Adventures In Plumbing.

I have just come to the end of what could be described as an 'adventure' in plumbing. It could also be described as a 'hellish nightmare' in plumbing. I was happily watching TV when my wife alerted me to the fact that the tap in the kitchen was leaking under the sink. It was leaking badly but we couldn't put a bucket under it because there was no room to do so. I tried to tighten the valve on the pipe to stop the leak.

That was when the 'adventure' began in earnest. That was when the valve broke and the pipe dropped free resulting in cold water flowing full blast into the kitchen. I tried in vain to re-attach the pipe to the valve but the force of the water wouldn't let me (when the plumber eventually came he said that it couldn't have gone back on anyway). While all this had been unfolding we had called my dad to see if he could fix it, as at that point it hadn't broken fully. When it did he came straight out, and my wife called for an emergency plumber. While that was happening I was struggling with it. I tried to turn the water off completely. The tap was somewhere through a hole in the panneling beneath the sink. I was lying under the sink, soaked to the skin, freezing water pouring on me, as I struggled in vain to find the main water tap. I could not find it. I was soaked and freezing and in a panic as water continued to flow happily into the kitchen.

My wife turned the electricity off while I tried again, this time with numb hands, to force the pipe back into the valve and at least stem the flow till the plumber arrived. It wasn't happening. Imagine your cold tap turned on full blast pointed into your kitchen, imagine yourself standing watching helplessly as it did so. Then imagine being soaked to the skin, freezing and shaking. That was me about an hour ago.

My dad came and had a look and quickly reached the conclusion that the only thing to be done was to turn the water off. Turn it off with the tap I couldn't find/reach. I had to go back under, back into the freezing water, sticking my arm through a little hole, grasping blindly for the bloody tap. Finally I found it. It wasn't far in at all, but straight down. I had been reaching right in to the back and side walls trying to find it. I turned the water off.

I was soaked head to toe, the kitchen was about an inch deep in water. It was a mess. The plumber came while I was getting dried and changed. So the problem is now solved. We've been drying up as best we could. It could have been worse I suppose. It happened to my dad years ago except the pipe itself broke above the ceiling, so water was coming down the walls for an hour before he found the water tap, which was handily located behind the cooker!