Dan E

Barry she is guilty as charged but smile a lot. She doesn't ever give me shit about my car and she has said she will never drive it. It's good as I don't really love the 3 series so not paying for two cars is good. We had, randomly, TFL come round for a survey the other day, lovely lady, but apparently had been picked out of a few others in our area. So we invited her in. Was funny, how many cars, erm four, how many drive? Erm two. Do you ever use public transport, Erm no! I found out on Sunday that she has never washed a car in her life.

Barry I have sympathy, decided to sell wife's Fiat 500'as I never use the BMW so hid her keys so she has to use it. On sunday I thought I would have a little look around the fiat see what needs to be done before sale. This is a pic of one wheel, they are all like this it's got a crack in the back bumper ( it has parking sensors) and the leather is cracked to bits it only done 15k in 6 years I call it interference parking which you will appreciate

Now that's weird my 12 year old boy rang me other day and said he had saw a grey S3 with gold wheels in Blackheath. Do you know I have never seen another lotus when out in mine.

you need one of these and some kiln dried sand. I cant bloody wait to pull my brick drive up it drives me bloody mad. http://www.robertdyas.co.uk/draper-electric-patio-sweeper?istCompanyId=bf3344d9-83f5-4abd-b69a-da131f7567d1&istItemId=amxqlpatt&istBid=tztx&gclid=Cj0KEQjwyZjKBRDu--WG9ayT_ZEBEiQApZBFuH4EqdhX79JftKGfYoyjkPP3F8Dv7eut9A88ap4-Hx8aApAr8P8HAQ

You are absolutely right in my world! Unless of course it was installed incorrectly!

That would look lovely next to my Esprit ?

It is a lovely looking thing, and as you say looks well used I rather like that

Was it on the confession part?

Sparky just trying to send you a PM mate and apparently not allowed? Is this because of Esprits falling apart when ever your near them?

Colin, PM if you wish but what exactly do you do. I might be able to chuck some work your way

Colin I happily stand corrected on AOV,s it is not my specialty we only wire them and leave for others to second fix and commission. I still stand by passive is fine, if managed, but it is so easy to compromise. If people understood what smashing through a fire barrier actually meant then it might be different. Barry £6.50 a circuit WTF!!!! So the test sheet says, LIM, LIM, LIM. I have spent hours just trying to find a circuit let alone test it. I really am hoping this makes things change then at least something has come out of it.

Colin, I am a little out of touch with residential these days. I hope your are right. I definitely done a 10 odd storey building in East London (Old Ford turn off on the A12) a few years ago, funnily enough I drove right past it today it never had a sprinkler system. It also amazingly had only one parking space for an electric car and had a biomass boiler which they turned off the day of hand over and is now fed by gas! I am 100% behind you, dry risers only work if there is a fire compartment to let the FB get there. I did not realise that the London tower only had one staircase until tonight , I mean WTF! I am a very simple sparky, but I really give a shit about this stuff, we lose many a contract because I won't cut corners and because of the programme, because I am responsible ultimately. One of these days and hopefully soon someone will tell me how the fuck AOV's actually save lives as apposed to a sprinkler.

House systems are relatively cheap but for a high rise it needs storage big tanks ( mains water cannot keep up with the demand) and pumps and secondary pumps plus maintenance. I have had this conversation with a few people today who have watched Die Hard and they seem to think that when a fire is detected every sprinkler goes off, it is complete nonsense . Each sprinkler head only goes off when it reaches a certain temp. They are not set off by fire detectors but by each head. They need to change building regs now. I understand retro fitting will take time but the Gov need to stand up and it must go in all new builds. new builds normally have dry risers which the Fire Brigade can plug into on each floor if they can't reach them. I am wondering if this building had it. Not that the FB could have got there by the looks of it. My wife sorted out all our boys old clothes today and drove them up there today, I love her for that

It is expensive but how much can you put on a life and how much do you reckon the cladding cost? What would we all rather have? Paint the outside and put in a sprinkler system. As I said above Passive Fire systems work on the day of hand over,well to be fair I have seen air tests bodged many a time. If you have a fire compartment one hole in it, it is next to useless. We need to change to the American system, now.

I managed to get him with a bit of pressure I might add to get him to put some pics on here somewhere. they are current and all bloody lovely. I have a space for a new best mate btw

And people putting non fire rated downlights in a fire rated ceiling. I can't tell you how many times I have seen that. This is why this passive fire protection is complete bollocks. You only need to compromise it somewhere and the whole thing goes out the window and this has massive implications when you live in a tower block. I only know this because I am in the trade if I was a practical DIYer I would crack on and never think about it. Barry your right about the cladding, but what I am trying to say is passive fire protection means no one does anything to their flat from hand over day. They never know because no one ever tells them and if they did what difference would it make. Just as a very small example and nothing like what happened today but I tested my house first week in, I am not paranoid about electrical installations in fact I am pretty relaxed as long as not dangerous but I found part of my ring main and I am not making this up, wired in speaker wire. The knob I bought the house from was a lawyer and keen DIYer. I am now going to donate a few quid to the crowd funding for these poor families.

Mark I don't think we know yet, but it can be made of literally anything but I reckon the issue here will be the insulation. I might be wrong. Just watching the news and they reckon all stair cores went up at the same time that points to fire doors not shut to me. Saying that and Mr Kearley will back me up on this. All electrical and mechanical risers need to be sealed I reckon 90% of the ones I see have holes knocked in them as "trades" men smash holes in them to get cables, pipes or whatever through them and never seal them back up. I am properly paranoid about fire, as you can see. Check newsnight out now all about cladding

Barry, you know mate how many buildings have you been in with fire exits with a load of shit stored in them, fire doors wedged opened. I was in a law firm in Farringdon the other day the whole stairwell full of filing. I did point it out but they just shrugged. What they forget is ultimately it is on their heads. Bob America is way ahead of us over here. I believe you have sprinklers in high rise? That kit btw is a bloody brilliant idea. Short term cheap fix.

Yep, if the client spec'd it and then got signed off by building control I would say that is where the blame is unless the cladding contractor cut a corner. Although they should have known the product. i have wired a few big blocks and it might surprise you that there is not usually a requirement for fire alarms in the the communal areas they use containment within the flats, the stairwells and AOV's (automatic opening vents) to manage the smoke in the communal areas. I totally disagree with this btw, anything over 4 storeys should be protected by sprinklers if that had happened not one person would have died in that fire. But it is very costly especially to retro fit. I would not live in a highrise with out one. Do yourself a favour, sit the kids down work out your escape routes I live in a 2 story house and we all know how to get out in a fire, this was all to do with the twin towers. I think it was City Bank in there and they had a fire officer that made them do a fire drill every week and I believe they all got out. Since then any fire alarm in any building I am the first out I never wait I just go. Terrrible tragedy that could have been avoided, once agin hats off to the emergency services and my thoughts to all them poor families

bibs should be good mate, on a pretty tight schedule to get this job done. will be a lot clearer on thursday, please don't kill me if i don't get there this one has LADS attached to it. ( i await comments on this with trepidation, but some of you will know what it is and there is no Club Rub involved :-) Will be bloody annoying as i spent last sunday feeding the leather for 4 hours, cleaning and sorting it out.

Yes just re read that and I do appear to be saying that don't I!! ??

I just got back from there a couple of weeks ago makes London look cheap. It is genuinely worryingly expensive. Women are stunning though ?

Andy welcome, where abouts in Kent are you?

This is parked there now, anyone know it

Wow, wow, wow that is bloody lovely. Right time for some man maths! Anyone know any decent divorce lawyers?