The Cafe

[TonyS]

It's amazing how some people simply can't accept when they're wrong.

A friend of mine and his wife have an old Mercedes A Class. It's been causing a few problems recently and eventually they bit the bullet and took it to the local Merc dealer for a check over (expensive but no-one else could sort it).

There were a few delays etc and Vic was running late for picking up their little girl so she was getting a bit worried. Eventually, the car was brought around and the service chap apologised for the delay. Vic jumps into the car and before she could buckle up, another customer reverses into the side of her crushing the rear door, rear wing and bumper.

The service chap was gutted. The chap who drove into her jumps out of the car and starts shouting at the service chap saying it was all his fault for driving across the back of him while he was reversing!!

Vic was a copper in a former life but she's very mild until roused. She waited calmly until he'd finished ranting then told him what she thought of him for abusing the staff at the garage, for being an ass and reversing a two ton car without looking where he was going and for generally being an arrogant...(well you can probably guess).

The fact that it was all on CCTV helped with the insurance claim! 

 

[TonyS]

Right chaps.

I'm away to my bed.  Big day tomorrow. Hopefully going to get some people to agree to sell us their house for what I can afford!! Renting at the mo. Wish me luck because if we don't get it , her indoors will be unbearable  

T 

[Big Bandit]

Hi  All,

 

Yep there some real numpties claiming to be craftsmen and I deal with them all day at work. Which is the main reason I use people who come by recommendation. I know Rob's rates are very good, but he's done work for an old mate of mine and all of his family, he's reliable and can't be faulted on the work he does.

 

I'm a gas fitter, Heating engineer by trade, but got fed up with pipe strangling after about 15 years and decided to do something completely different. So over the years and particularly in my present job where asbestos is involved, I've seen some horrendous installations. More often than not using faulty cheapo fittings that let go and bring down ceilings with an Artex type coating which contains asbestos. The resulting clean up job cost's in excess of a grand each time.

 

I used an old mate to fit my new boiler back in June. He stayed on in the gas game after I left and has his own company which is gas safe registered, did a brilliant job.

 

Chris.

[Klippy]

Best of luck Tony.

[Klippy]

I put a loo down on tiles many years ago, chipped the tiles nicely where it was going to stand, great, looked really good. Then about 2 years later it came loose! The female of the species is not happy when the bit they're sitting on moves away from the wall!

[kiwi g]

Well to change the subject, i would like to thank polly for creating the cafe, we are close to 200 thread pages and its had its ups and downs but generally been helpful and fun.

Good on ya team

[TonyS]

Seconded ... But still looking for the tea and buns!

[Terence Lynock]

Now come on Tony, you must be item specific here, they are STICKY buns cause ordinary everyday buns just dont cut it so to speak.

Even then Sticky buns are rated on a scale of 1 to 10 for stickiness, if you can throw one at a ferret and it sticks so well you need blasting powder to get it off it rates a 10.

[TonyS]

Now now Terence......

You must realise that the authorities take a dim view of people hurling buns at ferrets - particularly Grade 10, sticky ones. It's just not British.

 

 

On a different note, can I just say WHOOOPEEEE !! The offer on the house was accepted this morning so we're on our way.

 

(And I must add that the fact that the farmer next door has a 1000 yard grass airstrip that's maintained but hardly ever used didn't colour my judgement at all !!! )

 

T 

Edited By TonyS on 31/10/2010 17:22:32

[Klippy]

Pleased for you Tony, I was holding thumbs, as we say down here! So you'll using the strip cross wise then!

[TonyS]

Thanks Tony. It would seem a bit of overkill to use all 1000 yards! Need to start building up the hangar for next summer. Can't wait. How's tricks south of the equator? T

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Terence Lynock]

eeerrr.............since when did they fit ferrets wiv gassy turbines then Eric?......

[TonyS]

Sadly Eric, with the imminent arrival of a mortgage I suspect a gas turbine is probably some way off.

Now if I could just find a way of harnessing the almost limitless power of the ferret........ 

[kiwi g]

Tony . turbine on the mortgage, tell them its a vacuum system for the house,.

[boggy]

Posted by kiwi g on 31/10/2010 22:29:18:

Tony . turbine on the mortgage, tell them its a vacuum system for the house,.

 warm air heating system? with the best ever air freshener built in.

[Phil Claridge]

back to boilers, after six visits from tame plumber and gas fitter(next door neighbour) four different pcb controllers i cured the problem myself with advice from the web with a £22 pilot light flame jet in ten minutes. also had three heating pumps go in ten years at £80 ago fitted, so bought my own from b and q read the instructions and found all three pumps had been put in upsidedown had to cut a slot in the rafer to fit it right way up. this pump now ten years old and going strong. told two plumbers about this and they said the pump works anyway up but grunfoss state it only works three ways not four as it will wear the bearings out which is what was happening. i prefer to do work my self if i can

[Wingman]

Phil, I'm with you on that - I do all my own central heating repairs (except for the gas bits) after watching various so-called tradesmen make a complete dog's breakfast of it.

Oh and here's a tip chaps - if your central heating circulation is plagued with the dreaded black gunge causing boiling, banging and knocking, drain it completely, fill it, circulate for a couple of hours without heat then drain it again, then refill it introducing 1 litre of ethylene glycol car antifreeze (e.g. Bluecol) per radiator (regardless of size) and your system circulation will stay crystal clear forever and no more strange noises. If you doubt this consider that car antifreeze is designed to work at higher temperatures than your average central heating and to circulate through cast iron, brass, copper, aluminium, magnesium, plastic and rubber for years without causing any deterioration of the materials.  

[John Tee]

Grundfos pumps can run with the pipe connections vertically or horizontally. It'sthe motor shaft that is important, the screw on the end of the motor should be just above horizontal. the screw doubles as an air release and jammed rotor release. the bearings use the water as a lubricant so all air must be released before running or the ceramic bearings willbe shot in no time flat.

 now off to the docs to get my wife repaired

 

john

[Terence Lynock]

One Grundfos I had was giving pretty poor performance and it took ages to heat up the rads so I stripped it down, if you do this watch out for the centre bearing shaft cause its left hand thread.

The rotor was a bit like a centrifugal turbine impellor with vanes sandwiched between two circular plates, the veins were chock solid with a semi-cement mix of inhibitor and lime scale, after a good clean and quick dip in battery acid the impellor was squeeky clean and worked perfect until we had a new system in years later.

[Phil Claridge]

same tame plumber, came to do a service on my old gloworm fuel saver and did the usual thats too old and might not be any good but i will do it anyway, when he had finished he tested it with his fancy meter and was astonished. he said to pass muster the reading had to be 85% my boiler was 97% which he said was better than some new ones

[Terence Lynock]

Well, had a good day today and got most of the plumbing in the downstairs toilet replaced myself, one 'plumber' took all day to replace six pairs of radiator valves and made a right mess in the process.

The black junge that collects in the bottom of rads was all over the floors and on the walls, the mop and bucket had to be thrown away because it wouldnt come clean and he even got it on the door handles and paintwork, its a good job we are redecorating all the rooms and replacing the doors.

After one day of him we paid him off and looked for someone else, we were quoted £160 a day by one plumber who could do nothing but critisize our ideas and cast doom and gloom on everything, only God is worth £160 a day so I decided to plumb the new suite into the downstairs cloakroom myself.

 

[kiwi g]

Are all trademen usless over there.  Being a builder myself and having a plumber brother ,I guess ive got it good. 

one of my workers just came back from the uk after 10 years, and said most of the good tradesmen and hard workers were the lower paid imported ones,.  He was there a year and made foreman on a construction site. hes only finishing his trade with me now so his experiance at the time was limited. doesnt say much for who ever was running the work before him.

[Terence Lynock]

There are two kinds of 'tradesman' as I see it from past experience, the slow slightly suspect kind who quote reasonable prices but dont expect a work of art and the kind that are up to the mark and do a good speedy job only problem being they price themselves out of a lot of work.

By doing the job myself today I saved £160 which pays for my new front and back doors to be fitted plus a tenner left over to go down the pub with....

[Big Bandit]

Hi Kiwi,

 

There are some very good tradesmen over here, but their the ones that get the really good jobs,  Don't need to advertise, work on recommendation, and if it goes wrong are only too happy to remedy any problems. They know their worth and can charge premium rates.

 

The poor ones who are in the majority are only too happy to jump on the gravy train and milk it for what it's worth. Then they change their companies name and start all over again and have no conscience in ripping off the customers.

 

The biggest con seems to be the trade bodies that these people claim to belong too, and  who supposedly provide guarantee protection to the customer. It's only when the job goes pear shaped that the buyer finds out that the guarantees aren't worth the paper that they are written on.

 

Rant over.

 

Chris.