if cracks appear at the bottom corners, especially if they extend downwards, that's more serious. If I look very closely I do have some very small cracks, say extending for one to two courses, from the top corner of some of the windows but none from the bottom corners. Apparently this is of no consequence.

 

[bugsymike]

Now the rainy season is upon us, daughters house is showing signs of damp/mould.
What annoys me is when they bought the place I insisted they paid for a full survey and nothing was mentioned about crappy foam cavity wall insulation!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Now the rainy season is upon us, daughters house is showing signs of damp/mould.
What annoys me is when they bought the place I insisted they paid for a full survey and nothing was mentioned about crappy foam cavity wall insulation!

These surveys seem to vary greatly as to how representative they actually are of the property. We're in the middle of this pending the sale of my brother's wee cottage and his, rather larger, business premises. Going to be interesting to see what they provide for the money they charge - Money for old rope comes to mind?

 

[The Panda Nut]

I hate buying pre-mix versions of anything, such as screenwash etc. To me it is the supplier conning you into buying water under the pretext of "ready to use"

Why not just buy concentrated and give £5 to charity and do someone that needs it some good, rather than feeding crooks! I couldnt agree with you more.