Building Hardware Resource

Toilet is a key part of life to most people whether it’s at home or on the road. The toilet door lock is valued a lot due to the privacy and security. As a moving multi-user toilet on high speed, the toilet on a train needs a substantial and smart door lock.

One kind of new locks, coming from Pickersgill-Kaye which traditionally supplied the majority of toilet door locks on railway vehicles in the UK, supplies with a microswitch fitted within the striking plate assembly which can be linked to a remote toilet status indicator which illuminates when the toilet is in use. To provide long term reliability the indicator uses the latest LED technology.

There is another developed door lock which interfaces directly with the toilet waste tank also by this company. The lock operates normally until the waste tank becomes full. Once full, the door automatically locks out and can only be opened by traincrew staff in possession of the appropriate override key. A field trial for this new system is currently ongoing on a class 165 train in co-operation with Interfleet Technology.

Lock, is really a special thing but used almost everywhere. We can’t imagine even a day without it. However, no one can exactly tell when it first came into human being’s mind and then never have been absent. Maybe it was a contemporary with private ownership. It came out of the sense of security .

Generally speaking, a lock is a mechanical fastening device which may be used on a door, vehicle, or container, restricting access to the area or enclosed property. Locks are always come in a variety of forms due to the unstoppable bout between lock and picklock. Bicycle lock, cam lock, chamber lock , child safety lock, combination lock, cruciform (or Zeiss) lock, time lock, turner lock, wafer tumbler lock, warded lock and so on is never occur to be found rare. What I want to talk this time is electric locks, which are widely used now.

An electric lock is a locking device which operates by means of electric current. Electric locks are sometimes stand-alone with an electronic control assembly mounted directly to the lock. More often electric locks are connected to an access control system.

The advantages of an electric lock connected to an access control system include: key control, where keys can be added and removed without re-keying the lock cylinder; fine access control, where time and place are factors; and transaction logging, where activity is recorded.

Electric locks come in many forms. The most basic is a magnetic lock (commonly called a mag lock). A large electro-magnet is mounted on the door frame and a corresponding armature is mounted on the door. When the magnet is powered and the door is closed, the armature is held fast to the magnet. Mag locks are simple to install and are very attack resistant. But mag locks are also problematic. Improperly installed or maintained mag locks have fallen on people. Also there is no mechanical free egress. In other words, one must unlock the mag lock to both enter and leave. This has caused fire marshals to impose strict codes on the use of mag locks and the access control practice in general. Other problems include a lag time in releasing as the collapsing magnetic field is not instantaneous. This lag time can cause a user to walk into the door. Finally, mag locks by design fail unlocked, that is if power is removed they unlock. This could be a problem where security is a prime concern.

It’s always so annoying to find the drains choked with twisted hairs, grime or something else in the bathroom. With the wastewater just flowing pretty leisurely in which way the floor is covered with wastewater, my good feeling is nearly ruined. What a nuisance! 

However the truth is that any type of drain can get clogged, some more easily than others. Even though they are designed to withstand quite a good amount of abuse, floor and shower drains are, nevertheless, common candidates for clogging problems. Hair and other shower by-products easily get caught in subsurface pipes. Floor drains are prevalent in laundry rooms, garages, and basements where they are frequent receptacles for wastewater from washing machines, air conditioners, and water heaters. These drains are necessary, the waste has to leave your house some way, but when a clog occurs they are also some of the hardest drains to clear. Here is the advice from Marcus Picket on dealing with clogged floor drains and shower drains.

Shower Drains

Interestingly enough, the first thing you should try when unclogging your shower drain is pouring a hair removal product down the drain because hair is the reason for your clog. There’s a good chance this will work. If it becomes a recurring problem, you may need a better shower drain cover to catch more of the hair before it enters your drain. If a hair removal product is not available, baking soda and vinegar can also work.

If this doesn’t work, you may have a more extensive problem. You may need to call a plumber if you don’t have the expertise to disassemble the drain. When you take this recourse, you should ask the plumber about the general condition of the shower drain, not just the clog. Newer drain assemblies use a bondable waterproof membrane that can protect your mortar bed from becoming saturated.

Floor Drains

Floor drains are a different matter altogether. More than just wastewater, lint, sand, and grime can crystallize in your drain causing a real clogging nightmare. When this happens you’re way beyond hair removal products and will probably need to either call a plumber or rent a power auger. This machine uses cutting blades to cut through the clog. If you have a drain basin with a clean out plug, circumvent the drain trap and enter directly into the pipe. Otherwise, you’ll have to snake the drain through the drain assembly, which increases the difficulty in reaching the clog. Once you reach the clog, the blades are designed to alternate directions as you move back and forth through the clog.

Floor drains are unique in that they are often designed to allow a certain amount of overflow. High amounts of pressure can be created in many floor drains. A standpipe holds back some of the wastewater causing the drain to overflow. This keeps the pipes and drain assembly from breaking. If you think your drain is accepting high levels of wastewater, this can be a bigger issue than a clog. You might consider talking to a plumber about any possible risks associated with your drain assembly.

A dingy, ugly bathroom is likely to start your day on the wrong foot, but some well-chosen bathroom fittings can produce big effects without a complete overhaul. They spruce up a bathroom and give a less-than-interesting bathroom a focal point.

Take bathroom wall cabinet for example. It is sort of a housekeeper, arranging many accessories well.

After you take the budget into account, measure the space on your bathroom wall available for the wall cabinet before you go to buy it. Then decide how big the cabinet should be and how far it should stands out from the wall.

Another thing to consider is what you want to use bathroom wall cabinet for. If you will mainly use it for things like your toothbrush, toothpaste and hand soap, then it need not be very big. If however you need to use it for other things such as shampoo and conditioner and other ointments, then the bigger the better. It is also usually very good to have mirrors on the ‘doors’ of the cabinet, but that is entirely up to you.

 It’s obvious that you will catch a lot of bathroom wall cabinet in different colors and shape. So keep in mind that you choose the proper accessories matching well with the style of your bathroom. It can follow in the style of living room or bedroom, or just strike out in another way. The light-colored is dear and bright, while the various colorful one is refreshing and the darker style is dignified and elegant. If you got archaized ceramic tile and sanitary fittings, a classical bathroom wall cabinet can help to add something fashionable.   

Hope you get a satisfying bran-new bathroom wall cabinet!

Maybe you are just bothering how to deal with the home plumbing which was tackled years ago but doesn’t work favorably now. Take it easy, Tim Carter, a master plumber for years, would like to share some tips. He suggests that while much about remodeling home plumbing is somewhat easy, you need a crisp understanding of the physics of water movement as well as some specialized tools to get professional results.

The first obstacle you’ll have is understanding the plumbing code. You’ll discover terms that you will need to learn to pass inspections. Be sure you talk to your inspector about how you will pass the rough-in inspection, as it will be difficult to put an air test on that bathroom while the rest of the house is in use.

If you get into trouble, you will likely need to consult with a plumber to discuss any new plumbing installations and to establish timelines to ensure that any plumbing projects can be coordinated correctly with any other contractors doing work. You can have them do the most technical aspects; they will gladly let you set and connect the fixtures. You can usually get quotes for free, and these will be realistic if you open up the walls as much as possible so that they can see what needs to be moved where.

If you have not done much plumbing before, it’s better for you to practice completing joints in both drainage and water lines before you start on the real pipes in your home. If you are using plastic PVC piping, try priming and gluing some joints together. The pipe will sometimes pop back out of the fitting socket after being glued. This means you need to hold the pipe in position, for five to 10 seconds, until the weld resists that force.

Before soldering copper pipes, make sure that the pipe and the inside of the fitting are clean, with all rust removed. Apply a small amount of soldering flux and then heat with a torch. Wait about 15 seconds before applying the lead-free solder. Pull the torch away as you solder. The copper pipe and fitting should be hot enough on their own to melt the solder. Wipe excess solder from the joint and clean it with mineral spirits after it has cooled to remove any flux.

If you get dripping faucets and a dripping flushing toilet, don’t worry about repairing.

If the faucets are less than 25 years old, they probably have washerless cartridges in them. You can replace a cartridge by taking off the faucet handle and removing the decorative bonnet that holds the cartridge in place. A pipe wrench will ruin the bonnet, so use a rubberized strap wrench to remove it. Some faucets have a hex-head shape under the handle that allows you to use an adjustable wrench.

The phantom flushing toilet may just need a new flapper valve in the tank. If water is slowly leaking past the existing valve, the tank will suddenly start to fill with water as the float drops down. Be sure you orient the new flapper valve so that its moving parts do not hit anything inside the tank.

Tim’s instructions are usually pretty helpful, so be sure to read them.

Tuesday morning on 3rd street in Altoona , two police officers rescued five ducklings after they fell down a sewer drain and got stuck..

One police officer from Altoona and one from Eau Claire Animal Control crawled down through the sewer system to fish out the baby ducks. They had a crowd of young spectators watching eagerly from the side. Luckily, all five ducklings got out of the sewer safely.

Look at these poor babies! They must have suffered a desperate and sad time.

 The second case is somewhat sad as well as funny.

A family of cute baby ducks had to be rescued after getting their mother in a flap when they fell down a drain in Shrewsbury. The eight ducklings, less than a week old, were pulled from the sewers in Hexham Way, near to the Rea Brook, by RSPCA officers yesterday.

Elaine Williams, the animal collection officer called to the scene, said the mother had apparently walked across the slatted drain cover but when her babies had followed they dropped through the gaps.

Oh, come on, you thoughtless mother, just be more concentrated on you little babies!

The last story was just inspiring because many people pitched in.

George Jessup was on duty, driving his plumbing company’s truck. But when he saw a duck sitting on a storm drain on a busy road in Shaler, he didn’t think twice about stopping.

The duck wouldn’t move, and it was in a dangerous position on Anderson Road. It piqued Mr. Jessup’s curiosity. When he approached the duck he heard “peep peep peeping” and realized there were ducklings in the storm drain. He just had to help.

When he couldn’t budge the heavy grate, he called Shaler police and volunteer firefighters. The ducklings “were flipping out,” he said, and the mother duck, a mallard, was agitated.

The firemen took the grate off, which might have weighed 300 pounds. Then a police officer reached in and picked up the ducklings. There were six or seven. Mr. Jessup thought hey were the cutest things he ever saw — brownish with some white and yellow.

To make sure they got every duckling, Mr. Jessup sent Mr. Rooter’s video inspection camera down the pipe. There were no more.

After their three-hour ordeal, mamma and her ducklings ‘just waddled off’.

First enjoy a flashback to Prison Break!

Michael’s looking mighty calm. He slides down a pipe and ends up in a vertical drain shaft. He looks up and sees a grate waaay above him. After ripping apart his snazzy suit and pulling out a long-ass rope and garbage bag, he stuffs his suit in the bag and ties one end of the rope to the bag. He then wedges it in a drain, between the wall and floor.

While in the infirmary, Michael’s alone and uses the time to break through the floor beneath the floor drain which he kept pouring corrosive chemicals down. He tosses another swan through the grate and it flows in the drains line coolly…

In Michael’s Great Escape plan, numerous tense scenes are between drains and floor drains.

Many buildings including prisons have floor trench systems, floor drains, or wash and service bay areas that allow liquids to drain away.

Among them, floor drains are collection points which remove wash water and other liquid wastes from a work area and carry them away through pipes or ditches for disposal. They are usually round, but can also be square or rectangular. They usually range from 2 inches to 12 inches, most are 4 inches in diameter, with gratings that are

made of metal or plastic. The floor around the drain is also sloped to allow the water to flow to the drain.

  Most residential basements have one or more floor drains, usually near the water heater or washer/dryer.

The bathroom is usually the last room in the house that we think to beautify. Well, there is still something we can do to make it a surprise. Doing something fun and dramatic will make the bathroom much more liveable for us. Making a design statement with the toilet paper holders is among them. Toilet paper holders contribute a clean, clear line when decorating the bathroom.

But paper holders come in different kinds of material, you would give it some ideas before you install it.

A lady suggested that, ‘Chrome-effect toilet paper holders could be coordinated to match taps and toilet flush handles. Wooden toilet paper holders give a traditional look. Plastic toilet paper dispensers are likely to be the cheapest. When choosing a toilet paper holder, you should choose one with a design that allows the toilet paper to be changed easily. A toilet tissue holder with a quick-release mechanism encourages toilet users to replace the roll whilst ‘in situ’. Otherwise, if you select a toilet paper dispenser with a screw-in replacement mechanism, the task will inevitably fall to Mom every time!’

Besides the mounted paper holder, toilet paper rack is also recommended. It has great flexibility which helps avoiding much trouble in case you want to remove the installed paper holder.