Yet More Work for Me

Late on Thursday Mrs GOG noticed water was coming through our North bedroom ceiling and I clambered into the loft and tied the ball-valve of the water tank up to a strip of wood to prevent water filling the tank, then turned the bathroom taps on. Subsequently, shortly after the tank had emptied the leak ceased. On Friday I examined the tank, glands and pipes and could find no leak; the outside of the tank and pipes were dry although the woodwork beneath it was wet. However, the two inches of water in the bottom remained there throughout that time.

On Friday morning I re-filled the tank and no further leaking took place, so I assumed that the overflow pipe had split, where it could not be seen, the tank had overflowed and the leak had been from there; although I was still suspicious of the glands at the bottom of the tank. Late on Friday afternoon the two plumbers associated with our intended new builder turned up, examined everything and said that they could not find the leak, but the whole lot was old and needed replacing, then the plumbers left. Some five hours later, water again started pouring through the North bedroom ceiling, the water was nowhere near the overflow pipe level. Once again I tied the ball-value up and drained the tank down, leaving it in this situation overnight.

I examined it this morning and could find nothing different from before, so I left it all day before once again going up, this time with some gland nut pliers and a spanner to tighten the glands. By this time the tank had dried out above the water in the bottom and much to my amazement there was a vertical line of water left on the side of the tank directly above one of the glands. I suspected that there was a crack at that point and capillary action was drawing the water up, but examining the outside of the tank, there was no crack. Feeling down inside the tank I could detect the crack with my fingernail, even though I could not see it; the crack did not penetrate through the wall of the tank, but did permit water to flow down to the thread of the gland. The light dawned that the crack was very fine and was carrying water down behind the inside washer associated with the gland and this was passing through behind the outside washer, which was not sealing. The crack had obviously self-sealed, probably with air in it for a number of hours and the leaking had ceased. The solution, replace the tank, but now the problem had definitely been identified.

Today’s picture is of me carrying a spare tank, which fortunately had been in my workshop, across to the house. Despite my health problems, I think it is easier for me to replace the old tank, even though it is going to cause me a fair bit of pain, than to mess about with plumbers who did not really solve the problem, just preferring to change everything, but even then we would have to wait a week or so before it happened. I intend to take out the old tank and replace it with the one in the picture tomorrow, it will probably take me all day as I am not yet very quick. However, it is nice to now be physically fit and well enough to tackle this job, which would have still be impossible for me even as little as six to eight weeks ago; long may this progress continue.