Advantis Home Maintenance Ltd. t/a AppliancesFitQuick » Bad DIY

Poor Ventilation Causes Poor Flue Performance

admin — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 07:39:30 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘DIY Property Maintenance ‘

It’s getting on to the end of the year. No Really! If you don’t believe me take a walk through your town centre. Christmas sales and decorate remind us that the cold weather is coming. My interest in the seasonal change however is safety. The big burning ball of mostly hydrogen called the sun is around in shorter supply every day. Especially here in Oldham. Your heating systems and fires are starting to get turned onto supplement. If you haven’t had your fire or boiler serviced recently here’s at least one good reason why you should.

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The first picture shows the fresh air supply vent for this homes back boiler. The screen behind the vent is not allowed for the very reason shown here. It’s clogged up with paint, dust and debris. The second photo is what the vent should and now looks like.

I’ve not met many people who take the fresh air vent seriously. I had one client boast a few years ago that she plugged the vent in her property and then hung a radiator over it. She was not amused when I gave her a choice of re-establishing the vent or having her gas turned off. Incidentally she has not used us since. Better to bitter and alive then happy and dead though. I’ve been to many more homes the fresh air vent has been plugged up and plastered over during a renovation! Now this may not seem like a big deal. The vents do cause a nasty draft at times and it’s near impossible to be comfortable in a room where the vent points straight to outside especially in the minus 20 degree weather we had last year. Problem is this. If that vent is missing then your flue may not function properly and you may indeed die from carbon monoxide poisoning and them’s the facts, Jack!

The science of flues is simple. In order for a flue to work it must be able to remove the products of combustion which are the fumes from the fire. The fumes go up and out of the terminal at the top of the chimney. Simple enough. Hot air rises so in the most simplistic way this works without a fire too. Warm air from a room heated with nothing more than the sun will drag air up the flue and deposit it outside. Problem is this. If there a vacuum in the room and I don’t mean a Hoover! If there is no way for fresh air to replace the air that’s going out through the flue then a couple of things are going to happen. Firstly the fire is going to light with the oxygen that’s already in the room. The fire is going to burn with the oxygen already in the room. As not enough fresh air (oxygen) can get in then the flow of air and the products of combustion will stall and start to back up down the flue and spill back into the room. Depending on how cold the air is outside this can happen even on a flue in good condition as well. Most gas fires and back boilers have safety devices to stop them from working if there is a lack of oxygen however it doesn’t stop you from breathing in the carbon monoxide in the meantime and if the devices aren’t sensitive enough you could die before the fire goes out.

So back to our fresh air vent. It’s there for a reason. Fresh air means fresh oxygen. In today’s homes the vents are even more important as older houses had drafty floor boards and windows as well as air bricks peppered around the perimeter. There was no shortage of fresh air (a.k.a. adiabatic air flow). As homes improved over the years things like laminate flooring and underlay can plug up all the air flow that used to come through the drafty floor. Double glazing now stops all air flow around the windows and sealed outside doors stop the flow there. Even conservatories can dramatically change the way a house breathes. With all of that air flow dampened down you create a sealed environment. Poison gas can’t escape and no fresh air gets in. It’s only a matter of time before that room is inhabitable.

So before the heating season really kicks off get your gas fire (back boiler, coal and wood fires follow the same rules!) serviced. Make sure that service includes a flue flow test (a smoke bomb up the flue to check for leaks throughout the property) and that the ventilation is good (no shrubs, bugs, paint or other substances) with nothing is blocking the fresh air vent. A Gas Safe Registered engineer will know what to look for in every circumstance so always trust them. DO NOT TRUST ANYONE ELSE!!!!

If your current service engineer can’t show you a valid ID card then he/she/it isn’t Gas Safe Registered. You might as well hire a BABOON! You’ll have about the same chance of getting it done safely and correctly. Here’s a short video on what the ID card MUST look like.

More question? Gas Safe Register Website – Click Here or ring them on 0800 408 5500

Burnin’ Down The House

admin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:55:54 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad Gas Fitter

While moving a boiler for a client we were presented with this issue. The single socket was feeding a fridge located under a stairway. The socket was already spurred off of the ring located upstairs. The black cable was the also wired into the socket from behind and then fed out to a shed via an armoured cable. What’s the problem with that?

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There are a few problems with this hookup. The first being that the socket is aready a spur and cannot feed another socket down the line when protected by a 30 amp fuse. As the cable for the shed was wired directly into the spur from behind then the outside circuit was also being fed from a 30amp fuse . The consumer unit was an old wylex box with wire fuses and thereofre did not offer the protection that an RCD would offer. The shed, although waterproof was showing signs of corrosion and the armoured cable could not be inspected. As the shed contained a fridge/freezer and another seperate freezer we added a fused plug to the connector so that it could be plugged back in properly. As we had also upgraded the consumer unit there is now RCD protection to all sockets.

As an extra note we also found faults on another cable which had been run to a greenhouse. That cable showed signs of damage underground and the feed was permanently disconnected.

Ask a professional before playing with your electrics or gas! Don’t guess about something that could leave you homeless, uninsured or worse – DEAD!

Poor Plumbing Produces Wood Warp Wonder

admin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:43:34 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad Tenant Plumbers…

We received a call early this week to repair a leak in a flat that we look after for the landlord. When we arrived the solid wood flooring had already been wrecked. After speaking to the tenant we were told that they went on vacation and when they returned the place was flooded. After we removed all of the stuff from under the kitchen basin we found a leaking hose connection to the dishwasher. When I called the owner I heard a slightly different story.

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As it turns out the tenant asked if they could put in their own dishwasher as plumbing and space were already built into the flat. The landlord didn’t see anything wrong with that so they ordered one and installed it. Unfortunately as can be seen in the pictures above they didn’t install the MUCH required rubber washer between the isolator valve and the hose. The leak wasn’t massive and it would have been dripping for days before anyone might notice it. Too bad that they went away for a couple of weeks and so NO one noticed the water as it started to creep along the floor.

The wood flooring is saturated and must now be removed, the surface dried out and then the flooring replaced. The lesson here is that even a simple job may not be easy for someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. If your tenant wrecks the property after you gave them permission you may not be able to recoup the cost of repairs. For about forty quid we would have saved a possible thousand pound repair.The only good news in this situation is that the cement floor under the wooden flooring prevented the water from getting into the shops below and costing even more to put right.

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Over-The-Top Gas Fire Installation

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:44:20 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad DIY Gas Fitter…

When called to a home last week we viewed a fire which was to be swapped with a new unit of the same type. Everything looked alright on first glance. The gas fire was old and the surround was worn. The flue terminal and chimney brickwork looked good too. So we showed up yesterday to remove the old fire and re-fit the new one but had to stop when we realised that we couldn’t gain access to the catchment space behind the fire.

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The closure plate situated behind the fire could not be removed as it was sandwiched between the brickwork and the dry lining which had since been tiled. The closure plate is where the flue of the gas fire pokes through into the catchment space of the chimney and must be matched to the flue and be well sealed so that carbon monoxide does not escape into the room. As we couldn’t remove the plate to inspect the flue or the space behind we had to stop. It is very important to gain access so that items such as loose brickwork, broken off bits of mortar and building debris, bird nests or as was the case here, several sweetie packets, can be removed and if required maintenance carried out.

We capped the gas and did not mount the new fire until we could speak with the home owner who as told us that we can continue the job by removing the surround to gain access. At the same time we’ll be removing the ‘wooden’ trim seen near the bottom of the fire and if everything checks out we will reinstall the new closure plate and then the fire will be fit correctly and safely.

No Mirth For Earth Dearth

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:50:52 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad DIYers…

So you drive down to Ikea or B&Q and pick up a nice looking light fixture for your bathroom. You get home and turn off the bathroom electrics (we hope!) and then remove the current fitting. You’re not sure what you’re doing so you hook up the wires in a way that seems logical. Red/brown to red/brown and black/blue to black/blue. As you don’t know that the symbol for earthing is where the bare copper wires or the green/yellow stripe wire should connect so they don’t get connected. And here is where the potential for electrocution start.

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As was the case with the Swedish light fixture pictured here the unit is not sealed against moisture and therefore is not rated for a bathroom or kitchen. Every time hot water is used to fill a tub, sink or shower the hot moist air rises up to the ceiling. When all that moisture hits the colder ceiling (and light fixture) it condenses just like the water droplets on a window. So that moisture then drips down the walls which are usually well painted or tiled. But is also drips into the light fixture which is not sealed as it is not designed for a moist area.

So if the water causes a short circuit at the same time you happen to touch it (the ceiling in this bathroom is low enough to be touched by the older children in the home) then the lack of earthing means that the electricity will try and get to EARTH through your body travelling right through your heart. If you’re lucky and your heart is healthy and the circuit breaker and/or RCD trips like it should then you might get a little shock. Once the ozone smell disappears most folks then call an electrician to ‘come and see what’s wrong with my house.”

There is rarely anything wrong with ‘the’ house. It’s the layers of inadequate bonding of pipe work, inadequate earthing of metal work (back boxes, fittings, lights, fans, etc) and in a lot of cases the improper running of cables in the first place. As a home owner you are allowed to undertake certain electrical work in your house but not in what is deemed to be special areas. A kitchen and bathroom is a place where electricity and water or moisture meet on a daily basis.

Surly people can see the need for making sure that even if there is a short circuit due to some unseen issue that the home owner (or their children or your nan) don’t end up like a fried chicken dinner!

Lawless and Grommet

admin — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:03:49 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad Electricians…

It is important to point out here that anybody who pushes low voltage cables (240 volts AC) through metal back boxes or metal light fixtures should always use PVC grommets; and here’s why!

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Many years ago someone mounted this fluorescent light fixture in a kitchen We are on site to give the house a total re-wire. It is also fortunatel that we were the ones to touch the fixture while the electrics were turned off at the consumer unit. Had anyone been touching this fixture it is a good bet that it may have been live! As can be seen in the photos there are several issues.

Issue one is that the PVC sheath that should shroud, and is a first level protection for the conductor inside, has not been pulled through to the inside of the fixture. Subsequently the conductors are being squeezed directly between the ceiling and the metal fixture. The conductors themselves (red & black) are at risk of being sliced into by the sharp metal edges. The damage to the old insulation can be seen by way of the copper conductor showing through!

The second issue is that even if the PVC sheath had been pushed through into the fixture it was still being sandwiched between the sharp metal edge (they are VERY sharp) and the ceiling. The pressure of screwing the fixture to the ceiling along with the movement of the fixture while mounting it is usually enough to cut the cable.

One more issue is that none of the light circuits were earthed. So if this fixture had become live there was not necessarily going to be a quick disconnection coming. Certainly not the way I would choose to test my heart muscle! So as always, the impending accidental death that we stopped was set up many years in the past by somebody who didn’t know any better or just didn’t care.

There should always be a grommet pushed into the knockout (the hole) to allow a cable to be safely pulled through and further allow for the safe movement of the cable during second fix when the cables are stripped, tested and finally connected to their intended destination.

Bathroom Electrics With A European Flavour

admin — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:59:08 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad DIY

This job had a lot going on. We were asked to move a kitchen from one room to another which meant upgrading the consumer unit to comply with current building regulations, the central heating controls also required moving from the old kitchen to a closet and there were lots of plumbing issues too. The worst issues we had to sort out was this set of clamp on lights in the bathroom which were wired through a false ceiling and not at all compliant or safe.

We knew the old lights had to come out but the question was where was the fitting being feed from. This house is not a semi but rather has one family living upstairs and one family downstairs so pulling up the upstairs floors was not an option. We took an educated guess by way of imperfections in the plastering up of the original light fixture and put a test hole through the ceiling. Bingo! We found the old feed on our first attempt. It took a bit longer to figure out exactly what we had found though.

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So what is it? Well, it’s an old style three pin extension which has had the protective bezel cut away. That is why the brass earth prong is sticking through. The earth was never continued to the lamps. We still couldn’t figure out how the connection to the clamp lights was made until we fished around in the ceiling a bit longer and found the European plug adapter which had been pushed into the old extension. We removed all of the old wiring and lamps, disconnected the PVC cables and then provided a proper connector. We placed the entire connection inside a choc box and then wired that into an appropriate lamp fixture for a bathroom. The finished product hid the hole we had to create and provides much more light for those early morning baths.

DIY Outside Electrics Death Shed

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 08:47:10 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad DIYers

We were recently invited to sort out some dodgy backyard electrics. It was surprising that no one had managed to get a shock off this exposed wiring. When we traced back all of the cables that were darting around behind bushes and exposed to the elements they all traced back to the shed. The shed was also wired incorrectly in that the old and cracked trunking had been walked on and exposed to heavy moisture.

What you can’t see in these pictures is the route that the cable follows from the shed back to the house which involves indoor style trunking as well as outdoor trunking and some areas with no trunking. The house electrics are controlled by an older Wylex wire fuse box so the house has no RCD.

It makes no difference if you wire up your back yard with proper waterproof switches and sockets if the same care isn’t used for the cable runs and most importantly the power source. We’ve seen dozens of sheds, shacks and greenhouses which have missing or damaged earths and many with neutral faults. Because the faults aren’t on the line (live) side of the circuit the fuse doesn’t blow so everybody assumes all is well. Often times it’s not. If you don’t understand electrics and don’t have test equipment then you can’t tell if the work you have done is correct. Call a professional for outside electrical work.

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Unsafe Bathroom Electrics

admin — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:52:52 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad Electrical

Whilst undertaking a job elsewhere in this flat we came across this mess. The fan had obviously been replaced at some point in the past and perhaps the new one had a smaller case than the old one. The owners solution was to leave the wires exposed. If you look closely you can see a cut in the brown (live or line). Althougth the earth usually isn’t required for a double insulated appliance it is customery to cut it off and tuck it tucked away within the unit where moisture cannot gain entry into the cable sheath. This particular bathroom is on an inside wall with no windows so moisture build up would be a concern to all wires that are exposed.

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Home Made Building Regulations!

admin — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:13:09 +0000

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad DIY Gas and Electrics

We were on site to replace an electric double oven and gas hob as well as add an new kitchen extractor fan. When we viewed the job a few days earlier it didn’t look too bad but of course we don’t have x-ray vision and can’t see behind kitchen units to see how things are really hooked up. In the case of this kitchen things were not hooked up as they should have been. We had work to do with the cabinets, eletrical and gas fittings too.

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The homeowner had already removed the cooker for us and when we arrived we discovered not only was the original carcass not level or true or plumb but the original cooker isolator switch pictured here had been wired in backwards and with no earth sleeves. Also the top of the surface mount box had a thumb sized hole in the top awaiting the first curious youngster to investigate. When we had that sorted we got onto the gas hob which too had been installed incorrectly with a flexible hose connected to a bayonet fitting that was so far down behind the carcass that we could barely disconnect it. We removed the bayonet connector and piped up the new hob in copper with a proper gas isolator.

When working on your own homes do like the professionals do. Always use qualified people to get the work done (Gas Safe Register, NIC EIC, FENSA, etc.). If you’re unsure about something ask somebody that knows. Don’t ask your mate who is handy with a screwdriver. Just because your old cooker was hooked up with a flexible gas hose doesn’t necessarily mean that you can hook up anything else that way. The building regulations are clear and the manufacturers installation book that comes with the appliance is the final say. If it says you can use a gas home then you can use a gas hose. If it says that you cannot then you cannot!

As for electrics there is no reason why a home owner cannot disconnect and reconnect a cooker cable. Just watch what you’re doing and connect things up the right way around. As always, the original hookup may have been wrong so always check the work that the previous person did; it may be wrong! Stupid mistakes like leaving an opening in the back box can lead to really dangerous situations and dead people.

Advantis Home Maintenance Ltd. t/a AppliancesFitQuick » Bad DIY

Poor Ventilation Causes Poor Flue Performance

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad ‘DIY Property Maintenance ‘

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Burnin’ Down The House

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad Gas Fitter

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Poor Plumbing Produces Wood Warp Wonder

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad Tenant Plumbers…

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Over-The-Top Gas Fire Installation

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad DIY Gas Fitter…

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No Mirth For Earth Dearth

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad DIYers…

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Lawless and Grommet

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Bad Electricians…

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Bathroom Electrics With A European Flavour

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DIY Outside Electrics Death Shed

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Bad DIYers

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Unsafe Bathroom Electrics

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Bad Electrical

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Home Made Building Regulations!

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