Mark Szeliga Szolkowski's Blog

I took Lucy to see her Nanna & Gangan yesterday morning at about 10.30am, and ended up leaving at 6.45pm. Why?

Well - my Dad put a towel radiator on his bathroom wall 12 months ago but didn't plumb it in. My Mum has been suffering ever since, and not just with my Dad's quips along the lines of, "Get in the bath with your clothes on and it will save on laundry bills."

I decided to help out. It involved:

1. Ripping up the cork tiles


2. Ripping up the hardboard underflooring


3. Going to B&Q for plumbing fittings & pipe, radiator valves


4. Using a circular saw to pull up appropriate floorboards


5. Draining the central heating system


6. Cutting the existing pipework, and routing new pipes to the radiator


7. Refilling the system and bleeding radiators


8. Some detective work to get the boiler to fire back up

The boiler wouldn't fire up, and the pump in the airing cupboard was getting very hot and making a racket. It is a gravity fed central heating system, and we reckoned it was an airlock in the system even though all the radiators seemed full. I did some digging in the airing cupboard and found a bleed point hidden behind some towels. Et voila!

Now all I am waiting for are the excuses to come rolling in via the Comments...