RimBlock

Go to the supermarket. Buy a drain unblocking product (Kiwi - Drainex pipe cleaner, Liq - liquid plumber foam or Mr Muscle - Drain declogger to name a few, all around the $5-$10 range). Follow the products instructions. If the drain is still blocked then call a plumber. RB

Most hanging cabinets are designed to be flat against the wall and gain a lot of their hanging strength from doing this. If you move the cabinet out from the wall (say, by a half inch) then it can loose some of the strength. Will the loss have an impact would depend on the weight to be stored. You could make a wooden frame on the wall where the edges of the cabinet will touch and that should elevate the issue. Which gap are you looking to fill ?. If it is a new kitchen and you want to fill the side then just ask the carpenter to overlap the laminate on to the wooden frame on the wall. Between to the tiles and the bottom of the frame you could use the white filler (usually used fro around sinks etc). Other options include hacking a row of the tiles and having the cabinets a bit lower or lifting them above the current tiles and having no overlap at all. RB

There are things that you have to be certified for or you cannot do (by HDB rules). Two that spring to mind would be hacking and electrical rewiring. I would contact HDB to confirm what work you would need an approved contractor to do and what you could do yourself. RB

Probably your safest option. The older HDB blocks that have not been upgraded usually have a metal box outside the door to each apartment and this usually has a black device (the meter) looking like this and either an ELCB or another black device which will usually be sealed and contain a fuse; Mechanical electrical meter. Newer and upgraded blocks usually have a plastic box outside the door to the apartments with the digital electric meter in the centre and one hatch each side. Inside these hatches are two pole circuit breakers (like the ones in therats MCB link). On my unit, neither of these two harches for the MCB's are locked and so both can be reset by me if they should trip (which they have in the past). Somewhere inside your apartment should be a consumer unit. This contains your MCBs and an RCD. MCB's should be allocated for the separate circuits and the RCD will be for the overall on/off for all the MCB's. Older units will have pullout fuses (see the top pic in the consumer unit link). For these, the fuses come out by pulling and then a new fuse or fuse wire is added in to each of the pullout fuses as needed. I have not seen any of these in Singapore yet. If you are getting a trip at the consumer unit (which sounds the case), what is tripping ?. Is it the RCD (the one that looks like two MCB's stuck together) or is it a MCB (the narrow ones). If it is the RCD that trips then if you push it to the on position again without touching anything else, does it trip again. If this is the case then go around and turn something off then try turning the RCD on again. If it trips again then turn that item back on and turn another off. Go around your items until you find the one that stops the RCD tripping off. Another way to narrow it down quicker would be to trip the MCB's one at a time and see if the RCD will stay on. If no then turn that MCB back on and turn off the next one. Working through them like this should help to isolate the circuit the fault / faulty item is on. It does rely on you being able to work out which MCB is for which circuit though. If you are not able to find the faulty device this way then call a professional. This is more or less all an average person would be able to do without putting themselves in undue danger. RB

Have had lots of experience with limescale . Have ust looked through the Cold storage on-line catalogue and nothing seems to be highlighted as a limescale remover. I would suggest going to home/self fix and asking there. Just ask for a limescale remover and they should be ableo to help. If you cannot get any help there then ask here again and I will try to get details of specific products that should work. Cheers RB.

Glass shower screens are not to hard to maintain if you use a car windscreen scraper (like a T shape with a strip of rubber at the end). We decided not to install a glass wall in the kitchen due to cleaning issues. My big regret was not getting the electricians to put my read surround speaker wires in the trunking or under the floor. Have had to trail ugly speaker wires around the room. Don't put too many lights in your ceiling light box. We have 10 and even though they are eco bulbs we still see the electricity bill go up noticeably if we use them regularly. Be careful choosing a dining table light. We got a long one and although it looks good, it generates quite a lot of heat and being long, there is only one position you can put the table in. Don't skimp on bathroom accessories. Most of the accessories packs contain cheap chrome coated plastic. They look cheap and feel cheap. Spend a bit of money and get stainless steel or the like to help give the feeling of quality. If you get a big wall mirror for the bathroom, try and make sure it is hung with brackets rather than just being stuck to the wall. We had one that started to develop 'patches' 6 months after installation. We removed it and bought a mirror with brackets which has had no issues at all. Listen to your aircon installer about placement of the fan coils. We had one installed in the master bedroom over the bathroom door. Looks great but is in a corner and cannot cool the room properly. The previous owner had theirs halfway along a wall facing the bed. Didn't look so good but I am sure it worked a lot better. If you upgrade your fan coils to a higher capacity, make sure the compressor can also cope with the higher load. If it cannot with all fan coils on at the same time then you will get reduced cooling. Minimize built in carpentry. It will save large amounts on the reno. If you buy separate units, you can rearrange their position as you needs change, if they get spoilt it is easy to replace, when you move to a new apartment you can take them with you. RB

This would be a good idea but my work blocks the Google apps so I cannot manage it through the day if I get a quiet period at work . RB

err S$5 (DIY), maybe S$20 (handyman to fix) or S$2K+ for reno RB

Ahh, ok, 20 message max. No forwarding option. Ok please send to Rim_Block-@-hotmail.com (remove the '-' signs). Thanks RB

I have mit-heavy industries and my brother-in-law had Mit-electric. We have a slight issue as we up sized one of the fan coils from 9,600 to 12,00 due to the master bedroom room size. Now the kids bedroom can get very cold but the master bedroom will just get cool. The units have all been cleaned and checked out with no issue found. I am guessing the compressor capacity was not taken in to account by the sales staff when we ordered My brother-in-laws system is stock (i.e. no changes were made to capacity offered when he ordered) and runs fine. Neither system has encountered any breakdowns. I believe both are 4 ticks. One difference to the make up of the fan coils between the two makes is that the heavy industries fain coil uses a heat exchanger where the individual fins are closer together than the Mit-Electric fan coils. The effect of this is that it should be more efficient in cooling but... it is easier to get clogged up by dust and 'jelly'. Both units are pretty quiet. TBH you should be fine with either if it is install correctly. Choose the one you like the look of best . RB

Due to the interest on power consumption and especially standby power of different electrical devices and a lack of a central store of this information I am suggesting that we create our own. If people are willing to get the specs of their electronic devices and send them to me then I will collate them in to a spreadsheet or possibly a database depending on the volume of data. If people cannot find the information about power usage then if they can post the following information, I can see what I can find out. Please note the more information you can get the better as I will be doing this in my own time. I will look for the best way to share it, whether it be on my own website or via a third party and make the link available (obviously free of charge) so people can download it with out having to request I send it to them individually. If it all goes well, hopefully the mods will be happy to sticky it. Sending the details to me by email (Rim_Block-@-hotmail.com remove the '-' signs).would be preferred as it will not clutter up this thread. If for some reason someone does not want to send via PM then please use the following template to make it easier to incorporate into a single format for storing. Item type: (i.e. aircon (inverter/non-inverter), tv (Plasma/LCD/Led), set top box, games console etc) Item subtype: (i.e. fan coil, compressor, N/A) Manufacturer: Model number: On power (watts): Standby power (watts): Other information: (i.e. BTU rating for aircon) So for an example, Item Type: Air conditioner (Inverter) Item subtype: Compressor (system 3) Manufacturer: Mitsubishi Electric Model Number: MXZ-3A54VA On Power (watts): 590w-1,600w Standby power (watts): not specified. Other information: Heating power usage: 1,455w Manual: here The format of the information collected will 'mature' as need be. If anyone has a beeter suggestion for the information to be collected please let me know. For information that is not available in the manuals, when we get a collection together, I will write to the companies and request the information. Better to do it in bulk rather than one at a time. RB

Sure, the links are meant to be a guide only. So, why don't we make our own ?. If people are willing to get the specs of their electronic devices and send them to me then I will collate them in to a spreadsheet or possibly a database depending on the volume of data. I will start by adding the ones I have where I can get the information. If people cannot find the information about power usage then if they can post the item type (aircon, tv, set top box, games console etc), manufacturer and model number I can see what I can find out. Please note the more information you can get the better as I will be doing this in my own time. I will look for the best way to share it, whether it be on my own website or via a third party and make the link available so people can download it with out having to request I send it to them individually. If it all goes well, hopefully the mods will be happy to sticky it. Sending the details to my by PM would be prefered as it will not clutter up this thread. If for some reason someone does not want to send via PM then I will create a new thread and they can post it there. RB

Sorry, cannot help on glass contractors. Other suggestions; Floor length curtains with tie backs would give a boudoir type feel. Thick heavy curtains (velvet for example) are best for this look. Couple it with a chair or chaise lounge and patterned walls (wallpaper) for the ultimate effect. It seems quite hard to find pictures especially ones that are not a little risqué so this is the best I could do to give an idea although I would guess you would need to do it on a much smaller scale. The lady is Christina Aguilera and the pic is from instyle magazine. Prefer a more modern look then what about a sliding door much like those on wardrobes. There are lots of designs to choose from and it could give a 'Tales of Narnia' type feel sliding the wardrobe door open to find this large space behind. If you like a more natural feel then put on a normal moulded wooden door. It can add a bit of class and quality. Bottom line is really what your style is and how your bedroom and the rest of your apartment looks like. If you post a couple of pictures then it may be easier to suggest some other alternatives. Cheers RB

Looks like it was a calcium deposit. This is very common in London (UK) where we have hard water. I have not noticed it in Singapore apart from in hotels. Check your water boiler (drinking water). If you have scaling (a build up of calcium carbonate) around the heating pad or element then you have hard water. More likely is that the cement used to build the curb was standard cement which is usually heavily based on limestone (calcium carbonate). If the white cement grouting had failed and water is leaking through underneath the curb then it will be seeping through the concrete mortar and carrying some of the limestone with it and as the water lays there and evaporates it leaves the limestone deposit (same way that water seeping through rocks create stalactites and stalagmites in caves). As you have found, baking soda is pretty good to remove. Kettle de-scaling solutions will also work. For a repair, you could use silicon as suggested or just make sure the area inside and outside of the shower is dry and reapply the white cement grouting along the bottom of the tiles. Make sure it goes hard before using the shower again or you will just wash it away. If you don't want to regrout yourself then give a local handyman a call as they should be able to do it for you for a small fee. The reason that normal (grey) cement allows the limestone to seep out and white cement does not is due to white cement using much less limestone in it's make up. RB

Photos of what you have and the new one would be helpful. You could just get a local handyman to do it. We swapped out 4 crystal lights for Ikea cheap ceiling lights before selling out place and get a handyman in as I do not have high powered hammer drill capable of going through the reinforced concrete for the new fixings. It was something like S$30 for the first light and S$15 for each one after that. If you have the tools you could do yourself and I could give instructions after you post the pictures. Please not though, it is on your own head if you electrocute yourself RB

We have ant issues now and then. My older son has a habit of leaving food around or dropping food when eating (crumbs etc) and not cleaning up. The last time there was a collection of ants around a small bit of food in the sink and as I removed all the plates etc so I could spray, they scattered. I followed in hot pursuit and tracked them down the cabinet and underneath between the cabinet and the concrete base. One bit spray along the bottom of the cabinets and they started pouring out dying. They had been bugging us for a while and we had even got a ultrasonic bug repulser device from homefix (does not work). There have been no more ants on our countertops since spraying a couple of days ago. Trace them to the source (cause them to scatter and follow if needed), give them a good spray in any holes or cracks they disappear in to. If you get a lot of little black ant bodies come spilling (oh the carnage) out then you have got it. If not then keep going until you find it. RB

Hi Nukku, Would be interested to know which company covers unemployment in their mortgage protector scheme. We were pushed one via OCBC when we signed up for our loan. Both my wife and myself were insured for 100% meaning if either of us pass away or have a critical illness the whole mortgage would be paid off. You do not have to insure for both having 100% though, you could do 50% each but with one person gone, the other would still be liable for the remaining 50% of the mortgage. We are due to get our keys at the end of December so I refused to sign for the mortgage protector policy. The OCBC agent explained that after signing the contract we are legally indebted to pay the mortgage whether it had been paid out or not yet so if either myself or my wife were to pass away, the loan would be repaid in full before it was even given to us. This sounded reasonable until I pointed out that the mortgage agreement we had just signed has a clause that we can cancel at any time before the loan is dispensed to us for a nominal fee. We looked around and found another protection scheme which is S$15 less each per month. We will not be signing until we sign for the 2nd appointment (or just before). RB

NP. Google is my friend . The only difficulty is sometimes knowing what phrase to search for. RB

Thanks for the reply. Projector price is a bit steep for me I am afraid with Amazon selling for US$950 (S$1270 - S$1450 inc shipping and taxes with Borderlinx). Don't get me wrong, I understand you may only be able to get the projector from your local distributor for the US price plus international delivery and that you need to add a markup for yourself but 40% above the import price really is a bit high. The Panasonic booth at Comex was selling the AE4000U for S$3,500. Buying from Amazon inc delivery & taxes via borderlinx will come to about S$3,225. I could live with the S$275 difference for a local product. The other one I would be interested in would be the Epson 8500UB. Are you able to get anywhere near S$3,057 which would be the US import cost. As far as the screen goes, I would love a fixed 110" or 120" screen. The Sony projectors shown at the AVOne booth at Comex were on a 110" screen and looked fantastic. My problem is the screen will be in the same place as the 42" TV I am not sure how they can coexist if the projector screen is not retractile. I am obviously open to any fixed screen solutions you may be aware of. I would also be interested to know the price of a ceiling mount bracket and a 25ft HDMI cable. Many thanks RB

Hi Scott, Can you please confirm your price on the Optoma HD20 HD projector ? I am after a Panasonic AE4000U but the Optoma will be my second choice. The price on your website seems a little high especially considering the cost it would be to import directly from the US. It would also be good to kwon what prices you do manual pull down screens for (110-120" diag). Thanks RB

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory article on standby power in multiple devices (what has it and why) here. Table of standby power by product (note the set top box power usage) here. NEA database of registered goods and their power consumption here. I believe Mit3a28 has confirmed this does not include the standby power consumption though. Still interesting to find out though. I have also registered with energyrating.gov.au to access their pooled standby data so hopefully some of that will give some useful results. RB

Take a look at these suggestions here. Obviously using a blowtorch (test 5) or hitting it with a hammer (test 6) cant really be done . RB

Thanks. Yep, we know it as bar 5. We were there last night as my wife decided going for a drink with my mother-in-law watching the kids was more important that getting her birthday cake . We got a bit lost as the new shopping centre has opened since we were last there . Found it in the end and helped litter with peanut shells . RB

Oh and to sneek a last one in.... Not my 5D, not my photo. Love it never the less. One my wife took of our youngest. RB

Cool, someone who actually walks in Singapore . My wife is a concrete city girl through and through. Me, I have always lived near the forest in the UK so nature is pretty appealing. A few pics for those interested in photography. Most are in the photography link as it seems I have very few new ones I like and almost none done with the 5D. We all know this one. Out with my wife (bar 5 off Somerset Road). Melissa. A model I did a photo shoot with in the UK. We all know this one too . Anyone want some photography done, I am open to offers ;) . Gotta pay for the reno somehow RB