Category Archives: Bathroom

It’s getting hot in here

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Except it’s not.

As the tenants only left last summer so I figured the heating would probably work.  That might have been a bit optimistic given… erm, this:

Old Old Boiler

So, one of the first things I did once the electricity was on was to try to fire the boiler.  I’ve never actually had to fire a boiler before (they’ve always just already been on) so I clicked what I assumed was the ignition a few times – it did nothing.  Then I turned that green handle about half way up the right hand side.  It made a whooshing sound – I clicked the ignition a few more times – still nothing.  I stood back and pondered.  Then something seemed to burst and heating oil started spurting up the wall, hitting the roof and raining down on my head.  I jumped forward and turned the green handle again and it stopped.  I shut the door and asked my friends to wrap up warm and bring around some electric heaters.  After a couple of weeks of doing my best to ignore it, I gave me old primary school chum Ste (who’s now a plumber) a text and he came round and gave me some sage advice.  

So firstly, Ste points out that you’re not meant to turn that handle and, had known where to look, I’d probably have seen the pressure gauge steadily rising before it “blew” (which was actually just the overflow kicking in).  Then he asked me where the controller was to switch the boiler on  – “erm, you mean this thermostat thing on the wall in the kitchen?” – he flicked some switches and the pump started up.  Unfortunately it didn’t fire so it’s probably “a part”, he volunteered to send his service guy around but I don’t think it’s worth it – I’m going to have to get a new boiler anyway but that leads us on to the next problem – where to put it?

The boiler is currently in one of the outbuildings which will be demolished for the new extension – so the boiler has to go in the new extension, in part of the existing house or outside (it has to be a special outside boiler in that case).

I gave Ste a decent grilling about what’s the best approach with regard to boilers and heating systems in general and my house specifically – this is what I learned (well, some of this I knew before but is included for completeness):

  • Regular boilers have a separate hot water cylinder (this is the system the house currently has)
  • Combi boilers don’t have a separate hot water cylinder (they heat the water on demand)
  • The current hot water cylinder will need to be replaced and the cupboard it is contained within is too small for a modern cylinder
  • There is quite a bit of space under the floorboards on the ground floor (enough to get down and run pipes)
  • A boiler has to have a flue to an outside wall (it couldn’t go in the coat closet)
  • The cylinder doesn’t have to be against an outside wall although it will need to be vented to the outside, this could be under the floor (it could go in the coat closet)
  • An outside boiler is no less efficient than an inside one.
  • A combi or a cylinder should be as close as possible to the taps which use hot water.
  • It doesn’t matter how far away a regular boiler is from the taps.
  • You can’t chase pipes into brick walls so they will need to be boxed in, somewhere they can all be grouped together will mean a neater job can be made.
  • The cost to supply a combi vs a regular boiler plus a cylinder is about the same.
  • It is about an additional day’s labour to install a cylinder
  • For a my sized house with one bathroom, a combi would be fine
  • For a my sized house with one bathroom and an additional shower room (which is unlikely to be used at the same time) a combi should be ok
  • For a my sized house with two bathrooms (or the prospect of later putting in another bathroom) a regular boiler plus a cylinder would be best, a combi wouldn’t cut it.
  • The hot water cylinder could go in the loft but the floor would need extra support.
  • The cold water storage tank in the loft would be removed
  • The soil pipe is cast iron so another toilet couldn’t be added to the stack
  • There is a manhole outside the front door so it might be possible to run a new soil pipe
  • New radiators are more efficient than the old ones and for the cost, it’s probably a worthwhile upgrade
  • The radiator in the living room (which annoyingly takes up the only wall without a door or a fireplace) could be switched for a vertical one next to the French doors)
  • The radiator in the hall could be changed for a smaller one
  • The radiator in the bathroom has a dodgy bit of pipe (“could go at any time”)
  • He likes my plan to reconfigure the bathroom and add a shower
  • I don’t have to redo all the piping (particularly the bedrooms) but it might be a good idea to do it all at once.
  • My pressure is too high – it needs reducing (high pressure is hard on taps etc)
  • He showed me where the oil level was in the oil tank
  • It’s a single skin oil tank
  • I’ve a lead supply pipe
  • Oh, he showed me how to take the radiators off the walls

I also got him to give me a load of finger in the air prices but until I decide exactly what system I’m going to get and where it is all going to go, we can’t really make an progress.

N.B. all of the above relates to oil boilers – I’ve no idea about gas as oil is cheaper on the Isle of Man.

 

Whose keys are these keys?

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Those keys are mine 🙂

Given that the Isle of Man is a place where keys, if used, are often merely a formality – actually getting all the keys to my new house was bit of a saga.

The Front Door Key

The vendor lives across (i.e. in the UK) and the advocates had some difficulty in getting in contact with him, so he didn’t post the signed contract until the day before we were due to complete – which meant that I agreed (should the signed contract not arrive) to do something called “cash for keys” which I was assured wasn’t as dodgy as “cash for questions”, because in fact I got the keys and they didn’t get the cash (it stayed in the advocate’s account until the contract arrived).

The vendor had a friend here who acted for him when there were tenants in the property, this friend (Mr B) is the one who advertised and showed me around the house – Mr B was away for several weeks in the Middle East but his wife was here and could supply the key when required.  So my advocate (Stacey) got the key and went to check it was indeed the correct key, the day before completion, only to discover that it didn’t fit the lock at all.

On the day of completion, the contract did arrive after all but we didn’t have the correct key – so then I had to agree to exchange without the keys with the understanding that it would be collected the following day from Mrs B (who now said she had found the correct key). The following day (which also happened to be my birthday) Stacey picked me up and we went off to get the key from Mrs B who told us that she was sure that this key was the correct key but that there were two keys and she could only find one.  Things didn’t look promising as the new key and the old key were identical but off we went to give it a go.

As were walking down the garden path Stacey hands me the key, I reach the front door, push down the handle, walk in and put the key in the lock in the inner door, unlock it and walk in! Stacey follows me chuckling – unaware that there were two doors, she’d been foiled by an already unlocked lock 🙂  Dad always calls that “the one that got Houdini”.

The electricity meter key

Trying to read the electricity meter started with me stating “That number looks like a pound sign”, followed by “Why does it say – insert key here?”.  The meter was a ‘pay as you go’ key one and as there is a £20 deposit taken for the key, it had not been left behind by the tenants.  Fortunately the MEA were really good and despite it being a Saturday had a guy out in 45mins to reset the meter and give me a new key.

The keys for the windows

The keys for the French window and back door were in the house but there were no keys to be found for any of the windows – the previous owner’s tenants must have lost them.  A couple of days after I got the house I went to the locksmiths on Windsor Road and they gave me a bunch of keys to try.  It’s rather heartwarming that a locksmith, whose livelihood is based on paranoia and distrust, just hands me a set of keys without requiring a deposit or even ID!  Sadly, none of the locksmith’s keys would fit, most were far too big. Also, as I went round all the windows I realised that the keys must have been missing for quite a while as the kitchen and bathroom handles had had their locks drilled out and the one in the 2nd bedroom (which was also locked) was a completely different handle.

Odd Window Handle

So I decided it was probably simpler (and possibly even cheaper) to replace all the handles. I took one off and measured it and ordered 7 new handles on eBay for a grand total of £18.30. Mr B came round the following weekend to try his window keys and managed to unlock the locked handle for me so I can unscrew it.

What should have been a simple job, which I planned to do in half an hour one night on the way to the pub, had me spitting fire after 1.5 hours and only three handles later. Everything that I didn’t imagine going wrong did go wrong; screw covers that wouldn’t come off, new screws with uneven threads (that one was especially frustrating as it was the first handle and I thought I must have measured wrongly), damaged screw heads!  Ugh – so I went to the pub.  Next evening – it was like I’d dreamt it.  So we went from:

Original window handle

To this:

New window handle

Much better!  And they all came with new keys so I now have keys for everything…. oh except the actual front door (the one which Stacey couldn’t unlock) but that’s not important (or at least the insurance company haven’t made me state that it’s lockable!).

What exactly are your intentions?

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I’ve posted the original floorplans already so please refer to that page if you need some context.

These are my current intentions anyway.

  1. Downstairs, I’d like to knock down the outbuildings (which are single brick thick with a tin roof) and build a single storey extension with a ‘lean to’ roof.
    • This would create an ‘open plan’ kitchen / dining / living room
    • I’d like to incorporate a downstairs loo (ideally with a shower in it)
    • As boiler is currently housed in one of the outbuildings that would have to be incorporated into the extension somehow as well.
  2. Upstairs, I’d like to reconfigure the bathroom
    • Knock down the wall between the bathroom and toilet (assuming there is a separate downstairs loo).
    • Remove the hot water cylinder and square-off the little bedroom in order to incorporate a separate shower into the bathroom.
  3. I’d like to put a driveway in
    • The tree won’t be allowed to be felled (it’s not registered but they have more rights than people here)
    • The oil tank has to stay where it is (it’s the best place for it)
    • I’d like to keep the gate and the path up to the front door (it matches next door’s).

The house is in a conservation area but it isn’t one of ‘precious’ buildings of the area – those are the 12th century Abbey, the old Mill, the Church and the Hall and I can understand the need to conserve them but I reckoned a solitary pair of post-war semis would basically be shrugged at by the planning department.  The other semi has a single storey extension and in 2004 was granted planning permission for a driveway but never implemented it – due it it having changed use several times in the past the houses are no longer mirror images either.

However, after having a meeting with planning department it turned out my assumptions were slightly off the mark – rather than the philosophy being that those houses weren’t really worth conserving, instead it’s felt that they have a negative impact on the conservation area and nothing should be done which may make that worse.  Hrmph.  Anyway, it’s probably not that bad, they weren’t keen on a two storey extension but after some deliberation I wasn’t really either – a lean-to extension would be preferable to the current flat roofed outbuildings so they are encouraging that.  There’s only the driveway which might be a problem, since next door were granted permission the conservation policy has gotten stricter and… well, I just hope the wall isn’t too precious.