Has everyone coped with the extreme cold?>

[steptoe]

Visiting my family at the weekend I was told that the lady next-door asked for help she is about 73ish no phone/Internet she had a leak and no heating they had rang the housing association emergency number it is a answer phone and it was full so unable to take the message so she went back into her ground floor flat ( the leak could be coming from upstairs) with a leak and no heating.
On hearing this I went onto their website only to find a expect delays for repairs because of the weather message surly they could of got someone in to answer the phone.

There should be an out of hours call out number by law they must have that , it should give it on the phone message

[Nurseandy]

Don't know about England, but the Scots weather forum is saying back in the freezer next week

Sna’ on Tuesday in Edinburgh. The rest of it is just dreich as per usual.

That’s miserable, grey, cold weather…

I'm in caithness for work and it's glorious sunshine and a heady 5 degrees.

[jansman]

Oh can i ask i know alot fo you have woodburners now i want to fit one in the living room here or may be the back dinnign room but i want one we can pop a kettle on the top but i know little to nothing of brands to look at and so on i do not mind paying a bit extra for better quality that we can get many years out of , the room is appox 10ft x 15ft we have top notch double glazing and well just wondering what brand is a good one to look at , like the boiler guy that came out he said everyone wants worcester boilers and he said i am happy yot fit them but he recommend another brand he said the same parts fit this boiler as the worcester and it is aroung a grand cheaper .

Ok any points on woodburners sorry to hi jack thread just you all say about yours so never hurts to ask

Do research. There’s a waiting list by what I gather too. It’s all changed now. My own two are 25 years and still going strong ,but look around. I will say ( and it’s not as overstocked as it was when I bought all those years ago) is Machine Mart.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/c/cast-ir ... ng-stoves/

There is a lot of boll**** talked about the subject tbh. A fire is a fire! Safety is paramount- but in the end it goes up a chimney. Went for a cup of tea today with my 30 odd year neighbours. They are 90,and have lived there since marriage in their 20’s . They still have their original open fire hearth and chimney. Warm in there an understatement!

[grenfell]

Well a quick update on my leak. It probably started in the early hours of monday when the temper rose and I discovered it monday afternoon so now we are about 24 hours after that and it's going quite well really. The leak was caused by two compression fittings pushing apart so an easy fix. It's an insurance job so we contacted a plumber who did it this afternoon. Everything is now fine. Started to dry things out and used a roll and a half of blue paper towel but noticably different. Looked at hiring a dehumidifier but in the end we have brought one which works out at about the same price as two weeks rental.. That said finding one to buy wasn't the easiest job as most places had nothing in stock.
Woodburners. Ours is a 5kw Stovax and has done what we have wanted it to do. Flat top so we can put a kettle or saucepan on there if needed. In my old house I put in a bigger stove although I can't remember the make. That was over 25 years ago and nowadays there are more regs and it's harder to fit one yourself. Over 5kw requires fitting a vent to ensure adequate airflow.

[GillyBee]

We coped fine athough the -5 round here did highlight a couple of issues we need to sort out. ((I know that is summer weather for the Scots on here )

We tried to keep the house at around 17 -18C which we can thankfully still afford. One room was persistently cold. Tried everything - foil behind the radiator, checked the TRV, moved furniture away from radiator but it would not rise above 14-15C. And this is my work from home office
On the plus side, I have discovered that I can work OK and was surprisingly comfortable as long as I am wearing a LOT of layers. i.e. 4 layers on top. Thermal leggings, jeans & quilt for legs and a microwave wheat bag to warm fingers up if needed.
At the weekend we finally identified the problem with the room. The wardrobe has 2 external walls and these were running with condensation to the extent that I have just had to wash & dry everything in the wardrobe. We caught it before the mould set in and a couple of hours with a target fan heater has sorted out the wet wall for now.
Next job is to apply a thermal liner to the cupboard to stop it happening next time it is cold. Does anyone have any suggestions for easy & effective solutions?

What do you mean by "The wardrobe has 2 external walls" exactly? Can you go into more detail? Do you mean it is against 2 external walls? Is it a freestanding wooden wardrobe, in the corner of a room? Have you looked behind it to see if there is damp or mould on the wall?

It is a built in wardrobe so the back and one side of the wardrobe is the wall itself (complete with wallpaper). The property is 30s built so has cavity walls but no cavity wall insulation. Council rent so I can't change that but can add internal "decorating" level fixes.

[Kiwififer]

Don't know about England, but the Scots weather forum is saying back in the freezer next week

Sna’ on Tuesday in Edinburgh. The rest of it is just dreich as per usual.

That’s miserable, grey, cold weather…

I'm in caithness for work and it's glorious sunshine and a heady 5 degrees.

Positively taps aff weather Andy.

[grenfell]

I had a similar problem with my former house. It was built in the 1880's and was solid brickwork. I'd put in a built in wardrobe into the corner of the bedroom so that sat against two external walls. Every so often there'd be an issue with damp , we first noticed it as a bit of mould on one of my wife's things. Solved it by creating a spacer just a sort of ladder type affair of thin timber strips.

[Frnc]

We coped fine athough the -5 round here did highlight a couple of issues we need to sort out. ((I know that is summer weather for the Scots on here )

We tried to keep the house at around 17 -18C which we can thankfully still afford. One room was persistently cold. Tried everything - foil behind the radiator, checked the TRV, moved furniture away from radiator but it would not rise above 14-15C. And this is my work from home office
On the plus side, I have discovered that I can work OK and was surprisingly comfortable as long as I am wearing a LOT of layers. i.e. 4 layers on top. Thermal leggings, jeans & quilt for legs and a microwave wheat bag to warm fingers up if needed.
At the weekend we finally identified the problem with the room. The wardrobe has 2 external walls and these were running with condensation to the extent that I have just had to wash & dry everything in the wardrobe. We caught it before the mould set in and a couple of hours with a target fan heater has sorted out the wet wall for now.
Next job is to apply a thermal liner to the cupboard to stop it happening next time it is cold. Does anyone have any suggestions for easy & effective solutions?

What do you mean by "The wardrobe has 2 external walls" exactly? Can you go into more detail? Do you mean it is against 2 external walls? Is it a freestanding wooden wardrobe, in the corner of a room? Have you looked behind it to see if there is damp or mould on the wall?

It is a built in wardrobe so the back and one side of the wardrobe is the wall itself (complete with wallpaper). The property is 30s built so has cavity walls but no cavity wall insulation. Council rent so I can't change that but can add internal "decorating" level fixes.

Right, I'm with you now. Yes, if you stick a layer of insulation on the walls at the back of the wardrobe, that should help stop condensation. Maybe some kind of thermal wallpaper. Probably part of the problem is if the wardrobe doors are shut you aren't getting air circulating. Maybe you could put a vent or two in the sides, or just leave the doors open some of the time. You want to check the humidity in the room as well. If it gets high you can run a dehumidifier.

[Frnc]

I had a similar problem with my former house. It was built in the 1880's and was solid brickwork. I'd put in a built in wardrobe into the corner of the bedroom so that sat against two external walls. Every so often there'd be an issue with damp , we first noticed it as a bit of mould on one of my wife's things. Solved it by creating a spacer just a sort of ladder type affair of thin timber strips.

That spare room I just decorated had mould where the bed had been, hiding behind it. It was on an outside wall. It likes places where the air isn't circulating. We do get some on the bathroom wall but obviously it gets a lot of moisture. I'm going to steralise it and paint it with eggshell. It will still get mould, but it will wipe off.

[grenfell]

We were renting my parent's old house out ( the one with the burst pipe) and I'd lived in it for twenty odd years as a kid and in all that time had never suffered with mould. A while ago the tenent complained of mould in the bedroom and I could see the black mould on the ceiling. It wasn't hard to see why. She was drying washing in there without even an open window. I knew that as the grime and cobwebs on the window hadn't been disturbed at all. She took some convincing on why the mould had appeared...