Indoor Rain

The water pressure to our home from the mains had dropped drastically over the past few years and the quality of water is horrible most of the time. The pressure is extremely low at peak hours and it is really a nuisance and irritant. For example if somebody is having a bath with the instant hot water shower which greatly depended on water pressure to operate and someone else turn on a tap to wash something the instant hot water shower will turn off ......... "Hey!!! Who turned on the tap?" is the usual response coming from the bathroom when the warm water becomes cold water.

Having a warm shower is quite a hassle sometimes but and getting the laundry done ....... have to ask the home minister. Normally it takes about an hour but with the ridiculously low pressure it had been extended to more than two hours. About two weeks ago with no major backache, I decided to proceed with some modification of the plumbing to increase the pressure to the washing machine to reduce the unnecessary waste of time and electricity. I had to make sure that my back was in sound condition because the working area is very cramp and I did not want to be immobilised in there. I have a weak back from an accident ages ago.

After inspecting the existing pipes and got some measurement I went to the friendly hardware shop down the road to get the supplies. I bought the thin walled Upvc pipes thinking that it would be more flexible as there was some minor bends required. I am making a changing the supply source to the washing machine from the mains to the storage tank.

After spending almost a whole afternoon working on the piping with most of the time in the cramped place of under the roof, I was really glad that it was done. Thank god my back did not give up on me.

The home minister usually does the laundry at night and tonight was no different from any other night. She started the machine just before having a bath and I would be relaxing in the family room by that time. "Ging-gong ging-gong ...... praaahhhhh" the sound of heavy dripping water came from the kitchen, the rain had started! Oh sh*#!!, I quickly ran upstairs and turned off the storage tank supply line to the new pipes I put in.

It was tough, really really tough to accept the fact of having to get into the roof to repair the broken piping. That night I did not sleep well thinking of the extra unnecessary work and was wondering what went wrong. Luckily my back was still OK.

Reluctantly the next morning I slide open the roof tiles and was surprise to see that the Upvc pipe actually broke because of stress and not because of a poor joining work. Having understood the whole scenario I decided to replaced all the piping with heavy duty type and reroute it for minimum stress.

It had been more than two weeks now and I guess it is now safe to say a job well done!