Feathers in hot water!

[swarfega]

Missus phoned me at work this morn and informed me the hot water was spluttering up in the shower.
Later on in the afternoon there were feathers and bits of 'orrible stuff coming out of the downstairs taps :/

We have a hot water cylinder in the bathroom, along with two water tanks directly above it (underneath the loft), neither of them are covered so I'm assuming some kind of animal has got into there!

Will call a plumber out for tomorrow - but is there anything I should do in the meantime? Turn off the water supply altogether? Drain the hot water?

Ta.

 

[Best]

Not nice! The cold tanks will need drained and then perhaps a wet vac could be used to remove the drains of them. Then tanks will need washed thoroughly and if they are too awkward it might even involve removing them to do the work. If old metal tanks get rid of them.
Get new lids made. Flush pipes then. Showers and taps might need opened and cleaned as they will block with bits of stuff.
The hot cylinder is a bit of a problem and would be best to have it syphoned out, so needs a plumber. Mild chemicals can be bought to purify the water.

 

[swarfega]

Cold tanks DEFINITELY awkward. Barely room to deal with them at all. I think they will have to come out before anything else. Job for the professionals.

 

[Alex Knight]

Good clean out and some chlorine tablets should sort it, this is why you don't drink out the taps that aren't mains fed

 

[Masood]

Nah, tell the missus it's a new kind of skin conditioner. They already have fruit and fish extracts, why not pigeon???

 

[Phil]

You need a plumber with a strong stomach, I saw a dead mouse in the bottom of the water tank and I screamed like a little girl and practically dived out of the loft. My customer had to remove it for me with her hand in a plastic bag. :blush2:

 

[Radioman]

That's why new storage tanks have tight lids, bug traps and insulation. In a loft in the uk in summer the water in a cold storage tank can get up to 20C. It's not unknown for the temp in a loft on a summers day to be over 100 deg. Legionella breeding ground. Stick new tanks in, get some caravan water system sterilisation chemical from Halfords.

 

[Stigster]

Oooh, nice. I went to a customer who phoned up and said, "I've got little bones coming out of my tap. Can you come and take a look?" A mouse had drowned in an uncovered cistern, rotted away and a couple of tiny bones made their way to the basin cold tap.

 

[swarfega]

Where EXACTLY will these unknown fragments be coming from?
It could be a dead animal. It could be insulation thats fallen in.
It's appearing in the downstairs hot water tap.

1) We have a hot water cyclinder.
2) We have an open cold water storage tank
3) We have an open header tank
All in the corner cupboard of the bathroom (loft above them all)

Which one is more likely?

Had a plumber come out this afternoon and we was extremely uninterested. Shrugged and said "dunno". Very helpful...2 minute stay.

 

[Ray Stafford]

If there are feathers, then its probably a dead pigeon in the cold water storage tank. That tank will also feed the hot water cylinder. It wont be the header tank, that would just be get feathers in the central heating - it wouldn't come out of the tap.

 

[swarfega]

Cheers Ray
Unfortunately thats the only tank which is inaccessible to me.
Only way of checking would be to drain it and remove it and see what lurks inside, as it's pushed right up against the bathroom ceiling and is too wide to remove from the cupboard it sits in. Would possibly need to hack it up before removing.
Will try and get someone out to replace the darn thing with a new one - with a lid!!!

 

[Simon F]

yes, get both tanks changed for properly covererd new ones.
depending on the space and size of existing tanks you ight need to put them up higher into the loft?

Also I would be looking to seal up any gaps that let the bird in.