Thursday 31 July 2008

That sinking feeling

Yesterday morning I went out for a time leaving the Irish workman, who describes himself as a flag layer, and his side kick sorting out the crates of sandstone paving. I returned about lunchtime and offered to make them a drink. Their mugs, from their mid-morning drink, needed washing, but before I could do that I needed to empty the water that had been left in the washing up bowl. I don't normally leave water in the washing up bowl but on this occasion it proved to have been fortuitous, that I had. So I emptied the water down the drain and just as I was thinking something here isn't quite right, the water, that I had emptied down the drain, came rushing under the door of the cupboard under the sink. I opened the cupboard door, to investigate, and yet more water flooded out. Now, as well as the cupboard being flooded the kitchen floor was too. The plastic pipe work under the sink was all over the place. The U-bend, that the sink should drain into, had twisted to the left and the connection from the waste disposal had twisted to the right. It looked as if it had been vandalized and I quickly worked out that the Irish flag layer and his partner in crime must have done something to the sink unit's waste pipe on the outside of the house. Immediately, I was out of the back door wanting to know what they had done. They had repositioned the outside waste pipe and the pressure that they had used had undone the joints under the sink.

No job in this cottage seems to be straight forward. This is the fourth time that we have had a water leak. When we had the building work done we had a leak through the snug ceiling and a flood through the dining room ceiling. Then the burglar alarm fitters managed to drill into not one, but two water pipes. I'll save the details of those incidents for another day.

9 comments:

Dottie said...

When you say 'repositioned'... how drastically repositioned was it? Sounds like lots of brute force and ignorance were employed there. Hope the floor in the kitchen is ok now.

Lindsay said...

How awful - but know how you feel. Our house is one of four built two years ago - we have all had drastic leaks. Our boiler packed up after two days - the plumber had installed a valve the wrong way round. Shower leaked through sitting room ceiling and our rising main burst in the kitchen. The plumber fixed all. The other 3 houses were not so lucky. They moved in later than us and plumber got fed up with the problems. House 4 has such a bad leak from downstairs loo it has wrecked the study completely, the boiler in their kitchen has to come out. They are still waiting after 4 months of haggling. Hope your crazy paver has come to his senses!

debsdigest.com said...

It reminds me of the Irish workmen on Fawlty Towers who bricked up the door to the restaurant!

Gone Back South said...

Oh no! No job ever is simple. Even jobs that should be simple rarely are. Good luck with it all ...

Liz Hinds said...

How unfortunate. I hope you've dried out and the pipe is sorted now.

cheshire wife said...

Dottie - they have moved the position that the pipe enters the drain grill but it doesn't look any different to me. The kitchen floor had an impromptu clean. It's all fine now.

Lindsay - sounds like you have been throught it with your house. I thought that it was only old houses that had these problems.

mrsnesbitt said...

You can't get the staff can you? Deep understanding here!

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

Planning to have work done always seems a wonderful idea, the realities can be so frustrating/irritating. Hopefully you will look back and laugh. A x

French Fancy... said...

OK, I've read the link (here's my proof) now back to the gnome...