Introduction from new member

[jpirie]

As recommended by the welcome email, hello all, my name is James Pirie and I am not a plumber but a keen DIY enthusiast mostly due to the severe lack of plumbers available in our area of the North West of Sutherland in Scotland.
I have done some pipework, tap replacements and fixed some leaking fittings in the central heating system so all relatively simple stuff and mostly replacing what a plumber has already planned and fitted.
My day job is in the NHS and I am a detached home owner in the teeth of the prevailing South Westerly winds so keeping the heating going is of prime importance
I spend my liesure time maintaining and riding two elderly motorcycles and playing some guitar.
Hope to get some helpful advice on this forum even to the point of "Don't do it"

All the best from the far North

James

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Hello and welcome

 

[Lou]

Welcome to the forum It is always nice to have new members! Been having some pretty heavy rain and wind here! Have you done any tinkering over the christmas period?

 

[James Pirie]

Welcome to the forum It is always nice to have new members! Been having some pretty heavy rain and wind here! Have you done any tinkering over the christmas period?

Thanks for the reply.
Tinkering over Christmas = water dripping through bedroom. Ceiling at 2030 hrs on Christmas eve and loss of pressure in the central heating system.
Spent the next five hours crawling in and out of roof trusses in the upstairs eaves to hopefully find a repairable leak.
As luck would have it not only did I locate the problem but I had the materials and skills to fix it.
Turned out to be a bit of poor plumbing from the original fix, some twenty years or so ago, where the plumber had managed to, somehow, damage one of the pipes. This would have been expanding and contracting over the years and finally became pourous. It had clearly been dripping away for a long time!
It was plastic pipe with metal fittings so not compatable with my bits and pieces of JG Speedfit pipe and couplings but I spliced in a new piece of pipe and borrowed a 15mm olive from a very surprised neighbour
I had some fernox 4 from a previous job and, while I had the system drained, fitted a new zone valve which had been a job hanging around to be done for a long time.
All went well and I got to bed at 0200 hrs on Christmas day.
The stocking was already full as were my brownie points
J

 

[Lou]

Thanks for the reply.
Tinkering over Christmas = water dripping through bedroom. Ceiling at 2030 hrs on Christmas eve and loss of pressure in the central heating system.
Spent the next five hours crawling in and out of roof trusses in the upstairs eaves to hopefully find a repairable leak.
As luck would have it not only did I locate the problem but I had the materials and skills to fix it.
Turned out to be a bit of poor plumbing from the original fix, some twenty years or so ago, where the plumber had managed to, somehow, damage one of the pipes. This would have been expanding and contracting over the years and finally became pourous. It had clearly been dripping away for a long time!
It was plastic pipe with metal fittings so not compatable with my bits and pieces of JG Speedfit pipe and couplings but I spliced in a new piece of pipe and borrowed a 15mm olive from a very surprised neighbour
I had some fernox 4 from a previous job and, while I had the system drained, fitted a new zone valve which had been a job hanging around to be done for a long time.
All went well and I got to bed at 0200 hrs on Christmas day.
The stocking was already full as were my brownie points
J

Oh Gosh things always happen at the worst possible time!! Sounds like you had things under control