First a few words about the
water mains in my flat. There is a pipe the
runs along one wall of the
bathroom where it meets the ceiling. A
narrow pipe (for the sink) then drops down to the level of the door
lintel, and along the top of the door frame.
When we moved in, we installed a shower in the bath, and tied the shower
curtain to the narrow pipe above the door.
This will henceforth be known as "Mistake no. 1".
So one morning I have my shower as normal. Something happens to the cold
water supply, and the water runs very hot for a few seconds. I take a
step back and fall over, through the curtain and onto the floor. The pipe
has been pulled out of the wall. Water is gushing out everywhere. It
transpires that the thick ceiling pipe was the main to the rest of the
building (the two flats upstairs).
So I try to push the pipes together, but the pressure is too great. So I
pull on my drenched dressing gown and stumble into the
hall. "Errr.. Come and have a look at this...".
In the following twenty minutes lots of things happened. The water level
reached several inches. My flatmate, TeaAndCake stood on the bath trying to patch
the pipes up with various tapes. I ran around with hugo rune looking for the stop
cock. Which wasn't where the landlord said it was. All our towels hit
the decks. I went upstairs to explain to the other tennant why they had
no water. Because it was all in our hall. Oh- And I called
for a plumber who turned up two and a half hours later with a
cheery cockney, "'ello, what's been goin' on ere".
While he was soldering a new pipe in, the land lord's agent arrived with
another plumber to look at the drains. So that was a bit of explaining
to
do.
Still there was no lasting harm done. I took hours to clean the carpet
and I took the day off college, missing an Arts Committee meeting and
several lectures.
For an alternative view of these events, see "the time my flatmate
flooded
my home...", by m'learned friend hugo rune.