Day 923: This work sucks

Back from holiday now and doing some long overdue postin'. First a job that really sucked.

When I first installed the bathroom extractor fan (using the term "I" though I actually paid for this one), it was a quick job so I could continue with the bathroom work. The issue that remained was that this loft is an un-insulated cold space (particularly after I boarded it over) so hot steamy air, going upwards from the bathroom through the cold will eventually condense in the hose; and condensation in a hose over a long period in the cold eventually means mould (which rhymes). The flexi-hose that was used also has rings which impact smooth air flow, which leads to more condensation and you guessed it, more mould. Yuck!

The solution was twofold. First I'd replace the flexi-hose with rigid 4" plastic pipe to increase airflow and then wrap the pipe with insulation to protect it from the cold. All this should reduce any condensation in the winter and reduce any green stuff growing. 

The pipe was awful on the inside when I took it down - looking like something out of a low budget 1970's gore movie. So bad my that even my camera didn't want to look at it. 

However, the rest of the job was actually quite easy. Frustrating, but easy. 

Tools required:

• Lots of plastic pipe and some elbows - 45 deg and 90 deg
• Hacksaw
• Plastic pipe sealant - had this leftover from the kitchen
• Measuring tape
• Duct tape for plastic ducts - not normal duct tape which doesn't work on ducting, go figure
• Cable ties
• Condensation collection tray - not used, but could have been
• Draft flap - I ended up buying a second one of these as it only comes with one spring and feels way to flimsy by itself. And yes, I paid £4 for a bloody spring.

The first thing I discovered was that the flex hose wasn't vertical in though the ceiling - grrr. I had to get out the saw and cut both the ceiling and the loft board above to get the pipe vertical. 

Then it was a bit of a Lego operation. I connected the part on the right first as it had little room for maneuver here. 

Next I did the exit pipe on the roof end. The opening on the roof tile was less than 4" so I had to make the pipe "fit". This involved wrapping some tape around the inside, cutting 4 slits on the outside pipe and compressing it with cable ties. Not pretty but it works and this in the loft after all - don't plan on showing this off to too many people (just the internet).

Finally it was about connecting the rest - which was a bit of trial and error. Pipe was easy to cut using a dull saw blade and deburred with the edge of a Stanley knife. Bonding everything involved putting sealant in the inside and taping the outside. I needed to run a small offset using 45 deg bends to line everything up properly. 

BTW .. You can see the water mark from the condensation on the chipboard. I wasn't joking.

The last step was to put on the wrap. This stuff was just bubble wrap stuck to foil - and way overpriced. But it worked OK. It was held on with duct tape and cable ties. Again - this is the loft so who cares really what it looks like.

The result. The sucking sound could be heard instantly. Whoooosh! I'm not sure how much the extraction increased as the mirror still fogs up when we take a hot shower - but I'm convinced that things are less foggy now and it clears faster. As for the green stuff - it's still too warm outside to tell but I'm guessing it won't form this time around. But let's see.

Anyway, I'm glad to finally get this sucky job finished. 

Day 480: Some venting

After a week off in Austria - it was back to business on the kitchen. The first order of business was to grout the tiles; cause white tiles by themselves are well .. a bit dull. We elected to go with  a grey "smoke" colour. This was more of a medium grey as opposed to the brownish/yellow "smoking" colour from the rest of the house.

The fun part was to get all of the excess tile adhesive outside of the joints between the tiles. Good practice is to use an adhesive similar in colour to the grout you plan on using. Lazy practice is to use the adhesive you have left over, in this case white, and scrape out any excess.

 

Then came the grout, one of my more favorite activities. Right behind smashing things. Grout was mixed into a peanut butter consistency and smeared on the wall working it well into the joints with my trusty float.

 

And then off it came. After many a wipe down with a builders sponge, it was looking rather sharp. Now to just let it dry and focus on a few other things ...

 

And once it was dry, finally time for the cooker hood (and a long story). 

So the cooker hood was originally ordered in April of 2016 with the cooker. We chose a Belling 90cm stainless steel hood to match the cooker. It was supposed to arrive in June last o=year just after the cooker .. unfortunately it didn't and I got a call from Curry's that it was delayed by the manufacturer Belling and would be refunded. So I then ordered from another outlet who said they could deliver in 2 months time. And after 2 months I got a call saying it would be delayed another 2 month, followed by another phone call and another 2 months. By the time I got a 3rd call from this outfit, I told them where to go. I managed to find another supplier that had it "in stock" only to find out a week later that it was, you guessed it, about 2 months away .. 

Now it was Christmas time, and I was in Canada and elected to go with the 100cm version, normally much more expensive, but on sale for Boxng Day. And it was in stock!!! The box arrived just after we got back to the UK and I really couldn't believe my eyes when the thing actually arrived. So yes, it's a 100cm hood over a 90cm cooker but my research shows that this isn't a bad thing because smoke doesn't just go straight upwards anyway, a bigger hood is actually better if you can fit it. 

 

And all I need to mount it was a bracket and 3 screws - these things don't actually weigh that much. So far so good.

 

And finally the hood was mounted. After initially struggling to get the 150mm piping routed out of the house, and then having to figure out how to conceal it (see here), and finally having all the issues with delivery .. the hood was up. And it looks nice and works a treat (i.e. it sucks, but in a productive kind of way)

Except of course there had to be an issue .. the cover for the tubing was not very forgiving. Apparently, though it's a 150mm extractor, Belling must not think many people are going to be fitting 150mm ducting because there was no give to the front. The ducting would have been mounted perfectly flush to the wall in order for it to work. And I had about 2cm of gap. Not the end of the world, but definitely a bit more customization in the near future. 

That aside, I'm still glad that we went with the full size ducting. The fan works much better without the constriction and is a whole lot quieter. Only to get this surround figured out now.