Wednesday, October 25, 2006

(Shower) Curtains are in!

The curtains were finally installed today, but not without some excitement; As the installer was drilling a hole for one of the brackets, he managed to locate the only water pipe in this section of the house!

The result was a water feature which sprayed right across the front of the room, soaking the new curtains and everything else. A supersonic sprint to the water meter ensued to turn off the supply to the house. See below for detailed instructions on capping a damaged 3/4" copper pipe.

Back to the curtains, despite being soaked, they still completely change the look and feel of the room. They also do a great job of darkening the room on a bright day. You can see the light coming through underneath them, but this is minimal, and won't have a significant adverse effect for daytime viewing.

The installer said that they would take a few weeks to settle down and not bloat out at the bottom. These are heavy fabrics (Warwick Begonia Licorice in case anyone's interested) and their weight will naturally straighten them over time. They are also backed with 3 pass blockout.

I had been advised to go for a 2.5x gather to provide a "fuller" curtain, but in the end I went with 2.0x gather as the material was very thick.... I think this was the right decision.

The curtains should also provide a big sonic improvement for music listening as they will absorb some of the sound reflections coming off the hard cement-rendered walls.



How to cap a damaged pipe

Having a brother who is a plumber is very useful, but not when he lives about an hour away, so I had to make do with with getting advice from him on the phone.


The temporary fix was to cut the pipe in the ceiling (I could do this because it was only servicing one garden tap) and use the following pieces to cap it until a plumber could come around to repair the hole:

  • 3/4" kinko nut with olive
  • 3/4" hex nipple
  • 3/4" brass cap
  • teflon tape
The olive (teflon sleeve) provides a water-tight seal when you screw the hex nipple and the kinko nut together.... no oxy-acetiline or solder necessary. Then all I had to do was wind some teflon tape (in an anti-clockwise direction) on to the thread on the other side of the kinko nut, and screw the cap on.

Now there's no urgency to fix the pipe as I'm able to turn on the water to the house again and wait until my brother can come around to fix the hole and rejoin the pipe where I cut and capped it.

1 Comments:

Blogger CAVX said...

Nice curtains, hung and washed :) WOW what are the chances?

Mark

5:26 pm  

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