Since the big freeze a couple of months ago we have had various plumbing problems (mostly leaks) come to light – partly because I’m an idiot and partly because of poor plumbing. I’ll share their causes in the hope that someone else can avoid some of the same problems…
As a little background, the house (the gite, not the house where we live) was completely replumbed when we bought it about 10 years ago. Since then various modifications have been suggested (and implemented) to improve the general plumbing system, deal with problems and so on. So we entered this winter quite confident we would be problem free…
The tap which cut off the water supply to one part of the house still allowed a trickle of water to enter even when it was closed, but we hadn’t changed it because it had been fitted in such a way that to change it would involve digging a large trench.
The problem was due to poor plumbing design in the first place but it was me that decided to ignore it – and that was the part where I was an idiot. Just a trickle, that can’t be too bad I thought! It turns out ice can open a tap for you if it has the slightest way through…who’d of guessed!
In my defence I had become complacent after a few years of quite mild winters (excuses excuses…)
I can lay the responsibility for the other problems at the hands of previous plumbers. Here is what I have learned – and that I advise you to remember if you are replumbing a house:
1) it is imperative that purge valves are fitted at the lowest point on any pipe so the system can be completely drained down, even if you live in the south of France!
2) there are apparently two types of copper pipe, rigid and not-so-rigid (I imagine there is a more technical word for the difference). I now learn that the more rigid pipes should not be buried in walls because they split more easily when they freeze. Something else I wouldn’t have guessed until water started emerging from the wall – the two pipes were inside the house and buried in an internal stone wall but that wasn’t enough to stop them freezing…
3) there are two ways to solder copper pipes together – the first is with a small copper sleeve, the second is with a special tool that stretches the end of the pipe slightly so the other pipe can fit inside. It saves the plumber a small amount of money on each joint, but also weakens the pipe in that area and when it freezes makes it more likely to fail.
4) you know that foam insulation that we all like to put around pipes in attics? It only works down to a certain temperature…
It might well just be me but I didn’t really give a great deal of thought to some of these things when the plumber was hard at work.
Anyway I think that all our troubles are behind us now (you’ve never seen fingers so enthusiastically crossed) and it is true that it was exceptionally cold for a few days this year with many people having burst pipe problems, but forewarned is forearmed and I can safely say that next year there won’t be a single drip, drop or dribble of water anywhere in the house between December and March, just in case!
Meanwhile I’m just retiling the shower – seems it’s not possible to replace buried pipes without demolishing the wall to get to them!
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