@spooky_b329 – The second pic is inside the boxing, it’s above floor level. Vertical pipes are the radiator tails that go up in the first pics. Tried lifting the rad valves and there is no upward lift in them at all.

@tjagain – Might not be explaining it well here so please bear with me. They took off the old above floor level boxing under the radiator first, after tiling the wall the new boxing they made is a lot higher than the old one was.

Concern is I don’t think there is actually enough room under the nut to get it off even reusing the existing olive. Also the radiator bottom is even closer to the tiles, it was pretty rusty in the old set up and this is just going to speed up the process. No way to spot small leaks or drips.

Sent the pics and details to a member of my old kettlebell group, he is a plumber and said he would not be happy with the spacing as it is too tight.

@Wibble89 – they took off and refitted the existing radiator after I painted rather than replacing with new. Old pipe work and hangers were reused, boxed in previously but about 4cm lower height that allowed maintenance.

I didn’t specify maintenance access for the radiator, but had stressed in all the other areas everything has to be simple to maintain and accessible. Accessible isolation point for toilet, easy maintenance position for bath taps and easily serviceable taps.

It was insulating the hot and cold tap feeds running in the same space, both to keep the heat in and prevent condensation etc. Edit – insulating it was in the scope of the works and fixing any loose pipes they found.

Messaged the fitters, they said it was tight because of the pipes and you would always reuse the olives.

Looks to have a fair bit of space, so not sure where that bit came from really.

I’m in London/Essex. Just having our bathroom refitted actually, 2.0m x 3.0m. Labour and materials came in at ~ 5,500. Higher due to metro tiles.

Including some electrical work for the fan, skimming ceiling, boarding and straightening walls/corners, fully tiled walls, new boxing in pipes. Fitting three cabinets as well, corner bath, trad loo and sink. Building a frame for the cistern to be fixed to.

Going to take two guys around 12 days all in, they are not hanging about but with the overlapping steps for drying times it does add up a fair bit.

I think your quote sounds about right to be honest.

Best thing I did was line the floors with 2mm correx protection sheets, makes it super easy to vacuum end of day and a quick mop. The tile dust gets everywhere 😢

Coffee Compass do some very nice crowd pleasers in terms of medium-dark blends and are not too pricey generally.

Normally prefer the lighter side of things but even I quite like their Cherry Cherry (dark cherry chocolates), Brighton Lanes or Sweet Bourbon blends which are a bit nuttier.

These are just guesstimates whilst drinking a nice Americano on a Sat morning. Not counting industrial waste for anodised aluminium manufacture, or associated costs of using an intermediate distributor/retailer and not selling direct to the consumer 😉 Just something to consider.

1,000g of coffee beans, ~40g of packaging, 56 coffees at ~18g, some bags are 100% ldpe so recyclable, ~0.7g of consumer packaging per serving, maybe ~1g if shipped in a second bag. Machine life expected >10 years.

Nespresso ~5.5g of coffee per pod, ~0.5g virgin aluminium, 2g cardboard packaging, ~0.5g plastic wrapping, ~3g of consumer packaging per serving. Machine life expected <3 years.

Are Coffee Pods Bad for the Environment?

@swanny853 – Would disagree a bit with that ‘study’ to be honest. It uses a strange narrow view on impact in terms of energy during brewing but discounts other factors like environment impact of the pods, junky plastic pod machines that are scrap after 1-2 years.

Still think a cafetière/Moka pot and a handgrinder would be unbeatable overall in terms of environmental impact.

I worked out that my wife and I would use over 2,000 coffee pods in a year given our espresso based drink consumption. I can’t get my head around how that much extra packaging is better than buying whole beans in 1kg bags that could be recycled. I expect my machine and grinder to last 10-15 years at least, since they are repairable.

Very rustic in comparison to some of the lovely things other people have made but hopefully useful.

Getting our ground floor bathroom refurbed next week, so putting up a gazebo on the patio near our back door. So made some with bits to help them do more work outside near an external socket, disposable scrap wood job site table and boards to bolt the gazebo feet onto then load down with bricks.

Crank House are a favourite roaster of mine, their decaf is almost as good as their regular beans.

Had one last year that was a lovely mulled pear Christmas pudding flavour, this one is also pretty good tbh.

If you are using a bean to cup you might need to think about how much it retains in terms of grinds. Even if the hopper is empty, likely to be “half-caf” for the first cup or so.

El Carmen DECAF

I wouldn’t have the gumption to chase them for a deposit refund, money spent in my view once you book a slot and commit to the job.

Might be a tone thing, but “gin palace” and “nice bike” did make me a bit less sympathetic to your predicament.

On a slightly smaller scale, our cat was booked into a cattery over the Christmas holidays. We paid a deposit, but she died and I had to cancel the booking. Did not even cross my mind to ask for it back, very surprised when they sent it anyway so donated it to charity and let them know. Think we won’t have problems using them in the future.

If you go the legal route, not sure you will have much joy with local builders taking on work 😉

@Aus – Apologies if you have done it already, but have you checked the resistance across the element terminals with the supply off?

I am not a plumber, but have replaced a few boiler elements in coffee machines etc. when repairing faults. I have been surprised a few times when the element was actually fine and something else needed replacing.

Edit: Just saw you put one had power. Still worth comparing the two to resistance values save you the hassle of removing it unless completely necessary.

The Stealth C4 on their climbing shoes has been changed, not for the better in this case.

Would not surprise me if the material changes were across other ranges as well given the Adidas ownership.

@big_n_daft – I hadn’t even actually considered that you know! 😂

Out of interest is there an average range? Not including outliers like people on massive hills or in super deep valleys.

Have to admit we still live in the dark ages with a hot and cold tank in the loft feeding to our ground floor bathroom…

@jam-bo – that determines the pressure I believe, flow rate is impacted by pipe bore size, connectors/tails or tap internals that narrow it.

You can help with flow rate by keeping everything full bore and choosing taps with wider internals. The overall system water pressure is usually a fixed value.

I am not a plumber, but had to replace the mixer tap I bought for the bath after my other half complained the bath filled too slowly.

Decent taps should give a flow rate at different water pressures in their specs. For example this is a traditional style bath mixer suitable for use in low pressure systems.

What does the tap spec say?

Flow Rate at 0.1 Bar (l/min) 12
Flow Rate at 0.5 Bar (l/min) 36
Flow Rate at 1 Bar (l/min) 48

https://www.tapwarehouse.com/p/i303x

@superficial – Glad you didn’t try to understand the Roger Moore Pavoni method! 😬

@crimsondynamo – 😂

You are in for a treat! They are a lot of fun.

The Elizabeth is a good machine though, irrespective of that really. Especially if through Bella Barista with a “back to base” not “parts only” warranty.

That is a good way to look at it. Also I will always make more coffees than ride a bike each year (5 a day between me and my wife over a year is ~1,800).

I bought a second hand Pavoni for exactly that reason, small enough to stick on a shelf or on top of a cupboard. Think they had quite a few refurbed ones in Nov but sold out over Christmas.

Bit of a whim really but you would be surprised at how different the lever machines are to the pumped ones. Nice bit of Sunday morning coffee theatre 😂

@crimsondynamo – shall we say there might have been a commercial interest helping promote it on the forum 😉

Cracking little machine though with a lot of flexibility and good steam power, you would not be disappointed.

@crimsondynamo – I also have a second hand La Pavoni Europiccola, as stock it is pretty similar to the one you linked.

They are great, can last pretty much forever and easily serviced, but have a couple of quirks. Can get too hot, an lcd temp tag is super useful. The heat sink and pressure profiling kit are game changing.

Takes ~10-15 mins to heat up stably, but you need to be careful with young kids/pets as the boiler body is exposed and very hot.

Tudor at Coffee Sensor has all the custom bits you could ever wish for, plus refurbished fancy ones as well.

https://coffee-sensor.com/product-category/la-pavoni-parts-and-accessories-custom-made-from-coffee-sensor/

General warning do not buy from Cafe/Caffee/Coffee Italia – they are not to be trusted and it’s just not worth the risk for the cheaper prices given the number of customer service horror stories that have come up for them (Dave Hinde Cycles would be the bike equivalent).

UK decent retailers are Bella Barista, Black Cat Coffee, The Espresso Shop, Fracino, Ferrari Espresso, Clumsy Goat, Londinium etc.

@MrSmith – I think the foundry have finally gotten some lever group heads for the Londinium Vectis prototypes, a mate on a coffee forum might be getting one to bench test early this year.

Will hopefully be similar sized to a La Pavoni, but using a spring lever, 58mm group and ~£1K plus VAT if it goes to plan.

@batfink – I have an older Lelit Mara with a paddle kit fitted, the newer X is a great option as well.

Would not recommend a dual boiler unless the OP has super soft water (no kettle scale at all ever), commercial standard filter setup or just uses bottles instead. Descaling the DBs is a massive pain 😢

@boblo – Most flattering thing anyone has said this week! M1 if only… 😅

@countzero – Sounds line you had a good run for it 👍

Fastest for me downhill on my steel road bike was 43mph in my younger days on a familiar downhill, not quite as brave now for the reasons you mentioned.

@boblo – Yep, you are right about how to tell and on the cycling laws for must/must not.

“Wanton and furious cycling” – a guide to the road traffic laws that apply to cyclists.

I think they had some speed traps on the Richmond Park hills in the past.

Admittedly not from “recent” personal experience, but I used to assume I was going faster than 20mph when I used to overtake the cars on my road bike…

@boblo – “Similarly, you can’t be prosecuted for breaking the speed limit on a cycle as it’s not mandatory to fit them with speedometers so how would you know…?”

Not being pedantic, just another example of “one rule for you and another for us” I found was that you can be fined for speeding in the Royal Parks on a bicycle.

In Richmond Park the 20mph limit is technically enforced for all road users including cyclists. Obvs the Strava segments show some people go a bit faster! 🤣

Paper filters here as well when camping, makes the cleanup pretty simple.

The metal filters also need regular cleaning with something like Puly Caff to remove the grot from it.

You will be surprised at how brown the cleaning solution can go even if the filters looks visually OK, it’s a strong alkali-detergent mix used for cleaning espresso machines so well suited.

BJJ practice, tried to resist too hard with a considerably larger opponent in sparring. Tore my costal cartilage in two places and separated three ribs at the top from my sternum.

Hurt so much I thought I was going to wet myself, then faded out on the mat for a bit.

Opioid painkillers helped a lot, until I realised two days later that they had made me constipated and I kept on reinjuring them each time I went in the mornings for weeks.

Worst thing was it all happened because my ego got in the way, all completely avoidable and I still have lumpy reminders an occasionally clicking eternal joint 15 years on… 🤷‍♂️

@cheddarchallenged – Scarily similar to my other half 😂

It took 5 years of suggestions from me, a cycling coach and knee niggles for her to think about using the middle ring on her surly.

She is thinking of getting driving lessons in the new year, an automatic will be our next car if she does in terms of needing less mechanical sympathy…

Thankfully had more success on the central heating controls and her using the gas fire to top up the front room rather than putting the whole house on 30. I have learned to accept duvet thickness is her call and will gladly agree to whatever choice she wants.

Inspired to get mine out the loft by this thread.

Never quite got the hang of riding it previously. Not traveling over the holidays so might be a good skill to practice.

We go through about 2.5kg of beans in a month, would be about 360 Nespresso 7g pods on a weight for weight basis versus a couple of coffee bags and V60 papers.

Which is an awful lot of pods per year at around 4,300 for one household…

Watch the James Hoffmann video, his taste reactions are priceless 😂

I’m actually pleased he received a custodial sentence at all given the recent judgements.

Completely agree with bsims, law needs changing. Hammer analogy is quite apt.

No way would anyone believe “well your honour, I was only trying to tickle him a bit with the knife. Just kind of gently hitting him with it, I had no idea it would actually stab him. How could I have done? Anyone else would have done the same thing etc… 🤷‍♂️“

@poopscoop – You could book them from yesterday on the NHS site, it went live before the landing page was changed.

Me and and a bunch of mates got appointments booked in Sat night.

NHS website is letting under 40s book for boosters now. 🙌🙌🙌

Landing page warning looks like you can’t, but it does let you through if you put your details in. Soft go-live before official announcement I think.

Apologies if already mentioned above, there are a lot of posts 😂

@dyna-ti – That is a beautiful piece of work, looks almost too good to use! 😂

My vote is get someone in, which I’m doing for 7 squint doors in an old house in the new year. Will be £600 happily spent in this case for the fitting.

@rickon – Think the taking them all off to fill with epoxy and the drill out the latches again is a bit OTT potentially. Risks blowing the wood if they aren’t that stable anymore.

I had to repair similarly shonky doors when when we bought our house.

Could you paint the crumbling bits around the hole and old screw holes with rapid cure 2-part epoxy then use a long drill bit to go through the full width? Then similar these bolt through fittings.

Did 5 doors in under a couple of hours, solid for a few years now and my other half is not gentle on them 😂

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M3-M4-SCREW-DOOR-HANDLE-Brass-Chrome-Connecting-Sleeve-Screws-Bolt-Roses-Knobs-/282406848233?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

@burntembers – Would not bother at all with a freestanding bag unless it’s for an non-athletic six year old. Slightest whiff of power and they go walkies or fall over. Also not enough resistance on the springs to keep the bag in range for your combos so doesn’t transfer well to using it with people for sparring and competing unfortunately.

Duplicate post…

@kayak23 – Glad you are branching out into comedy as well now 😉

@poolman – They aren’t weather resistant at all, if they are sand and rag filled traditional style it’s a bad idea as they soak up water and get much heavier/harder. Not good for your hands even with proper wraps and gloves.

If I had a porch or gazebo protecting it from elements I wouldn’t do it in the UK to be honest, unless you are in the South where you might be able to get away with it if you moved the bag inside during the winter.

@murray – Is she wanting to use it just for boxing training or for kicks if she does Muay Thai/karate etc.?

Wouldn’t want to hang one outside every time as the Thai banana bags can weigh ~70kg, unless she is unlike most teenagers I foresee you doing the putting up and taking down 😉

Personally if she is serious or you would use it as well, get a floor mounted one for your garage. Far more useful given the British weather, or some focus mitts/ Thai pads if she wants to do some training with you.

https://www.geezersboxing.co.uk/punching-bags/brackets-fittings/stands-bag-hangers