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Dead Squirrel in cold water tank


chrisb

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A friend / neighbour(ish) reported a leaking shower pump. A local (decent) plumbing firm sent a chap round, who discovered a dead squirrel in the cold water tank in the loft, clearly missing it's lid. I don't know much more about the situation, aside from the plumbing firm aren't interested any more due to the risk to employee health, and they don't know about disinfection even if someone else removed the deceased.

 

I haven't asked too many questions, and haven't been asked to assist (other than to loan a jerrycan to use in the bathroom), but it got me thinking: is it possible to disinfect pipework with this type of potential contamination, or is replacement the only real option? I recall reading about @JSHarris disinfecting pipework with chlorination, but not sure if there is a recommended method or it's suitability in this case.

 

Chris

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Guest Alphonsox

Thanks - I think you may just have solved an ongoing problem for me. How did they get the little b***** to fall in ?

 

 

I would thought that a strong dose of bleach followed by multiple flushes would be sufficient to clean up afterwards.

 

 

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Disinfection is pretty easy.  Just warn everyone in the house that the water is not going to  be usable for a few hours, for anything.

 

Pour a small (around 1 litre)  bottle of unscented and unthickened bleach (usually the cheapest stuff from the supermarket) into the tank (having removed all the squirrel debris).  Let the tank fill and leave it full of concentrated bleach solution for around half an hour.  Then go around systematically opening all the taps fed from this tank taps one at a time  until you can smell bleach at the tap, then turn the tap off.  Finally flush all the toilets twice, to make sure the cisterns have filled with chlorinated water (assuming the cisterns are also run from this tank).

 

Leave the system like this  for half an hour to be ultra safe, then open every outlet and flush every toilet until you can no longer smell any bleach coming out.  That's a real overkill disinfection process, but you will be assured that there are no living organisms anywhere in the pipe work.

 

Chlorine shock works, it's the same stuff, but has the big disadvantage of taking ages to dissolve and get flushed out, as it raises the pH and stops dissolving, so needs a great deal more flushing out.

Edited by JSHarris
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Don’t use bleach !! Get some chlorine shock tablets off eBay or from a pool supplies company and dose the tank. Keep the ball valve closed and drain the tank through a low tap and refill. Do it two or three times and then rinse all the pipes through. 

 

As JSH says if you can only get bleach then only use the unthickened and unscented stuff ..!

Edited by PeterW
Edited to clarify the bleach comment..!
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Just now, Lesgrandepotato said:

Add a little carrot, celery and some sage and you have the corner stone of a decent game soup there. 

 

Cajun style? :) Some may remember here when I had the hot water cylinder "back up" and heat the cold water storage tank. To this day it remains a mystery how suffice to say hot was coming out of the overflow at the soffit. 

 

Maybe it's actually a soup maker up there...

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