JetSet Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 What a great start to 2017...not. So its 08:15 on New Years Day, I'm feeding the Cats and Caroline decides to do the dishes. After a few seconds I notice that there's a new noise, that of an uncontrolled flow of water . The hot tap has stopped running so I open the cupboard under the sink to be greeted by a fountain of hot water spraying about everywhere. I dash outside and turn off the water which of course stops the flood. After a couple of minutes examining the pipes I find the culprit, the braided hose connecting the pipe to the tap has failed catastrophically. I check the internet to see if B & Q is open and fortunately it opens at 10.00, so a quick trip to Chester and 40 minutes later I've got it fixed . I've not changed this particular hose before so I'm presuming it was fitted in 1986 when I had a new kitchen fitted, amazing its lasted so long. I'm also a bit baffled as to why a 2m hose was fitted when a 1m hose (the only ones B & Q sell) fitted with ease. No damage this time, all the water came up with a mop. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marzman Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Can I suggest a new pair of wellies... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
350zedd Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Get yourself along to Dee Sports in Chester for a couple of wetsuits before it happens again! After the last incident, I'd be investing in a box of spare push-fit fittings and plastic pipe in case you need to tackle a quick repair in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted January 2, 2017 Author Share Posted January 2, 2017 Get yourself along to Dee Sports in Chester for a couple of wetsuits before it happens again! After the last incident, I'd be investing in a box of spare push-fit fittings and plastic pipe in case you need to tackle a quick repair in the future. I replaced the hot water hose in the bathroom a couple of years ago, I was in the bath when that went . There are 2 other sinks in the house, the one in the toilet had new taps fitted last year, believe it or not they didn't have braided hoses, just solid copper pipes and as they didn't fit the new taps I replaced the pipes with hoses. The sink in the main bathroom has also had the hot water hose replaced in 2016 as it had a slight leak. Anyway, you're right, the hoses are cheap enough and I bought 2 while in B & Q Pete 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy_Baton Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Bad luck always comes in three's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 You're lucky though really Pete, ...I mean when we moved into our new house we had a similar incident but it was in the middle of the night. It was around 3am one night when I was woken by my Mrs sitting bolt upright and then jumping out of bed. As I slowly came to I realised I could hear the boiler going and this sound of running water which was shortly followed by my Mrs shouting for me. I jumped out of bed and ran to our bathroom which was covered in water as the braided line to the hot tap had broken through in the middle of the night whilst we were asleep. I ran downstairs to turn the water off and was then greeted by the sound of dripping because the water had come through the ceiling. We dried it all up as best we could and then went back to sleep as we both had to go to work the next day. Just like you though I was able to replace the braided pipe fairly easily and luckily it all dried out fine without bringing the ceiling down. We were lucky though really as if my Mrs hadn't have woken up it could have been so much worse. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
350zedd Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Before I built my house, I purchased 3 static caravans and moved them onto the site. The main one we lived in, was plumbed in copper and had obviously not been drained down over the winter. I soon discovered that EVERY FECKIN PIPE UNDERNEATH HAD SPLIT!!! The other 2 fared better over the 8 winters we were forced to live in them, as they were plumbed in plastic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Before I built my house, I purchased 3 static caravans and moved them onto the site. The main one we lived in, was plumbed in copper and had obviously not been drained down over the winter. I soon discovered that EVERY FECKIN PIPE UNDERNEATH HAD SPLIT!!! The other 2 fared better over the 8 winters we were forced to live in them, as they were plumbed in plastic. Were you building a place to live yourself then over 8 years? That's one heck of a long build isn't it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
350zedd Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Before I built my house, I purchased 3 static caravans and moved them onto the site. The main one we lived in, was plumbed in copper and had obviously not been drained down over the winter. I soon discovered that EVERY FECKIN PIPE UNDERNEATH HAD SPLIT!!! The other 2 fared better over the 8 winters we were forced to live in them, as they were plumbed in plastic. Were you building a place to live yourself then over 8 years? That's one heck of a long build isn't it. Yes Gareth, its a long story....the gist of it is, I bought a 10 acre plot with planning permission, only to discover when I applied for temporary siting of caravans that the pp didnt exist. It took me 5 years, thousands of pounds fighting the council to let me build. They refused permission to live in the caravans so we always lived under the threat of being evicted. I couldn't afford to rent anywhere, as I was paying a mortgage on the plot. They were done for mal-administration by the ombudsman and it took 3 yrs to do the build. It was a living nightmare, one winter, temps dropped down to -20'C 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted January 4, 2017 Author Share Posted January 4, 2017 It was a living nightmare, one winter, temps dropped down to -20'C Was that the winter of 1981/2 ? Strange thing happened here that winter...During the middle part of January 1982 I recorded 4 successive nights of temperatures below -18 and daytime temperatures were no better than -6. My attempts to keep the house warm were thwarted by (A). My ancient Potterton boiler and (. The oil in the tank waxing up. Pouring boiling water on the pipe leading to the boiler helped a bit but the house remained coolish. On the last night of the really cold temperatures, it was -18 when I went to bed (I kept a small weather station for many years). At around 4 in the morning I was woken by the sound of water hissing. Thinking I had a burst I shot out of bed to find out what was going on. I easily tracked the sound down to one of the cupboards in the hall....the one with the hot water tank in it . However, the sound was coming from the expansion tank which was at the top of the cupboard. When I looked in there I was amazed to find that the top of the tank had large lumps of ice in it...What I didn't know was that during the night a warm front had passed through and the outside temperature had shot up to 8 degrees and released the ball **** which must have been frozen into place by a layer of ice. Good job it thawed that night really as an empty expansion tank could have had dire consequences. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
350zedd Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 (edited) No Pete, it was about 2010*. I rigged up a coal boiler outside the caravans and had a couple of rads in each van to try and keep temps above sub-zero. Problem was I had a power cut, circulating pump stopped, and the whole system froze solid within the hour. 3-4 weeks before it thawed out. My spring water is gravity fed into a 1000ltr juice tank then pumped over. The tank froze solid so had to walk 100yds for water, family getting washed in buckets etc. edit.... *coldest for 31 yrs Edited January 4, 2017 by 350zedd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted January 4, 2017 Author Share Posted January 4, 2017 During the winter of 2010 it got down to -12 here a couple of times which was the coldest in these parts since 1981/2. Although the winter of 1962/63 was exceptionally long, with daytime frosts for 2 months the coldest I saw on my dad's Max/Min thermometer was -15 and I can remember that my dad fixed at least a dozen underground bursts. One thing that sticks in my mind is getting up in the morning with half an inch of ice inside the bedroom window and my toothbrush frozen solid and then having to walk half a mile over 15 foot snowdrifts to get the school bus Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 Yes Gareth, its a long story....the gist of it is, I bought a 10 acre plot with planning permission, only to discover when I applied for temporary siting of caravans that the pp didnt exist. It took me 5 years, thousands of pounds fighting the council to let me build. They refused permission to live in the caravans so we always lived under the threat of being evicted. I couldn't afford to rent anywhere, as I was paying a mortgage on the plot. They were done for mal-administration by the ombudsman and it took 3 yrs to do the build. It was a living nightmare, one winter, temps dropped down to -20'C I "liked" your post but not what happened, ...that's terrible but glad it sounds like its all worked out okay in the end. Oh and glad you all survived the winter as I can remember that was a particularly nasty one. Can't imagine how bad it was for you all in a caravan. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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