Plumber / Plumbers / Plumbing - Show us your pipes

More pipe adventures.

We now have this which still leaks. The washing machine inlet hose wouldn't come off, but started dripping more. So it's bound up in tape.

What are the connections highlighted in red? Could I connect a blue tap here and then the washing machine to that? Ie replace all the stuff highlighted in blue

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Bumping this. Any advice?

The red one looks like the water pipe with a tee. You'll not get that copper off without the tool!

If its leaking from the washing machine valve just replace it, will cost you a few quid to buy the part.

I have a new washing machine connector, but can't get the old one off.

Will try again next time I'm there. In a horrible position at the back of the cupboard so hard to get access.

With the washing machine hose being decades old and doubling back on itself. Plus the hot water pipework looking like a dogs dinner, why not redo both hot and cold from just below the cabinet?

Hot:- push fit coupler, pipe, isolation valve, pipe, union nut onto tap tail.

Likewise on the cold but an additional T for washing machine valve pointing left to give a less stressed route for a new hose

Anyone consider themselves au fait with pumps? It looks pretty straightforward to install (and I can get an electrician mate to handle that bit).

After redoing out bathroom it's become pretty clear ours isn't up to scratch. Old(ish?) Stuart Turner Showermate, but positive. Pretty sure we need a negative head. We're in a one bed flat, the "cold" water tank is about a meter above the pump, hot water tank is directly below the cold and on the same level as the pump. Low pressure in the system means the pump often won't engage (at all for the shower/bathroom taps), or cuts out (hot water often cuts while trying to find the "sweet spot" when using kitchen taps). Usually able to kick-start it into action by flushing the toilet, or leaving a tap running, but obviously far from ideal.

Also, assuming I'm not misdiagnosing this, suggestions on a pump? Just going to get a 2bar (current is 1.8) twin negative. Annoyingly, they're not cheap.

New flat copper panel rad installed…..the lad done a lovely job on the pipework!

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Dear plumbers of LFGSS, Ive got a leaky radiator valve which should be a walk in a park, but our flat is on a communal heating system with no shut-off valve from the main circulation. Old house, not new-build.

After some research I think my options are:

1, Get a plumber to install a shutoff valve & change the valve / change the valve myself afterwards

2, Get a plumber to change the valve, my understanding is that this would happen with a freezing kit

3, Rent a proper freezing kit and change the valve myself

We are renting the flat, but the landlord is great so Im inclined to negotiate doing option no1 at our cost and time in exchange for no raise in rent for the next contract. They'll probably say yes to save themselves any hassle.

What kind of cost am I looking at here? Am I in the right ball park that for a plumber this should be a ~1-2h job for no more than a few hundred ££?

That's nowhere near as straight forward as you think it is, few hundred quid including one that has a freezing machine. No chance, if there is one bit of water running in that system the pipes won't free!

Id personally get the landlord to do it and take nothing to do with it if you really dont know what your doing.

You could do it live but even that is fucking risky!

As for doing it myself, I was gonna do that with proper kit rated for up to 42mm pipe not a single use sleeve. And I wouldnt attempt installing a shutoff valve mid-line, just changing the one on the radiator with the line frozen. I'd also have tools ready to crimp the pipe in a worst case scenario.

I have soldered copper pipes before, I have flushed radiator systems, changed thermostatic valves...etc, but its the element of no quick way of (reversably) shutting off a stream of scalding water in my direction if I fuck up, thats whats stopping me from just doing the whole thing myself.

Few hundred quid is entirely fair and we are ready to pay it. But like, £200 or £800? I'd also have to take out the kitchen cabinet from under the sink which is a pain, so there's that.

For context, we're paying about £200-£300 a month under market rate, and our landlord cancelled the maintenance contract with their management company ~1.5 years ago because we've been on a yearly rolling contract for 7 years and never once went to them about fixing anything, we just got it done (and told them about it).

As I was saying and I have one of those machines in the garage, if the heating is on they will not freeze a pipe and if its hot they take even longer to freeze and if you cant turn the heating off and the water is circulating round the system it won't freeze at all.

London aint it, folk can charge anything especially for something that isnt straight forward.

I wouldnt personally do that job for £200, that's got potentials to be a fuckin nightmare of a job if it doesnt go right.

Riiight, got it! That makes sense why installing a shut-off valve would be super tricky, thank you for explaining. I guess we'd have to wait for summer with that then.

Last question I need to know before getting quotes in: would it work on just the one radiator if the valve is shut so theres no circulation and its cooled down? The leak would be manageable for that long, and the pipe is about 3 metres away from the rest of the system.

And this one is just because now im curious: how would a plumber actually do it?

Edit: now that I think about it of course you cant use a backpack sized machine to freeze a pipe that carries enough energy to heat a house :D