Captain Chaos strikes again

[Steve1962]

Revelling in the glory of my successful replacement of the ballcock and valve in the loft, I decided yesterday morning that the bathroom sink taps ( worlds smallest sink ) should be replaced, so.....quick review of the job at hand and a few You tube videos later, I set to work.
Space behind the sink was very tight behind the world's smallest sink which has a plinth for support and is conveniently positioned, thanks mainly due to the house builders...messrs Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, very close the the wc, making it very awkward to get access.
Several years of my life later, the job was completed successfully ( had to *** to Screwfix to get a tap wrench during the process).
Chest duly puffed out, I had some lunch and then decided to replace the old and very tatty bath taps...... and here's where my luck ran out and the fun really started - make a note of the time.....3.00pm.

Here we go....
Remove bath panel.
Space underneath is even tighter, and the bright spark who put the cold tap pipework in had positioned it in such a way that access to the isolation valve was indeed accessible......if you are a fekkin octopus ( far too close to the bottom of the bath itself), but at least the hot tap isolation valve was easy to get to.
So, lying down on the floor on my back, using my left arm ( just found out I must have been a contortionist in a former life), I managed to turn off the cold water isolation valve, then the hot water one..... run the taps....******, water still coming out of the hot water tap so the valve must be knackered.
No problem, just *** down stairs and turn the stop **** off for the water supply to the house.... problem time.... in turning the stop ****...it started to leak.... ******!!!
With trepidation and fear ( that's just the wife's warning that I better not make things any worse) , I used a pair of mole grips to gently tighten the nut on the stop **** and to my relief it worked.
Back upstairs to continue my work as Mr Bendy, I set to work on disconnecting the existing taps and putting the new ones in, and during this process i used my iphone torch to see what I was doing, and duly rested it on pipework under the bath at the top end against what is the front wall of the house.
In order to give me more room I unscrewed the waste water pipe from under the bath, and it was during this process that calamity occurred.....
My phone got nudged by my shoulder, and fell down a small gap ( the only gap ) between the floor under the bath and the wall. ( so it's now sitting in effect on top of the hallway ceiling)....it could only happen to me!!!
I then proceeded to get up too quickly and promptly walloped my head on the underside of the bathroom sink - which made me rather angry and I'm afraid I let my guard slip and used some colourful language.
Now to figure out how to get my phone back out of the small gap - frustratingly I could just see the phone but it was too far down and the gap was too narrow to reach it.
I tried everything, screwdrivers, ladles, cardboard with gorilla tape, but to no avail.
In the end ( and it was very nearly my end lol), I went over the road to a neighbour who is a carpenter to ask to borrow something to try to get it out, and he came over with a multi tool.... he cut a small section of the floorboard out under the bath but eventually the phone was retrieved...... the time now was 8.40pm!!



So, all in all .........a job well done.

Steve

 

[Mr Plodd]

I think many/most/all of us have first hand experience of exactly this sort of frustrating job.
Having said that you have enabled me to start my day with a chuckle of "Yep, been there done that" realisation. So thanks for sharing.

Maybe, just maybe, it's time to accept that you would be better off getting a "professional" in to do these sorts of jobs?? But where's the self satisfaction in that eh?

Just saying like!

 

[Steve1962]

I think many/most/all of us have first hand experience of exactly this sort of frustrating job.
Having said that you have enabled me to start my day with a chuckle of "Yep, been there done that" realisation. So thanks for sharing.

Maybe, just maybe, it's time to accept that you would be better off getting a "professional" in to do these sorts of jobs?? But where's the self satisfaction in that eh?

Just saying like!

I am on a roll with plumbing jobs, after all it’s only a matter of turning valves with a screwdriver and undoing nuts then doing them back up again…. In theory…… lol

 

[otherclive]

My wife has been trying to source a replacement cartridge for a kitchen mixer tap at our daughter house. It’s been going on for nearly two weeks. She even sent a copy of the original purchase receipt. But the company could find no reference to the order or details of the tap in their list of products. Then a Eureka moment. The tap came from Victoria Plum. Wife had been in contact with Victorian Plumbing.


Similarly to you I wanted to do work on a bathroom sink tap. The half turn isolation valves were rock solid and would not turn. So I went downstairs and turned the house water inlet isolation valve off. But still water came out of the bathroom taps. So I went into the street and turned off the stopcock. A year or so later when our kitchen units were taken out all was revealed. The house mains isolation was not the first fitting on the system. Pipes had been run off of the mains inlet prior to the isolation valve. So it would never have isolated the bathroom or en-suite in a million years. It’s not just caravan makers 👎

 

[GUMPY]

In my later years I have adopted what I call a sensible approach to plumbing etc. I pay a man to do it for me.
Electrics I will do and design of plumbing etc but I leave him to do the fitting.

 

[Hutch]

Last August we got a new gas boiler, before that I could maintain it myself.

 

[otherclive]

Last August we got a new gas boiler, before that I could maintain it myself.
View attachment 6018

At present ours is a condensing boiler with a system header in the loft, and a large header for the hot water tank. Someone told me that if we need a new boiler we would have to have a pressurised tank system. This is a friend who recently had a major flood because the overflow from the pressurised tank did not drain down the overflow tundish. Nett result lounge ceiling all collapsed.wrecking carpets and furniture too. Think I will go for a combi boiler option. 😂

 

[GUMPY]

We have a pressurised hot water system, fitted when we had the solar water heating installed, only leaves a small tank in the loft for the heating.
Next project is a heat pump to replace the boiler, means lots of pipework and radiators changing I'm too big to get into the void below the floor so will be spared that. 🤔

 

[Hutch]

I went the other way, got rid of the cold water header tank, as when the 200 gallons tank split, it caused havoc. I now have the mains pressurised system. Radiators and water.
All cover by insurance, if it turns . T up.

 

[RogerL]

At present ours is a condensing boiler with a system header in the loft, and a large header for the hot water tank. Someone told me that if we need a new boiler we would have to have a pressurised tank system. This is a friend who recently had a major flood because the overflow from the pressurised tank did not drain down the overflow tundish. Nett result lounge ceiling all collapsed.wrecking carpets and furniture too. Think I will go for a combi boiler option. 😂

Does that mean that simple system boilers have been outlawed, even if they're condensing? I wouldn't/couldn't contemplate a pressurised system as our pipework is 50 years old and a combination of copper and stainless steel.

 

[Hutch]

You can test the overflow from the system, just by over pressuring it. Got shown all the test by the installer who is a neighbour.
Edit.
Our copper system is old as well. But the installer pressure checked it at max mains pressure for 48 hours. .

 

[otherclive]

I went the other way, got rid of the cold water header tank, as when the 200 gallons tank split, it caused havoc. I now have the mains pressurised system. Radiators and water.
All cover by insurance, if it turns . T up.

That’s one of my concerns too as the large header in the loft would cause a lot of damage if it failed, and if we weren’t around the water inlet to the tank would keep adding to the havoc. With a combi no tanks anywhere and the ch/ boiler are pressured to around 1.5 bar but if it should leak only system content would come out as there's not auto pressurisation.

 

[otherclive]

Does that mean that simple system boilers have been outlawed, even if they're condensing? I wouldn't/couldn't contemplate a pressurised system as our pipework is 50 years old and a combination of copper and stainless steel.

I don’t know what the regulations are, but five people we know who have had new boilers have had the pressurised water tanks fitted.

 

[otherclive]

You can test the overflow from the system, just by over pressuring it. Got shown all the test by the installer who is a neighbour.
Edit.
Our copper system is old as well. But the installer pressure checked it at max mains pressure for 48 hours. .

My friends water escape episode was down to the light spring non return valve in the tundish sticking. They are a bit unfortunate as only 12 months ago a en-suite shower monsoon pump came on continuously when a pipe joint failed. £30k damage as new kitchen required. That’s the second time we know someone having such a failure so we leave our monsoon pump switched off and only switch it on when we use the en-suite shower. Hence our likelihood of going to combi boiler when ours requires replacing. That’s what we had fitted to our daughters house and it’s dead simple system and I periodically check the pressure and can increase it quite easily plus change the siliphos in the scale inhibitor. .

 

[RogerL]

You can test the overflow from the system, just by over pressuring it. Got shown all the test by the installer who is a neighbour.
Edit.
Our copper system is old as well. But the installer pressure checked it at max mains pressure for 48 hours. .

My issue is the mix of copper and steel which will have caused galvanitic corrosion despite corrosion protection liquids added over the years.

 

[Beachball]

When we moved into our bungalow there was a floor boiler in the kitchen with the water tank in the the loft it was condemn in a week with gas leaking but now we have updated it to a Combi boiler serviced once a year it just had it seventh birthday so far faultless .

 

[otherclive]

When we moved into our bungalow there was a floor boiler in the kitchen with the water tank in the the loft it was condemn in a week with gas leaking but now we have updated it to a Combi boiler serviced once a year it just had it seventh birthday so far faultless .

And you can rest easy even when you are away on holidays

 

[Jcloughie]

I am happy with our Baxi combi. Now coming up to its 7th birthday. But if I were replacing I would investigate one with storage, as the dead leg takes forever to get hot water through. But not sure if it would be successful for us as the boiler is in the garage.

John

 

[ProfJohnL]

Does that mean that simple system boilers have been outlawed, even if they're condensing? I wouldn't/couldn't contemplate a pressurised system as our pipework is 50 years old and a combination of copper and stainless steel.

I don't believe "system" boilers have been outlawed, provided the meet the 90% A rating or better.

Even if they have, the central heating loop can still heat an indirect tank, which has been the advice if you have a gravity fed shower.

 

[Raywood]

Just had another case of bad design with our washing machine which needed a new drum. This involved the man taking the top off removing all the bits and pieces above the drum and loosening one of the side panels to lift the drum out the top and then the drum had to be stripped of various parts that had to be transferred to the new drum. This took over two hours and I was told it was a fault in the design as other makes only need the front panel removing and the drum pulls out the front.
All I can say is I am glad we did not have to pay for it as we had a maintenance contract.

 

[Buckman]

My friends water escape episode was down to the light spring non return valve in the tundish sticking. They are a bit unfortunate as only 12 months ago a en-suite shower monsoon pump came on continuously when a pipe joint failed. £30k damage as new kitchen required. That’s the second time we know someone having such a failure so we leave our monsoon pump switched off and only switch it on when we use the en-suite shower. Hence our likelihood of going to combi boiler when ours requires replacing. That’s what we had fitted to our daughters house and it’s dead simple system and I periodically check the pressure and can increase it quite easily plus change the siliphos in the scale inhibitor. .

When they installed the air source heating we left the same day to attend a funeral and were away for 5 days. On our return we discovered that a pipe had come loose flooding the home causing over £7k damage. All claimed on insurance including our temporary accommodation.

Interestingly the installers tried to blame us because they said we were hurrying them to finish the installation because we asked how long it would take. They were supposed to have arrived at 8am, but did not arrive until almost 10am.

 

[trevormonty]

I've renovated one bathroom which was my first DIY plumbing experience, learning curve but successful. Now use professionals but experience has paid off a couple times. When sink pipe burst had bits to isolate that part of house.

 

[Buckman]

I've renovated one bathroom which was my first DIY plumbing experience, learning curve but successful. Now use professionals but experience has paid off a couple times. When sink pipe burst had bits to isolate that part of house.

I did kitchen and bathroom plus wallpapering double story home many years ago. Now like you I leave it to the professionals! LOL!

 

[trevormonty]

I did kitchen and bathroom plus wallpapering double story home many years ago. Now like you I leave it to the professionals! LOL!

Hate wallpapering, paint where possible and don't buy houses that have wallpaper.

 

[Buckman]

Hate wallpapering, paint where possible and don't buy houses that have wallpaper.

Currently house is paint only which will need doing sometime this year probably in the summer months and done by a professional.