First off, apologies for those old enough to now have a UB40 earworm. There's really no excuse for my behaviour.
Ok, so I have slightly given away the ending here, but here goes....
So, in my old house, one morning I blearily got up and went to the loo. Flushed and suddenly the bathroom floor flooded with water. Grrr, thought I, what is that all about. Grim clear up occured, then I investigated further. Because of small bathroom and tightness for pipework I had a concertinaed u-bend, not made out of sturdy plastic, but much thinner plastic with wire reinforcement so it could bend as needed. This plastic had, I thought, worn over time and there were little holes in the bottom of it.
So off I went to B&Q, bought a replacement and spent an unpleasant day learning how to and eventually changing my u-bend pipe (thanks You Tube). Tested a few times with experimental flushes and generally felt v pleased with self. Then went to bed, repeated the bleary stumble to the loo the next morning. Flushed. Another flood.
What the actual
duck? Inspected brand new u-bend. Holes again. Baffling. Looked closer. Realised holes looked, I don't know, chewed. Googled possible reasons. Learnt that rats will sometimes swim up u-bends. See here for info if you are strong of stomach.
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Anyway, knew I had to change it, so disassembled existing setup before I headed to B&Q. Returned from B&Q. Made restorative coffee before tackling u-bend, while also wondering if I was going to spend the rest of my life replacing u bends on the daily and crying, or how much rat catchers cost. Suddenly heard scritchy, scratchy noises coming from kitchen. Entered kitchen to find
bleeping massive rat (size poss exaggerated because of trauma) staring at me. Brief stand off, before it legged it past me, into the living room. Followed it in general horror type way, grabbing a mop (from clear up) on my way (not sure what I was planning to do with mop, just felt need for security I think). Rat scurried round my living room for a terrifying minute or so, then spotted open French doors, and disappeared out them with a swish of its tail, thankfully never to be seen again.
Thank you for coming to my rat talk. I hope you all can still sleep at night and go to the loo in peace.