Sunday's lack of progress

We don't have a date yet for the plasterer-ererer but just to on the safe side we are trying to make sure everything is ready for him by next week.

Ok, you in the back. Stop laughing.

Today, I managed to remove the radiator and rip out some more skirting board.

Seriously one thing that really bugs me about houses in the UK is that nobody bothers to cleanup behind radiators or to complete their decorating properly. For example the radiator in the middle room only had 3 layers of paper behind it instead of the 6 found on the rest of the wall. Strange thing was these layers were textured and didn't match any of the rest of the wallpaper. Its tempting to get Tony Robinson (Baldric) in with the Time Team to do a proper archaeological dig. But I digress. Its not rocket science to remove a radiator to do a proper job of things. Besides you never know what you will find lurking behind.

Helpful tip #1, removing a radiator. First get some old crappy towels that you don't really care about anymore. Next get a couple of bowls, or even better paint roller trays. Put the towels down to protect the flooring and place the bowls or trays below the pipe connections. Grab the handy-dandy tin of WD-40 and give the connectors a good spray and go for a cuppa. After about 20 mins you can continue. Close off the valve leading to the radiator. Just a warning, if you have the thermostatic type of valve, don't do this in cold weather as they apparently will override their shut off if it gets too cold. Next pop off the tacky plastic cap on the other pipe leading from the radiator. There should be a valve requiring a small wrench or screwdriver. Close this off. Now loosen off one of the pipe connectors that attach to the radiator. Just let it leak slowly into the bowl for a few minutes. As the flow slows down, use your radiator key (you do have one don't you?) to open the bleeder valve at the top of the radiator. This should increase the flow again as air can get into the radiator easier. Now start to loosen the other connector and let the water flow from there into the other bowl. When no more water comes out, completly disconnect the pipes from the radiator and lift it off the support brackets. Voila. 10 mins of actual work with a decent tea break in the middle. Total time half an hour.