Some weeks, DIY activity will be sufficiently frenetic (eg during the recent wardrobe build) that I will have a constant stream of photos, thoughts and opinions to hammer out on this blog. This week however falls rather squarely into that other category of week where I've been rushing around without actually achieving a great deal. There was a trip down to London for reasons I won't bore you with, a replacement hot tub cover to finish off (photo at the bottom of this post) and we have some seismic disruption about to happen in the family next week when my 16 year old son goes into hospital for a third bout of brain surgery to try and cure his life long epilepsy (so I guess I'm apologising in advance for more inactivity then)!
Video aftermath: When I finish a video, as with last week's deck cleaning video I feel a little exhausted - physically and creatively, and typically end up working all weekend replying to comments - which I am passionate about doing - I set aside an hour each morning to catch up on the previous day's YouTube comments. Feeling rather jaded the Monday after, it's generally the perfect time to start gently preparing/ researching for the next video.
My next video: Our bathroom extractor fan slowly started giving up the ghost a few months ago - intermittent action, the final throes of a dying bit of kit which heroically refused to die until I put it out of its misery by switching off the isolator switch. I've bought my last couple of fans from ExtractorFanWorld - in my experience a great outfit, and I was particularly impressed when they replaced my first fan (an Envirovent), no questions asked when it stopped working after a couple of years - and recommended what was in their view, the superior Silent Tornado fan as a replacement. That was a few years ago now, and when I called them with a couple of questions and my finger poised over the buy button, after boring them about the impending video, they kindly provided me instead with a new one and more recently a few other options to discuss in the video. I'm embarrassed to say that was over a year ago - so they've had to be very patient indeed!
Often videos like this start out, in my mind at any rate, as a simple like for like replacement, but inevitably things get more complicated as I start wondering what other options are available, whether what I'm doing is right (a typical insecurity of mine) and most interestingly, as the experts who I'm lucky to bump into at some retailers, add their knowledgeable slant on what I've got planned - which often changes everything!
And so it is with this video as I will be setting out to explain the difference between in-line (top right in photo above) and axial fans, and a new addition to the market - smart fans (see Vent Axia pictured, centre in the photo). There are also ducting issues, the importance or not of backdraught shutters and also the sensitivity of wiring regs - what we are and aren't allowed to do around the home, as DIYers. So I'm hopeful that the video will go live next weekend, although given what's happening at Birmingham Childrens Hospital next week, realistically we're talking about two weeks time.
So I'll leave you with a few photos of the hot tub cover replacment - which I fabricated out of two sheets of 100mm insulation board. I'll see if I can scramble together a quick video on this before the weekend's out. Wish me luck next week, and please keep the comments and questions coming in!
