What grinds my gears...

[StanSP]

47 minutes ago, foxile5 said:

This thread isn't about what actually harms us. 

 

But it is just performative nonsense. 

I don't get why it upsets you so much though, hence the question to find out more. 

[bovril]

Cynical soulless Brits constantly use the word "performative" when referring to genuine displays of emotion or belief, which grinds my gears. 

[foxile5]

1 hour ago, bovril said:

Cynical soulless Brits constantly use the word "performative" when referring to genuine displays of emotion or belief, which grinds my gears. 

Performative posting. 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

When you're on for a night of unbridled passion with a particularly fit cousin but she gets all frigid because the "family connection is too close" had enough

[filthyfox]

23 minutes ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

When you're on for a night of unbridled passion with a particularly fit cousin but she gets all frigid because the "family connection is too close" had enough

Was there wrist kissing involved?

[HighPeakFox]

Victimhood. It's everywhere. 

[Vowels]

On 29/09/2025 at 20:49, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

When you're on for a night of unbridled passion with a particularly fit cousin but she gets all frigid because the "family connection is too close" had enough

Have you tried leaving the bridle on?

Edited 2 October 2025 by Vowels

[Parafox]

Who the hell lets fireworks off in the middle of October?

 

The dog went mad and knocked the Christmas tree over. 

[StanSP]

4 minutes ago, Parafox said:

Who the hell lets fireworks off in the middle of October?

 

The dog went mad and knocked the Christmas tree over. 

Bloody Indians! 

[Corky]

East Midlands Railway putting 5 carriages on a Nottingham to London train on a Saturday and making 2 of them first class. 40% of the train should not be first class.

[foxfanazer]

People who say "y'all"

 

Get in the bin

[Torquay Gunner]

1 hour ago, foxfanazer said:

People who say "y'all"

 

Get in the bin

American rappers?

[Samilktray]

7 hours ago, Torquay Gunner said:

Americans

 

[bovril]

15 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

People who say "y'all"

 

Get in the bin

I've heard several Americans claiming this is necessary because you don't know with "you" if it refers to the plural or singular, as if context and lexis are some huge mystery to them. 

[foxfanazer]

2 minutes ago, bovril said:

I've heard several Americans claiming this is necessary because you don't know with "you" if it refers to the plural or singular, as if context and lexis are some huge mystery to them. 

I can almost forgive it with Americans (I guess it's common parlance) but it's made it's way over here somehow and it bugs the shit out of me whether it's written or spoken

[ozleicester]

The Oz government offering substantial rebates to install battery to go with my existing Solar - Yay!
Organise with company to come and install nice 20Kw batteries at home... should be enough to run my house and feed a bit back into the grid - yay
Will have a small loop of appliances that will work during blackouts - yay
Cost is 50% of what it wouldve been prior to rebates - yay

Booked date 1 - cancelled
Booked date 2 - cancelled
Installers turn up...
"Wait, your house isnt brick?... we need extra stuff" (But..I told the company exactly what my house was made of and the address so they could see all details)
"oh no we cant site the batteries there they are too big" (But... i sent the company pictures of the planned location and surroundings)
"Your meter box doesnt allow for a black out loop (But wait, the contract says a blackout loop and i sent you a picture of my meter box)
"We will have to reduce to a 15Kw system and youll have to build a cover over the new location" 

We negotiate.. numerous phone calls.. the reduced size system is installed, they fit a very dodgy cover and two bright yellow bollards on my drive, disappear without telling me, leave the instructions and info laying by the batteries, no info about setting up the app and no blackout loop.

negotiations continue...

 

[ajthefox]

7 hours ago, ozleicester said:

The Oz government offering substantial rebates to install battery to go with my existing Solar - Yay!
Organise with company to come and install nice 20Kw batteries at home... should be enough to run my house and feed a bit back into the grid - yay
Will have a small loop of appliances that will work during blackouts - yay
Cost is 50% of what it wouldve been prior to rebates - yay

Booked date 1 - cancelled
Booked date 2 - cancelled
Installers turn up...
"Wait, your house isnt brick?... we need extra stuff" (But..I told the company exactly what my house was made of and the address so they could see all details)
"oh no we cant site the batteries there they are too big" (But... i sent the company pictures of the planned location and surroundings)
"Your meter box doesnt allow for a black out loop (But wait, the contract says a blackout loop and i sent you a picture of my meter box)
"We will have to reduce to a 15Kw system and youll have to build a cover over the new location" 

We negotiate.. numerous phone calls.. the reduced size system is installed, they fit a very dodgy cover and two bright yellow bollards on my drive, disappear without telling me, leave the instructions and info laying by the batteries, no info about setting up the app and no blackout loop.

negotiations continue...

 

This is always the problem with government backed initiatives for energy/construction related works for householders because there are always shysters who take advantage of the system and how ready it is to hand out money.

 

I was reading something yesterday about external wall insulation issues over here - it was similarly something you could apply for a lot of funding for but because many people doing it had no technical understanding of the potential issues, thousands of people now have damp/mould issues that cost more to rectify than the original works.

[kenny]

28 minutes ago, ajthefox said:

This is always the problem with government backed initiatives for energy/construction related works for householders because there are always shysters who take advantage of the system and how ready it is to hand out money.

 

I was reading something yesterday about external wall insulation issues over here - it was similarly something you could apply for a lot of funding for but because many people doing it had no technical understanding of the potential issues, thousands of people now have damp/mould issues that cost more to rectify than the original works.

Im dealing with a load of council properties at the moment. Its weird what these contractors get away with.

 

Its poor that the system isn't designed by a qualified technician for each property rather than just slapped on by a builder. You would assume under the Building Safety Act this would have stopped but it doesn't appear to.

[Free Falling Foxes]

48 minutes ago, ajthefox said:

This is always the problem with government backed initiatives for energy/construction related works for householders because there are always shysters who take advantage of the system and how ready it is to hand out money.

 

I was reading something yesterday about external wall insulation issues over here - it was similarly something you could apply for a lot of funding for but because many people doing it had no technical understanding of the potential issues, thousands of people now have damp/mould issues that cost more to rectify than the original works.

I can add spray foam insulation, applied between roofing rafters to that list.

My Father in Law was entitled for a grant to have this that work carried out totally free of charge.

When he died, we quickly realised it made the house totally unsellable.

A sizable sum of his estate went on paying for a new roof.

[AyewJoking]

the cat has started staring at me, waiting for me to sit down so it can sleep in my lap.

[Jon the Hat]

22 hours ago, ozleicester said:

The Oz government offering substantial rebates to install battery to go with my existing Solar - Yay!
Organise with company to come and install nice 20Kw batteries at home... should be enough to run my house and feed a bit back into the grid - yay
Will have a small loop of appliances that will work during blackouts - yay
Cost is 50% of what it wouldve been prior to rebates - yay

Booked date 1 - cancelled
Booked date 2 - cancelled
Installers turn up...
"Wait, your house isnt brick?... we need extra stuff" (But..I told the company exactly what my house was made of and the address so they could see all details)
"oh no we cant site the batteries there they are too big" (But... i sent the company pictures of the planned location and surroundings)
"Your meter box doesnt allow for a black out loop (But wait, the contract says a blackout loop and i sent you a picture of my meter box)
"We will have to reduce to a 15Kw system and youll have to build a cover over the new location" 

We negotiate.. numerous phone calls.. the reduced size system is installed, they fit a very dodgy cover and two bright yellow bollards on my drive, disappear without telling me, leave the instructions and info laying by the batteries, no info about setting up the app and no blackout loop.

negotiations continue...

 

Who did you go with to install?  I am thinking about this myself early next year.  

[Grebfromgrebland]

Can you Aussies stop showing off about having green incentives please.

[ajthefox]

23 hours ago, kenny said:

Im dealing with a load of council properties at the moment. Its weird what these contractors get away with.

 

Its poor that the system isn't designed by a qualified technician for each property rather than just slapped on by a builder. You would assume under the Building Safety Act this would have stopped but it doesn't appear to.

There are good small contractors out there but many are just blokes who learnt a trade but have no understanding of building science.

 

I take your point re the BSA but a lot of this stuff isn't really to do with compliance (or safety) is it, it's about technical application and interdependencies of different components within a building. A private house could be broadly compliant but you could have loads of different issues because of poor detailing. Obviously the regs and British Standards do refer to detailing but in much broader terms that at a small domestic scale are never going to be policed in any way.

 

There definitely should be more technical oversight on these sorts of initiatives though I completely agree. 

 

23 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

I can add spray foam insulation, applied between roofing rafters to that list.

My Father in Law was entitled for a grant to have this that work carried out totally free of charge.

When he died, we quickly realised it made the house totally unsellable.

A sizable sum of his estate went on paying for a new roof.

I didn't realise the spray foam was funded but knew it was an issue. External wall insulation can be very problematic but if done correctly can work, the spray foam between rafters on the other hand should never have been included.

Anyone with any building knowledge could tell you from the get go that that was only ever going to cause serious problems. And yet many will have made good money from doing so.

 

It's a fine balance with these types of initiative though. You need enough guidelines on how and when it is applied so that it doesn't get abused, but you have to make sure it isn't such a laborious hoop jumping exercise that the take up is a failure.

[kenny]

23 minutes ago, ajthefox said:

There are good small contractors out there but many are just blokes who learnt a trade but have no understanding of building science.

 

I take your point re the BSA but a lot of this stuff isn't really to do with compliance (or safety) is it, it's about technical application and interdependencies of different components within a building. A private house could be broadly compliant but you could have loads of different issues because of poor detailing. Obviously the regs and British Standards do refer to detailing but in much broader terms that at a small domestic scale are never going to be policed in any way.

 

There definitely should be more technical oversight on these sorts of initiatives though I completely agree. 

 

I didn't realise the spray foam was funded but knew it was an issue. External wall insulation can be very problematic but if done correctly can work, the spray foam between rafters on the other hand should never have been included.

Anyone with any building knowledge could tell you from the get go that that was only ever going to cause serious problems. And yet many will have made good money from doing so.

 

It's a fine balance with these types of initiative though. You need enough guidelines on how and when it is applied so that it doesn't get abused, but you have to make sure it isn't such a laborious hoop jumping exercise that the take up is a failure.

Its a BSA issue as the contractor becomes the Principle Designer under the act despite not being competent to do so. Particularly as the organisations that appoint these contractors are often publicly funded ie, the council or Housing Associations.

[Free Falling Foxes]

Fireworks going off at all hours is annoying, whether it's during Diwali or Bonfire Night.

 

I do think the law regarding this is also unfair

 

The law says you must not set off fireworks between 23:00 and 07:00, except for Bonfire Night (when the cut-off is midnight) and New Year's Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year, when the cut off is 01:00.

 

Bonfire Night has been a tradition in this country for hundreds of years, Diwali is, in comparison, quite new to this land yet there is this disparity with the rules.

Edited 24 October 2025 by Free Falling Foxes