A week of DIY, with a few plot holes.

A little thing can generate a lot of work. An odd stain appeared at a very specific part of our kitchen ceiling. Using skills learned from the management of cellulitis (soft tissue infections in the skin), I drew around the components to check if it was spreading or static. Who said medicine doesn’t equip you with transferrable skills?

Lo and behold, it was slowly expanding. I roughly measured from the stairs to the stain to figure out where the likely source of the problem was. I traced it to the cupboard which used to house the hot water cylinder before the heat pump installation.

First step was to pull up the flooring in the cupboard and have a look. There was a redundant loop of cold water piping and a capped hot water pipe. Given the slow leak I suspected it wasn’t something at mains/high pressure, so first port of call was the hot water pipe.

It was obvious that the leak had been present for some time as the plasterboard was damp and pock-marked. I ran my hand over the pipes and found a few droplets of water on the hot water pipe. I used my cheap Draper inspection camera to take a closer look and identify the culprit joint.

After I had identified the leak, it was time for mitigation. I put the dehumifier in the cupboard and placed an old towel under the pipe to dry it out. Damage control done. Now what happens? Oh, the pipe probably needs fixed. Probably.

Time to go through the home emergency cover. A lot of home insurance policies come with emergency cover for leaks and plumbing issues. One of the first questions is whether it’s accessible or not. I could see the offending pipe, but I’m not a plumber so how am I qualified to determine if it’s accessible enough for one to work on? Unfortunately the answer was no, it was not.

The leaking joint was close to where the pipe went through the joist, and close to the floorboards. The emergency plumber was really helpful though. Although he wasn’t allowed to assist with creating access, he did stick around whilst I pulled apart the house. First the ceiling in the kitchen, then the upstairs floor. Unfortunately that involved a bit of destruction of the engineered hardwood flooring which had to be (mostly) slotted back into position. I had to use my multi-tool to cut the tongues and release the boards without breaking them. A couple did sustain some damage, although most of them were relatively unscathed.

This sort of thing rarely goes to plan. Particularly when it’s already not going to plan. One of the floorboards had been removed before and screwed back into place. When I started to unscrew the board, there was a sudden hissing and water started to pour out of the ceiling. Queue a rapid trip to the stopcock to stem the flow. Turns out the previous owner had screwed into the cold water mains. One leak turned into two. Good thing the plumber was there to assist.

Once everything was fixed and dried out, it was time to get things back into order. There wasn’t enough support for the plasterboard patch, so I added an additional brace at right angles to the joist. After that, I screwed on the plasterboard, filled the join, sanded, and put on a few coats of paint. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do. Skimming the area would give a better result, but good enough is good enough for me.

That absorbed most of my evenings last week. There wasn’t much relaxation, but we have continued to play Disco Elysium. The story goes from strength to strength, with twists and turns in unexpected directions. The weekend was spent organising Christmas-related matters around the house. Good thing I popped a “H” on this box though. How else would I know it contained hornets?