Problems...

The boiler installation was all going so well and was on course to be finished yesterday. Until I walked past my bedroom afternoon and saw water coming through the ceiling. Oh dear. My neighbour wasn’t about but fortunately I knew where she worked and looked up her work number and called her because the workmen urgently needed access to her property. She contacted her dad who came over about half an hour later and let us in. There was water coming through her ceiling and her bedroom carpet was soaking.

The workmen went up into the loft and found the source of the problem. They had switched my water from the hot water tank to mains pressure, as they should have done, and this meant that because of the higher pressure an outlet pipe was being used that previously hadn’t been needed. That pipe drained into the water tank in the loft. However, at some point someone put a cover on the tank so when the outlet pipe was used the water just drained off the top of the tank onto the rafters in the roof. Until now the only reason that pipe would have been used would be to let pressure off my tank if it boiled. So… had that happened boiling hot water would have poured on to my neighbour’s bed. I wasn’t really looking to apportion blame, as sometimes things do go wrong, but in this instance no was at fault apart from whoever (back in the mists of time) put a cover over the tank.

I took my Vax upstairs and got loads of the water out of my neighbour’s carpets. I spent about an hour and a half doing it and whilst the carpets were still damp when I left they were soaking before I started so it was a big improvement. By the time my neighbour got home the crisis had passed and it was about assessing the damage. Her only concern was whether the floor boards might rot. I said that I thought that very unlikely but she should get her home insurance people out to assess it if she’s concerned. In my property, I have a damaged ceiling, which might improve when it has properly dried out, and there is a somewhat strange smell that is a bit like a combination of paint and wet wood. Hopefully that will go as well. I could claim on my home insurance but I’m not sure I can be bothered. I can repaint the ceiling myself and so the only problem will be if the ceiling paper needs replacing. So it could have been worse...