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#1
Tactile / Re: Gentlemen*! Behold — This ...
Last post by von Corax - Today at 12:06:00 PM
Quote from: Sir Henry on October 26, 2023, 04:46:06 PMThe house used to be a Home for disable adults, so it had Safety Features.

1)There's the main wiring for the house at 240v. Though because every room has a shutoff switch (for all the electrics in the room) outside the room and a test circuit, the switches have as many as 9 wires going into each one.

2) The fire alarm and sensors are all wired up in a 12v circuit throughout the house. When we first lit the wood stove, alarms were going off in places no-one had been for over 20 years!

3) The best of all. All the internal doors are fire doors but as it was residential they were open all the time. This was done with an electromagnet attached to the wall behind every door and a metal disk attached to the back of every door. When the fire alarm went off it cut power to the magnets and all the doors would close thanks to the strong door-closing mechanism on each one.
This was a 96v circuit.
What happens when you leave all the doors magnetically left open for 2 years while the place is empty, I hear you ask. Glad you asked. Several of the magnets were hot to the touch when we moved in and every single door frame had needed to be reset as they had all been pulled out of square. And it turns out that you can fill the large gaps this creates with baby wipes. Loads and loads of baby wipes.  :o

Best of luck with yours.

I guess I shouldn't say anything about yours, since all North American homes are wired 240v/120v split phase, and my doorbell(s) run on 24v AC.

In any case, I now have a home, and a Place for my Stuff, so as soon as I can find said Stuff I can get back to work on my Thing.
#2
Tactile / Re: That 'big project' I've be...
Last post by James Harrison - Today at 11:53:21 AM
Last night's dilemma saw me progress two items.

Firstly, the dining room wall took on a coat of breathable paint, followed by a second this morning. 



It's not an exact match of course, but I can live with that.  The dark patch at the bottom is where the paint is drying more slowly thanks to the moisture in the wall that kicked the whole thing off to begin with. 

Then I re-grouted the washstand splashback.





Which I think was a worthwhile exercise. 

With the bathroom, I think I'm going to try and break out what's left of the tiling (and possibly more of the plywood) and just leave the bits that are physically stuck under the toilet, bathtub and sink. 
#3
Tactile / Re: That 'big project' I've be...
Last post by James Harrison - Yesterday at 04:31:01 PM
Remember that marble washstand top?





I call that a success.  Naturally the washbasin and taps are only loose-placed at the moment, but it's a step in the right direction. 

The quandry now is what to do next;
1) The breathable emulsion has arrived for the dining room chimneybreast, so I could repaint that one wall.
2) The washstand splashback needs re-grouting before I can screw it back to the marble, so that could be done.
3) I've broken out enough bathroom floor to make painting the first two walls worthwhile.

So that's two fairly small things and one big one I've got to get going on.  I'm hopeless at deciding 'what next?' when my to-do list starts getting too long. 
#4
Meta-Clubs / Re: Dragon Tamers - A room for...
Last post by Cora Courcelle - May 03, 2024, 08:34:37 PM
You have absolutely nothing to apologise for as far as I'm concerned, I just hope you're in a better place soon.
#5
Anatomical / Re: Saccharin is Steampunk
Last post by J. Wilhelm - May 03, 2024, 03:49:49 PM
Quote from: RJBowman on May 02, 2024, 06:13:51 PM
Quote from: J. Wilhelm on April 30, 2024, 11:36:00 PM...it's not clear if anyone at all still holds the patent for it, or if it's name "Saccharine" is itself a registered active trademark.

The name doesn't seem to be trademarked, but saccharin does have an official web site:
https://saccharin.org/

It appears to belong to an industry group.

I found that site, but seems to be just a consortium of companies.

Quote from: von Corax on May 02, 2024, 08:09:01 PMAs far as I can tell from TSOATAK, the term "saccharin" by itself has never been trademarked.

Yeah, I'm not finding anything either.  However the potential for impact on the list is for products that may have been kept from the list due to "modern ingredients."

Most of the time it's the formula or ingredients list being too different from the Victorian recipe, but I'm not sure if there was a brand excluded due to the use of saccharine.  Probably not, but I have to review the 3 lists.
#6
Meta-Clubs / Re: Dragon Tamers - A room for...
Last post by SeVeNeVeS - May 03, 2024, 10:27:28 AM
I wish to publicly appologise for my recent behaviour.

After a year of stress and problems I admit I momentarily lost the plot a little (ok... a lot) and committed crimes against the forum which I now regret.

If you can forgive me I shall be back to posting as normal and annoy the hell out of you all again. :D



#7
Anatomical / Re: Saccharin is Steampunk
Last post by von Corax - May 02, 2024, 08:09:01 PM
As far as I can tell from TSOATAK, the term "saccharin" by itself has never been trademarked.
#8
Anatomical / Re: Saccharin is Steampunk
Last post by RJBowman - May 02, 2024, 06:13:51 PM
Quote from: J. Wilhelm on April 30, 2024, 11:36:00 PM...it's not clear if anyone at all still holds the patent for it, or if it's name "Saccharine" is itself a registered active trademark.

The name doesn't seem to be trademarked, but saccharin does have an official web site:
https://saccharin.org/

It appears to belong to an industry group.
#9
Tactile / Re: That 'big project' I've be...
Last post by James Harrison - May 01, 2024, 06:12:33 PM
Update on the bathroom; I've taken up as much of the floor tiling as is possible without needing to rip out the WC or the bath.

The floor buildup over the joists is 18mm chipboard, 9mm plywood, 2 to 3mm grout and then 7mm tiles.  The tiles come up with a bit of a fight, the plywood tends to prise up quite nicely (once a few screws have been removed) without too much damage to the chipboard.

If I've got 18 or 19mm above the top of the chipboard to my floor level, this opens up the possibility of keeping the chipboard in place (it can be locally unscrewed to change the piping as required) and laying a floorboard floor over it.  Naturally the floorboards would need to be stained and varnished to prevent them taking on moisture and doing something I'd prefer them not to. 

Let's try to set a timeframe to all of this.  I'm coming to the conclusion I'm going to be without a bathroom for at least a few days and quite possibly longer, considering I want to take out the suite, rearrange the plumbing, replace the wall tiles and install a new suite.  That means really it needs to be done whilst I'm on holiday from work.  I usually say that I work for three months then take a week off, and my last holiday was about three and half weeks ago.  So say I work twelve or thirteen weeks, that means that in about nine and a half weeks I need to have sourced the remaining components, that the proposed floorboard flooring needs to be prepped for installation, and of course that I have to have the plumber and the tiler booked in for that specific week.  And I know the plumber needs three weeks notice.   So six and a half weeks at most, to book the plumber.  So I'm saying, tentatively, early to mid July.  Therefore plumber to be booked early to mid June. 

Well, what still needs buying?

- Radiator
- Bathtub (no point buying that until I'm ready to swap it)
- WC (no point buying that until I'm ready to swap it)
- Floorboards (need to be bought in time to be able to prep, but where to store them...)

It's going to be a bit of a miserable week off - it might mean I move back to my parents for a few nights whilst it's being done, and travel over to the house in the morning and back at night - but hopefully it'll be worth it.   

#10
Tactile / Re: That 'big project' I've be...
Last post by James Harrison - May 01, 2024, 05:49:46 PM
It used to be a pub, so I guess it was designed with a view to being a bit of a local landmark.