My piece of art was also nearing completion. After tidying up any sharp edges with the grinder I painted the steel with red oxide then sprayed it with black paint.
This also took 2 or 3 coats but it dried quickly and I followed up by staining the whole tree log again. Job done and tomorrow I can carry it onto one of the deckings to see where it stands best.
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Mr flashy pants gutter man came back to us a few days ago after I was already commenting that this guy probably doesn’t want to do this job.
He seemed to have changed the goalposts. When he visited us, he didn’t take out a tape measure or make notes, a photo nothing yet his phone call to Wasu was basically that he now wants to re use the existing fallpipe and simply turn it over.
Well that simply wouldn’t have worked otherwise that would have been suggested when he came. So for butchering the old pipes he wanted 1000k. F>R>O
He could have said 200bt and my answer to Wasu would have been the same. I decided last week he was clueless
“tell him thanks but no, he wants a lot of money because he is allowing 4 hours for thinking time and I have done all that for him”
She then went on to find another team. This was an unusual team. The young lad barely 20, tall, good looking, a bit of something about him and he was driving.
Then an older guy, very dark skinned, reminded me of the Cambodian plasterers we had. Wearing a hairstyle I used to sport in the 70s, quite long, layered at the sides, a bit of a flick but said nothing, not a work just looked and acted dumb.
I think i was biased against him because I still wanted that hairstyle again....no chance
The young lad was the man; even Wasu commented it was unusual and nice to see a youngster with a trade.
He measured up and looked, scratched his head with us and together we came up with a couple of solutions and discarded a couple more. It was a productive discussion and in the end we agreed that this short transition from the gutter into the main fallpipe could be done with a 4 inch pipe. The bends could be tighter and it allowed for it to be potentially hidden on the verge board (eventually)
For two of them they wanted 1500bt and we agreed to get it over and done with.
They did some prep work in their workshop first before coming to spend about 3,5hours on this job.
Instead of patching up the old hole they cut out a 600mm section and refitted a new one back and cut out the hole to suit a 4 inch in the side.
It didn’t all go as planned and I did intervene a couple of times to have them change the drop angle. Had I caught them sooner I would have had them use a packer to keeo the pipe parallel to the bargeboard and I wasn’t happy at all with the drop into the 5 inch pipe. It should have been a hopper or a sealed reducer at least.
However I let it drop
. They were keen to get away without a water test but I stopped that idea and three 20 litre buckets of water later plus two sealed leaks and another half an hour and job was done.I still have some fettling to do to disguise the pipe from the patio door side but its no biggy.
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Wasu hasn’t been idle; she has been to order some material to make a curtain for our bedroom patio door. I always knew we would need some screen but I thought a voile net or some kind. I am so used to parading outside every morning swinging the meat and two veg knowing full well it was private enough, but now with “guests” having their own backdoor its gonna be life changing for me.
She has made a curtain and I have fixed a curtain rail.
She also ordered some quality sheets, pillowcases, duvet cover and towels. A few extra for our ourselves but we spent almost 10k on what is basically 3 sets. I hope this homestay idea gets some payback because I am getting skinter by the day.
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