Things I Don't Like

[Turvey]

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

Almost as good as one of the greatest marketing cons of all times. Shampoo! Apply to hair, rinse, then repeat! The 'repeat' increases worldwide usage by 100% LOL

I always wash my hair twice! 😲 Doesn't feel clean after the first one but 'squeaky clean ' after the second.

[TomsFocus]

13 hours ago, Tizer said:

As a general rule there will be one vertical 4 inch (110mm) pipe that takes both the Flats and it will be either Internal or external. If the Bathrooms are one above the other then that will definitely be the case.

Usually for a Separate drainage system, this vertical pipe will take the Toilets, Wash Hand Basin and Shower. If the Kitchen Sink is not too far away then that will be connected too.

Sometimes for older Combined Drainage Systems the Toilet Waste was separate from the Sink/Basin/Shower, which were combined with the Rainwater System. This is unlikely in your case though.

At one time every 4 inch Vertical Stack was vented to atmosphere but recently Air Admittance Valves were invented, primarily for use in Flat Conversions where you could not vent to atmosphere.

Sometimes, especially recently, the Vent is not visible because if the Vertical Stack is Internal it can terminate in a special Roof Tile Vent instead of just sticking out of the roof. The Tile Vent is easily seen if you know what you are looking for.

Most modern things in the Construction Industry have been dumbed down and Drainage is no exception. You can now use a system with Air Admittance Valves for about 20 houses as long as the one at the head of the line is vented.

This can result in lots of problems. One of them is that an Air Admittance Valve only lets air in, not out, so any build up of pressure will find another way out instead of being vented as it should be.

Given that your Estate has had Underground Drainage problems before, the drains may still not be functioning correctly, hence the smell you get sometimes.

I could go on but I think I have bored the you know whats off you already.

Not boring at all!  I'm always interested to learn.  

Our bathrooms aren't above each other, the kitchen & bathroom are reversed downstairs, my toilet is directly over their kitchen sink and vice versa.

The down pipe is technically internal, but hidden in a brick void downstairs & behind a false wall up here.  I'd never realised before how much bathroom space I'd actually lost to this void, it's only now I've seen the difference in thickness around the window between kitchen & bathroom.  There's a service cupboard downstairs where the pipe bends out of the wall and then into the ground, but that's literally all I can see of it.  

I'll have a proper look at the roof next time I go out to see if there are any odd looking tiles above the bathroom.  Streetview isn't that detailed unfortunately.  Will also see if I can work out how many sewage drains there are in the ground compared to the number of properties.

 

While we're on the subject of water, I was impressed by how quickly the water board responded to a fault that I reported a couple of weeks ago.  Had a short walk around our block and almost tripped on an open water meter cover.  Tried to tread the cover back in and it felt like jelly underfoot!  Kicked it off and realised the meter was leaking, pushing up a polystyrene insulator above the water level.  Very surprised it had enough force to blow the cover off though!  Anyway, reported it online, and within 4 hours it had been fixed, with emails to update and confirm the fix as well.

[TomsFocus]

13 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Almost as good as one of the greatest marketing cons of all times. Shampoo! Apply to hair, rinse, then repeat! The 'repeat' increases worldwide usage by 100% LOL

That's one product I don't have to spend much on.   Probably explains why my shower trap is cleaner than expected as well!  

 

[Tizer]

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

I'll have a proper look at the roof next time I go out to see if there are any odd looking tiles above the bathroom.  Streetview isn't that detailed unfortunately.  Will also see if I can work out how many sewage drains there are in the ground compared to the number of properties.

It would be so easy to work things out if I was there instead of making educated guesses.

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Not boring at all!  I'm always interested to learn.  

I bet anyone else that made the mistake of reading this has lost the will to live now😁

Thinking about things, if you had an open vented system and the vent was blocked then there would be other symptoms. The Toilet would not run away when flushed properly unless Make Up Air could be drawn from somewhere else such as the Shower Trap being faulty and the Wash Hand Basin would make gurgling noises when you pull the plug out unless it had a very good Anti Syphon or Self Sealing Trap.

A faulty Air Admittance Valve would give similar symptoms.

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Will also see if I can work out how many sewage drains there are in the ground compared to the number of properties.

There should be Manholes with covers obviously or at the very least Inspection Chambers or Rodding Eye covers at all changes in direction, so it might not be that obvious to an unskilled person.

 

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Very surprised it had enough force to blow the cover off though!

Water is tremendously powerful. A few years ago all the properties around here lost Gas supply for almost a week because the Main had a lot of water in it.

What happened was there was a pinhole in an old Cast Iron Water Main that ran underground near a Gas Main. The force of water through the pinhole cut through the gas main and with the water force being greater than the gas force, the Gas Main filled with water.

We had half the countries Plumbers here digging up the Mains at regular Intervals to drain the water and reconnect everyone.

[TomsFocus]

56 minutes ago, Tizer said:

It would be so easy to work things out if I was there instead of making educated guesses.

That is the nature of forums unfortunately.  You have still been incredibly helpful though!

 

58 minutes ago, Tizer said:

Thinking about things, if you had an open vented system and the vent was blocked then there would be other symptoms. The Toilet would not run away when flushed properly unless Make Up Air could be drawn from somewhere else such as the Shower Trap being faulty and the Wash Hand Basin would make gurgling noises when you pull the plug out unless it had a very good Anti Syphon or Self Sealing Trap.

A faulty Air Admittance Valve would give similar symptoms.

I never use a plug in the basin so wouldn't know.  The kitchen sink gurgles all the time, particularly with the washer dryer as that's pumping out water every few minutes during the drying cycle.  But that may be more to with the syphon action on the washer pipe.  It is hooked up as high as I can get it under the worktop.

 

1 hour ago, Tizer said:

There should be Manholes with covers obviously or at the very least Inspection Chambers or Rodding Eye covers at all changes in direction, so it might not be that obvious to an unskilled person.

There are manholes...I've seen those full of turds more than once!   But the ones I mean are much smaller with plastic lids, screwed down with stainless screws.  I'm guessing those are waste water between properties & manholes but could be wrong with that.

[Tizer]

3 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I never use a plug in the basin so wouldn't know.  The kitchen sink gurgles all the time

If the Kitchen Sink is more than 3m from a Ventilated drain then it will do that anyway even if everything else is ok.

5 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

But the ones I mean are much smaller with plastic lids, screwed down with stainless screws.  I'm guessing those are waste water between properties & manholes but could be wrong with that.

If these are approx 4 to 6 inch diameter or oval then they will be Rodding Eye Covers.

[StephenFord]

Crikey, Tom's issue of an errant domestic smell is worthy of it's very own thread! 🤣

[TomsFocus]

10 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Crikey, Tom's issue of an errant domestic smell is worthy of it's very own thread! 🤣

Lol, at least it makes a change from all the Sync threads...

[Tizer]

15 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Crikey, Tom's issue of an errant domestic smell is worthy of it's very own thread! 🤣

Just thought I would bore you all😁

[StephenFord]

6 minutes ago, Tizer said:

Just thought I would bore you all😁

Mission accomplished - well done... 🤣

[Turvey]

6 hours ago, Tizer said:

 

There should be Manholes with covers obviously or at the very least Inspection Chambers or Rodding Eye covers at all changes in direction, so it might not be that obvious to an unskilled person.

Manholes? 😲 Surely you mean 'Personholes'? 😃

[Tizer]

21 minutes ago, Turvey said:

Manholes? 😲 Surely you mean 'Personholes'? 😃

I know🤭, It's only a matter of time before someone complains.

[Jimpster]

better than saying woman holes, i'll get mi coat

[TimST2]

service and MOT on the ST today, and had to replace both rear springs because they had snapped!

Thanks for maintaining the roads North Somerset County Council. It wasnt that long ago I also had to replace a practically new front PS4 due to a pothole strike either. 

At least Ford got very confused about the invoicing and undercharged me by £100 

[StephenFord]

I absolutely hate the new style of screw top in drinks bottles where the screw top is tethered on! It gets in the way if you drink from the bottle, and it often doesn't allow a smooth screw back on often cross threading so the drink goes flat! Stupid idea and the inventor should be shot!

I now simply cut the top off, and treat it like a proper screw top!

 

[unofix]

3 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Stupid idea and the inventor should be shot!

Yup !!  That will fix it 🤣

Note for our American readers. He's not really going to shoot them 😉

[alexp999]

4 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I absolutely hate the new style of screw top in drinks bottles where the screw top is tethered on! It gets in the way if you drink from the bottle, and it often doesn't allow a smooth screw back on often cross threading so the drink goes flat! Stupid idea and the inventor should be shot!

I now simply cut the top off, and treat it like a proper screw top!

 

Can thank the regulators for this one.

 

[StephenFord]

Just now, alexp999 said:

Can thank the regulators for this one.

 

I actually wrote to 'Coke' about the issue and they quoted that their research showed that some morons threw the bottle out without the lid, so they decided to attach it, they didn't quote me any regulations? Maybe they just wanted to take credit for a nanny, woke decision in thinking we're all too dumb to screw the lid back on before recycling it!

[alexp999]

5 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I actually wrote to 'Coke' about the issue and they quoted that their research showed that some morons threw the bottle out without the lid, so they decided to attach it, they didn't quote me any regulations? Maybe they just wanted to take credit for a nanny, woke decision in thinking we're all too dumb to screw the lid back on before recycling it!

https://www.plastikmedia.co.uk/requirements-for-the-production-of-tethered-caps/

[StephenFord]

2 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

https://www.plastikmedia.co.uk/requirements-for-the-production-of-tethered-caps/

Now I'm really confused, that appears to be an EU directive - haven't we left the EU??

[alexp999]

4 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Now I'm really confused, that appears to be an EU directive - haven't we left the EU??

Look at the date of the directive. It's from 2019.

We didn't leave till 2020.

So it is in our legislation too.

EDIT: Here:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/2019/904

[StephenFord]

Just now, alexp999 said:

So it is in our legislation too.

Oh f*&%, the government really should get their finger out and rescind all that nonsense!

[TomsFocus]

First time I've seen that, though I don't have any soft drinks.  When we first got recycling bags here back in the 00's, we were told to leave the lids off so the bottles would be crushed and save space in the trucks.  Trouble is, the lids are too small for the recycling sorter machines so we're now told to crush the bottles and then replace the lids.  I suspect people either don't know about the change or couldn't be ar*ed with the hassle.

I have noticed that the lids on many water bottles have become much shorter recently though, and are also tapered towards the base.  Both of those things make them more difficult to grip and I keep dropping the damn things!   I consider myself fairly dexterous as well, must be a bigger issue for anyone with arthritis or similar.  Did write to a couple of the manufacturers, stating my concerns, particularly for the elderly or disabled, but never received a response.

I'm all for reducing plastic waste, but not at the expense of product usage.  There are other instances of this as well, particularly with own brand items.  For example, pork pies used to come in a solid plastic tray.  That's been removed, so now they get bashed in transit and the bags split leaving them soggy.  The paper on top of a spreadable butter tub has also been removed so the top layer is just rank oil, and the tub itself has been made too thin, so it's difficult to get the lid off without breaking the finger tab, and if you do happen to drop the whole thing, the tub bursts easily.  The most annoying part here is that both pork pie trays and butter tubs are easily recyclable...it's all the damn plastic film everywhere that can't be easily recycled and needs to be re-thought imo.

[TomsFocus]

Just now, StephenFord said:

Oh f*&%, the government really should get their finger out and rescind all that nonsense!

I doubt it'd make a difference in this case.  Coke are hardly going to make 'UK only' machines for bottle production.  In the same way we won't get UK only cars manufactured without EU required items.  

[TomsFocus]

On 5/27/2023 at 1:48 PM, StephenFord said:

Crikey, Tom's issue of an errant domestic smell is worthy of it's very own thread! 🤣

The saga continues! 🤔

Received the replacement part on Thursday and fitted yesterday, but the smell was bad again last night.  Have also used cleaner through all of my waste pipes in both kitchen and bathroom.

Not sure where to go from here.  I still can't really describe the smell.  And it seems to vary in intensity, with no smell at all some days, and barely being able to breathe in there other days!

I'm sure it's coming up from downstairs somehow, as opposed to being my pipework, but I can only assume there's no smell down there otherwise they'd be making an effort to eradicate it as well.

Wish I was sociable enough to knock on their door and ask for a sniff but sadly I'm not.  And that turn of phrase might give the wrong idea anyway.