Nearly a Disaster!

[Rod]

For a few days I had been preparing to replace the rubber valve in our water tank float system which is situated in the loft.
When I last changed it several years ago, it was operated by a Torbeck side entry one and having bought a replacement and turned the water off I was completely surprised to find that it was a different system!
My plumber must have changed it the last time he did some work for us?

So having got the new correct part I set off to swop it again but having warned my wife that I was turning the water off I got distracted.
The "new" system is a Fluidmaster whose segments simply click off.
I twisted off the valve and immediately there was the sound of gushing water - "Sh*t I'd not turned the water off".
Do I try to fit it back on or turn the water off??
A split second later I decided on the latter and dashed down two flights of stairs to the stopcock in rapid time!!

Fortunately apart from my clothes, the water had remained within the tank and I'd managed to turn it off before it could overflow but a close thing.

Another Senior Moment and another story to be raked up time and time again by my family [emoji3]

Rod

 

[Mike G]

Your mistake, Rod, was not to focus on coming up with a plausible alternative explanation as you were running down the two flights of stairs. "Bloody plumber bypassed the widget" or "faulty roller valve" or somesuch, and you could collect multiple brownie points forever more for having saved the day. :eusa-whistle:

 

[StevieB]

Other way round in our house this weekend - made a mad dash to get water having set light to the stairs while stripping paint with a hot air gun Well set light to is perhaps a bit extreme, but it was certainly smoking and glowing if there was no actual flame - close enough to get me told off by SWMBO anyway!

Steve

 

[Rod]

[emoji3][emoji3]
I'll remember that for next time because I'm sure they'll be others.

Rod

 

[TrimTheKing]

Haha, been there, although not quite exactly the same cause. It's amazing how quickly an entire thought process runs through your brain in a split second then you make a call. You would spend half a day thinking about the best way to do something then this causes you to make the call in milliseconds and usually the right call!

Cheers
Mark

 

[RogerS]

Excellent. Reminded me of when I sliced through the two central heating pipes.

I do recall at my first house doing a bit of my first plumbing and replacing a stop cock feeding the bathroom tap. Managed to get an airlock in the pipe and came to the conclusion that the only way to clear it was to remove the actual tap and turning mechanism so that there would be a free flow for the water to come down the pipe. I had to do it live to get rid of the airlock. So I removed it and listened to the water gradually coming down the pipe towards me and the open tap. Timed it to perfection and whacked the tap mechanism back in place just as the water got there. Tightened it up and sat back smugly.

To see lying on the bathroom floor the washer/stoppy-thingie from the tap mechanism which had fallen out in all the excitement. What to do....what to do. I came to the conclusion that if I was really, really slick and had everything in perfect position that I could undo remove the tap mechanism, whack the stoppy-thingie back in place and then shove the two back in the hole without too much water squirting everywhere. Which I duly did without getting too wet. Quite chuffed.