Sods Bleedin Law

[AVI_8]

Cast iron gutters at a part of the house which I knew needed attention but hadn’t got round to fixing it.

Last week after a storm I noticed most of the 100 year old brackets were failing, water pessimg down was the indicator, problem was cast iron gutters are heavy, and how do you remove 4 metres of them when the brackets holding them up are goosed without injuring yourself.

Thought the best course of action was going to be gravity, and yes today gravity was on my side, they all came down with a noise, Jack Russel went into panic mode as did my wife.

After removing them all I thought good that gives me a clear way to sand and paint the soffits before new gutters go up.

Ran a bath as it was later in the day and no hot water, cursing the heating company as I’d just got my boiler serviced yesterday thinking what has he done so went to the boiler and noticed no water pressure, then the penny dropped, external central heating drain valve is just where the gutters dropped, they didn’t hit the wall but hit the drain valve rupturing the 15mm pipe.

Quick run to Screwfix, 2 metres of pipe and a compression joint with some spare olives should have a repair done quickly, pipe cutter, where is it, used it 10 years ago, can’t be far, an hour later, Screwfix again, got another one, a much nicer one this time no turning a knob just the tool, good tools are much nicer to use!

Time for the 25 metre crawl under the solum to get to the pipe, easy cut, 25 metre crawl back to remove damaged pipe and insert new pipe, 25 metre crawl back fit compression joint and a further 25 metre crawl back, fill the system, bleed all the radiators (twice) and all is well, wife is happy, hot water and central heating resumes, stop off at a shop after picking my son up from football to get a nice bottle of red which I think is well deserved and is being consumed as I write this, and is very nice!

 

[Kayos]

I once removed a cast iron soil stack, only went to the first floor, no vent

I removed it from the pan, 9" grinder at the bottom and pry barred it off the brackets, causing it to smash into eleventy million pieces when it hit the ground

Turned round to see the customer looking horrified out of the window

 

[gaz1]

in your case you would screw z brackets to hold the gutters up and you need 2 per length and you do the lot

then you start taking it down if it does give the z brackets hold it instead of gravity taking them hard to the ground

ive had a few cast iron gutters come down didnt even get the chance to get up there for the z brackets

cast soil pipes do come down hard as they are a top down connection they need to be pre strengthened but in doing so they can come loose

the yorkshire areas has many a cast iron soil pipe going up the side of houses up around the gutter then up onto the roof and remember these things need to be taken off top down they are fun to handle and dam well dangerous to mess with

many customers dont care about you they want a cheap job yet want you to save the cast iron soil stack

both me and kayos knows how bad these things are

 

[AVI_8]

in your case you would screw z brackets to hold the gutters up and you need 2 per length and you do the lot

then you start taking it down if it does give the z brackets hold it instead of gravity taking them hard to the ground

ive had a few cast iron gutters come down didnt even get the chance to get up there for the z brackets

cast soil pipes do come down hard as they are a top down connection they need to be pre strengthened but in doing so they can come loose

the yorkshire areas has many a cast iron soil pipe going up the side of houses up around the gutter then up onto the roof and remember these things need to be taken off top down they are fun to handle and dam well dangerous to mess with

many customers dont care about you they want a cheap job yet want you to save the cast iron soil stack

both me and kayos knows how bad these things are

Thanks Gaz, that makes absolute sense, problem was wife’s hot tub was in the way of step ladders, that was this weeks plan to deflate it and remove it but gravity beat me to it, luckily it missed the inflatable hot tub though.