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Idiot of the week award. (me)
Bear with me, I'm trying my hardest with this diy malarky but
sometimes i'm not thinking straight and do stupid stuff and things you might find simple end up being a nightmare. Friday afternoon I thought I'd finally get round to getting the old hot water cylinder removed and make a start on getting the old water tank out of the loft. Turned off mains in kitchen with the stiff stop tap (drowned it in WD40 etc but it's always been stiff so more on that later). Having removed all but the toilet previously I resorted to draining the tank from the bath tap into buckets and emptying them down the toilet as there's no bath outfall at the minute, took ages. Figured hot tank is full of water, consulted my Collins book which said to drain it via the drain tap - my arse there's no drain anywhere on it. Unfastened the feed on the top and sure enough water runs out the top. How I should have drained it someone can probably tell me now but at the time I figured a hole in the tank was best, bugger look at that water squirting three feet across the room.... To cut that mistake short I sat with two buckets and a plastic tub and about twenty holes to drain it all out. Hurrah it's empty, right lets disconnect the feed from the tank in the loft, ok that was easy at least. Getting late at this point so I decide to call it a night and finish up the day after, noticed the downstairs tap dripping slightly but thought nothing of it. Got distracted on Saturday meaning I didn't go round to finish off, went today about lunchtime, hmm where have those puddles of water come from on the living room floor? Look up, bugger through the ceiling.... Not too much of a disaster as there's nothing in the house that would be considered as a fixture yet and it's only a few drips, the ceiling wanted pulling down anyway. Lifted a couple of boards upstairs in bedroom to find the ceiling swimming in water so spend ages with a sponge and bucket mopping up what I can get to, thank god for the bodgers leaving everything possible under the floorboards, sawdust, wood, etc. which looked to have soaked a lot of water up. Leave window open with heater on to take care of that. In the loft to find the tank full of water again.... arse. Teach me to tie up the ballcock/float thingy. Then again the waters off so hows it filled up. Back to the dripping tap which would suggest the stop tap doesn't work as well as I thought so after leaving it had managed to fill the tank back up then run out the disconnected feed to the hot tank in the airing cupboard. Only plus is i broke the wheel off that pipe months ago and was messing with it Friday with some WD40 and pliers, so must have just about closed that value by accident otherwise the tank would have been emptying since Friday straight from the faulty stop tap..... Tied the ballcock up this time and emptied the tank again, this time to the bottom, bodged up a length of pipe from the feed pipe, kicked a hole in the kitchen ceiling and ran it straight down into the kitchen to my bucket. Seriously glad I was never tempted to drink the water from the tank always boiled the water from the kitchen cold tap for coffee and never used any cold for drinking, the tank inside is absolutely horrid, makes you wonder what you drink elsewhere without knowing it. Appologies for the length but if anyone has done worse then let me know? Puts the loftboard/jigsaw incident to shame. Mark S. |
Idiot of the week award. (me)
On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 22:45:14 +0100, Mark
wrote: How I should have drained it someone can probably tell me now but at the time I figured a hole in the tank was best, bugger look at that water squirting three feet across the room.... Put Garden hose in top of tank, suck water through, put other end out window, let gravity do the rest. Thank you for sharing, a wonderful read :) Steve |
Idiot of the week award. (me)
"Mark" wrote in message ... Bear with me, I'm trying my hardest with this diy malarky but sometimes i'm not thinking straight and do stupid stuff and things you might find simple end up being a nightmare. Snip small nightmare Appologies for the length but if anyone has done worse then let me know? Most daft thing I did was to spend hours artexing a ceiling after patching a hole in it, then a week later painting the ceiling, eeeking out the paint to finish the job, the I goes in attic to turn off water and slips of joist, taking half the bloody ceiling down -- regards, Martin |
Idiot of the week award. (me)
On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 22:45:14 +0100, Mark
wrote: Appologies for the length but if anyone has done worse then let me know? Puts the loftboard/jigsaw incident to shame. Mark S. That was an entertaining read, Mark At least this is all happening *before* decorating. A few suggestions. - IIRC, from earlier photos, the roof tank was a galvanised steel one. If you need to cut it up to remove it through the hatch, e.g. with an angle grinder, do take great care and have water on hand in case of sparks. Ideally use a different way to remove the tank. - While the system is apart like this, find the water supplier stop tap, turn it off and replace the inside stop tap. - Get rid of any gate valves - they always sieze IME. Replace with lever ball valves - these are also full bore but much better made and not subject to the same problem. ..andy To email, substitute .nospam with .gl |
Idiot of the week award. (me)
On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 23:05:03 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote: On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 22:45:14 +0100, Mark wrote: Appologies for the length but if anyone has done worse then let me know? Puts the loftboard/jigsaw incident to shame. Mark S. That was an entertaining read, Mark At least this is all happening *before* decorating. A few suggestions. - IIRC, from earlier photos, the roof tank was a galvanised steel one. If you need to cut it up to remove it through the hatch, e.g. with an angle grinder, do take great care and have water on hand in case of sparks. Ideally use a different way to remove the tank. - While the system is apart like this, find the water supplier stop tap, turn it off and replace the inside stop tap. - Get rid of any gate valves - they always sieze IME. Replace with lever ball valves - these are also full bore but much better made and not subject to the same problem. .andy Thanks for the tips, the hose - I wasn't putting that water anywhere near my mouth. ;-) I've stripped the old fibreboard insulation off the tank, had thought about the anglegrinder but I'm running out of t-shirts from the sparks already, got some new metal blades for the jigsaw after it coped with the radiators so trying that first. I think I've seen the stop tap outside on the pavement. The valve with the wheel was pretty funny at the time, little a Laurel and Hardy or Norman Wisdom when I hit that and it snapped off... Oh and I've made myself a mental note to not add that extra bit of cement when mixing concrete in future after having to remove some I did last year to put in the new gate posts. Mark S. |
Idiot of the week award. (me)
Mark wrote:
On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 23:05:03 +0100, Andy Hall wrote: On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 22:45:14 +0100, Mark wrote: Appologies for the length but if anyone has done worse then let me know? Puts the loftboard/jigsaw incident to shame. Mark S. That was an entertaining read, Mark At least this is all happening *before* decorating. A few suggestions. - IIRC, from earlier photos, the roof tank was a galvanised steel one. If you need to cut it up to remove it through the hatch, e.g. with an angle grinder, do take great care and have water on hand in case of sparks. Ideally use a different way to remove the tank. - While the system is apart like this, find the water supplier stop tap, turn it off and replace the inside stop tap. - Get rid of any gate valves - they always sieze IME. Replace with lever ball valves - these are also full bore but much better made and not subject to the same problem. .andy Thanks for the tips, the hose - I wasn't putting that water anywhere near my mouth. ;-) The way to do it then is coil the hose up an submerge the whole thing in the tank, ensuring that all the air is expelled. Then plug one end with a cork or other suitable object, leave the open end in the tank, route the hose as required, then remove the bung and /voila/! I've stripped the old fibreboard insulation off the tank, had thought about the anglegrinder but I'm running out of t-shirts from the sparks already, got some new metal blades for the jigsaw after it coped with the radiators so trying that first. I think I've seen the stop tap outside on the pavement. The valve with the wheel was pretty funny at the time, little a Laurel and Hardy or Norman Wisdom when I hit that and it snapped off... Oh and I've made myself a mental note to not add that extra bit of cement when mixing concrete in future after having to remove some I did last year to put in the new gate posts. Mark S. |
Idiot of the week award. (me)
In message , Nigel Mercier ®
writes In uk.d-i-y, Mark wrote: if anyone has done worse then let me know? What, you mean like taking off a kitchen sink U-bend, with a bucket underneath of course. Running the taps to flush out all the gunk, then tipping bucket into the same sink? I have NEVER done that ... honest really err ... -- geoff |
Idiot of the week award. (me)
In message ,
geoff wrote: In message , Nigel Mercier ® writes In uk.d-i-y, Mark wrote: if anyone has done worse then let me know? What, you mean like taking off a kitchen sink U-bend, with a bucket underneath of course. Running the taps to flush out all the gunk, then tipping bucket into the same sink? I have NEVER done that ... honest really err ... Once was clearing the bottle trap under a sink at work (it was clogged with little plastic coffee stirers) when a kitchen worker said "hi", handed me the bucket I'd asked for, stepped over my legs, and proceeded to turn on the taps to swill some cups. Grrr... Hwyl! M. -- Martin Angove (it's Cornish for "Smith") - ARM/Digital SA110 RPC See the Aber Valley -- http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/abervalley.html .... Shin - Device for finding furniture in the dark. |
Idiot of the week award. (me)
Mark wrote:
Hello Mark M| the minute, took ages. Figured hot tank is full of water, M| consulted my Collins book which said to drain it via the M| drain tap - my arse there's no drain anywhere on it. M| Unfastened the feed on the top and sure enough water runs M| out the top. How I should have drained it someone can M| probably tell me now Turn on all the hot water taps... Tell me though, at what point did you start repeating swear words? -- Simon Avery, Dartmoor, UK uk.d-i-y FAQ: http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/ |
Idiot of the week award. (me)
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