Tales from the Cottage - Chapter 2

daigo75

Hi again. After the Electric Poltergeist, it's time for the Zombie Rodent from the Pipes.
Yesterday morning I woke up to find out that no water was coming out from the tap in any of the bathrooms. After realizing that, here in Ireland, it's not common to build a proper floor in the attic, and after almost crashing down when I put my foot on the little-tiny-ultrathin-plasterboard, I called the plumber. He came this evening, and agreed with my idea that something "got stuck" somewhere, as other taps are working and water is definitely in the pipes. :rolleyes:

I told him I was horrified when I noticed an OPEN tank in the attic, where literally everything can fall, from spiders to dust to dirt to mice. I could not imagine that my guessing was far more precise than I thought: in fact there were the rotten remainings of a dead mouse in one of the pipes! :eek::eek::eek:

First the plumber joked about it, he said "you're right, it's a dead mouse, and started laughing. Then, when he realized from the pleasant smell and the pieces of rotten animal in his hand that it was REALLY that he was quite disgusted. The smell is already terrible by itself, but thinking that I washed myself and brushed my teeth with the remainings of a rodent... Judging by the quantity and the appearance of the pieces, I'd guess that the poor animal has been there for quite a long time... The only hope is that I won't get any strange disease, but previous tenants are quite healthy and I think there's no risk (I never drank from that tap).

At the end of the day we opted for pressurizing the pipes and blowing out as much "mouse" as possible, but now I come with a question: I'd like to disinfect the pipes, does anybody know if there's a suitable product which will do the job without being terribly harmful? The kitchen tap is connected to the main supply and is perfectly clean, the tank feeds the hot press and the taps in the bathroom. I'd like something that cleans the pipes without removing my skin when I'll take a shower or dissolving my teeth when I will wash them.
Of course, then I will ask to seal the tank or to replace it with a closed one.

Thank you again for your suggestions.

demanufactured

Nearly every house int he country has an open tank lol

311

This most likely happened when the first fixing was going on.
Never ever heard of it happening to anyone before ,I'm sure though that there are companies that can clean the pipes properly.

Personally I'd just leave the taps running as long as possible and keep throwning small amounts of whatever cleaner/disinfectant is least toxic into the tank.

ART6

Unless you have a well your mains water is almost certainly chlorinated and so will kill off most bugs. I'd leave the affected tap running for a while, and then I'd send a letter of condolence to the mouse's family:D