Just over ten years ago Mr C and I were living back with my mum and step-dad for a while and one day we stood in the kitchen talking to my younger brother who was about 12 at the time. My mum was out and no-one else was in the house, all of a sudden mid conversation he shouted ‘shit’ and went running upstairs, at that moment we all ran after him (luckily) because by the time we had followed him upstairs and watched him turn the overfilled bath tap off we ran downstairs to see about 2/3 of the kitchen ceiling collapse!
It was one of those moments where we all just stood there for a few seconds in silence trying to take in what had just happened and my poor brother who was so worried about my mum getting home to discover what had happened.
I wish I had a photo to show you, it was back in the pre-Instagram days when my mind didn’t even consider taking a photo, obviously things would be different now! It looked horrendous though and the clean up was a pretty big operation. We also had the worry of whether there was any asbestos in the dust as it was a pretty old house but luckily there wasn’t, well at least I don’t think so, I’m guessing the plasterers checked. They came out pretty quickly to fix it all and despite the fact it cost a fair bit the ceiling looked as good as new in no time.
It has obviously left me pretty careful when running baths though although having said that there have been a few occasions where I’ve nearly filled it to the top. I find it’s definitely when you go downstairs and get into a conversation with someone you forget so I always stay upstairs now!
Luckily because of that incident I have never needed to have my ceiling fixed but there have been lots of other problems that have needed me to call someone out, I’ve had toilets that won’t flush and broken boilers as well as issues with my central heating not working properly.
I didn’t realise that in most of these cases there are things you can try at home yourself before needing to call anyone out. Dyno have over 50 years experience in all things involving drains, plumbing and heating and have lots of helpful tips and advice on how to deal with issues like blocked drains and toilets that won’t flush. These tips on how to deal with a blocked toilet are really useful and if after trying all their advice you still need some assistance then you can call out one of their experts. They don’t charge you for a call out fee and they are available 24/7 365 days a year.
And if you’ve recently had a leaking pipe that has recently been fixed you might have noticed some rust on it which is something that needs to be dealt with to stop the metal from crumbling. There are a few ways to do it including sanding it down and applying rust-inhibiting primer (details here).
Another problem that is common in the areas in your home in contact with water is staining, the stains are due to minerals in the water which remain after the water has evaporated. You can actually clean them using white vinegar, something which I am going to try as I have some in my sink. For really stubborn deposits you will need to leave the vinegar to soak in for a while before cleaning off. Installing water softeners can prevent them in the first place. You can read more about them here.
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