Once again we’ve been busy bees this week sorting out some poor quality plumbing. We’ve been to two existing clients to investigate water coming through the ceiling and on both occasions had to make incisions within the building structure to get access to the leaky pipework.

This fitting was found inside a wall. The previous fitter had blanked off a cold water mains pipe which may have supplied a toilet in the past. The pipe continued up into the loft where it supplied the boiler with cold water to turn into hot water via the combi. The clients had lifted some floor boards and could see it dripping every 10 seconds but were unable to find the source. However it was possible to remove a double electrical socket and gain access to the small fitting behind the wall. After all the water was drained from the cold water pipe by turning off the stop cock and opening a lower tap it was possible to remove the damaged push-fit stop end and after cleaning up the end so that a new stop end would seal properly, fit a new one.

The water was switched back on and the new fitting checked for water tightness. The socket was able to be screwed back on to the wall and the floor boards were left up to allow the area to dry over the following week.

The second call out for Boiler Bee was another existing client who had a similar problem. Water was found cascading down the ground floor walls and out of light switch sockets! Once again mechanical intrusions had to be made to view the leak which was caused by a badly fitted elbow joint installed when the house was first built in 2004.

It can be seen from the photograph that the locking ring has not been wound completely down onto the securing shoulder and as a result, over many years, the “O” ring has worked its way up and started leaking. The leaking was quite catastrophic as it is in these cases, where it just “goes”.

As this fitting was located below the floor a small access hatch had to be cut into the floor to allow Derek to get his 6 legs into fix it. You can see the small hole in the picture below and  the new white push fit elbow fitted to replace the grey one taken off. Its good practice to remove the old fitting as this also you to get in there with some emery cloth and clean up both pipe ends to ensure maximum success in sealing the new fitting onto the old pipes.

The photo on the left shown the new push-fit elbow fitted to the old pipes. Its a shame that such sloppy workmanship existing but unfortunately it does. However, Derek and I are here to help so if you have a cascade of water coming down your living room wall please give us a ring, we don’t just fix boilers!