Water leak.

Fingers crossed they get it fixed quickly for you @pete

 

I've just had a plumber out to fix a leak in the kitchen. It was under the sink and turned out to be on the hot feed.

We drained down the main tank (stops pressure feed to the hot cylinder), he removed the leaking joint (it was a screw on/off that had gone and the olive was worn) and had to take the pipe apart at two other joints further away each side as accessibility was a problem, replaced the screw joint with a much better lever joint, went round the house and up into the loft to check all the stop cocks to make sure they hadn't stiffened up, labelled each one, waited for the tank to refill so that he could check that there was no air blockage and only charged me £50 (which included the cost of the new joint).

Needless to say, I now have him on speed dial. I've also booked him to replace both outside taps (I replaced the washers but no go) and a few other jobs. I've also passed his card to friends.

 

A lot of heating systems are now run through poly pipe as standard @pete, so it should be fine. CH water temps are usually around 70-75ºC which is well within the tolerances for poly

 

I would have thought that you would have found out by now if it were a similarly bad job, bearing in mind that the heat alone will make things expand a little bit and become that wee bit more pliable - the pressure is usually up to 2-bar, even 2.5-bar on some systems when hot, so that wouldn't be shy about finding a weak spot in the system and getting out. If I were you, I would worry about that if and when a problem shows up - and if a problem does show up, you know the first place to start looking....

 

I'm a total non-DIY person so wouldn't even attempt it. I used to be happy to work harder to pay someone to do things for me. Nowadays I couldn't even get under the sink to do any plumbing even if I wanted to!

If people do a good job for me they are always welcome to my help and advice on non DIY matters. It works well.

 

Leaks tend to show up much quicker on central heating pipes in my experience @pete - thankfully they are also much easier to contain and also generally a wee bit easier to fix, especially with the push together poly pipes and fittings that can be used nowadays;