The worst thing is, the sink still drains slowly, so there's more to come.

Top floor. It almost is soil; it's basically the previous fuck-knows-how-many tenants' food waste.

Had another go at the sink tonight. Totally unblocked now, I can run both taps on the kitchen and bathroom sinks plus the shower and still nothing overflows. Feeling like a don since the landlord told me that last time it got blocked like that they had a plumber sticking a camera down there and everything.

Sucks to be the people living there then.

Leave it pink

Perfect.

Hello all, I require man points and man brains can help me here. Need to build a cheap bed, was thinking box section steel as it's cheap sturdy and would allow plenty of room underneath from storage. Where to buy from, will they drill and cut it to order, do I need to drill if or would those plastic connectablok things be secure enough

And pay someone else to bring it up the stairs.

One of our smoke alarms started chirping earlier this morning.

Well I say morning. 2 a fucking m

Wifey wakes me up in a fizz because she doesn't know what it is.

Still dizzy I explain it and am then asked what I'm going to do about it.

Fucks sake.

Our alarms our mains powered but each has a backup battery. You know the one - the wee 9v square one nobody EVER has spare at home

Once I wake up I remember by some miracle I have one in the packaging - was bought with an electronic kit/project I bought for my supposed teach-myself-to-solder activity (which currently adds up to zero).

So retrieved that - the date is still OK (yes it was that long ago when I bought it) , went and got the step ladders and could I get the alarm to twist off? Could I fuck.

But then another miracle occurred - the wee bastard stopped chirping.

So  at a more civilised hour I returned to the alarm , figured out how to twist it out and noticed a sticker inside the alarm stating it was to be replaced - the alarm not the battery - in 2012.

We have two of these in the old part of the house. The extension has two more that are newer. So tested them all and they all worked apart from the one I checked. Working or not - the 2 old ones needed changed.

So off to my favourite place in the world on a Sunday. B and fucking Q.

I mentioned the mains power thing? Means they have a junction box, a facing plate,  and an odd looking 3 pin power adapter that also links all the alarms together so they all go off when one detects something untoward.
Could I find one in B and Q that matched exactly ? Could I fuck.

So spent the last hour and half disconnecting the power adapter (using a little joiner block so easy enough). The new alarms came with a new face plate whose screw holes didn't exactly match the holes in the junction box. Of course they didn't. A straight forward enough job but was just a fiddly pain in the arse balancing on a step ladder at the top of the stairs on landing.

They appear to be working - and they even appear to be still linked up when I tested them.

Fingers crossed - thought I heard a chirp just there as I typed this.....

They are up  now. Got the holes to line up with a bit of fiddling.

The alarms came with a new connector - 3 wires - live, neutral and link.

I threw the circuit breaker for the smokes circuit and swapped in the new wires one at a time so I remembered what was what.

The new base plate is a bit smaller than the enclosure that contains the connector block but it looks OK. The holes just about lined up OK. The new alarm wouldn't lock onto the old base plate so had to swap it out - had to take if off to get at the connector block anyhow.

Probably should have ordered them online for an exact match and waited I suppose.

My last attempt at shower DIY ended in a big stain on the ceiling where the water leaked through.

Stanley knife blade and a flat head screwdriver does me.

Better sealant. Worth spending the extra pennies on it.

Mould resistant stuff.

Making sure it's put in properly helps too, it should be nice and smooth with a slight convave finish, so nowhere for water to collect.

That’s the one I use, it’s brilliant. Spray it on, leave for a few minutes then wipe with a sponge and it just works wonders