Deconstructing 11 – Watertank Gate

Plumbing first fix is choosing where your water, waste, and heating system pipes go. In order to do this, you need to know where your toilets, sinks, showers, dishwasher, washing machines, underfloor heating, etc will eventually be situated in your house. It involves pre-planning and we thought we’d pre-planned! You know that feeling when you smugly think you’ve all bases covered only to discover that you don’t? That’s exactly what happened to us at plumbing first fix and every morning when I go to get dressed I’m reminded of our mistake!

Our project was not simple when it came to plumbing, and so it is something we had thought about early. The original cottage has always been powered by gas, with the water tank located at the far end of the house. We knew this wouldn’t be able to serve the whole house with these in their current location. Firstly, there would be a drop off in water pressure in the extension as the water would have to be driven from one end of the house to the other, and secondly, we couldn’t move the cylinder as there was no space in the heart of the house.

So really we only had one option which was to put in a second gas boiler and a second water cylinder. For some reason, which I cannot explain now, all of our thinking went into the position of the gas boiler and none into the water cylinder…big mistake!

Our gas boiler went into the kitchen but as the timber frame went up, and then the plasterboard walls, it started to dawn on me that there was one place where the water cylinder could go, and that was in our wardrobe!

Now, our wardrobe was always going to be a tight fit but, with the water cylinder going in, it just got a whole lot tighter! To make matters worse, as Donal and I discussed it, we realised that we could have created space for the cylinder in the ceiling above the bedroom if we had only thought about it early enough and discussed it with our timber frame company….this was really frustrating for me as there was a very clear solution to a really silly mistake!

But do you know what makes the mistake even better is that I get a daily morning reminder, just in case I ever forget to plan properly again!

And so the moral of this story (which I’m sure I’ll look back on and find funny – just give it a few years!) is to look for the blind spot. Ask yourself what your weakest knowledge point is, and focus there. I guarantee it’ll avoid your water tank moment!

If you’re interested in following along on my Deconstructing journey you can catch up on the first article here. If you’d like to sign up for my newsletter you can do so on the signup box at the bottom of the website.