Plumbing Disaster

[cchrist1]

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Well, to say the least I am rather puzzled by the plumbing system in my home for two reasons:

1) I am Canadian, so all the plumbing in Canada is not as prehistoric as the plumbing here in England and

2) I know nothing about plumbing!

I have been living in this house for two years. Within the first three months of living here, the plumbing began to deteriorate with the kitchen sinks hot water tap where, the cold water dribbles out and there is no hot water at all. One and a half years later, the same is happening with the bathtub faucets, there is absaloutly no hot water at all, only freezing cold...so you can imagine how I am at work in the early morning, grumpy and cold!

What can possible be wrong with the taps in my house? Is it lime scale or calcium build-up? I know that the water in England, especially southern, is extremely hard. Or, could it be a problem with our boiler? We have a boiler that hangs in out bathroom next to the bathtub, which supplies the hot water, but, as I have no idea about these things, I cannot say whether or not it supplies central heating (sorry if that is a dumb statement). The boiler seems to be in working order for the bathroom sink...when you turn the hot water faucet on, you can hear the fire ignite and the water is constant and fine. For the bathtub, it initially ignites, but then it blows out (same for the kitchen).

So, I guess my main queries are:

1) What is the culprit - the boiler or the limescale/calcium?

2) Is it necessary for a plumber to fix it or would my boyfriend suit the job?

3) If a plumber is required, what do you believe the maximum cost would be?

4) My last, unrelated query to the above topic is - what main configurations of piping/plumbing are required to install a shower?

Thanks for all your help!

Cchrist1

 

[DP]

First things first. Does the heater have a chimney? If it does, it cannot be used in a bathroom. If it takes its combustion air from the outside, one has to look at the electrical angle as waterheater being above the bath, shock hazard exists.

I would suspect the faucets are the culprits because the bathroom water supply is hot.

Cost is a local thing.

Your boyfriend would be advised that he not tinker with the gas appliance

Call in an engineer who is registered to carry out gas work.

 

[ollski]

First things first. Does the heater have a chimney? If it does, it cannot be used in a bathroom.

If you mean open flued DP then that's not really true surely, the chances are it was installed before the 1998 gas regs and even puuting a room sealed boiler in zone 1 in the bathroom is ok if it's existing installation

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

If its a room sealed instantaneous water heater it most likely wont have any electrics anyway so no shock hazard, so could be low flow through the taps upsetting ignition and running, or it could be the diagphram, by the sounds of things it needs a corgi reg guy to check it out, expect to pay something like £55.00 an hour depending on area distance to travel parking fees ect plus materials, if it's classed as an immediatley dangerous appliance expect the guy to cap off and label it for YOUR safety.

 

[oilman]

Cchrist1, there's not much to go on here. Go to the three posts at the beginning of the forum, and let us have the model of boiler, if you have a seperate hot water tank etc. I suspect you have a combi boiler, and there is either a blending valve (or a diverter valve with a diaphram problem), though this doesn't seem likely if the basin tap can operate the boiler.

Mostly boiler service guys come in and do half a job on combis, as they can't be bothered servicing the water side of the boiler. You will have to pay of course, but you would have hot water. The blending valve for example, if you have one, should be serviced annually, but does it get done? Does it hell.