My wife had a simple request today: Could you install the kitchen boiler? I've been too scared to start this project because I don't have any experience yet with DIY plumbing. She helped me by making a diagram. What needs to happen is that the cold water line must be diverted to the boiler with a T split. Then the hot water line from the central heating needs to be plugged, and the hot water for the tap comes from the boiler. Finally, the boiler needs to be connected to the drain. Now, while I don't have experience with plumbing, I do know project management. And if you start by cutting the cold water, hot water, and drainage, you'll end up with none of them functional at the end of the day. So I focused on cold water only. And it was still an epic fail.
It's day two, and we're taking no prisoners. Instead of trying to negotiate with the stupid 16mm pipes, I'm replacing them with 15mm copper wherever possible. The only 16mm connection should be at the bottom, but we'll get to that. I ripped out the board holding up the pipes and built a new one from scratch, using the old board as a template. I then traced where the hardware should sit and built what I can only refer to as a Contraption.
While I was out and about with my mom last Thursday, my wife discovered a leak in the tap of our water main before the water usage meter, meaning it's the responsibility of the water supplier to fix it. The tap leaks about two tablespoons of water daily, but I have no way to fix a catastrophic leak should one occur. My wife demanded an immediate work stoppage on the kitchen cabinet until this situation could be remedied, and I begrudgingly obliged.
For the past few weeks, my wife and I could only get cold water from the kitchen tap if we were faster than the central heating could heat up the water in the warm line. But no more! Now we have hot and cold water in the kitchen. Living in the future, baby!
I had to pull the Contraption apart one more time today as it was unfortunately leaking under the sink. I ensured all the connections were solid this time by really pushing the tubes in there. I added a tap as well to make future maintenance a heckuva lot easier. Instead of turning off the main water valve, I can now use this tap to turn the water off for the Contraption only. This made the final installation much less disruptive as I only had to turn off the main valve for fifteen minutes or so. In summary, my learnings on this project:
- Plumbing is bullshit and you should pay a professional to do it for you, if possible
- When doing your own plumbing, you will make mistakes, and you will drive your partner crazy
- These projects are always "just one more part, bro" so plan accordingly
- Listen to your elders, if available
- Make your life easy and first install a separate water tap
