Day 115: Scott vs a hole in the wall

OK, enough with guess the story. 

So , when we took out the toilet last November and changed the soil pipe it left a gaping hole in the wall. This was patched up on the inside but I figured that if get around to the outside when I get around to the outside. So this is me getting around to the outside. Why is the hole so big for a 4" pipe you may wonder. It's not that I went crazy with a power chisel - although it was fun to do. The old toilet was actually on an angle so it created an extra large hole when we straightened the pipe. 

So in first with the expanding foam to insulate and fill the gaps. Just shake the can, insert the nozzle and fill the foam. Then you watch it expand, and expand, and expand, and EXPAND! As you can see, I completely underestimated the expansiveness of the foam. It exted up looking like i jammed a giant marshmallow on steroids into the hole.

Good thing it's easy to cut when it dries. I used an old serrated kitchen knife which worked a treat. Don't ever try and clean excess off before it sets as it is stickier than a giant melted marshmallow on steroids. 

Once the foam was cut away, I used a bolster to cut bricks to size and fixed them using a lime mortar. As I've been reading, lime is important for flexing and water egress. Particularly important in older buildings that would have originally used lime. After it set, I used the same mortar for the rendering. Done in a couple of coats to get the right finish. This was finished off with a wet sponge and voila, no hole.

I'll finish off the paint when the weather gets a bit warmer.

 

Day 109: Scott vs the door trim

Day 109: Scott vs some wood rot

Compared with the fun I had on the radiator, this job was a piece of cake.

Under the tub on the external floor joist where the pipes exit the wall, I noticed some flaky wood. No discolouration or mushrooms growing from it so safe assumption that it is wet rot. Not quite sure what was causing it as I left a piece of cardboard over the areas for a week and it was perfectly dry. So likely to be from the previous bathroom installation.

After checking around the surrounding wood, the damage looks to be pretty minor just a 2 inch section and not too deep. Regardless, thought it best to call in Captain Ronseal .. 

This stuff soaks deep into affected wood and makes it rock hard and prevents future rot from occurring. There is a couple of window sills that could also use a visit from the Captain, but that will be the subject of a future post. So painted on, let it dry and hopefully, problem solved.

Day 102: Scott vs the radiator

If you think you've seen this towel radiator in multiple previous posts .. you have. And I'm STILL working on it. The challenge is that the radiator tails are more porous than the Toronto Maple Leafs blue line. I tried 8 wraps of PTFE tape on the threads, turned on the water and .. drip, drip, drip. So I had to drain the rad and take out the tails and put 14 wraps of PTFE tape on the treads, turned on the water and ... drip, drip, drip. 

So once again, I drained and took it all apart. So on went 20 wraps of PTFE tape to the point where threads were no longer visible and the rad tail looked like King Tuts thumb. Surely this has to work. Buttoned it all up again, turned on the water and, YEAH, no leaks! I filled up the rad completely now and turned on the heating, and when it reached full pressure .. drip, drip, drip. So out came some grown up words to express my joy in having to do this once again.

After consulting my friendly sources of knowledge - diynot, pistonheads and mybuilder - I felt somewhat vindicated in knowing that I wasn't the only one with this issue. Towel rads leak and quite often. I don't know why they've managed to solve most other building issues over the last 2 millennia but towel rads are somehow beyond the reach of science.

Or so I thought. Then I discovered Loctite 55. I think this must have been developed for NASA in some Apollo mission. The stuff is great. It looks like some overpriced dental floss and isn't cheap, but will it work? I followed the instructions of cleaning out any gunk from the tail threads, then taking a saw to the clean threads to rough them up a bit. After our recent history, I was more than happy to inflict some pain on those cursed threads. Afterwards I followed the recommended 7 wraps of the Loctite 55 and one for good measure and screwed them back on. Buttoned up the rads, turned on the water and prayed ... 

And, NO DRIPS! Feeling confident, I filled the radiator up fully, put the heating on to let it pressurise, and NO DRIPS!!! Finally, I finished the pipes off with some neato chrome pipe covering. One week on and drip free. Hooray for Loctite 55. PTFE tape is going in the bin.

Headline: Scott wins over a tough opponent in extra time