Washer and plumbing.

Jul 24, 2008 9 Replies

Mums Council [1] Bungalow, just removed old washer ready for delivery of a new one later today. Behind the washer is a maze of plumbing, coldwater mains inlet for the house, then a tee to cold tap with a further tee coming off it for the washer, another tee coming off it that's capped and yet another tee coming off to an outside tap. Hot water tap piping has a tee for the washer, another capped tee, and another tee going into the ceiling to one knows not where. All the joints look reasonable except the washer joints which are push-fit plastic and rotate as you move the pipes. They're all old, some, indeed, look concurrent with the original bungalow construction of ~40 odd years.



So the question ... Is it as straightforward as it looks, stop tap at floor level before any of the tees, to simply turn water off, remove rats nest of piping and re-do with a lot fewer and newer copper pipes and fittings?



Looks to me that all I need is a blowtorch and solder ... or pre-soldered fittings, but I've never done much plumbing before.



[1] Council say it's all OK and won't touch it, but it looks a right mess to my, albeit untrained, eye. Mum claims it gets wet, but that doesn't look like the pipework to me, more an airbrick that is getting wet from a blocked gutter. :)

Have a little practice first on a couple of bits of pipe and joints......

I would leave it alone..... Once the new washing machine is in place you wont be able to see it....

Sort out the blocked gutter instead...

I had intended to.

That's what the council said, and what ny brother said ...... but I'll know it's there, IYSWIM. :) Just seems like a problem waiting to happen and burying our heads in the sand. Though, I guess, pipework doesn't have a lot of strain on it, so could stay watertight for years.

That was easy, tennis ball in downspout. :)

I'd agree with the leave it alone, it's been water tight for 40 years,

if you really must replace it, why f*ck about with copper pipe and soldering? use the modern plastic pipe and john guest fittings, takes seconds to fit, can be modified later by hand, the fittings can go straight onto copper pipe (as long as it's clean, same as if you were soldering it really, so no paint etc)

OK, fair comments and as I really don't know a lot about it I'll leave it. As you say, 40 years watertight is probably better than my cack-handedness. :)

Thanks, appreciated.

Get a bag of push fit. It becomes like lego and remarkably quick to do. While you are at it, change the stop tap to a quarter turn full bore one if it is the traditional brass one.

as the saying goes "if its not broken dont fix it"

But a stitch in time saves nine ;-)

true I remember doing electronic projects as a apprentice and they always seem to work better as untidy prototype than the polished finished item

But if there's problems with the job due to inexperience, then OP's mother could be looking at a bill of between £100 - £250 for repairs if the council has to attend a leaking pipe as an emergency call out - unless they have an exemption of payment policy for the elderly or infirm.

Somethings *are* better left alone - especially if the tinkering is only done for aesthetic reasons!

Tanner-'op

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