The Medway Handyman wrote:

Anyone remember that wonderful episode of Only Fools & Horses with the
chandelier?

No choice but to buy the lady a new one, even with a 15% voucher it was £85!

Not a good day today :-(

Tuesday was my dire day.
Doing a bathroom, took the rad off to fit the tiles, put the rad back
on, opened the valves, water came through fine.
Turn on boiler to check - boiler dead.
Hmm, pump was noisy - air in system, check vent on boiler, whcih was
blocked, clear it, but still no water coming through the boiler. Think
about things, looked in the tank - easily 2 inch of silt/sludge in
there. Check flow from header tank, by cutting into pipe above boiler -
nothing.
OK, blocked feed pipe, took it apart, got a pile of crap out of it,
****e, this is not looking good at 4pm.
Clear tank, check flow - good flow at 6" above the boiler, so reconnect.
Nothing.
Think for ages, hum and arr about air locks etc.
Have to call out CORGI man at 6pm.
It is a regular occurence he says, system hasnt been touched for years,
the moment any new water is needed, all the silt will enter the boiler
piping, and block at a T joint.
So he dismantles the likely spot, and sure enough the blockage is
solid.Cleared out, reassembled, water is still only trickling through.
Another hour of taking apart unions etc, and he gives up, boiler needs
to be stripped down to clear all the pipes out.
He only wanted £80, which I thought was rather good, so I gave him £100.
He came back on Wednesday to clear the pipes, took him 2 hours, now he
has the job of cleaning the whole system - this is in a house where she
has an annual service contract - the chap said "this boiler hasnt been
serviced for years" - he showed me the outer seal not sealing, black
soot around the outside - fumes escaping thorugh the unsealed flue, and
obviously no hint of inhibitor or flushing of system for years.

Alan.
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