23 Nov 2018

And Then A Block...

Well, not exactly a block. It being a damp, cold, grey – is it okay to say grey? – day like wot it was today, I had a choice; plumbing or join in on those Friday of colour sales and go get a ‘bargain’ we don’t need with money we don’t have. Okay, plumbing it be then. It transpired to be the worst of the two bad choices available.

Over the past many days it’s become apparent that the kitchen sink wasn’t draining as quickly as it did/should. I tried a dose of that drain unblocking liquid and a hit with a plunger but this resulted in little improvement thus this morning I took the decision to remove the drain line ‘U’ bend below the sink.

I must say, these modern hand tight, ‘O’ ring compression fittings are a joy{?} to work with compared to the old fittings that needed a couple of Stillson wrenches requiring setting up again and again to get a tenth of a turn a time at best. Thus in moments the ‘U’ bend was free and the water contained therein carefully deposited in a pre-prepared receptacle which I then pushed well clear.  I took a look and it was indeed gunged-up with a goodly amount of very unpleasant looking gunge.

I transported said ‘U’ bend to the sink and started to clean it out with fast running water and that was the moment a little light came on in my swede and I spotted my deliberate mistake. I was washing the ‘U’ bend in the sink the ‘U’ bend belonged to. How dumb was that then? Damn! And looking at the mess I’d stupidly created, I wondered, not for the first time, how I’d managed to arrive at seventy something;  shortly, with luck, to be seventy something plus one.

Anyhoo, after a prolonged cleaning period, punctuated with lots of naughty words, I got it all screwed back together and he be draining just fine but I have to say not as fast as it drained without the ‘U’ bend.

Wot to do now?  While I’m at the top of my game, is there anything I need to be doing with  the mains electrickery? Am I nuts? I settled for continuing the load testing of the sofa in relative safety.

Quote;  Christopher Morley.

“A human being; an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing.”

2 comments:

A K Haart said...

I'm glad someone else made that deliberate mistake. Although mine was in my younger days so I didn't have the oldie excuse.

Mac said...

A K Haart,
And I'm willing to bet we're not alone although this belief doesn't make me feel any the less dumb.