******* Thread now closed, please see volume 43 ********
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=22354
In this thread you may ask any question for which you need help, advice, suggestions or whatever.
It does not need to be motoring related. In fact, in this thread it should not be.
No Questions About PC\'s. They now go in another Thread.
No politics
No Speeding, speed cameras, traffic calming
No arguments or slanging matches
Nothing which I think is not following the spirit of the thread
Nothing that risks the future of this site (please see the small print for details www.honestjohn.co.uk/credits/index.htm )
Any of the above will be deleted. If the thread becomes difficult to maintain it will simply be removed.
However, as has been said a couple of times, there is a wealth of knowledge in here, much of which is not motoring related, but most of which is useful.
This is Volume 42. Previous Volumes will not be deleted,
A list of previous volumes can be found here:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=18847
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Hello!
I've been sent a new Natwest service card this morning, with information telling me that it's a new chip and pin one and that my existing service card has been cancelled with immediate effect.
Just two questions then:
1. What's the pin? Is it the same one I use in the cashpoint?
2. Can I refuse to use it? I've seen these already being used in Safeway and you can clearly see what number the person is putting in. I fail to see how this is safer than anyone trying to copy my rather elaborate signature and having extra ID on them to back it up. Also if the cashpoint number and chip and pin number are the same, and someone sees what it is, surely that's not as safe as a signature and keeping your pin secret for the cash machine?
Thank you!
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1. What\'s the pin? Is it the same one I use in the cashpoint?
All answered here - (hopefully)
www.chipandpin.co.uk/faqs/yourpin.html
surely that\'s not as safe as a signature
I find that very few cashiers check people\'s signatures these days.
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1/ no you cant refuse to use it. Chip and pin will be a way of life and you will have to get used to it. Used on continent for years.
2/ siting of the customer terminal is always a problem, it has to be useable by the customer easily, but not visible by others.
some put a sheild round it. You need to write to the custmer services department of the store involved and they will change it. (honest they will - the IT department likes feed back from customers, gives them visibility to the board)
3/ much safer than signature, thats why its coming to in to prevent fraud. I once forgot to sign my card and used it for 5 months before someone pointed it out.
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re 2, didnt see safeway there. I think you may get ignored in that case the it department is in a bit of a tizzy at the mo.
1/ they have all been ro will be given notice
2/ The systems are being integrated into Morrisons, so they could have their hands full.
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Have you never sat a test at school whilst carefully shielding your answers with your hand? Well, guess what? You can apply that same technique to the PIN keypad.
Bloomin' luddites......
:o)
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The very word I was going to use ND.
My first chip'n'pin experience was at a small local car accessory shop. When I got home the card co phoned me to check everything was okay!
Since then used at home and in la belle France a number of times with no problem.
But I bet some folk will still write their pin on the card!
--
Terry
"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand"
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"My first chip'n'pin experience was at a small local car accessory shop. When I got home the card co phoned me to check everything was okay!"
Blimey, clever cards these, if the company can tell when you get home too! :-)
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3/ much safer than signature, thats why its coming to in to prevent fraud. I once forgot to sign my card and used it for 5 months before someone pointed it out.
>>
...and I and one of my colleagues had our wallets stolen from the office - big burly guy spent £500 on her card despite it saying "Ms" on the card.
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You don't have to use the PIN number until January 2005, at this time you'll be expected to use the PIN number.
After Jan 2005 it's down to the retailer, signature can be taken as a fallback, however they can also refuse if you can't validate the transaction with a PIN (and most probably will).
PIN issued will be separate to the PIN you currently use at ATM's, however you should be able to change the PIN to sync the two up.
PIN is much safer than signature, let's face it if you find a card it's got a signature on it for you to practice at (not that you need to - my wife and I have both used each others cards at times and have never been queried).
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and having extra ID on them to back it up.
And how often does THAT happen? I have NEVER been asked to provide extra ID to prove I am the owner of the card.
I know it is fairly common in the US to not sign a card but to write 'Check Photo ID' in the signature space, but I would be wary of doing that here as it would likely not be understood. Anyway, no-one checks card signatures in the US anyway!
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PIN numbers are all very well, but I now have 4 numbers for various purposes connected with 2 banks, one of which was formerly a building society. I have a 6-digit number, a 5-digit number and 2 4-digit numbers. I've changed the 5 digit number to the first 5 digits of the 6-digit number, and I'm going to change the 2 4-digit numbers to the first 4 digits of the 6-digit number. If I don't do this I will have no chance of remembering them without writing them down somewhere. I'll then just have to hope that I never forget what the 6-digit number is!
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Does anyone have any idea what the bright light is in the south western sky? I noticed it a few months ago, as it wasn't something that was usually there. Since then, it has remained in the same place (to the untrained eye). So I'm assuming it's perhaps a new satellite?? I live near Petersfield in Hampshire, and the skys round here are not too polluted, so it is nearly always visible and pretty bright.
And yes, it's always there, not just after a few glasses of laughing juice....
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Venus?
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I don't think it's Venus. I've noticed it too, for several months, and it's on the opposite side of the sky to where I think Venus is. I'd love to know the answer to this one too.
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Puts on astronomer hat.
Currently the brightest light in the sky is visible in the southwest just after sunset until about 10pm, this is Venus. It has been visible at sunset since the beginning of the year and will soon (early June) be visible just before sunrise instead.
All satellites except geostationary ones move visible across the sky, none of the geostationary are as bright as Venus.
Interestingly Venus is bright enough on a dark clear moonless night to cast a distinct shadow.
hth
Ian L.
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agreed it's Venus : Nice link here for identifying bright stuff currently in the sky :- www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/myspace/nightsky/obser...l
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Thanks Ian, I guess it must be Venus. I was just a bit surprised that it seemed to be in almost the same place for such a long time.
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It is moving....against the stars. But the earth is also moving so the total effect is that the movement of Venus is apparently very small. Also you normally see Venus in twilight before the stars are readily visible so you have no reference frame.
About a month ago (mid april) Venus was setting at about 2330, tonight it will set at about 2310, by the end of the month is will set shortly after 2100 then it goes in front of the sun on the 8th June and reappears in the morning sky in the middle of June.
Just for interest on the 8th of June there is a rather unique astronomical event, the transit of Venus across the sun. This hasnt happened within the lifetime of anyone currently living and not visible from the UK for over a thousand years so hope it isnt cloudy.
The transit starts just after sunrise and finishes just before lunch:
Time of First Contact: 06:19:54
Time of Second Contact: 06:39:47
Time of Third Contact: 12:04:05
Time of Fourth Contact: 12:23:36
As for a solar eclipse, DONT view the sun directly, look at a projected image of the solar disc and you should see a tiny dark disc moving across the face of the sun.
cheers
Ian L.
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I did once read the answer to this but forgotten. If there are an infinite number of stars, it follows that they cover the entire sky - ie you could not push an infinitely long rod up without eventually hitting one. Why then isn't the entire night sky ablaze with light?
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Its called Olbers Paradox....direct evidence of the expansion of the universe.
Ian L.
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Olber's Paradox
In 1823, Heinrich Olber put forth a seemingly simple question: Why is the night sky dark? This actually is not a very easy question to answer, and an exploration of the solution tells a lot about the nature of the universe.
First of all, it says that the universe is of finite size with a finite number of stars. If there were an infinite number of stars, then every spot in the sky would have an infinite number, so would shine as brightly as the sun. This also tells us that stars are obscured by dust. Dust obscures more distant stars, so only close ones are actually visible. Third, stars are not in a uniform distribution, but exist in clumps with voids in between.
These first three explanations are actually wrong. Any dust would heat up and so eventually glow as brightly as the stars that it hid. The second and third explanations are partially true. The universe does not contain an infinite number of stars, but it does contain enough to be more than enough to resolve the paradox. Also, stars are not in a uniform distribution, at least not on small scales, but we do not yet have an accurate enough map of extragalactic structure to know if this can still hold on a universal level.
The following are two explanations that do resolve the paradox, correctly. First off, the universe is expanding, so distant light is shifted to longer wavelengths and made harder to see, an effect known as the Doppler Shift. Second, the universe is still young at between 11.2-20 billion years. Distant light has yet to reach us from anything beyond the visible universe.
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Mike
I have a very useful piece of software called 'skymap'
you install it, tell it where in the world you are and it looks at the time and gives you a map of what should be visible there and then .
I've had it a few years, and it came on a 99p compendium floppy from somewhere or other. If you desperatley want a copy and can't find it anywhere else, email me at address in profile
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Google skymap..
loads of alternatives, some of them free.
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Bowing to a whole load of vastly superior knowledge here, but...
Do you remember some weeks ago when some 5 or 6 planets were supposed to be lined up all in a row, I seem to recall for the only time in about 40 years or so?
I looked for these, and found some, but in the totally opposite direction was the very brightest thing, and I had assumed this was Venus. What could it have been? It's there every night (moving obviously with the seasons) - don't anyone *dare* suggest I am seeing a lamp-post or something! Really interested in this, I will check Google as M suggests but just wondered if anyone had anymore to say here.
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The moon? :o)
--
Terry
"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand"
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HF,
Currently the following planets are visible after sunset:
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, a few weeks ago you could have added Mercury to this list.
Unfortunately Mercury and Venus are in the south west (they can never be seen far from the setting or rising Sun as they are closer to the Sun than the Earth) and Mars Jupiter and Saturn
are elsewhere in the sky.
Venus and Mercury and Mars were not too far apart (20 deg or so) in March but Jupiter and Saturn are half the sky away. Jupiter is quite bright (but not as bright as Venus).
Remember even the planets will look like ordinary stars to the unaided eye except that they might not 'twinkle' quite as much. Some stars (Sirius, Aldeberan, Arcturus) are brighter or more colourful than some of the planets so brightness is not a good guide).
(Planets and the visible sky not really my field. I use 4 and 8 metre telescopes to observe many many thousands of faint galaxies)
cheers
Ian
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I would recommend www.heavens-above.com mostly for satellite watchers but Star Charts as well.
I assume if it was moving you would have said so but the International Space Station transits from the SW and can be brighter than Venus.
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So I might have been seeing a Space Station!
What I saw was not moving - but all the info given here I am most grateful for, as well as the pointers towards further info.
Thanks, I will investigate.
HF
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I'm trying to source a piece of research I read years ago which concluded that custom and practices in few if any industries are truly unique and that the averagely competent person can pick up enough knowledge in a couple of weeks to make him/her indistinguishable from someone who has worked in the industry for years.
The reason I ask is that I am in consulting and often face the Catch 22 of a prospect who says "but you haven't got 10 other clients like me - how can you possibly understand my business", but equally if you have 10 clients from one industry you either have too many conflicting interests or you're too niche.
The simple fact is that in 20 years of doing what I do I have yet to work in an industry that was beyond me understanding it, but people seem to need proof before they'll tie their shoelaces these days.
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I'm a currently-out-of-work IT contractor. The IT industry is notorious for requiring exact matches in skills. The fact that I have 20 years IT experience counts for nothing if I don't have knowledge of a particular programming language or software package. In some cases this they even specify the exact version numbers of the software required.
Its like an add for a van driver which reads.
"Driver wanted. Must have experience of driving a 51 reg, blue Ford Transit 2.0 Diesel with Dunlop tyres."
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I sympathise, Singer-G, but the fact is that due to the state of the (un)employment market, companies can usually find someone with the exact skillset they require.
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Was recently given a fridge-freezer that had been sat unused in my Grandmother\'s flat for a while. Approx 2 years old and had been working fine until it was switched off back in January when she went into hospital.
Got it back here and placed it in the garage last week. Has been left in-situ since then and was finally turned on yesterday evening in preparation for stocking the fridge with beer......
This lunchtime I opened the door expecting a wave of cool air. Nothing, nada, zip. The refridgerant panel at the rear of the fridge (inside the fridge, not the panel on the back of the fridge) was very warm to the touch. Same story in the freezer, where the cooling pipes were also warm.
The Fridge freezer had to be transported on its side (can\'t really stand a 6\' one up in the back of my car) and I\'m wondering if this has anything to do with it. Although it has been left upright and insitu for a week, could the refridgerant have airlocked and if so, can it be fixed?
In the meantime I\'ll just have to keep my beer with the food in the fridge in the house..... :o(
No Cold Beer.
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Had a very similar experience myself recently with a freezer used by deceased friend.
I think the seals dry out quite rapidly and/or the gas escapes when they are unused for some time after a regular life.
Since you left it upright and unused for a week, I doubt there would be an airlock, and the rear panel would get hot if it was working properly.
Sorry, sounds like it's a gonner.
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Got to the bottom of the warm pipes problem. This model has a small heater element that wraps around the refridgerant pipe on the inside of the fridge, keeping the fridge from becoming frostbound. In normal operation the element is just warm enough, but if the refridgerant isn't being pumped it gets very warm indeed.
When it was first switched on a light illuminated on the front panel. This has since gone out. It takes its input from the thermostat dial on the front of the fridge, so it seems it may be that this has gone to refridgerator component heaven. I'm going to see if bypassing this starts the refridgerant pump and if so, get a new 'stat.
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I'm going to see if bypassing this starts the refridgerant pump and if so, get a new 'stat.
Success!
Now I just need to find a replacement thermostatic switch or my beer will be frozen.
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>> and if so, get a new 'stat. Success!
Had similar happen to our fridge earlier this year. We moved it out of the kitchen into the shed while we fitted some new lino. Moved it back into the house and didly squat. Stat had gone kaput. £83 later (£60 call out fee for a Miele engineer, and £23 for the stat) got it going again.
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I've sent emails to a couple of places for a price on the stat. Will let you know.
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BTW, most useful site on the planet for domestic appliance problems:
www.acmehowto.com
Hope this helps someone.
V
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Cheers Vin, it was a bit of googling leading me to that site that made me bite the bullet and play with the stat control.
Total price including delivery from LEC is £14.82. New part on its way.
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Is this Fridge / Freezer going to live in the garage? If so be warned that the freezer may defrost itself in the winter.
Explanation.
On many Fridge / Freezers the fridge thermostat controls both the fridge and the freezer. This works fine if the unit is sited indoors, at normal room temperature. If it is sited in an unheated room, e.g. your garage, and the ambient temperature drops below 4 degrees the fridge will never cut in. The fridge is happy, but the freezer will gradually warm up (to a still cold 4 degrees, but no longer frozen.)
Some of the more modern fridge / freezers, particularly the large American style ones, have separate thermostats for the fridge and the freezer, so don't suffer this problem.
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Well, not so much kids - my daughter is now 18.
Someone told me that we cannot move or get a mortgage without her permission as she has squatters rights.
OK, her room looks like a poorly maintained squat, and she treats the house like a hotel :-), but this can't be right, surely?
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I am sure a legal expert will be along in a minute, but I believe a key phrase here might be 'adverse possession', which presumably she is not (in).
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Tis right, sadly.
Not because she has squatter's rights, as such, but because in their convoluted logic the bank don't know for certain that she doesn't have squatter's rights.
There is an established line of precedent that gives ownership rights to wives even if the husband's name is the only one on the deeds. There are also plenty of cases where hubby borrowed money secured on the house and didn't pay it back. The bank then moves in but can't have the house because wife says she in effect owns the house and didn't agree to the mortgage, or didn't understand, or was co-erced into signing it.
In one amazing case, the wife sadly died while the court proceedings were ongoing. Her executor took the case over and defended it, claiming that the wife had only signed as a result of unreasonable pressure from her husband, and thus the mortgage should be declared void. He should know - the executor was the husband.
The banks just need to cover all the possible bases. If there is a resident over 18 years old, s/he may have rights so the bank wants to make sure there is no potential claim. This applies even to the extent that when our firm asked for a bigger overdraft and we sent two partners to meet the bank, one male & one female, the bank manager had to ask if the relationship between them was anything more than just professional!
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P.S. - have now seen frostbite's post. I'm not a legal expert, but I've had to go through the mill that is borrowing money for a business, secured on a house in joint ownership.
Taking your wife to a solicitor so that he can explain to her that if I don't pay she loses the house and then paying £50 for the privilege is great fun I can tell you.
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i stand to be corrected smokie, but i think "squatters rights" only apply if they take over already empty or derelict properties.
billy.
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I know when we moved Junior RF had to sign something to do with his rights. Thought it was only 16 and under tho. Something to do with the childrens act?
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Helicopter Jr , although resident at University of Cambridge had to sign a form when we moved last year to say that he approved of the move.
It appears to be another example of banks / bulding societies paranoia .
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Now, I am in the fortunate position of no mortgage, so could I just move at will?
Not that I'm planning to...but this makes for an interesting pub discussion!
Thanks for advice so far...
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As I understand it, it has nothing to do with mortgage. It is to do with the childs right of abode, and safety. So even if you have no mortgage, they still have a say.
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When I bought my present house, the vendors' solicitor requested that their daughter (2 years old) signed the contract! Fortunately he was made to see sense.
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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It's not adverse possession but because the person living there actually has a right as a person in 'actual ocucpation.' It is mainly designed to protect people such as tenants (i.e., so that people can't say that they thought they were buying with vacant possessions) and partners, etc. who live with another person whose name is on the deeds/mortgage but who contribute to the household.
As it is far easier to get the form signed than to enquire as to whether any rights have actually accrued to the person living there, this is standard practice.
It's not paranoia at all but has a basis in statute; this is an overriding interest under sch.3 of the Land Registration Act 2002, but goes back to the 1925 Act.
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If it is not paranoia , why do the bank or building society require a signature in our case from someone over 21 who has not lived full time at home but at University for nearly four years and has made no contribution whatsoever to the household except in dirty washing and empty lager cans?
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Over 21? Irrelevant - it applies to anyone in actual occupation who is not an owner of the property, whether that's your aged mother, your girlfriend, or anyone else.
At university for nearly four years - Cambridge terms are 24 weeks of the year, so even if he extends that significantly, he's still at home for a significant part of the year and theoretically, most of it.
Paranoia? It has to be looked into either way; if he's on the electoral register or otherwises uses your address, it's easier to assume that he is in occupation than to spend time making enquiries to show the contrary. (The relevance or otherwise of any contributions made only extend to establishing how easy it is to kick him out - not whether it is your job, or the next owner's - should he refuse to move).
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Perhaps Helicopter Junior would PREFER to live with the next owners...
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As the place was sold to a beautiful Russian thirtysomething lady who had just split from her husband and paid cash , never mind Helicopter Jr - Yours truly was tempted!
I like to think it was my charm and good looks that sold her the old place but I think it was more to do with our other neighbours who were also Russian.
But I jest - SWMBO and yours truly celebrate thirty years of marriage tomorrow ... I've never regretted a day of it.
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Except the first one.
;-)
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Helicopter Jr - Sycamore seed?
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Little Nellie? (james bond)
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Please could someone tell me the current price per gallon of petrol in the USA?
Thanks in anticipation.
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USA Unleaded Gasoline Average Prices
Today 2.015
Yesterday 2.004
One Week Ago 1.944
One Month Ago 1.805
One Year Ago 1.498
Source: tinyurl.com/34xh5
(Prices will be for US gallons, not Imperial!)
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That is in California which adds a larger State tax. Prices in most other states are about 10c cheaper.
About 27p a litre.
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That is in California which adds a larger State tax.
Not so. The prices I quoted were the US average. California (Los Angeles) prices are about 27c per gallon more expensive. (Table in LH frame, halfway down page.)
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VDM,
Sorry - I hadn't seen that table.
I had checked a couple of states for their prices - Florida & New Jersey and there were lots of stations selling for $1.85 give or take a couple of cents.
If you look at many of States the cheapest petrol is around the figure above. That said the dearest petrol in the same States is much more expensive; so presumably they work out the average by taking the mean of the asking prices. However I can't see much petrol being sold for $2.10 if it is available for £1.85.
Even at the price you give it works out at 30p a litre.
C
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Seems to be cheaper on the east coast, pricier in the middle and [relatively] outrageous in California.
However, which UK motorist would object to 30p/litre? Kinda puts our fuel taxes into perspective.
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In fact, if the OAP knows which state and area he/she will be visiting, www.gasbuddy.com/ breaks prices down state-by-state.
[Oh for an edit button! :) ]
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bearing in mind us gallon is-3.7L uk is 4.5L
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Many thanks to all who replied.
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I recently moved to an area frequented by foxes and badgers. I've seen foxes in my garden, when they have set off the security lights, but not badgers. I've noticed that on my lawn smooth shallow depressions of about 1" x 1.5" appear overnight. In these depressions the grass has gone or has been covered with soil. Is this the work of the foxes or the badgers ~ or of neither?
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Could be either but I'd go for it being foxes scratching for earthworms. Or if you've got squirrels too it could be them looking for their buried nuts (we get that a lot on our lawn).
Squirrel = a rat with good PR.
--
Terry
"You'll have to speak up I'm wearing a towel"
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Foxes are very keen on earthworms and other bugs, and will dig for them. May well be fox activity.
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Could be a fox urinating and then scratching to hide? Watch a dog do its business and then dance to hide the result. Should bear scratch marks. Or if totally smooth the nose of Badge seeking earth worms grubs.
DVD
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Fox dung is black and somewhat like that of a cat
(I never tought I'd write that sentence on a motoring forum)
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And my Labrador retriever seems to think its a free channel no5 dispenser, Loves to find fox poo, rub it all round her neck and then round around the house saying "dont I smell nice"
Bless her GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
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Yes, I would agree foxes - having had both resident in my garden - badgers are much more destructive.
Can also confirm appearance - the resident vixen usually performs on my back path and will often wait for me to see her from the window before doing so! (kinky)
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RF, know the feeling - got a springer spaniel who thinks the same and knows exactly how far away he needs to be so he can have a good roll before he runs the risk of an 'accidental' collision with a size 9 Wellie !
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i've been on a waiting list for a triple by-pass op for the last 5 months,(scheduled for blackpool), i have recieved a letter this morning stating that due to expansion work being carried out on the cardiac unit, that they cannot meet the government recommended guideline of 6mnths, and that i can now opt to have the op at any cardiac centre home or abroad!. can anyone recommend a good hospital, as in all things i believe there is good, average, and poor,is there any performance league tables i can study, and also how can i find out which hospitals are troubled with the MRSA virus issue.
is there any other advice available out there from either personal or other experiances that may be of help to me.
thanks all.
billy.
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Billy
My sincere sympathy to you on your condition and I hope you eventually make a full recovery.
I have no advice or experience to offer except is there any chance of combining the op with a visit to a warm climate which would afford a suitable venue for convalescence as well?
When this NHS stuff started off, I recall that the patients who went to France got excellent treatment. Makes visiting by relatives a bit tricky though (which may or may not be a bad thing, depending on the relatives!)
--
Terry
"You'll have to speak up I'm wearing a towel"
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Billy - sorry to hear about your problems, and hope you get everything sorted.
If you know anybody who gets the Sunday Times, last weeks had a 'good hospital guide' for what it's worth
given the current prosecution of that doctor from BVH and what I've seen of it as a visitor, you may be better off out of it !
If MRSA is a real worry to you, I have a friend with an elderly mother recently admitted to hospital in Preston with a broken wrist who came out with MRSA (I think it was RPH, but i'm not sure)
My brother in law, who lives in merseyside, had a bypass a year or two or so, when this idea of farming operations to the private sector took off, and he was shipped up to a private (?) hospital in Glasgow. I know both he and his mrs were quite happy with his treatment.
Given that as a family we have an maount of experience of hospitals, and have succesfully complained about hospitals, and that he himself visits hospitals as a chaplain, I think that's fair recommendation. If you want to know more, email me at address in profile and i'll see what i can find out for you
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Billy, Sorry to hear of your problems. Perhaps the most well known and respected in the Midlands is the Glendale Hospital near leicester.
They specialise in by-pass operations and having visited a friend there who had this operation was very impressed.
tinyurl.com/39gje
alvin
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Billy, Sorry I should have said Glenfield...
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Thanks for the replies folks,
i phoned the patient care advisor at blackpool this morning to see exactly what my choices are as regards to hospitals and how much sooner i will get fettled if i choose to move,or how much longer i will have to wait if i stay put. unfortunately she wasn't there, but the secretary has promised that i will be phoned back later today.
thanks for the help offers -i'll be in touch.
billy.
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D'oh..!! just washed my wallet in washing machine. no money in it but credit cards were!!
will they still work? the card and the magnetic strip looks ok..
.. what a doughnut i am!
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Take a walk to your nearest cash machine and find out?
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the cards themselves should still be ok to use in a machine, i've "laundered" funds in exactly the same way to!!. one point, if the signature strip (that contains a security number) has come off or turned "whiter than white" some stores and garages will refuse to accept them, if thats o.k, so is your card.
billy.
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I've got a porch on the house we moved into last October and have had some front doors fitted by a local joiner about four weeks ago. The outermost doors - i.e. the ones you walk through first when you come in off the street into the porch area are a pair which obviously meet in the middle. Then inside that to get into the house there's a standard front door, half glazed etc.
I painted the outer doors before fitting in a fetching white shade of International brand Ranch paint - I trust the International brand from my boating days, having also given them two coats of wood preserver. Obviously when the doors were fitted the joiner had to plane the edges to make them fit. I didn't get an opportunity to re-paint the edges until last weekend due to inclement weather etc. Last week (before painting but after quite a bit of wet weather the outer doors became increasingly difficult to open because they're now touching in the middle, having expanded. I phoned joiner who told me to seal the edges with paint to stop water ingress which was leading to expansion, once it had dried out.
So, after a couple of days of halfway decent weather last week I put two coats of the aforementioned paint on over the weekend. The doors are still very difficult to open - but not in the morning, only in the afternoon. As the front of the house is west facing I conclude that the heat of the sun on the doors in the afternoon is causing them to expand, not water ingress. Can I do anything about this or should I just get the joiner back to shave a bit off one of the doors again (& then paint the edge for the third time) so there's a bit of room for expansion ?
This, and the fact that the door suppliers supplied the wrong width door for the inner one (despite also supplying the frame) and then tried to palm us off with not refunding the full amount it took for the joiner to widen it) is really getting on my nerves.
Thanks
Matthew Kelly
No, not that one.
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@Matt (Not that one Kelly)
I don't know if this will make you feel better or not but the amount of sunshine we have had recently will not have "dried out" your doors if the wet weather had caused them to expand that much. If we have a couple of weeks or so you should find that they'll start to close again properly, at which point you should seal all bare edges again.
JaB
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Best get the sandpaper out then !
Matthew Kelly
No, not that one.
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A trick told me by builders is to wipe the edges with washing-up liquid. Provides a bit of lubrication for close-fitting edges and worked well on my side garage door. Worth a try?
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Terry
"You'll have to speak up I'm wearing a towel"
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Only after its painted, the paint wont bond to wood with washing up liquid soaked in.
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Sorry, should have said that! Thanks RF
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Terry
"You'll have to speak up I'm wearing a towel"
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Thanks Terry, it's probably a bit worse than can be solved with a bit of washing up liquid. I'm having to take a run up and give it a solid shoulder barge to get in at the moment.
Matthew Kelly
No, not that one.
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Try rubbing a bar of soap along the edge that sticks, it draws moisture out of the wood and lubricates.
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Anybody know offhand the minimum width for a bathroom door? (rather not have to trawl through the odpm website!)
Thanks!
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Spot on RF.
Not as big as the plumber's (which is huge!). So he looked at the architect's plans and said 'I don't think they'll work with the building regs.' Hence the question!
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Depends on direction of approach
Straight on (no turn or oblique approach)
New Buildings 800mm Existing buildings 750mm
At right angles to an access route at least 1500mm wide
800 mm / 750mm
At right angles to an access route at least 1200mm wide
825mm / 775mm
External doors to buildings used by the general public
1000mm / 775mm
Note:
The effective clear width is the width of the opening measured
at right angles to the wall in which the door is situated from
the outside of the door stop on the door closing side to any
obstruction on the hinge side, whether this be projecting door
opening furniture, a weather board, the door, or the door stop
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Oooh, thanks. Ddo you have the reference for this, please RF?
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Took me an hour to find that! and now I can find them again.
Started here www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_buildreg/docu...p
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Any clue as to which section, please?
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RFP You have opened a can of worms here for me. My Bathroom and Lavatory doors are only 675mm wide. Do I have to demolish my bungalow and rebuild???
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RFP You have opened a can of worms here for me. My Bathroom and Lavatory doors are only 675mm wide. Do I have to demolish my bungalow and rebuild???
nah, now you've confessed, a demolition crew will have been sent out automatically by TPTB
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