Monthly Archives: November 2013

Advertise in Wickes Stores

Posted by on November 20, 2013 Comments Off on Advertise in Wickes Stores

Last month we noticed a sign covering the trade card dispenser at out local Wickes store, it basically notified customers that the card dispenser company had gone into liquidation. A number of blank boards (900 mm x 600 mm) had been fitted to the internal wall of the store near the exit, with a small note saying trade adverting. When we inquired about these, we were informed that for the sum of £50 for 3 months, (which will be donated to charity) local trades can have the advertisement spaces to promote there business. We took a prime location there and then. Initially we just placed our cards on a board until we had a proper advert board made up with card dispenser attached. Our first job more than covered the advert costs, our card dispenser is having to be filled up weekly. We are informed that this advertising option is available in all Wickes stores.

Grab a prime advert location while you can, at bargain price, while you can

Carpet fitters …lazy?

Posted by on November 20, 2013 Comments Off on Carpet fitters …lazy?

It seems to me that carpet fitters are almost unique in being able to do only half a job:
1) Seldom will you find a carpet fitter that will trim doors to fit over the newly fitted carpet.
2) Quite often they won’t even take doors off to make things easier for themselves and will push this task onto the house owner.
3) They seem unable and unprepared to remedy squeaky floorboards and won’t even check for any before fitting.
Perhaps I notice this more because handymen ARE expected to be able to cover virtually all aspects of the work they undertake.

Wobbly Toilet Seats

Posted by on November 6, 2013 Comments Off on Wobbly Toilet Seats

Fixing a wobbly toilet seat is a perennial job for a handyman mainly because the one-size-fits-all brackets that are part of many replacement seats are fundamentally useless. The problem lies in the design of the two metal parts from which the seat and lid hinge. These are made to adapt in two ways:
1) The threaded bars that poke through the two holes in the actual toilet pan and which secure the seat brackets into place (usually with wing-nuts from underneath) have two alternative positions. The idea is to give slight backward and forward adjustment by means of selecting which threaded hole you screw the threaded bar into. This is the first problem, because these frequently come loose so I always glue them into place with a dab of epoxy resin (Araldite).
Note: Before you glue this be sure you have selected the correct hole by checking the overhang of the seat at the front edge of the toilet and being sure the seat will stay up when raised (men will understand why this is an essential check!). 
2) Further adjustment can be obtained by swivelling the main boss of each bracket around the hinge anchor point. This is designed to allow for adjustment between the two holes in the pan since some are slightly further apart than others. This is the second problem, because these also frequently come loose so I also glue these into place with a small dab of epoxy resin to stop then coming loose or trying to swivel after tightening.
Note: There are various kinds of replacement toilet seat and the above applies to ones with brackets like this one:
746891_R_Z001