Maintenance (iii); the end for now

[caddyman]

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.

Comments

Lovely. Just lovely.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

We have the concentrated sulphuric acid at home. It works jolly well, but Lordy trousers you have to take a good gulp of breath before you pour a cupful down the drain, and then run away from it. Oh and make sure you have all the windows open. And it says to leave it for five minutes, but the plumber told me fifteen is better. The only thing is, when you eventually sloosh water into the drain to wash out the acid, the ensuing chemical reaction makes it smell even worse, for a good fifteen to twenty mins, and it is actually poisonous gas.

So be careful there, Bwy. Dr Furtle's already had a debilitating halitosis experience today.

Re: Lovely. Just lovely.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

We've used the stuff too, it's fantastic, but it always comes in bottles with odd names when it would be easier if just had big black lettering saying:

ALMOST PURE SULPHURIC ACID
(may contain nuts, not to be consumed by children under 36 months)

Re: Lovely. Just lovely.

[davidt3001.livejournal.com]

I encountered it under the misleading label "spirit of salts". Does the job on even the most gruesome limescale.

Re: Lovely. Just lovely.

[agentinfinity.livejournal.com]

"for all your corpse disposing needs"

Re: Lovely. Just lovely.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Now there's a thought...

[nortysarah.livejournal.com]

You're sooo lucky!! When our plumbers come round usually they use our kitchen stuff for stuff it's not meant to be used for and leave toilet paper on the window sill. When it's raining. I have no idea why.