Dragon came home last night and spotted 2 damp patches on the ceiling upstairs.
Off I trundle into the loft with my trusty torch only to find the overflow pipe from the water tank is leaking slightly.
Tighten everything up and make sure the pipe isn't leaking then get round to the "why is it overflowing" question.
Stick my head in the tank to find the ball cock isn't quite switching the water flow off.
Its the second time this has happened and I can only put it down to it being a new house and the plumbers have used the chaepest parts they could find.
Could anybody recommend a decent make of ballcock device / switch so when I walk in our local "taps" place I don't sound like Mr Knownowt and get sold another "It'll last 10 mins" part.

Cheers
Chris

The problem may be solder, dirt and other debris left in the pipes when the system was installed. Fitting a new one may not cure the problem.
Don't know my ballcocks that well but probably Mog can name a few.

Nick

Thanks for the reply Nick.
Although its definatly down to the switch mechanism and not debris.
Its made from monkey metal with the main contact part being nylon :rolleyes:
We've been in the house 2 years and several houses on the estate have had their overflow pipes put to good use, except the one that wasn't connected, that just involved a massive insurance claim !
I'm after the best make money can buy, as I believe it will be money well spent.
Cheers
Chris

I'd have thought that a nice brass one from the likes of Wickes, Screwfix or B&Q would be fine...

I'm not sure there are established 'makes' for items like this, but I'd be interested if there are

Go to an established plumber's merchant, or a builder's merchant with good plumbing section, and buy whatever they stock.
The local plumbers will do the same, and if the stuff was cr@p, they would soon change it!

My three upstairs are plastic, high pressure types. A bit noisy when refilling, but no probs apart from that!

Alcazar

New houses- floods and plumbing!! - tell me about it :(

Our upstairs loo ball cock valve in 6 month old house bunged up with what looked like sand from the water tank.
The overflow goes like it is meant to but the tw4t builders (David "BIG TW4T" Wilsons) decided that an over flow can be cut and sleeved as it passes through the floor.
Unfortunately they sleeve 22mm pipe into something like 30mm pipe.
Other side of sleeve- guess what happens.

No QA was done on the house by David Wilsons before hand over - so result was loads of rework.
Another story was next door neighbours house had a gas fire insatllation certificate, as we all did when moving in. Come winter, they turn it on and find that its not even connected!! FFS

Big builders must be raking it in if they can treat their customers so shoddily and do the large amount of rework that needs doing six months after purchase.

Nick

My thought exactly Alcazar.
I presume though that a good merchants will stock a choice, and faced with that choice how would I know which was best.
They are more than likley to advise buying the best selling one but that may not be the best choice, and I'd rather pay double and know it will never need looking at again.

Chris

Edited to add- Butty I totally agree with your statement.
I had 3 A4 pages of faults listed when we moved in.
90% of which I fixed myself as I got fed up waiting for "tradesmen" to come back, and all that from a company that sells it's self as the No 1 house builder.


P.s. Redrow if you havn't already guessed - their tele add makes me want to ring the complaints commission everytime I see it images/smilies/mad.gif

[Edited by SCOOBY TOWERS - 11/17/2003 3:06:43 PM]

Go to the nearest plumbers merchants and ask for a brass part 2 high pressure ball valve and float.

Mog

Cheers Mog,
Much appreciated.
Is there any particular make you would recommend ?

Chris