Ow

[Captain Colonial]

Does it never end?

 

Plumbing fitting behind the dishwasher and washing machine cracked and started leaking last night just before bedtime, spraying cold water all over the rear of the appliances, the wall socket and the wooden floor.  It was only a very subtle hissing sound I could barely hear that gave the game away, that is until I started pulling the dishwasher out.  Could have been worse, I suppose, but still, very irritating.  Managed to isolate it all and went to bed.

 

Home at lunchtime so found the issue, then went to the Plumb Centre for a replacement bit.  Came back and fitted it, no leaks, yay.  Then I looked at the wall socket and saw it was blackened...back to the DIY for a new one and the fun of fitting it blind while sat cross-legged under the counter top, so comfy...NOT.

 

Finally finished it, but the effort to get the old rusted screws out of the old wall socket ensured the skin was take off the centre of the palm of my right hand.

 

Yes, I saved myself some dosh, but sheesh, does my hand hurt.  (Why do wall sockets screws have such a tight pitch that it takes about 100 turns to secure it?  Why?)

 

I need a drink.

[blue ass fly]

I feel for you

A few years ago we had a new washer and i always insist on new pipes just to be safe

About 6 months later my missus complained about damp smells and the floor tiles grout coming out

I spent a few weeks ignoring her until it got too much and started investigating

The new pipe was leaking at the crimped joint,spraying a fine mist at the back of the cupboard - you could hear or see it,only found it by feel

By the time i got to it it had blown the chipboard,plaster and somehow made its way under a few floor tiles and lifted them

Amazing how much damage it can do

[Stu Faulkner]

Socket screws are 3.5mm and made of plated brass, why....no idea

They corrode as they are a different metal to the steel box and such a fine thread that they strip.

I've been an electrician for 26 years and I still wonder why.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

Ten thirty on the evening of Christmas night last, my daughter's partner went down to my basement to fetch himself (another) beer. He came back and said that there's a funny hissing noise and water on a wooden chair against the wall.  He's a performer in a very 'heavy-metal' type of band in his spare time so you'd expect his hearing to be rubbish, but luckily it's not. I would never have heard it though. The upshot was that the incoming water main had perforated just inside the house basement wall and was spraying a fine aerosol of water into the basement room. Remember it was 22:30hrs on 25th December and we were all 'tired and emotional' (to paraphrase George Brown) so the first thing I had to do was shake off the beer fog and go outside to find the stopcock in the verge. You can see from the picture that the hole (repaired with a Jubilee clip and piece of rubber sheet) is on the 'live' side of the stop-valve so turning that off wouldn't help. It was cold, windy, and sleeting when I was kneeling on a muddy grass verge wearing a head torch grovelling down a hole in the ground in the pitch dark - no street lights - to find the meter stop-valve. My neighbours opposite, if they saw me, must have wondered what kind of nutter had moved in there a mere twelve months earlier!

 

Circa £900 to the poorer I now have a new, blue MDPE water main from meter to house under the front lawn. If the copper had corroded through in the house, what the Hell was it like under a metre of chalky soil? Couldn't take a chance on it so had a moling company lay a new main.