Heads up to bargain-hunting DIYers and gardeners

Went down to the local Focus DYI today in search of solutions for
my broken bathtub and sewer-pipe seal. Was very surprised to see "Closing
Down Sale" signs!

Seems the parent company is in administration, and while still
trading for now, there are heavy discounts: "30% off lowest price shown"
for most things, 20% for the rest. Some shelves are noticeably empty --
the guy in front of me at the till had about 30 compact fluoro bulbs in
his buggy, inter alia.

The cement selection seemed rather depleted, but I decided to fall
back on an alternate solution for sealing my foul drain -- closed-cell
foam pipe insulation in an obviously >1" diameter form factor. Thinks:
offer up and cut off appropriate length; insert length of propylene garden
twine and tie off the ends when installed around pipe (to allow recovery
if necessary); poke down into gap and seal off the sewerage smell, leaving
something substantial to stop concrete falling into receiver when I do get
some.

Waltzed up to till with a metre-or-so length; of course I chose the
wrong queueue, so waited while the people ahead of me fiddled about with
debit-cards and such (Why? Cash is much quicker and never refused...) and
finally got the till to flash up when the PFY zapped the barcode -- 48 p!

Unfortunately the execution was not so slick as the idea. The
foul pipe is not concentric with the hole through the footpath, so while
the gap is 25 mm or more at the front, around the back it's only 5 or 6
mm. The broken concrete seal only extends around the region of wider
gappage -- about 180-degrees of the circle. I cut the foam to length and
blocked up that gap pending finding some ready-mixed cement at Wickes
downtown.

As for the bathtub, nothing's offering itself (JBWeld?) so I have
to find time to tidy up the house enough to let a plumber in to replace
the tub. :-(

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".