New Year, New Headaches

Just when we thought things had settled down and we could regroup after finishing(?) the office. Ha. All the little annoying things seem to be getting bigger and bigger. First it was the bathroom sink leaking and dripping down into the cupboards which needed cleaning and re-caulking. Next the Oven started acting up again as well as the hob. The haunted random light in the guest room has been rewired now too.

The most annoying of all has been the electric shower. The poor old thing has been wheezing like an asthmatic yak for several weeks and the temp has been falling, the low pressure light has been flashing like a disco and its been generally unwell. First the hose started going. The tell tale sign of the plastic coating bulging and finally spraying all over the place was our first clue. The hose and shower head were replaced a couple of weeks ago, thinking it was the old lime encrusted head and leaking hose that was causing the pressure problems. It worked for a while but things had been slowly getting worse.

Today, a new year and now a new power shower. Once again it appears the cut rate cock-up artists were employed to install this thing. First off I always wondered by the railing was so loose. Turns out it was installed up side down so the notch that kept things from twisting all over the place wasn't doing its job. Next I found a rather large and very wet hole in behind the old unit. This had been sort of sealed by about 2 tubes of caulk just squeezed in seemingly at random but missing the hole completely.

The first pic shows the nice unsealed hole and the last remaining bits of caulk.


Of course in the dung heap nothing ever works out simply. The muppets never installed a shut off valve for the shower. That meant removing the floorboards in the hall by the front door to reach the master valve. I swear the previous owner employed the fine firm of Bodgit & Scarper for all her home maintenance.
The replacement unit's water main connection was completely different meaning the existing pipe had to be cut and bent to suit. A second trip to the shop was required of course to obtain additional elbows, onions, and other plumbing bits. As the fittings were different it also meant having to shift the thing about 6" to the left. This left the hole in the tiles exposed. Oops.

After a couple hours work a new and improved shower unit is up and working. The hole behind has been covered and sealed so no more water in the wall.

I shudder to think what nasties are waiting behind the oven when we get around to replacing that pile of **** later in the month.