Psiloc
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Post by Psiloc on Nov 8, 2022 9:11:27 GMT
Might be hard to check this time of year but does the pressure go down even while the central heating is turned off?
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nexus6
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Post by nexus6 on Nov 8, 2022 9:11:54 GMT
You put the shitters right up me with this post 'mate'
I awoke the other day to as slight hissing from the rads and the heating still wasn't on. Boiler had an error code and the pressure had dropped right off to zero. Shat it. No leaks to be found, re-pressurised and it's been fine since, thankfully.
I agree with Elstoof - you would know where that water was if it was in the house. Most likely a pressure release is happening. Can you get access to under the house just in case?
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Psiloc
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Post by Psiloc on Nov 8, 2022 9:17:29 GMT
Out of interest is being able to "get under the house" a common thing
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Post by elstoof on Nov 8, 2022 9:19:46 GMT
You should have a red (sometimes grey) expansion vessel somewhere on your system, the PRV is usually going to be located near that. Sometimes expansion vessels fail internally where the bladder bursts, this’ll cause the PRV to pass through. There should be a tundish underneath to see if that’s the case
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Nov 8, 2022 9:21:03 GMT
I just saved my house from burning down! Yay!
Last night my daughter shouted down 'dad, the bathroom is haunted', so I went up to have a look and found all the lights blinking on and off and the extractor fan spinning up and down. While everything was supposed to be off. Wooooooooo!
I couldnt get anything to stay off so, despite complaints, I flicked the fuses off for the lights and the fan and called the electrician.
Hes just been and it turns out the pipe for the extractor fan has lost its little hat and has been letting in rainwater, running down the pipe and directly onto the fan. He said when he was testing it, he could see the rainwater boiling so if I hadnt turned the fuse off, it would likely have started a fire. So now we just need a fan, rewiring and someone to get up on the roof and fix the pipe.
So im a (poor) hero!
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Post by Dougs on Nov 8, 2022 9:56:16 GMT
Sounds like he’s got a sealed system so no water running from the mains. That much of a pressure loss would mean big puddles of water somewhere. If there’s no visible signs then maybe a pressure release valve has failed? They should discharge water externally so check if any water is pissing outside That was my first thought as that happened with my old boiler (and led to a new expansion vessel) but would have expected 2 plumbers to diagnose that.... |
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Post by Dougs on Nov 8, 2022 9:58:32 GMT
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Nov 8, 2022 10:02:35 GMT
Yeah, right? The girl wanted me to just close the door because she didnt like the thought of not being able to turn the light on.
The geezer also gave us the traditional 'a cowboy put this in, the fan isnt supposed to be wired into the mains like this' for the full bingo card.
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Post by Reviewer on Nov 8, 2022 10:06:25 GMT
I had a plumber around a while ago and he asked me if I’d put in the hot water tank as it had been done so badly. Pipes weren’t in the right place, the shower pump was attached to a plasterboard wall etc.
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EMarkM
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Post by EMarkM on Nov 8, 2022 10:09:38 GMT
Yeah, right? The girl wanted me to just close the door because she didnt like the thought of not being able to turn the light on. The geezer also gave us the traditional 'a cowboy put this in, the fan isnt supposed to be wired into the mains like this' for the full bingo card. At what points did he: 1. Take a sharp breath in through his teeth? 2. Lick the tip of his pencil and say, "well, I've seen worse, but I've seen better"? |
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Nov 8, 2022 10:11:07 GMT
I suspect the previous owner ran out of money when he had the extension done as we keep finding little presents like this.
We also have the switch from Chandlers Apartment in our bedroom that seemingly does absolutely nothing.
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Post by Dougs on Nov 8, 2022 10:19:29 GMT
We keep finding things like that too, and the previous guy either took short cuts as he was selling or ran out of cash or both. Lots of things only becoming apparent now we've been in 8 years. Slightly concerned a rewire is on the cards at some point as it's getting on for 30 years since it was last redone...
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Post by Reviewer on Nov 8, 2022 10:22:33 GMT
Houses need to be rewired?!
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EMarkM
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Post by EMarkM on Nov 8, 2022 10:23:52 GMT
Houses need to be rewired?! Yes. Yes they do. |
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Post by elstoof on Nov 8, 2022 10:24:13 GMT
I had a plumber around a while ago and he asked me if I’d put in the hot water tank as it had been done so badly. Pipes weren’t in the right place, the shower pump was attached to a plasterboard wall etc. We had our vented system replaced with a sealed, got a big company called Aspect to do it and their plumber did perhaps the worst job in history, looked like a dogs dinner. The most dangerous but was he didn’t fit an expansion vessel or pressure release valve anywhere, so when the heating was on and I happened to be near the pressure gauge, the needle was bouncing at the limit. Very lucky for us that we had a fucked old radiator that leaked at the connector every time we put the heating on. Aspect are cunts, they just ignored my many complaints until I got bored and had to get Pimlico in to replace everything |
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Nov 8, 2022 10:24:54 GMT
Yeah, I think building regs state every 30 years or something to cover wear and tear, updated safety stuff and flush out shit like this.
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Post by Reviewer on Nov 8, 2022 10:29:20 GMT
I’ll keep an eye out for when the old people two doors down get their wiring redone. They seem to know about these sorts of things. My parents never rewired their house and never heard of it as a thing before..
Had to get the pipes for the kitchen sink redone too when the stopcock needed replacing. Apparently they’d been bent into place in strange ways. I’m hoping there’s no more plumbing issues for a year or so now, the boiler is probably next in the list though and I’m tempted to just get a heat pump and solar stuff done all at once then.
I’m just too lazy to arrange these things.
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nexus6
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Post by nexus6 on Nov 8, 2022 10:34:52 GMT
Out of interest is being able to "get under the house" a common thing Depends totally on your house construction and layout of how it sits in the garden etc. I have a little 'cellar' under the house that I access from the front. The main door is to the side and the site slopes by a couple meters you see. I can get fully under the full extent of the original house although by the time I'm in the far corners it's no more than a crawl space. Our ground floor is suspended concrete slabs which is pretty cool. Others will have similar with traditional timber joists. Others will have a ground bearing concrete slab in which case you're only getting under with a jackhammer. If your house sits flat on the ground and only a few steps up to the front door then you'll likely have a crawl space just enough to keep the timber off the ground (the 'solum' under the house) and should be enough to have a boiler man crawl in and fit a pipe etc. |
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Post by Trowel 🏴 on Nov 8, 2022 10:37:34 GMT
Does anyone else use British Gas Homecare or similar? Has saved me a fortune down the years on boiler, plumbing and electrical problems. Recommended.
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dmukgr
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Post by dmukgr on Nov 8, 2022 10:38:52 GMT
We also have the switch from Chandlers Apartment in our bedroom that seemingly does absolutely nothing. I've a few of those in my new place too. I keep switching them to see if anything happens or neighbours come around to complain. |
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Post by elstoof on Nov 8, 2022 13:48:21 GMT
Found some pictures of the awful plumbing job Aspect did   |
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Post by quadfather on Nov 8, 2022 13:51:58 GMT
I was renting a house a few years ago, and for the life of me, I couldn't get the cooker to work. I knew the landlord quite well, so gave him a ring
"Ah yeah, I'd forgotten about that - the cooker switch is in the box room, upstairs"
Course it is.
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Nov 8, 2022 14:02:45 GMT
elstoof that look suspiciously like the plumbing in our Bristol 1930s Semi. It'd been done by the former owner, who'd had it 40+ years and was a bit of a Mr Fixit (Bodgit, tbh). Any time he needed to change a pipe, he'd just divert it to another one and block it up. When we changed the boiler and water tank, the installers took out about £1000 worth of scrap copper that was completely unnecessary. Which was nice.
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Post by elstoof on Nov 8, 2022 14:05:21 GMT
Did some work in the airing cupboard last week so flicked the isolator that powers the underfloor heating and towel rail switches to the bathroom, good job I’m a bit paranoid and still checked the cables because whoever wired the isolator screwed both the load and supply cables to the same socket. The only thing the switch did was turn of the red LED
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Post by elstoof on Nov 8, 2022 14:08:13 GMT
We paid £15k for that installation. Pimlico sorted it all out in the end. I need to start leaving some Aspect reviews online with these pictures to be honest, slags.  |
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Nov 8, 2022 14:32:19 GMT
Your first picture is, basically, what our loft looked like. A few weeks after we moved in the expensive aqualisa he had seemingly self installed shart itself (I think the 'brain' in the loft fried itself) so we had it replaced with a boggo triton.
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Post by DJCopa on Nov 8, 2022 14:41:46 GMT
I was renting a house a few years ago, and for the life of me, I couldn't get the cooker to work. I knew the landlord quite well, so gave him a ring "Ah yeah, I'd forgotten about that - the cooker switch is in the box room, upstairs" Course it is. Our old cooker extractor was wired into the upstairs airing cupboard, obviously! We also had lots of world predictions written on the wall behind the toilet wallpaper - stripped it back to see them all, written 20 years before but for prediction Pompey to win Div 1 and the end of the world in the same year I was pulling the paper back. Freaked me out! |
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Post by elstoof on Nov 8, 2022 14:45:32 GMT
We had a copy of the guardian and a letter from a little girl who lived here in 1987 wedged behind a mantelpiece as a time capsule. We put it back there after changing the insert and reattaching the mantel
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Post by Zuluhero on Nov 9, 2022 15:50:18 GMT
Sorry for the late reply.
Yeah it's a closed system, so that much loss is worrying.
Plumber has checked the expansion vessel and release valve and isolated the boiler for a week, and no pressure loss.
Thought it might be the heat exchange, as leaks from that go straight into the condensate pipe, and not visible, but isolating eliminated that too.
Likely to be a ground floor leak, as if it was upstairs you would see that much water affecting the ceiling below.
Bad news is it's probably in the scree/foundations which means it is harder to get at once they find it.
Might be able to claim through insurance, but unsure at this point.
Surprisingly a bar of pressure is only about a glass of water (~500mls)
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Psiloc
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Post by Psiloc on Nov 9, 2022 16:05:13 GMT
Not to hijack Zulu's posts but I have a quasi-related question.
We have a standard boiler with a vented hot water cylinder (which may or may not be relevant I don't know). Every year when we're starting to turn the heating back on we notice that a few of the upstairs radiators have absolutely no water in them. Zero. I obviously know how to bleed them, which obviously works but takes a good few minutes (I've literally walked away briefly it takes so long).
This is the only house I've ever lived in with a standard boiler. Firstly is this normal, and secondly when I bleed the radiators is it just taking water from the cold water tank or what?
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