Unlikely plumbing disasters.

[Mad Cyril]

I got up at 4am this morning to find that a mouse had chewed through a plastic water pipe and left my kitchen resembling an episode of Das Boot.

After isolating the supply it took me several hours to clean up the flood and I was two hours late for work.

Has anyone else had a more unlikely plumbing disaster?

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Why did you wake up at 4am?

Touch wood, I've had no serious plumbing issues like that so far. I've had mice in my kitchen; I've even had a mouse helping himselves to the choccies on my Christmas tree while I was sitting in the living room; but - as yet - I've managed to avoid any serious plumbing problems.

 

[Smiffy]

Cleaning the U-Bend on the sink, whilst the Washing Machine was on it's empty cycle, was not one of my better ideas.

 

[TrueBlue]

cleaning the u-bend on the sink, whilst the washing machine was on it's empty cycle, was not one of my better ideas.

p
r
a
t
........

 

[Moody Blues]

Why did you wake up at 4am?

Touch wood,

I think you answered it there :whistling:

 

[steveo]

Fitted some new bathroom taps last year and fitted the hot and cold supply to the wrong taps which was a nuisance. Decide I just had time to swap them over before going out so I rushed it.

Got home from the Pub about 2 in the morning and fancied a bar of chocolate, usually kept in one of the tall cupboards in the kitchen. For some strange reason I was unable to get the cupboard door open, so put it down to being ****ed and went to bed.

On further inspection the next morning, the reason I couldn’t open the cupboard door was because I had failed to tighten one of the tap fittings properly, causing a leak onto the kitchen ceiling, which was now bulging down about 6-8 inches. Had to make a few holes and remove about 8 or 9 buckets of water. Ceiling was wrecked and had to be completely replaced..

 

[Rayleigh Weir]

If you're going to snap off the filling loop valve on a combi-boiler so that mains pressure water p***es into the kitchen at high speed - it's probably best not to do it round the Mother-in-Laws on Christmas Day while she's trying to get the roast out of the oven...

 

[Firestorm]

I left the bleed valve on the hot water tank undone, causing water to get under the fllor boards and drip though the ceiling , in an attempt to get the floorboards up to mop it up (they went under a partition wall so i tried to cut them) I split a cental heating pipe.....

I don't do much plumbing now......

 

[londonblue]

I needed a new central heating pump about a year ago, so I took a photo of the old one on my phone and went off to the plumbers merchant to buy a new one. He looked at the photo and gave me a new one. He also told me not to try and change it myself because the valves that isolate the water supply and also connect the pump to the pipes looked like cheap crap ones and would probably break.

Needless to say I didn't heed his warning, and was proved right because the first one came off really easily. The problem was the second one started to leak. "That's easily fixed", I thought as I did the valve back up, only to get a bigger leak. In the end the valve broke so badly water was pouring out.

I rang a plumber who told me to drain the system to stop the leak, which I did, but not before the water had come through the downstairs ceiling and flooded the kitchen!

In the end I had to call an emergency plumber to fix the mess. Two hundred odd quid later we got talking. He told me that he had used much better valves this time so that in future it should be easy to change the pump. He also praised the quality of the pump, saying that it was a good one, at a good price.

I then told him where I bought it, to be told that the guy that owned the shop was his brother in law!

I just hope the pair of them didn't talk and put two and two together!

The only silver lining is that I missed a lunch date my wife had organised with friends of hers because I had to wait in for the plumber.

 

[londonblue]

If you're going to snap off the filling loop valve on a combi-boiler so that mains pressure water p***es into the kitchen at high speed - it's probably best not to do it round the Mother-in-Laws on Christmas Day while she's trying to get the roast out of the oven...

Thanks for the tip. I'll try not to!

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Had a dead rat in the kitchen a few years back.Got in through a hole under the sink.Only found out when we redid the kitchen.Aways wondered why the kitchen smelled so funny!:O

 

[MK Shrimper]

When I lived in a block of flats, there was a shared cold water tank which I managed to empty by trying to mend the ballcock in the khazi. The stopcock was seized up and I managed to empty a huge water tank until a plumber turned up (£75), unseized the stopcock with molegrips, fixed the flush.

Me and the bathroom got rather wet.

 

[South Bank Hank]

Am I the only person now with a certain UB40 song now rumbling around the brain...?

Whoa whoa whoa, yeaaaaahh.....