Disaster!

I had the worst weekend ever

 

Last weekend, the waste pipe from the bathroom sink started leaking, at about 10pm, and water was dripping through the kitchen ceiling

 

I spent the next couple of hours dismantling the pipe and adding sillicone to the joints to seal it up. That wasn't enough though. Whoever put the pipes in place some decades ago, had it all squeezed into a gap that is too small, so there was a lot of pressure on the joints. The rubber seals have perished as a result, and the screw fitting to the basin has stripped some of the thread

 

It needed a flexible pipe, so I bought one off ebay. Which turned up on Thursday and was the wrong size, so went it back

 

Saturday morning, I got up bright and early and went to the local plumbing shop for a flex pipe, then after a few coffees and a cigar, I removed the old pipe and replaced it with the new one, which was perfect

 

I ran some water through it to test the seals, and it started coming through the kitchen ceiling again 

 

F%$k!

 

The problem with these old terraced houses is, if you start tugging at pipes in one area, you can break seals further down the line, because they are so old and brittle. I figured I'd damaged the part of the waste pipe that goes under the floor and out to the drains

 

I removed the laminate flooring, the underlay and the necessary floorboards, to find the waste pipe is an old bendy lead pipe, and it was totally rotten. Not only was it leaking about a foot from the pipe I replaced, but also had been leaking nearer the outer wall, for what looked like a very long time 

 

There was also a bit of decades old gaffer tape wrapped around a kink in it. And half the diameter was clogged with disgusting gunge

 

So I removed the entire length of pipe and replaced it with new plastic pipes, tested it with water again and everything was working

 

Result! So I was re-laying the floorboards, while giving myself a pat on the back for a job well done, when I hammered a nail through one of the central heating pipes

 

I was piss wet through, the bathroom was piss wet through, and I was sat there with my thumb covering the hole, wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do now

 

After about twenty minutes deliberation (and considering just crying), I hammered the nail back in the pipe, legged it downstairs, opened the radiator drain valve, legged it back up again, removesd the nail and sat there with my thumb on the hole again until the pressure dropped

 

Once the central heating system was drained, I made a brew and a fag, then rang a plummer and fessed up

 

They're coming on Friday

 

Stupid, stupid schoolboy error 

 

Old manky pipe

This bit was taped up

New spanky pipe

Nailed it. I could replace this section of pipe, but it would push my abilities and risk further mishaps, so the plumber is going to make it all go away for me