The Big Push

Well another year has past and I've not done anything large (or small really) to the house. But after a leak from our unvented hot water tank The Major and I decided to get rolling on a refurb for the futility room.

The saga begins.

The old tank is lodged upstairs in one of the bigger bedrooms between the chimney breast and the front outside wall. The idea is to move the unvented tank (which can be anywhere on the hot water system as it is pressurised) from the upstairs cupboard and fit the new one into the utility room, thereby freeing up a cupboard upstairs.

Elderly Megaflo unvented hot
water tank leaking in situ

This means removing some of the fitted cupboards in the utility room to get the new tank into place and then getting it boxed in. As the current units are worn old 80's Moben ones it would seem to make sense to fit new cupboards. Also the current boxing for the pipework that runs around all sides of the room (as it has a mains gas supply, two mains water supplies, the central heating boiler and grey water piping) is pretty ropey so we may as well renew that as well. There is also the matter of an intermittent leak from the roof that has been an occasional annoyance.

Proposed location for new hot water tank
in corner of room (where toolboxes are)

So the plan of action is

• Get plumber in so we can have hot water without soaking the hall and the front door jamming open.
• Have builder in to look at the wall, get any required repairs done and make good any damage.
• Bring in a kitchen fitter to box out the new tank and pipework and get new units installed.
• Complete any general decorating.

Everything should done by Christmas and the first room will be off the refurb list. Seems straightforward...

Shower swamp - The Creature from the Black Lagoon

The drainage of the shower has been getting steadily worse, so that now the shower tray turns into a foot bath when used. The Major has been applying one of her many potions to it, but the results have been only a temporary alleviation of the symptoms.

Eventually it annoyed me enough to bring out the sink plunger and give it a good thrashing.

Action stations!

Unfortunately rather than clearing a partial blockage in the shower tray I enhanced it into a complete blockage and blocked both drains of the basin and bath as well. Result 😒.

On the plus side this meant that whatever the blockage was I had moved it into the common drain for the bathroom which was outside and should have been easy to get to. An inspection confirmed that, although access was a little restricted, I must have dislodged the blockage into the downpipe as the hopper was full.

Camouflaged waste water drainage system

First order of business was to assemble the gear for hacking through the undergrowth.

Jungle-busting gear

Then cut along the garden path,

Before                                      After 

along the path in front of the kitchen window,

Before                                    After 

and finally into the corner.

Before                                        After    

A green wheelie bin full of greenery later proper access to the hopper and downpipe was afforded; time taken - an hour and a half.

A bit of rodding with a garden cane and whatever was causing the issue disappeared into the drains and the problem was solved; time taken - 5 minutes.

Flooded hopper

Post-rodding

While I was at it I cleaned out the drain,

Grotty                                                    Clean

and with that the drain problem was solved and I went looking for someone to help with the clear up of the bathroom.

As to what caused the blockage in the first place, who knows?