HSE training for a HGV repair place featured CCTV footage of a truck spring popping off the spring clamps, person had their back to the camera, you then saw their face while their back was to the camera still thanks to the force of said spring. This is a fair while back so likely its been banned but it really works. That an the guy inflating a tyre an losing his arm when it went pop because the wheel wasn't in a cage. Anyway, door wise, UPVC with a window, on a wood frame door you just need a knife an small pry bar to get the glass out, trust me I had to break into my own house doing that.
Sorry to jump in, But I'm a self employed PVC and Aluminium window/door/conservatory fitter for a living and work for a small local company. Prices vary quite a bit depending where you are in the country and if you go to a small local firm or a nationwide one (I'd avoid these) A PVC back door with half frosted glass and half panel at around 900x2100 (standardish size) fitted should cost anywhere around the £500-£650ish mark at the moment. It should take a fitter maybe 2 hours to fit at most really. You can get a concrete lintel from a builders yard for a door for around £11, just gotta hit a few bricks out above the door, bed the lintel on some muck with at least a 100mm overhang and jobs a goodun, takes an hour or so if you know what you're doing. I've fitted a few electric "roller" garage doors, and they're about £1000 supplied and fitted from my company I think? Whilst they're great and save space by rolling up into a box, the slats don't feel massively solid to me and someone could definitely force their way in, but I guess if people want something bad enough they can force entry anywhere.
Tried another company this afternoon and they said the last door they did which was fully glazed was £560 all in, so the prices are heading in a positive direction I guess haha. I mean at the moment I think a hefty shove would probably be enough to get in so almost anything would be an upgrade hah, but I am aiming for a PVC over wooden. Thanks that's helpful. I think there's a metal lintel already there, looks like a big metal beam above the door at least (guessed metal since it looks rather rusty!) My garage is concrete vs brick so not sure if that makes things easier or more complicated! And my initial thought about roller doors was they don't look overly secure as well, but at the moment it's a single layer steel door with only a single bolt at the top middle, so pretty sure could get something in a corner and start wedging. Then again as you said, if they're happy to use a good amount of force I feel doesn't really matter what you do hah. I've also seen sectional doors, no idea if they're better/worse, think space wise they're still a big improvement, just with some height limitations still in the area behind the door, got a local company coming over on Thursday to have a look/give a quote or whatever to try and discuss options so I have some guidelines to work against anyway.
Just had my whole house done, quotes vary massively! 1 huge front window. 2 frosted bathrooms windows. 4 half and half double opening windows. Fully glazed pvc back door (special heat glass stuff I can't remember the name of). Composite front door. The most important thing is to agree if you want trim or not on the inside. I hate trim, think it looks ugly having the extra plastic. So our guy refilled all the windows, sanded and touched up the paint for us too rather than hiding the edges in plastic! 2.5k all in.
So I need your advice, DIYers of bit-tech I'm renovating our en-suite bathroom (I may have mentioned this a couple of pages ago?), and I've ended up having to take all the plasterboard off the walls because the original builders were numpties and did no damp-proofing at all There's a 25mm pipe that comes out behind the soil pipe, which I originally thought might have been a breather for the soil pipe (I don't know if such a thing exists, but the soil pipe goes under the floor boards, so doesn't extend above the roof line like the proper bathroom soil pipe does) - but now I've finished removing all the plasterboard, I've found out that the 25mm pipe just goes up to the loft and doesn't connect to the soil pipe at all. My only thought is that it's an air return pipe so that the extractor fan doesn't create too much negative pressue when the door's closed (I'm moving the extractor, because said numpty builders put the extractor right by the door, so it doesn't actually extract anything from the shower, it just draws in air through the door ). Do I really need this or can I ditch it (the extractor only pulls about 80m^3/hr)?
Traditionally as you say, a soil pipe normally extends above the roof line at full diameter, which is 110mm these days. On a more modern installation the vent can be reduced to 50mm. If the pipe in question is actually 25mm then your guess is as good as mine, it's not really a plumbing size and is more likely to be an electrical conduit. Potentially it's a 22mm that could be used for a boiler condensate drain that was never fitted? In any case, I've never known a fixed vent to be in place to required to compliment an extractor, although I am no expert. I would expect it to be a much larger diameter if it was. If it was me, I'd get rid of it, I don't think it's doing anything if neither end is connected?
Thanks for the reply. You're right, the pipe is probably standard 22mm PVC, I was just guessing the size It's definitely nothing to do with the boiler - that's on the ground floor on the other side of the house. The pipe isn't connected at either end, it's basically just an open tube from the ensuite (about 100mm above floor level) up into the loft - both ends are open, which is why I thought it might be some kind of pressure balancing vent thingy (although, as I said, the extractor doesn't pull that much air, and it's not as if the door is perfectly sealed). Either way, I can't see a use for it, so it's coming out - and it's one less hole I have to cut in the new plasterboard
Finished up a 'little' christmas decoration for the wife this weekend. IMG_20211204_213617 by Midlight posted 5 Dec 2021 at 13:20 This was Saturday night, I spent yesterday painting it green and hanging 1000 green LEDs on it. It now resides on my driveway as a huge beacon for the neighbours to envy. Wife is happy.
The beautiful irony of this piece of art is that, where normally a christmas tree represents one tree savagely cut down for festive reasons, this represents probably dozens of trees. It's like extra-concentrated christmas spirit.
In my defence it is made of recycled pallet wood so, the trees had already been cut down. I was just restoring them to a tree-like state.
I’ve finished the bathroom: Here's a before shot: There's a little bit of finishing off to do but it's now in use
