What is it you do again?

I retired from Do-It-Yourself some time ago. The incident that forced the realisation upon me was the less than successful installation of  a loft ladder at the corporate headquarters. It ended up in place, but upside down, so that, instead of sliding down and out of the loft, it went up and into it. The problem was that I was in the loft and had kicked the step ladder out of the way, to make room for the loft ladder that should have occupied the space. The fact that it opened up in the loft meant that I had closed off all of the options for getting out of the roof space.

I do, however, consider something within my limited range of practicality. For instance, oiling the solid worktops in the kitchen. To do this, the intrepid handyman needs two things – the worktop cleared and no interference from family members intent on using the kitchen.

The opportunity presented itself the other Saturday when I was to be left in the house unattended. Except, that Jackie was waiting for her lift, sitting at the kitchen table watching proceedings with that proprietary air that seems to come to women so easily. Undaunted, I carried on emptying the worktop and made a good fist of ignoring the perceived looks of disdain. The inevitable comment came from one end of the kitchen table as I was to place the microwave oven on the other.

“Careful with that. It’s right on the end of the table and it might bend too much”

Completely failing to hide my sarcasm, I asked if I should present the capacity of the timber table top in metric or imperial, and what factor of safety should I apply to the bending moment of the offending leaf.

It is a perennial problem with structural engineering – many folk, including those in the construction industry, struggle to understand the subject. This can translate into a negative effect on income as householders and developers won’t pay for something they don’t need.

Which is the purpose of the blog I suppose.

And this website.

Keith