Maintenance

Today I am at home.

Finally Trevor, the maintenance man and his assistant are here to do some of the work we have been pressing the landlord about for months. There is much cursing and banging emanating from the bathroom where the non-refilling cistern and oddly truculent hot tap are getting told what for. I am hopeful that the sink in the bedroom can be fixed too, but although the u-bend has been taken off and a long metal snaky thing shoved down the pipe, their informed opinion is to pour some chemicals down the pipe. We tried that with acid unblocker several times to no obvious effect. Trevor and bloke pooh-poohed that stuff and reckoned that they know of something so effective (presumably they mean corrosive) that it would make an Alien Queen blanch.

I have not mentioned the issue of the door to the flat yet; or rather I have not mentioned it to Trevor. I spoke to the assistant while his boss was parking up the van and he reckons that they will be getting another company in to quote for that job. May be - hopefully - we will have a secure door sometime before the lease expires. Either way, there is some progress at long last, so let's look on the bright side, eh?

Maintenance

Today I am at home.

Finally Trevor, the maintenance man and his assistant are here to do some of the work we have been pressing the landlord about for months. There is much cursing and banging emanating from the bathroom where the non-refilling cistern and oddly truculent hot tap are getting told what for. I am hopeful that the sink in the bedroom can be fixed too, but although the u-bend has been taken off and a long metal snaky thing shoved down the pipe, their informed opinion is to pour some chemicals down the pipe. We tried that with acid unblocker several times to no obvious effect. Trevor and bloke pooh-poohed that stuff and reckoned that they know of something so effective (presumably they mean corrosive) that it would make an Alien Queen blanch.

I have not mentioned the issue of the door to the flat yet; or rather I have not mentioned it to Trevor. I spoke to the assistant while his boss was parking up the van and he reckons that they will be getting another company in to quote for that job. May be - hopefully - we will have a secure door sometime before the lease expires. Either way, there is some progress at long last, so let's look on the bright side, eh?

Maintenance (ii)

Something has just been poured down the sink to unblock it. The u-bend is now quite hot to the touch and there is steam - I hope it's steam - coming out of the overflow. Whether or not this means that the damned thing will actually drain when they've finished is another matter.

After weeks of the cistern in the bathroom having to be filled manually as the ball cock etc stopped working, there is now much discussion concerning how to stop the water flowing. I hope they don't have so much trouble with the hot tap on the bath (which works just long enough to get your hopes up and then slows to a trickle).

If nothing else, this is the most entertaining unscheduled day off that I've had for a while.

Maintenance (ii)

Something has just been poured down the sink to unblock it. The u-bend is now quite hot to the touch and there is steam - I hope it's steam - coming out of the overflow. Whether or not this means that the damned thing will actually drain when they've finished is another matter.

After weeks of the cistern in the bathroom having to be filled manually as the ball cock etc stopped working, there is now much discussion concerning how to stop the water flowing. I hope they don't have so much trouble with the hot tap on the bath (which works just long enough to get your hopes up and then slows to a trickle).

If nothing else, this is the most entertaining unscheduled day off that I've had for a while.

Maintenance (iii); the end for now

Trevor and his mate have now gone. After much effort on their part, the loo now flushes, the bath fills from the hot tap, or so they say; to be fair they said if it didn't behave they would get a specialist in. The sink in the bedroom caused much consternation. Snaky wire devices were shoved down it. Cupboards were opened. Pipes were rattled. Heads were scratched and chemicals deployed. Then the process was repeated several times in different orders.

I have been left with a bottle of alien blood to pour down it as part of the repair process.

Both Trevor and his mate were unable to work out why it wouldn't drain and dire warnings were issued about pulling up carpets and cutting open pipes. Then they left, leaving me with the aforementioned alien blood (it is reassuringly labelled concentrated sulphuric acid and has more 'do not' symbols on it than does the average pub since the anti-smoking legislation came into force). They left a pool of water in the sink draining at maybe a millilitre a century and suggested that once that had gone I apply the alien blood.

Since the sink actually drained better before they worked on it, but not wanting to belittle their advice, I shoved the sponge over the overflow and gave it a couple of goes with the plunger.

The water drains perfectly. The trouble is, I am so unused to the sound of draining water in the bedroom and so used to things going wrong in the Athenaeum Club that I am wandering around checking for running water where it has no right to be. I am suspicious like that.

The door has not been dealt with, but reassuring noises were made and promises of imminent activity made. I shall give it a few days before recommencing the psychological warfare. For now I am going to make a cup of coffee and then go across to Waitrose and buy a loaf of bread to replace the rather green thing that was sitting in the kitchen.

I hopeful that this is not related to the plumbing.

Maintenance (iii); the end for now

Trevor and his mate have now gone. After much effort on their part, the loo now flushes, the bath fills from the hot tap, or so they say; to be fair they said if it didn't behave they would get a specialist in. The sink in the bedroom caused much consternation. Snaky wire devices were shoved down it. Cupboards were opened. Pipes were rattled. Heads were scratched and chemicals deployed. Then the process was repeated several times in different orders.

I have been left with a bottle of alien blood to pour down it as part of the repair process.

Both Trevor and his mate were unable to work out why it wouldn't drain and dire warnings were issued about pulling up carpets and cutting open pipes. Then they left, leaving me with the aforementioned alien blood (it is reassuringly labelled concentrated sulphuric acid and has more 'do not' symbols on it than does the average pub since the anti-smoking legislation came into force). They left a pool of water in the sink draining at maybe a millilitre a century and suggested that once that had gone I apply the alien blood.

Since the sink actually drained better before they worked on it, but not wanting to belittle their advice, I shoved the sponge over the overflow and gave it a couple of goes with the plunger.

The water drains perfectly. The trouble is, I am so unused to the sound of draining water in the bedroom and so used to things going wrong in the Athenaeum Club that I am wandering around checking for running water where it has no right to be. I am suspicious like that.

The door has not been dealt with, but reassuring noises were made and promises of imminent activity made. I shall give it a few days before recommencing the psychological warfare. For now I am going to make a cup of coffee and then go across to Waitrose and buy a loaf of bread to replace the rather green thing that was sitting in the kitchen.

I hopeful that this is not related to the plumbing.