CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[Zelandeth]

with the layout of your house and where your boiler is, Jim I'd be pretty surprised if they want to dig the pipe up to repair. Most likely it would be abandoned in place and a new line routed from the meter - straight up and through the wall I'd think. Meter cabinet is on the external wall under where the car port has gone in isn't it?

This is a situation that we're more than a little afraid of here - as we've got three underground lines splitting off after the meter all buried in the concrete slab - and the meter is literally at the furthest possible point of the house from where the boiler is. We also would need to move the boiler if that were replaced as it's too close to a window by the current regs, and they'd want all the piping replaced anyway for the same reason - it conformed to code when the place was built, but that was a long time ago so anything being disturbed would have to be replaced.

If there's anything I can to help or you need Jim, you know where I am and various ways to contact me.

On the plus side this could have been so, so much worse.

[mickthemaverick]

Then if that nail is the cause a simple cut out and replace a short length is all that will be needed. Excellent news and a potential disaster avoided. Handy to have found and sorted the stop cock leak at the same time too!!

[CitroJim]

with the layout of your house and where your boiler is, Jim I'd be pretty surprised if they want to dig the pipe up to repair. Most likely it would be abandoned in place and a new line routed from the meter - straight up and through the wall I'd think. Meter cabinet is on the external wall under where the car port has gone in isn't it?

Boiler is in the attic Zel, on a totally separate external gas run... My hob is the opposite side of the kitchen to the meter box so a new run to there would mean hall and all the kitchen floor up to renew it. No other way to run it reasonably practically... A right nightmare...

If there's anything I can to help or you need Jim, you know where I am and various ways to contact me.

Thanks Zel, that's appreciated

One thing the Cadent engineer said is there's a known problem with poor quality copper used in the 70s. and failures like mine are getting more common as time goes by due to pipe failure...

Then if that nail is the cause a simple cut out and replace a short length is all that will be needed. Excellent news and a potential disaster avoided. Handy to have found and sorted the stop cock leak at the same time too!!

Fingers crossed... Yes, finding the duff stop cock was a bit of a bonus...

[mickthemaverick]

Just think what might have happened!:

[Zelandeth]

Forgot you had a gas hob. Yeah, that would be a bit more of a pig to re-pipe.

Most of ours dates from early 1981, with a bit more tacked on in 86. So not exactly new.

When we looked at it a couple of years back (when I was still trying to get someone to actually service our boiler - repeatedly failing because nobody would touch it on account of being old or the job "not being worth getting out the van for"), all the work that would have been involved in replacing the boiler, relocating it to a location conforming to current regs, re-running all the gas lines, upgrading bits of the plumbing which also don't conform to current regs (and also relocating things there) we were looking probably the best part of £30K of work. A good half of that was just an appropriately sized boiler for the house and re-piping the gas.

Suffice to say there's been a certain element of sticking my fingers in my ears and pretending that I've not noticed that anvil that's dangling over my head suspended from a steadily fraying rope.

[CitroJim]

Suffice to say there's been a certain element of sticking my fingers in my ears and pretending that I've not noticed that anvil that's dangling over my head suspended from a steadily fraying rope.

Oh gosh Zel All that would worry me terribly... What you need to have done is more or less what I had done when my old inefficient and time-expired traditional boiler was decommissioned and a new Combi and associated work installed in the attic. Since then, the boiler has been replaced due to a BER failure of the 3-way valve and further work carried out. Each time it's got more efficient and gas usage falls. You'll offset the costs by the energy savings from a new, modern boiler. Boilers just get better and better. My new one in 2023 is rated A+ for energy efficiency and works brilliantly

You're right, you have a sword of Damocles dangling above you I'd be twitching badly...

Yesterday, I finally found a person who could and in advance of a visit today I dug up the pipe. It was about 3/16" below the screed and perfectly pierced by a carpet griper nail as predicted...

Gas is still off and this morning I noticed I woke up to no funny vaguely gearbox oil smells!

I guess the engineer will chop out the damaged section of pipe and splice in a new bit...

I was so lucky my house didn't make a news headline: 'Mystery explosion destroys house in Paggers and makes several neighbours homeless'

I think I'll do the lottery tomorrow. I must have a top quality guardian angel looking after me

[Skull]

A lucky escape Jim - good to see the old pipe was wrapped to stop the cement degrading the copper pipe

Lucky you could smell it and what a shot by the gripper fitter

[mickthemaverick]

I'll second Skull's comment on the wrapping and I'd suggest covering the repaired pipe with a stainless steel plate where the gripper is going to be refitted - just in case!!

[bobins]

I was so lucky my house didn't make a news headline: 'Mystery explosion destroys house in Paggers and makes several neighbours homeless'

I think I'll do the lottery tomorrow. I must have a top quality guardian angel looking after me

.....the locals would have been picking bits of Citroen AX out of their teeth for days afterwards

[Stickyfinger]

I was so lucky my house didn't make a news headline: 'Mystery explosion destroys house in Paggers and makes several neighbours homeless'

I think I'll do the lottery tomorrow. I must have a top quality guardian angel looking after me

.....the locals would have been picking bits of Citroen AX out of their teeth for days afterwards

TBH they would be wondering why it had been raining TinFoil overnight

[CitroJim]

I'll second Skull's comment on the wrapping and I'd suggest covering the repaired pipe with a stainless steel plate where the gripper is going to be refitted - just in case!!

Yes, looks like thin Denso Tape... Good plan on additional armour before it's re-screeded

.....the locals would have been picking bits of Citroen AX out of their teeth for days afterwards

TBH they would be wondering why it had been raining TinFoil overnight

And again!!!

Couldn't resist sharing this photo from last weeks' Junior parkrun of me in my natural habitat taking a selfie

Later this afternoon I'm off to get stabbed... Covid and 'Flu jabs as I'm considered to be old and feeble post 65! Just to show I'm not I'm going to run to the clinic and back

[Gibbo2286]

One of my friends moved into a housing association house, kept catching his toes on a nail on the landing, took a hammer to it then found he had a fountain to sort out.

[CitroJim]

One of my friends moved into a housing association house, kept catching his toes on a nail on the landing, took a hammer to it then found he had a fountain to sort out.

Oh dear

[xantia_v6]

Similarly someone I knew thought he would nail down a loose floorboard on the landing, he thought it a little odd that the lights flickered every time he hit the nail with a hammer. On the last hit the lights went out permanently as someone had run the main lighting feed across a notch in the floor joist.

[Zelandeth]

The "issue" with replacement is that between how ridiculously efficient what we have is for it's age, the thermal solar which supplements our hot water supply, how well insulated this place is, and the amount of other nonsense we'd have to get done just to tick boxes, it would never pay for itself. Yes, it would likely knock a bit off the monthly bill, but not much. The reduction in gas usage even being optimistic would take the best part of 20 years to actually save us any money. Nearer 30 if you use more conservative numbers. Odds of a modern boiler lasting even half that long aren't great. So there's absolutely zero incentive to touch anything unless we have to. So basically if the gas valve or heat exchanger fail in the current boiler given that those and three thermal switches are basically all there is to it.