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Mark
 
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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.

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StevieBoy
 
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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
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Martin_C
 
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"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



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Andy Hall
 
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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
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Mark
 
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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.


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parish
 
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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.


  #7   Report Post  
geoff
 
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Default 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
  #8   Report Post  
Martin Angove
 
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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.
  #9   Report Post  
Simon Avery
 
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Default 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/

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