- Wed Aug 19, 2020 3:15 pm
#92309
Plumbers....
Some friends who until recently lived (they've since moved) on a new housing estate close to us suffered three mains water bursts. Pipework inside walls on the top floor came apart on each occasion. It cost thousands to repair.
Reason? The so-called trained plumbing technicians who installed the pipework used push fit plastic joints. They obviously didn't know that to make these joints water tight you have to rotate a collar to lock it. So they hadn't.... Cold water pressure variations kept blowing the joints off the pipes.
We had a new condensing combi boiler fitted. As part of the job we had thermostatic valves fitted to some existing radiators. They sent two plumbers. One of them came to me to tell me we needed at least five new radiators. I knew they were fine so I asked him to show me what the problem was. He said it was because he couldn't undo the bleed valves. He put his bleed key in the first radiator and showed me it wouldn't undo the valve. I got my own key and easily undid the valve. He had the wrong key - it was recessed at the business end which meant it didn't connect with the squared end of the valve innards. I took it off him, went out to garage, put it in my bench vice and filed the recessed part off the end in about twenty seconds. I then took it back to him, put it in the radiator and opened the bleed valve and bled the air out.
He seemed amazed. I then asked him why, in any case, he couldn't have offered to replace the bleed valves, rather than replace the entire radiators. He said he didn't know you could do that.... Really?
Then, they ran the water and gas pipes to the new boiler diagonally across the utility room wall from bottom to top, rather than horizontally across the floor to the opposite corner where they could be boxed in. I complained about that and they sent a different plumber out to rectify it. The "repair" job was very poorly done. A friend, who had been a properly time served plumber visited us by chance some weeks later. He took one look and told me he'd do a proper job for the price of the materials and a cup of tea if 'd be his labourer. So we fixed it together.
Four or five years ago we decided to fit a wood burning stove to provide extra heat to the north wall of our bungalow; it needed to go right at the end of the corridor between two bedrooms. I obtained the building regulations and using them as guidance made a compliant hearth and surrounds so all that was needed was to install the pre-made flue which had to go up through the loft and out above the roof. I asked a local HETAS "engineer" for a price to install it and then sign the installation off, to make it compliant with the building regulations. He came round, tutted for a long time, saying how tricky this installation was going to be, could take days, etc, etc. He later sent me a quote of £1300 plus VAT, which was a lot more than I'd paid for the stove and installation kit. I nearly choked on my cornflakes.
I decided later that day to complete the job (all legal if you get it signed off by a qualified person, either a HETAS engineer or the council buildings department. I began the job at 4 pm and less than four hours later it was all fitted and smoke tested. The biggest part of the job was cutting out part of a loft joist to allow the flue to go through the ceiling and boxing a new load bearing frame around it. The upper part of the flue went through the roof very easily, all I had to do was remove one tile and fit the weather sealing sleeve and collar to the pipe. I then booked the local council building inspector to inspect it, sign it off and supply a compliance certificate, which cost about £112. I jokingly told my wife I might take a HETAS course and begin installing wood burners so I could also charge innocent punters £400 per hour plus VAT....
Built like a gun... could go BANG!
