Fixing a Hole

....by making a lot more holes! Further to my Blip of 16th July, the investigation work to find the leak in our heating system stepped up a gear today. The final pressure test pointed to the problem being in one particular pipe, which it was believed related to a long since obsolete, and removed, back boiler.
Unfortunately, in order to prove this hypothesis, it was necessary to track that pipe under the floor, which meant peeling back the carpet in the lounge and then cutting holes to see where the pipe went. After looking down the last hole the theory was confirmed as the pipe just disappeared into some cement under the fire. Apparently cement and copper pipe don’t mix well and it was assumed either a hole had been rubbed in the pipe or the capping had failed. As this was a totally redundant bit of the system, it was cut off and capped at the nearest junction. Then it was down to a couple of hours of anxious waiting whilst various parts of the system were pressurised in turn (to a pressure that would have found a leak within a few minutes) gradually adding in more radiators.
Hurrah! No pressure drop observed so boiler fired up and whole thing tested. House was red hot within minutes, so all seems to be well. Turned the stats down to stop us melting (it is summer after all, despite the miserable weather), replaced the floor boards and carpets and restored a bit of order to the rest of the house.
Needless to say, I shall be keeping a close eye on everything over the next week or so and have asked the plumber not to send his bill until he’d checked all was still ok!!