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No, I'm still not dead. Or healthy. Or employed.
I don't actually have parents, I have thinly-disguised natural disasters. Leave them alone in a room for five minutes and they'll start tidying. Or cleaning. Or DIYing.
On this occasion, I left them alone in my guest room for ten minutes and my dad decided that one nail in one floorboard was standing a bit high. So he got a hammer (he's my dad, he always brings a toolbag when visiting parents or offspring) and, without bothering to mention this to me, hammered it in a bit further.
Right through a hot water pipe. :-(
My lounge, which happens to be under the guest room, ended up drenched (water was pouring down the light bulb at an alarming speed, and the ceiling was sagging a bit by the time we stopped it...). So off with the electricity for a few hours. And, of course, no hot water.
Even better than that, draining the system so that the plumber could fix this Didn't Go To Plan. All sorts of junk in the pipes appears to have caused a blockage, and they now want to tear the whole immersion heater out and replace it. £800, minimum.
My parents, undaunted, are now trying to convince me that this is a good thing and that instead of replacing the immersion I should have the brand new Baxi back-boiler in the lounge (installed at some expense this last winter, when the old one one failed) ripped out too, and pay an extra £700 or so (on top of the £800) to convert the whole house to a combi-boiler system.
They're very evangelical about combi-boilers, and seem delighted that I now have an opportunity to install one (they're about to install one themselves, and have just persuaded my gran to do the same).
I remain unconvinced, largely because my existing back-boiler works Just Fine. I see no need to change a perfectly good, brand new boiler which I've only just paid for. *sigh*
And yes, I will most definitely be at the pub tonight.
I don't actually have parents, I have thinly-disguised natural disasters. Leave them alone in a room for five minutes and they'll start tidying. Or cleaning. Or DIYing.
On this occasion, I left them alone in my guest room for ten minutes and my dad decided that one nail in one floorboard was standing a bit high. So he got a hammer (he's my dad, he always brings a toolbag when visiting parents or offspring) and, without bothering to mention this to me, hammered it in a bit further.
Right through a hot water pipe. :-(
My lounge, which happens to be under the guest room, ended up drenched (water was pouring down the light bulb at an alarming speed, and the ceiling was sagging a bit by the time we stopped it...). So off with the electricity for a few hours. And, of course, no hot water.
Even better than that, draining the system so that the plumber could fix this Didn't Go To Plan. All sorts of junk in the pipes appears to have caused a blockage, and they now want to tear the whole immersion heater out and replace it. £800, minimum.
My parents, undaunted, are now trying to convince me that this is a good thing and that instead of replacing the immersion I should have the brand new Baxi back-boiler in the lounge (installed at some expense this last winter, when the old one one failed) ripped out too, and pay an extra £700 or so (on top of the £800) to convert the whole house to a combi-boiler system.
They're very evangelical about combi-boilers, and seem delighted that I now have an opportunity to install one (they're about to install one themselves, and have just persuaded my gran to do the same).
I remain unconvinced, largely because my existing back-boiler works Just Fine. I see no need to change a perfectly good, brand new boiler which I've only just paid for. *sigh*
And yes, I will most definitely be at the pub tonight.
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Who's 'they'? Your parents (in which case, fine, let them get on with it) or the central heating people (in which case, get a second opinion).
And James - I do hope you rang your insurance people before you started any work on it???
And yes, I will most definitely be at the pub tonight.
Ah, not sure that I will (see my previous post).
Definitely get a second opinion!
So he asked for a second opinion. The second guy spent the better part of a whole Saturday taking the whole system apart and cleaning it thoroughly, putting it back together and safety testing it. He said that a lot of firms will just look at any boiler more than a certain age and automatically tell you you need a new one, when there's nothing wrong with it a good cleaning won't sort out!
The moral of the story is, *always* get a second opinion when you get told your boiler is dead.
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