Dave Plumb

Hi You should find an isolator B4 the water meter to isolate the supply, not a normal looking thing, much more like a straight short lever normally quarter turn to shut off, if not you could try freezing the pipe.  [:)]   Dave

Hi Have a look at www.superbreak.com   they have hotels all over England/Europe at all prices and good deals including tickets for shows   Dave

Hi most new DVD players now come fitted reginal set by default and cannot play all region DVDs, saying that if you google you can find sites that give you code to set your player to all regions 1-6 not 8or9 , some charge you a small amount, some are free you must download the code specific for your make and model ie there is no catch all code for all machines,  you can also download for your pc to play all if fitted with a DVD player but it is a little scary and can mush your hard drive if you get it wrong,  another way for your pc is to purchase over the net, DVD player software such as .DVD X. which will con your DVD reader to think the disc is of the reagion you have set   This I do know works without any problems on my PC,   I tried it first as a 14 day download trial before parting with any dosh to make sure it works fine.   Dave

The copper will be atacked by the cement and would give you problems accesing the pipe if you needed to at a later date, wrap the pipe with anything allowing  the pipe room to expand after covering in morter as if the pipe cant expand from cold to hot around it's width it will add this expantion to it's lengh and could pop the next joint beyond the retriction

When writing from GB I just put Angleterre, never had a problem.

 I must remember to proof read my posts for grammer and spelllllingser [:P]

Solar panel if you decided to would have to connected through a pressurized system and I beleave in France,  the boiler also. At the end of the day it's a safer and cheaper way of doing it. Timber ? whot U using it for, normally cheaper in France assuming here relates to GB Grey water,  There are lots of ways to use it, you could for instance use  tanks sunk into ground with a negative head pump to feed toilets removing the need to drain the system in winter for fear of flooding through freezing of high level storage tank, there are occations during drougth conditions in France when you are not allowed to use the well water also. Not sure about the other bits   dave  [8-)]

[:'(]When I first needed a french bank acc I tried barclays frence solutions and found them very helpfull but expensive, after chatting  got the charges down to a good price by not using the solutions account but one of there other accounts with lots of  promises of how easy it would be untill I needed to open the account from GB, they wanted so much stuf they said was due to moneylaundering it would have taken me a month to sort out, this included letters from my UK bank confirming I exist and a good customer, utility bills, written confirmation of my passport and more and more so  decided once having chosen my own little micro climat position in France  popped over made an appointment with one of the local banks ( Credit Mutual ) and had the account set up within half an hour of chatting with the manager and still cheaper than Barklays. I transfer large amounts of money over by 'currency direct ' when the exchange is good, takes approx 3 days, small amounts i take over and deposit or just spend when there, can track my account over the internet and they send all my statements to me in GB and as they are local to me I can pop in and chat with them if needed, face to face without driving for miles oops Km if I need to,  So have a look at your local banks when youve found your micro climate position and compare them. If anything I found it funny/strange with all the security, when I did pop in for my cheque book and cash card  I gave my identity number and they told me who I was and where I lived then handed me my stuff, lucky no one had intersepted my mail and had my ident number or the card and cheque book would have been burning a hole in someone elses pocket.    

I used the P&O season tiket last year with no problems, minimum purchase of 5 return trips Dover to Calais, I prefer the short trip, It cost me £390 total for 3 x over five days + 2 x under 5days return trips @ 3 x £90 and 2 x £60  could book or change travel times up to the day before at no extra cost, and if needed could pay the extra £30 to change to over 5 days if needed, could only book it over the phone it did not show it on the web site, hope to do again this year,  food is much better than it used to be and after the trip down to Dover time on the boat gives me a chance to re-charge the batterys before the next run down to 79.   Dave[+o(]

I always try to remember to leave one shot on my digital card giving a telephone number in case I mislay my camera and someone finding it would feel guilty enough to contact me for it's return, chances are they will just laugh harder when they see it,  But I have been lucky enough not to have lost any of them so far so dont know what the outcum would be.  Hope this dont put the mockers on my luck   [geek]   Dave  

David ,  most computer mags carry a lot of free programes including Adobe reader, I  also got recently got free from a mag a programe to convert to Adobe (. pdf) from word saving hundreds on the original Adobe distiler , makes lovely presenations of Devis for them with a Pc.   Dave

Hi,   Condensation is normally a problem with the diferance of the inside and outside temperature being within the dew point of  water, the only way is to either reduce the room temperature by adding a vent or increasing the temperature outside of the dew point, this could be a problem with your setup as the rock could fluctuate in temperature often during the day making it hard to match a better answer maybe to install a false wall with insulation against the problem walls giving a thin void from the walls against the rock and vent the break if possible so youronly trying to heat the room and not the rock/wall Dave     'Problems are always small, it's the remedys that take the time'[8-)]

Try my , start, my computer, see if it is shown on drive 'D' if so click this and then click run or install to start instalation. this will at least show if it is being recognised by the drive

Hi Junebaby You could have a look at www.prim.net It can only tel you the worst Dave

I have stayed with HP for a long time and a while back bought one of the all in one models, great price and allows me to copy and scan photo's and documents to e mail, the dpi spec for printing photo;s is as good as any printer I seen, I get great results.   Dave

The biggest drawback with the combi boiler is flow rate of hot water as they can only supply a fixed amount of flow ltrs at one time, can be a drag if more than one bathroom , kids or guests wantign to wash at the same time, But  condensing combi's  are very efficient and to help combat the flow rate problem a higher efficient and ingienious way is to fit the boiler instant hot water circuit to feed one tap outlet only, say, the most used during the day kitchen sink, pipe up the heating circuit as normal but from the boiler, off the heatting flow pipe take anouther circuit to your hot water storage  vessel, install 2 port valves and timer, wire the system to think the hot water circuit is anouther heating zone, this allows you to only heat the hot water vessel as needed during the evening without loss of heated water duiring the day when it would only be on for the kitchen sink, heating can be turned on when the chill sets in, if ever.  further savings could be made if the kitchen sink was big and you could sit in it to wash just like in the old days, no need for the old hot tank then at all. Ps  if you go down that route dont forget to close the kitchen shutters[:)]   Dave

Hi Ya Sid Great fun eh,  I must admit I dont know this programmer off hand as i stoped using this type of compensation system a long time ago because it worked out you had great comfort conditions but with a large increse in running costs, maybe they have cured this now. You say both circuits get hot, is this the old heating circuit and underfloor or is there another rad circuit, if the former the controls you have will also control the firing of the boiler  relative to the differance between the outside temperature and inside temperature and primary flow temperature and on and on all controlled by various thermostats fitted over the system, as the old system has a manual control a number of additional valves and thermostats would have to b fitted to give the same control on this other circuit.  Deep breath Or as the underfloor heating will probably cycle most of the time you could fit a two port valve to the old circuit through a room thermostat, this would give you temperature control to turn the old circuit down but not allow you fire the boiler without the underfloor on. If the latter is correct I can ask around and see if anyone knows if they can fire independently and whot the connection/positions should be   Hope this helps   Dave

Is the 'old' part system now controlled by a 2 port valve and not the plug ? if so check the brown and grey wires to the valve are not connected together from the room stat, only the brown must come from the stat and the grey connected to a dedicated permanant live tag,  its a common assumption they can be connected together as both need power so its not a problem, but can leed to feedback across to the other zone valve and turn  the other zone on with the thermostat closed  Dave 

Not for the first time I have been called 'Dai'  as I am half from the valleys as everyone further back came mainly from around Tenby and Soundesfoot area. Sweet 17 Mail me and I will give the pro's and con's to hep  you make a choice of units   Dave

Waterside is just one of the makers name for the salt based softeners, salt based are more expensive to buy and run and the jury is still outas to effectifness of long term overall saving but will give you the feeling of soft water, you must have a dedicated drinking tap as some salt residue will be contained in the water and is bad for your heart. The other units work on magnet fields there are two types , Magnetic this is normally a cheaper option but will only work at point of use so you may need several to cover all options. Electromagnetic, these are more expensive but are a one off unit fitted at point of entry to the property before first draw off, will protect stored water, there is no running costs, ( except the ones that plug in, much less than a light bulb to run)they do not add anything to the water and cannot be harmfull, they do not soften the water but put the scale into suspention so as not to stick to anything and it runs away down the sink, they are not as effective as salt based units and scalling will happen over a long period but the scale will be loose and easily removed. Hope this sheds some light   Dave

As a simpe rule of thumb, any burning item if it has a yellow flame will be producing carbon monoxide be it solid fuel or gas or oil and will normally produce a by product of soot, so long as there is sufficient operation of the flue and adequate ventilation along with regular servicing and or cleaning of the flue/chimney there should be no problem.   Dave

Hi everone Having found and bought my property in the '79' earlier this year and spent the summer working on it I forgot about the final papers  the Notaire said he would keep for me to collect after 3 months showing it was all mine for ever, as I am only in France now and then and he was not happy to post them through to England for fear of  lost in post he was going to keep them for collection by me from his office when I am over after the date,  I presume being France they will not resemble our English Deed papers i.e. signed and sealed with wax, but wondered what I could expect to recieve.   Many thanks   Dave 

The easiest way is througha radiator by first fitting a hose to a drain point and reducing the pressure to zero,  turn off both valves to a rad, remove rad and drain the last of the water in the rad outside the back door, replace rad with valves still turned off , remove both plugs from top of rad ie cap and air release, use a 1/2in fitting to small pipe adaptor and screw into one of the top tappings connect this to a small piece of garden hose and funnel you can then fill the rad with any consentrate without having back pressure, when tub is empty replace cap and air release,  turn on valves and recharge system,  turn on heating and it will be mixed with the water through circulation. This may seem long winded but I have tried to make it simple to understand, whole operation should only take approx 15 min   Dave 

If you can get someone to bring it in from Enland. I normally use a a finish called 'Scrim' it's pree mixed and cheap it will fill the gap but when cured is so soft you can almost rub it off with your hands, or light sand paper will do, it  will then take paint no problem.

Hi All Been away for a bit to go over to sign and pick up the keys to the place at last I sent my deposit direct to the Notaire through my French account bank to his followed by the balance by RIB over the net ,  the bank details were given to me by the agent, I had not met the Notaire before the passing of the money but checked him out on the net to make sure he existed as I didnt want to be passing money to neverland. I had masses of problems trying to open a French account from England, all to do with lourndering or so they said, gave up and poped over and opened an account with a local Bank in half an hour. Now I have the house the real work begins   Dave