The lovely specially smelly stuff (we're going to a rather special wedding tomorrow, OK I KNOW that tv doesn't communicate smells but it will make me feel good) had been put in the hot water and the cold tap was turned on full to make lots of bubbly bubbles (what other kinds are there?)
Meanwhile I went next door to the lav.
When I went back I turned off the cold water ... but it kept on coming. I called Spouse. I shouted Spouse. I panicked and went downstairs to turn off the mains. In the meantime the cold water had made the now tepid water in the tub rise to the overflow.
Spouse wrought his many magic, changed the washer AND the jumper AND the nut which held it all together (where on Earth had that gone to?) and I was able to get into the bath. But I had to waste a lot of that expensive perfume because it was too cold to get into the bath as well as overflowing (especially with my great bulk) and as a native of Yorkshire I begrudged that.
So.
I said that if it had happened when Spouse wasn't there what would I, a helpless little woman, do?
I suggested that he did a regular, e.g. annual, change of ALL the washers etc. in all the taps in the house. If I had to turn off the mains while waiting for a plumber or handy son because one had failed I'd be deprived of tea, central heating, cooking and all sorts of other things apart from making myself nice to know.
He said that a better, if more expensive, solution would be to install an isolator on ALL the taps in the house - that would be about ten.
My questions (if you've read as far as this) are:
a) how much do they cost?
b) is this now a legal requirement?
TIA
Mary