[Oldmanmatt]

Will have you got any felt?

The scopes aren't shit at all. A friend at work bought one after he plumbed/tiled his bathroom and then had a leak.
We subsequently used it at work to look down come core barrels we'd taken in an old structure. It was easily as good if not better than the hire alternatives.

If you’re following a pipe back, looking for a leak on that pipe, amen.

But hunting for a rain leak in several square meters of roof...
it’s not image quality, it’s field of vision etc.

[Will Hunt]

I forgot that I should really give an update.

We chopped into the ceiling and could see two little pipes that looked wet. A plumber was called who replaced the one that was leaking. It was a hot water pipe. How was it leaking? Picture this.
The pipe was running between joists and ceiling plaster. When the house was built (presumably) the pipe had been pinned to the joist by knocking a nail into the joist and curving it around the pipe.
There are two theories as to why this pipe has leaked - one is that a little hole was gradually rubbed into the pipe as the expansion and contraction (it's a hot water pipe) caused it to rub on the nail. The other is that the nail has galvanically (is that a word?) corroded the copper pipe which it was touching.

Anyway, pipe fixed and ceiling replastered. Sorted.

[Will Hunt]

Which brings me to my next question. I've now got to paint onto the bare plaster. What paints am I going to need?

Plain white emulsion, watered down to a mist coat - 1 coat of that?

Then a base coat? Just use un-watered down white emulsion?

Then the top coat.

God I feel stupid.

[tommytwotone]

On that note.
Check your eves, soffits and fascias. Also, gutters. Blocked and overflowing gutters divert water into odd places.

Random one - I think we definitely have at least one misaligned downpipe, and as far as I know nobody has checked the drains etc at our place.

Has anyone had this done? Does this get pricey having to get scaffold etc, or is it just "bloke with massive ladder and his mate"?

[SamT]

There are two theories as to why this pipe has leaked - one is that a little hole was gradually rubbed into the pipe as the expansion and contraction (it's a hot water pipe) caused it to rub on the nail.

It will be this.  Seen it before where the pipe ran through a brick wall and rubbed against the brick. if its a fairly long straight run, then the movement as its heats and contracts daily, is considerable, and over decades, can wear a hole.

As for paint,  We've always used Wickes white 'Straight to Plaster' paint. Cheap and no faffing with watering down. Covers really well. Did all the rooms in our old house and most of the rooms in this one. Never had any issues. 

[Will Hunt]

Thanks Sam. Did you then have to buy a separate base coat and a top coat? Or can you just paint top coat straight onto the straight to plaster stuff. I'm just thinking about how many tins of paint I'm going to end up bringing home (doing the walls and glossing at the same time)

[dunnyg]

When did you realise you were old will?

[GazM]

Will, after getting some ceilings re-plastered we were told to seal it with a PVA solution, I think 1 part PVA to 4 parts water.  Then we just used a couple of coats of standard Dulux brilliant white matt paint.  Seems to have done the job nicely.

[SamT]

We've always just used a few coats of this - no pva.  Then nothing else if its staying white.  Or a couple of coats of a colour of your choice.

[Will Hunt]

When did you realise you were old will?

I've been old since I can remember. You on the other hand are a peculiar artefact. Ostensibly mid-twenties, unable to capitalise proper nouns, yet doing a PhD and with the grey hair of a wizened badger. How old are you?

Thanks for the suggestions. Think I'll slap on some straight to plaster and then get involved with the top coats.

[dunnyg]

who knows? im just waiting for the day someone mistakes me for a professor or local wildlife

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Bare plaster can be dusty and is quite absorbent so I think PVA helps seal the surface meaning the paint sticks better and you need less. A watered down coat of emulsion does a similar job. Certain paints might not stick well to bare plaster.

[highrepute]

Bare plaster can be dusty and is quite absorbent so I think PVA helps seal the surface meaning the paint sticks better and you need less. A watered down coat of emulsion does a similar job. Certain paints might not stick well to bare plaster.

I understood that the PVA was for older plaster (usually looks grey) and watered down emulsion was fine for newer plaster.

[SamT]

Certain paints might not stick well to bare plaster.

Which is why I assume the Wickes 'Straight to Plaster' paint has a bit of an additive to help it stick/bond the bare plaster.

[Jim]

watered-down PVA is put over old plaster before a reskim to stop the new plaster soaking into it as quickly so the plasterer has enough time to work it when its on.
DO NOT put PVA over plaster before painting!
Put a coat of watered down emulsion on new plaster once fully dry and then 2 coats of normal emulsion.
Don't bother with all this one-coat and straight to plaster paint bullshit.
Do a job right first time, do it once

[Johnny Brown]

How's that tiling coming on Ken?

[Jim]

All done. Grouting tomorrow

[Fultonius]

I may have just cut a 4" hole through the wrong wall. Great.

It turns out my preferred routing of a some new ducting for a combined bathroom/kitchen/toilet extraction system has a brick shaped wall in the road. Just before cutting the hole, I thought "should I measure this to confirm it's the correct place"....nah....it's the brick wall at the end of the loft, it must be the right place....

Anyway, other than fixing the extra hole (and now having to paint another room  ), I now need to consider if I want to reconsider the central super quiet extraction fan in the loft, and going back to individual fans, or cut a 4" hole in the brick wall and try to push ducting through a 90 degree bend past the brick wall then a 1.5 m span to the end wall where it should meet an outlet on the shower room wall.

How hard do you reckon it will be to get the ducting through the void? (There's no access to that void without cutting some major holes in the plasterboard).

[tomtom]

Ducting the Void 😂

[Fultonius]

    That's how this project seems at times...

[Oldmanmatt]

I forgot that I should really give an update.

We chopped into the ceiling and could see two little pipes that looked wet. A plumber was called who replaced the one that was leaking. It was a hot water pipe. How was it leaking? Picture this.
The pipe was running between joists and ceiling plaster. When the house was built (presumably) the pipe had been pinned to the joist by knocking a nail into the joist and curving it around the pipe.
There are two theories as to why this pipe has leaked - one is that a little hole was gradually rubbed into the pipe as the expansion and contraction (it's a hot water pipe) caused it to rub on the nail. The other is that the nail has galvanically (is that a word?) corroded the copper pipe which it was touching.

Anyway, pipe fixed and ceiling replastered. Sorted.

Before “retiring” (I fucking wish), I spent ~25years in ship building, engineering and the like.

There is a classic Flanders and Swan song, called “The Gasman Cometh”, Google it (assuming you don’t already know it).
My Grandfather introduced me to it (a lifelong Engineer himself), except he called it “The Engineers Theme tune”...

[Steve R]

Bit of a long shot but you never know.... one for the plumber or lateral thinker (possibly both):
Fitted a bathroom in my sister's house 3/4 years ago now.  Shower is a standard mixer shower - hot and cold feeds pumped from airing cupboard (on landing) by one of these sort of pumps: https://www.screwfix.com/p/salamander-pumps-ct50-xtra-regenerative-twin-shower-pump-1-5bar/20423
Hot feed to pump comes from adjacent hot water cylinder, cold feed to pump from a header tank in loft.  All standard install as I understand it.  System generally works ok but occasionally pump won't kick in when shower tap is opened like it's supposed to.    Initial and not altogether satisfactory solution is to crank the shower tap over to cold and open tap fully, this semi reliably brings the pump on and once it's going, tap can then be adjusted to desired temp.  If that doesn't work, a second and considerably less satisfactory solution (only had to resort to this once or twice so far) is to unscrew the shower head and, with tap fully open, suck like a saigon special on the pipe.  This is sufficient to get  the pump to kick in - can then switch tap off, re-attach shower head and  pump seems happier to come on again when it's been in action recently.
Potential solutions (in order of difficulty/expense):
-sensor adjustment on pump; don't think there is one unfortuately.
-raising height of header tank and/or increasing allowed volume of water in header tank *
-lowering height of header tank and/or decreasing allowed volume of water in header tank *
-install new pump (easy enough to switch but not convinced it'll be any better)

(* not sure which, if either of those would help as not entirely sure where/how the pressure sensor inside pump operates...eg. senses lower pressure on outfeed to come on? difference in pressure between infeed and outfeed? bit confused here...)

Any suggestions or ideas most welcome.

I think the original/underlying problem is that the plumbing from the pump to the shower mixer is quite long and convoluted.....

Hate plumbing and hate attics. 

[JamieG]

Hi Steve,

I presume you already have the instruction manual for the pump. But in case not here is the link

http://www.free-instruction-manuals.com/pdf/pa_1001698.pdf

On page 22 it suggest some potential remedies including checking that the flow switch doesn't have debris around it.

My only other thought is I would be surprised if it is the cold water pressure that is the problem (so I doubt adjusting the header tank will help), much more likely to be low hot water pressure form the adjacent cylinder. This why I expect your initial solution of cranking the tap all the way to cold works, since the pressure on the cold alone is sufficient to get the pump going, but not when mixing with hot. Is it  possible you can increase the pressure in the hot water system? Also does it tend to struggle when other systems in the house are using water, washing machine, dishwasher etc?

[tomtom]

Limescale? If in a hard water area?

As the manual said maybe needs a good clean out? Attic tanks (why isn’t it fed direct from the mains supply) can accumulate gunk...

[SamT]

The pressure should be the the same on both hot and cold, as this is only contingent on the height of the header tank.

and the hot water cylinder should be fed from the same header tank in the loft.



(except instead of your shower there, you'd have your pump, then your shower.)

However, if your cylinder is fed from the mains water (unvented), the pressure of the hot will be much higher than the cold, which might cause issues.  or visa versa if the cold is actually mains fed, and the hot from the header, again might cause issues with an imbalance of pressure.

"Flow rate" (rather than pressure) might be reduced through one side, if say the pipes take a long an convoluted route though narrower pipes 15mm as opposed to 22mm which I guess may cause an issue.

Could there be an issue with air locks in the pump, i.e. does the pump need bleeding of air, is there a mechanism for doing this?

As others have said, the flow switch might be dicky/gunked up. 

Perhaps a straight swap out for a new pump, then take it back to screwfix if it doesn't work and argue for a refund?

Not much help I'm afraid.