The carpenter finally left on Tuesday, having fitted all four windows and repaired the rotten wood on the porch. He’s left all the woodwork primed, ready for Rob to paint. Wednesday was thankfully tradesman-free, but then the next lot were round on Thursday to upgrade the radiator controls. I had decided to take advantage of all the disruption to get thermostatic valves installed on the radiators in the old part of the house. They’re already fitted in the extension, and are very useful for controlling the level of heat in the lesser-used rooms. I suppose I should really have done this a few years ago, when the price of oil was much higher. But given the way that the pound is currently plummeting against the dollar, I expect the price of heating oil to go back up so I should get my money back within a few years.
In order to fit the new valves, the central heating needed to be drained. Usually, the plumbers said, there’s a drain point at the lowest level of the pipe work, so that gravity just drains all the water out. Not so in this house. They found a drain point adjacent to the radiator in my living room. But it turned out not to be at the lowest point of the system. They were able to drain much of the water out using that, then had to jury-rig another hose from my bedroom all the way through the house to get more out. And there was a significant amount of emptying radiators using buckets and plastic drip trays, accompanied by the regular insertion of their fingers into the pipework as a temporary stopper – like the Little Dutch Boy in the legend……
One positive benefit of the upgrade is that I’ve finally been able to dispense with the grotty rag (once a J-Cloth) that’s been tied around the radiator valve in my bedroom for the last goodness-knows how many years, soaking up the intermittent leak there. I’m glad to see the back of it!
