And so it goes ...

The central heating engineer turned up yesterday afternoon and concluded that my pipework is corroded and the vent is going all the time because of the quality of the water in the system.

It is too far gone even to power flush and thus, the whole system will have to be replaced which means ripping up the floorboards. This - of course - will all have to be done before I can get my ceiling put back up.

A further and better guy is going to come round and work through it with me this afternoon.

Weeks of chaos at the end of which I will be several grand lighter in the pocket is the current forecast.