Today was a very different day than I planned

[paulrbarnard]

My daughter is having some work done on her house. Her bathroom is being replaced and I said I’d replace her kitchen for her.

I went to her house today to chop in a couple of additional sockets/fused spurs for an extractor fan and dishwasher that will be installed in the new kitchen. The plasterer who is doing the bathroom is going to skim the kitchen for us so I needed to get first fix done.

I turned up and looked at where the new feed for the dishwasher needed to go to discover the double socket she already has on the wall is going to be behind the fridge freezer. Ok so I’ll need to move that over too. That’s when I found out the hot and cold water pipes run right down the middle of the only clear bit of wall in the required area. So instead of electrician mode I had to switch to plumber. Of course I didn’t bring my plumbing stuff…. Screw fix did quite well from me today. As I was moving the pipes I went ahead and did all the plumbing for the new kitchen as well as adding an outside tap.

I did manage to chop in one new pattress but that dislodged a great chunk of the very friable plaster. Ah well I’ll have to go back again tomorrow and do the rest of the electrics and decide if I patch the plaster before the plasterer comes.

What I though was going to be a half day has been a full day and I’ve not really made any progress on what I was supposed to be doing. Good job it’s a long weekend.

 

[Ollie78]

This is always the way, a little bit of painting can escalate into a full on refurb if you`re not careful.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Mission creep, the bane of my life.

 

[John Brown]

'Twas on a Monday morning that the gasman came to call..

 

[John Brown]

https://genius.com/Flanders-and-swann-the-gas-man-cometh-lyrics

 

[paulrbarnard]

https://genius.com/Flanders-and-swann-the-gas-man-cometh-lyrics

That seems to capture it well.

 

[Bingy man]

There is rarely such a thing as a half day - only half ass —ed ways of bodging it so you can get done in half a day . Re-friable plaster -if it’s blown get the plasterer to look at it and get rid if required. It will make the kitchen install easier.

 

[paulrbarnard]

There is rarely such a thing as a half day - only half ass —ed ways of bodging it so you can get done in half a day . Re-friable plaster -if it’s blown get the plasterer to look at it and get rid if required. It will make the kitchen install easier.

Not sure I agree with your half assed comment.

 

[TomGW]

I’ve just refitted both kitchen our kitchen and utility room, relocating sockets etc - left the plumbing to a plumber as I hate it.
Just a word of warning; our previous setup had appliances wired to fused outlets that involved cutting off the 13A plugs and feeding the flex up conduits. Apparently this will invalidate the warranty on new appliances so now we have sockets fed from isolation switches that are all grouped on a panel in one of the cupboards. A much cleaner setup.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I’ve just refitted both kitchen our kitchen and utility room, relocating sockets etc - left the plumbing to a plumber as I hate it.
Just a word of warning; our previous setup had appliances wired to fused outlets that involved cutting off the 13A plugs and feeding the flex up conduits. Apparently this will invalidate the warranty on new appliances so now we have sockets fed from isolation switches that are all grouped on a panel in one of the cupboards. A much cleaner setup.

I’ve gone for a socket connected to a fused switch above the countertop for the dishwasher and the same to a socket above the wall units for the extractor fan.

I finished the first fix today. The plasterer will be in one evening this week. Kitchen arrives mid June so I’ll be putting a couple of the old units back temporarily for her after the plastering.

 

[bushwhaker]

Ofcourse, the paint fixes everything! Ever.

 

[MikeJhn]

Cutting off the plug resulting in the warranty being invalid is an often quoted mantra, if this was tested in court I don't think it would stand up, even a Judge has some common sense.

 

[XTiffy]

paulrbarnard,
Your method of individual single socket below wired to a fused spur above the worktop is exactly how I do it. It makes it so easy to maintain an appliance or replace it when it fails. I absolutely understand the daughter bit! We currently are building a house for daughter & S.i.L on part of our garden. After the most protracted planning delays, with every possible obstacle put in the way, at last the concrete footings are in.

 

[RogerS]

This is always the way, a little bit of painting can escalate into a full on refurb if you`re not careful.

Totally agree as this muppet found out the hard way.

Drilled through a CH pipe - pressurised system . Got the pressure down...well, that hole did. Repaired the damage. Re-pressurised...forgetting completely that if I let it, my pump would charge it up to 3 Bar. Watching the repaired joint closely for leaks, suddenly aware of water coming down from the ceiling.

"Oh dearie me" said I. Or words to that effect. "I know what that is". It was a plastic washing-machine type inline valve ...used to temporarily isolate the bathroom. It's counterpart in the other leg had sprung a leak two years ago. Everyone said "Replace the counterpart as well". I didn't listen and it objected to 3 Bar. But now, the oak flooring was down upstairs. The only way to replace it was to remove part of the ceiling downstairs.

I replaced the valve and refilled the CH. Only to discover that the humungous impossible-to-sort-out-the stuff-of-nightmares airlock had re-established itself and I couldn't get any sort of flow. At all. Plumber put on Red Alert.

Finally resolved it all. Took four days. Still waiting for the plasterer.

 

[paulrbarnard]

Totally agree as this muppet found out the hard way.

Drilled through a CH pipe - pressurised system . Got the pressure down...well, that hole did. Repaired the damage. Re-pressurised...forgetting completely that if I let it, my pump would charge it up to 3 Bar. Watching the repaired joint closely for leaks, suddenly aware of water coming down from the ceiling.

"Oh dearie me" said I. Or words to that effect. "I know what that is". It was a plastic washing-machine type inline valve ...used to temporarily isolate the bathroom. It's counterpart in the other leg had sprung a leak two years ago. Everyone said "Replace the counterpart as well". I didn't listen and it objected to 3 Bar. But now, the oak flooring was down upstairs. The only way to replace it was to remove part of the ceiling downstairs.

I replaced the valve and refilled the CH. Only to discover that the humungous impossible-to-sort-out-the stuff-of-nightmares airlock had re-established itself and I couldn't get any sort of flow. At all. Plumber put on Red Alert.

Finally resolved it all. Took four days. Still waiting for the plasterer.

I had the angry snake sound only a few weeks ago when tiling my bathroom at home

 

[Bingy man]

Not sure I agree with your half assed comment.

Apologies as it was not my intention to cause offence and I did not mean to that you would bodge a job -just that often there is more to these so called half day jobs and they often involve other issues such as in your case . I’m not a member of this forum to berate or upset anyone so again my apologies if I have offended you ..

 

[paulrbarnard]

Apologies as it was not my intention to cause offence and I did not mean to that you would bodge a job -just that often there is more to these so called half day jobs and they often involve other issues such as in your case . I’m not a member of this forum to berate or upset anyone so again my apologies if I have offended you ..

No offence taken.

You raise an interesting question though. What was it about the workmanship of itinerant chair makers that was so bad they became the byword for shoddy work and bad repairs?

 

[Grandad455]

Chap I did a lot of work for years back, his dad used call me 'Boffin' some times after a liquid lunch he would call me 'bodge' to which I used to reply, I would love to have a go at bodging, always fancied using a pole lathe. He, himself, was very good at 'botching' and his son used to call me in to put it right. Sadly, I have outlived them both, but still remember many happy hours working there.

 

[Bingy man]

Well until today I had no idea where the term bodge / bodger came from . Just something I’ve used over many years picked up from other tradesmen etc since I left school. I guess just another word taken and mis used by multiple generations until the original meaning is lost . It does however sound like a good description of shoddy work -Yet again I’ve learned something and it’s off the track but still woodwork related.

 

[Scruples]

paulrbarnard,
Your method of individual single socket below wired to a fused spur above the worktop is exactly how I do it. It makes it so easy to maintain an appliance or replace it when it fails. I absolutely understand the daughter bit! We currently are building a house for daughter & S.i.L on part of our garden. After the most protracted planning delays, with every possible obstacle put in the way, at last the concrete footings are in.

I think it's the only way to do it properly. The socket beneath the worktop is useful when it comes time to clean and/repair/replace an appliance as it can be pulled out and unplugged with relative ease. It's useful, too, to have a neon on the fused switch above the worktop.
And remembering to get that part of the installation tested after any modifications will ensure that the circuits are safe.