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The builder's are coming - floorboard laying

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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby RogerS » 13 Sep 2017, 14:48

TrimTheKing wrote:Good to know! I am in the process of ordering a new one and it is between them and tankdepot. I'll check again who I am liking the most in terms of price...

What make have you gone for, Titan?

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It's not Fuel Tank Shop's fault but the delivery company that the manufacturer uses who are Deso...who were extremely good in dealing with the possible damage caused during delivery. No quibbles. Straight swap out. No debate. So I'd recommend Deso. Just not their bloody delivery company.

I've gone for a single skin tank. 1250 litres. Low profile. I originally planned to go for a larger tank thinking that there was a discount over 1000 litres. Not so. So no point in wasting money getting a larger tank. Also means that I don't have to faff about sticking some stones on top of the dry-stone wall.
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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby TrimTheKing » 13 Sep 2017, 15:09

I've read good things about Deso, they're a very small company apparently.

Why have you gone single skin and not bunded...?

If you use places like weboil.co.uk or boilerjuice.com I have ALWAYS got a much better price on over 1000 l, which is partly why I went for a 2500 l tank, to buy in bulk and also to run out less often...

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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby RogerS » 13 Sep 2017, 15:23

TrimTheKing wrote:I've read good things about Deso, they're a very small company apparently.

Why have you gone single skin and not bunded...? price

If you use places like weboil.co.uk or boilerjuice.com I have ALWAYS got a much better price on over 1000 l, which is partly why I went for a 2500 l tank, to buy in bulk and also to run out less often...
Whenever I checked these companies at our last place I always got a lower price going direct. I'm hoping with all my insulation that I won't need the heating on that much ;)
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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby RogerS » 14 Sep 2017, 14:58

RogerS wrote:
TrimTheKing wrote:I've read good things about Deso, they're a very small company apparently.

Why have you gone single skin and not bunded...? price

If you use places like weboil.co.uk or boilerjuice.com I have ALWAYS got a much better price on over 1000 l, which is partly why I went for a 2500 l tank, to buy in bulk and also to run out less often...
Whenever I checked these companies at our last place I always got a lower price going direct. I'm hoping with all my insulation that I won't need the heating on that much ;)
Cheers
Mark
The phrase * up and brewery springs to mind. New tank just delivered but neither driver nor his office had any instructions to take away the damaged tank!

So emailed them to say I will be dragging the damaged tank off our property and leave it by the side of the road.

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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby RogerS » 17 Sep 2017, 13:03

TrimTheKing wrote:.... partly why I went for a 2500 l tank, to buy in bulk and also to run out less often...

Cheers
Mark


May have made a mistake here. The oil delivery driver said that any frost/ice/snow on the hill up to our plateau then he'd never make it. So I need to make sure that we keep topped up. Easier to do with a 2500 litre tank.
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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby RogerS » 17 Nov 2017, 19:13

Gosh...nearly two months on and no posts. Sorry chaps but always seemed to be playing catch-up to stay one step ahead of the builders, prepping plumbing and electrics plus the odd bit of joinery and so no time to take many photos or post stuff. After all, there are only so many photographs of plasterboard one can take.

So where are we. Up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Today should have been a day of celebration as the builders are effectively offsite. There is one guy...a superb plasterer and excellent all-rounder who is carrying on to finish plastering the utility room, downstairs loo and together with his brother - who used to lecture on plastering and how to make proper plaster-of-paris cornices - putting up some proper Georgian cornicing in a downstairs room.

But. Effing effing radiators from a cr*p Italian firm called Cordivari. Discovered on Tuesday that one radiator has oversize studs on one side that prevents the fixings from going on. The numpties at the factory managed to pack the wrong fitting set in one of the radiators. That was Tuesday and response back there has been none. Just had another go at fitting some more only to discover that virtually every effing thread on every effing fixing on every effing radiator is blocked up with paint and so needs retapping with one of the bolts before any attempt can be made to fit the radiator. And some are so bad that the bolt will not cut it - literally and metaphorically and my tap and die set is God knows where.

So what's left to do after fitting the rads and getting the CH up and running ? Well, getting the bathroom and ensuites tiled, shower trays in, shower screens up, bogs and basins in. Oh yes...paint the whole of the inside of the house. Downlights in....really looking forward to getting up into the loft to do that. Sockets and switches on the walls. Kitchen finished off, hob in, appliances in, doors on etc.

And flooring ...what to do about that ? And LOML hates the stairs.

So b******ks to it all. I'm going down the pub.
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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby Malc2098 » 17 Nov 2017, 20:04

Blimey, Rog. You've moved on a helluva lot since I popped round!
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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby RogerS » 19 Nov 2017, 22:48

Jeez but these Cordivari radiators are the pants. Out of 13 radiators....

one has paint splashed on it in a different colour

one can't be fitted because they supplied the wrong fixing kit

one can't be fitted because either the paint coat is too thick or they've used the wrong diameter fixing rod

one can't be fitted because one of the fixing holes needs retapping
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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby 9fingers » 19 Nov 2017, 22:54

RogerS wrote:Jeez but these Cordivari radiators are the pants. Out of 13 radiators....

one has paint splashed on it in a different colour

one can't be fitted because they supplied the wrong fixing kit

one can't be fitted because either the paint coat is too thick or they've used the wrong diameter fixing rod

one can't be fitted because one of the fixing holes needs retapping


Simple steel panel radiators have proved very effective a trivial to fit for years now.......

KISS :lol:

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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby RogerS » 19 Nov 2017, 22:56

9fingers wrote:
RogerS wrote:Jeez but these Cordivari radiators are the pants. Out of 13 radiators....

one has paint splashed on it in a different colour

one can't be fitted because they supplied the wrong fixing kit

one can't be fitted because either the paint coat is too thick or they've used the wrong diameter fixing rod

one can't be fitted because one of the fixing holes needs retapping


Simple steel panel radiators have proved very effective a trivial to fit for years now.......

KISS :lol:

Bob


Style...old boy...style ;)
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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby 9fingers » 19 Nov 2017, 23:00

RogerS wrote:
9fingers wrote:
RogerS wrote:Jeez but these Cordivari radiators are the pants. Out of 13 radiators....

one has paint splashed on it in a different colour

one can't be fitted because they supplied the wrong fixing kit

one can't be fitted because either the paint coat is too thick or they've used the wrong diameter fixing rod

one can't be fitted because one of the fixing holes needs retapping


Simple steel panel radiators have proved very effective a trivial to fit for years now.......

KISS :lol:

Bob


Style...old boy...style ;)


Well you could have just painted them black allowing you to use smaller rads and be stylish too.
Function and Form in one hit!

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Re: The builder's are coming - Catch-up time

Postby RogerS » 29 Nov 2017, 14:13

The Cordivari/MHS Radiators (the UK distributors) saga continues and has set a new bar in terms of moronic and cretinous service.

Two weeks on and still not a complete set of functioning radiators as I don't have all the fixings. Today, finally FedEx delivered the long awaited parcel. But it looked small. Too small to have two sets which is what I needed. And yup, just one. Is the world full of incompetent mind-boggingly stupid people?

I give up.

And just ordered a set of slip-on ice over-shoes. There is a very steep hill to our place. Run-off from all the rain continually runs down it. Not a lot. But enough to freeze into sheet ice. All the way up. Sodding place.
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Re: The builder's are coming - The radiator saga goes on

Postby RogerS » 01 Dec 2017, 14:42

I got all excited this morning. The reason why there was only one set of brackets was that the muppets in Italy sent one correct and one wrong set of brackets to the UK distributor who intercepted the faulty set and arranged for a correct set to be despatched directly from Italy.

But needs must, as they say, and so last night I decided I could mount the radiator minus one bolt as it was so damn heavy and my builder chap wasn't going to be around for a few days to help me lift it on.

So...as I was saying...got all excited this morning as only two radiators left to plumb in and since I've got that off to a fine art now, didn't take very long.

OK ,..time to start filling up and check for leaks (a previous leak check sans radiators had already been carried out to check those connections that would be hidden behind plasterboard). Couple of weeping joints that were fixed with a quick nip of the spanner. Time to let some air out of the bleed valves.

Disaster. Every single bleed valve (bar one) on the horizontal radiators were locked solid and I mean solid. To compound the problem, Cordivari opted to scrape the bottom of the barrel when sourcing these as they are made from metal of such poor quality that the screw slots sheared on two of them.

So no heat today either. I could cry.
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Re: The builder's are coming - The radiator saga goes on

Postby Andyp » 01 Dec 2017, 17:43

Your luck will change soon Roger.
I do not think therefore I do not am.

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Re: The builder's are coming - The radiator saga goes on

Postby Deejay » 01 Dec 2017, 18:11

Hello Roger

Being Italian, they may be metric (13 MM ?) threads.

If you can't get the bleed screws out and the bleed valves sit in 1/2 " bsp sockets with a flange, how about something like ...

https://www.screwfix.com/p/radiator-ven ... 7QodDTgDhw

Or

https://www.columnrads.co.uk/vg-1-2-rad ... iGGx3lpFkg

For sockets without a flange ...

http://www.jtmplumbing.co.uk/heating-co ... gLw_fD_BwE

Scroll down to 1/2" fittings

HTH

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Re: The builder's are coming - The radiator saga goes on

Postby RogerS » 01 Dec 2017, 18:17

Hi Dave

The retailer is sending me some replacements luckily.
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Re: The builder's are coming - The radiator saga goes on

Postby Deejay » 02 Dec 2017, 09:57

Morning Roger

If the replacements are of the same quality, I'd change the bleed screws before fitting them.

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Re: The builder's are coming - Utterly demoralised

Postby RogerS » 02 Dec 2017, 19:13

I'm not sure how much longer I can go on. I am utterly and profoundly demoralised. I knew that I could slacken off the whole bleed valve assembly simply to get rid of the air and fill the rads up. A bit of water escaping would be neither here nor there.

And that is when I discovered that there is something fundamentally wrong (I think) with the way the plumber reconfigured the circuit. The original system didn't have the pump at the neutral point and looking in the header tank you can see from the rust residue that they'd had some pumping over in the past. So reconfiguring where the pump should go was down to the plumber. So he looked at how to do it and went ahead.

Somehow, somewhere I think that he has cocked up BIG TIME. The pump is running but there is no circulation as far as I can tell. No heat getting to it. I turned off the stopcock valve on the output side while it was running and there was no audible difference which from past experience on our other house there should be.

The downstairs radiators filled up when I unscrewed the bleed valve assembly. None of the upstairs rads did.

I've sent him a couple of texts but Sod's Law dictates that he is in the middle of some other project and so Christ knows when he'll get back to me or sort it out. We've given our notice in on the rental and we need to be out by Dec 31st. Then there is that silly thing called Christmas when the whole country closes down for December.

So ...wrist slitting time, I think.
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Re: The builder's are coming - Utterly demoralised

Postby Mike G » 02 Dec 2017, 20:11

Jeez, Roger, that's bad news.

Have you paid him? I'd pull the old "if this isn't fixed by XXX, I'll get someone else in and take it off your bill" trick and see what response you get.
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Re: The builder's are coming - Utterly demoralised

Postby stu » 02 Dec 2017, 21:20

Mike G wrote:Jeez, Roger, that's bad news.

Have you paid him? I'd pull the old "if this isn't fixed by XXX, I'll get someone else in and take it off your bill" trick and see what response you get.
The old 'shoot first, ask questions later' approach! Really bad advice.

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Re: The builder's are coming - Utterly demoralised

Postby 9fingers » 02 Dec 2017, 21:33

Could there be a problem with a zone valve on the upstairs circuit?

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Re: The builder's are coming - Utterly demoralised

Postby Doug » 02 Dec 2017, 22:23

The zone valve shouldn’t stop the rads filling up, usually an air lock from poorly laid out pipework is the commonest problem though the zone valve should be in the manually open position when venting.
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Re: The builder's are coming - Utterly demoralised

Postby Deejay » 03 Dec 2017, 09:21

Morning Roger

You really are having a bad time with this aren't you.

What have you got there? Fully pumped with a three way valve?

Simple questions, but you have to start somewhere, so no offence intended.

Can you bleed the pump?

Is the header tank still full?

I'd try turning off all the rad's, setting the pump to maximum flow (if you can) and see if it pumps round the mains. If you can get it to do that, let the rad's in one at a time.

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Re: The builder's are coming - Utterly demoralised

Postby Robert » 03 Dec 2017, 10:50

We are all guessing and wishing we could help so you have some moral support even if it is not any real help :)

My 2p is to make a drawing of the pipe system. It might help you (and us) diagnose what is happening.
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Re: The builder's are coming - Utterly demoralised

Postby RogerS » 03 Dec 2017, 11:26

Mike G wrote:Jeez, Roger, that's bad news.

Have you paid him? I'd pull the old "if this isn't fixed by XXX, I'll get someone else in and take it off your bill" trick and see what response you get.


No, not yet. He's old school and I have no doubt that he/they will fix it. The question is 'when'. I also have a nasty feeling having had another look that his son - who is also a plumber - has screwed up right-royally with the reconfiguration. There is no closed loop as far as I can see from CH pump, heat store and either the rads or the HW tank. The VERY bad news is that where I think he has made the cockup is now behind our lovely freshly plastered walls.
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