Well that didn’t go as planned.

[RobinBHM]

My first though was why have they joints under solid floors, but I'm no plumber

Ive seen plumbers use push fit on extensions: they run plastic to where the rad goes, then an elbow and a stub of copper.

Ive also seen plumbers use push fit connectors on the floor


then the labour comes in and cuts the insulation over the pipes (not very well, its often all bouncy) and then screed........what could possibly go wrong

 

[BearTricks]

I thought we had a leak a few years ago as I could hear constant dripping so I took the floor up in the spare room. No leak to be seen so I put the boards back in, hit a pipe and covered the ceiling in water.

Rang a plumber. Charged us £80 for ten minutes work as it was 8pm on the Sunday before a bank holiday. I’d have fixed it myself but I didn’t have the kit, nothing was open until Tuesday and I’d had enough of thinking I could do everything. He told me the leak was likely the old pipes expanding or just some condensation in the wall.

 

[Ollie78]

Just been doing a few things for some people who have had a fallout with the builder ( he was rubbish to be fair ) all work was supposedly completed. Then a leak through from the new bathroom into the new kitchen. Said rubbish builder had put a screw into a pipe months ago and it had been gradually filling up the ceiling.

When my Gran had her bungalow built she made the plumbers do all the heating pipes in the place on the surface of the walls with no boxing in because she was paranoid about hidden leaks. I think she was on to something.

Ollie

 

[mwinfrance]

I think your gran must have specced our house, all our plumbing is like that, I'm gradually boxing it( with easy access ) as I insulate interior walls and put on the wood paneling.

 

[cowtown_eric]

Funniest thing I ever encountered was when working on a builders house, the plumber came in to fit the kitchen sink. He didn't check if the water was off so just snipped the plastic pex

Water was not turned off, pipe slipped out of his hands and down the holde!.

Mad panic ensued, plumber goes down into the basement furnace room and starts flipping valves. (looked like a nuclear submarine control panel!)

He gets the kitchen turned off, but not before it had semi-flooded the finished basement.

I'm in next morning, open the door and notice what I thought was a new fancy light fixture in the hallway ceilling. Then I noticed it was dripping water.

Turns out that the company that was installing infloor heating on this 3 1/2 story house had been bleeding the manifolds, and hadn't finished, and the plumber had re-activated the pump!

Never heard how that worked out, but plumber pointed finger at myself, the painters, and anyone but himself!

 

[Ozi]

Just payed a "Builder / plumber" to replace a bathroom floor in a house I'm renovating. Should mention I had to rip out the "old" bathroom I payed a different builder to install 6 years ago due to massive leaks into kitchen cealing causing mold between tiles and floor. Watched him start the job seemed OK he came highly recommended. Floor felt OK so asked him to fit vinyl looked good asked him to refit bath sink and toilet - Oh dear, looked OK till I had the boiler running, hot water leaks from the sink as rotten flexi re-used, sink trap leaking as broken, sink held to wall with mastic and two screws one of which only long enough to be in 150 year old plaster, plastic bath with no support along wall just mastic-ed to tiles (did I mention 150 year old plaster) still the toilet works looks OK, closer look, flexi to cistern top accessible bottom end below new floor. Last thing he told me was not to fit my own kitchen as I'd never make a professional job of it.

Question, I need some pointing done and a gutter fixed, should I use the same firm?

 

[niemeyjt]

A weird one we had - the house was reworked in 60s with foil (aluminium?) faced plasterboard.

A copper cold water pipe was fed through.

Over the years a cold pipe attracted moisture out of the air - which then acted as electrolyte between the aluminium and copper - and whichever way was anode and cathode, it caused the copper to pit and then perforate.

 

[Dave Moore]

In the building trade "Professional" just means that they cost you money, not that they do better work.

It’s like I always say, just because you are academic enough to retain information to get certificates, it doesn’t mean you are a good joiner, plumber ,welder, doctor, sparky, teacher. The list goes on. My bonus daughter got a ‘builder’ in who was going to project mange everything. Made a mess of most of it. I went to fit a radiator to a stud wall, the radiator side was tiled. I asked ‘where’s the pipes?’and then proceeded to cut a hole in the other side of the wall to find the pipes he had buried.
regards,
Dave

 

[Dave Moore]

Just payed a "Builder / plumber" to replace a bathroom floor in a house I'm renovating. Should mention I had to rip out the "old" bathroom I payed a different builder to install 6 years ago due to massive leaks into kitchen cealing causing mold between tiles and floor. Watched him start the job seemed OK he came highly recommended. Floor felt OK so asked him to fit vinyl looked good asked him to refit bath sink and toilet - Oh dear, looked OK till I had the boiler running, hot water leaks from the sink as rotten flexi re-used, sink trap leaking as broken, sink held to wall with mastic and two screws one of which only long enough to be in 150 year old plaster, plastic bath with no support along wall just mastic-ed to tiles (did I mention 150 year old plaster) still the toilet works looks OK, closer look, flexi to cistern top accessible bottom end below new floor. Last thing he told me was not to fit my own kitchen as I'd never make a professional job of it.

Question, I need some pointing done and a gutter fixed, should I use the same firm?

I think you know the answer to that. Problem is because most kids have been encouraged to go into computers,very few are interested in building trades, even if they could get an apprenticeship. So all sorts of cowboys are jumping on the bandwagon. Want some work done, no problem I watched repair shop last week seems to be the way. Ergo all builders are extremely busy.
regards,
Dave

 

[MikeJhn]

As with most academic qualifications, the definition of "Professional" has been diluted to just mean someone who does work and gets paid for it, in days gone past the real meaning was "a person who does a job that needs special training and a high level of education" as in qualified and a member of an Institute.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You can do nothing nowadays without the paperwork. I knew a very good builder who was approached by the head of department of a college with a view to his getting a lecturing job. Don't worry about teaching qualifications, he said, we can get you them. You'll have all the other relevant qualifications. I haven't got any qualifications, my friend said. But you must have had training and certificates to use plant, grinders etc.? No, my friend said, I haven't a single qualification or certificate. That was the end of that.

I changed jobs in the same place. At work one day the chap I worked opposite before came and asked if I could spare ten minutes, he had a problem he couldn't identify. I went with him, found the fault and returned to what I was doing. The chap I was working with asked if I had any qualifications to do do my previous job - no, I replied, other than being very good at it. Why do you ask? Don't you find it odd that Steve comes to you to do his job for him when you're unqualified and he's an NVQ assessor?

 

[aet1]

I actually hate getting in ‘professionals’ for work. I have had very few jobs done that I don’t look at and say I could have done that better. I do have a few people that I trust enough to use again even if it means I finish up doing a bit of fettling after they finish. I’m getting too old for the heavy stuff now. This dammed bathroom floor would have taken me a day (ignoring setting times) a few years ago but I’m four days in and still not finished. I admit the plumbing and re-flooring added a chunk to it.

I can't remember any job done for me, on house or car that I've been pleased with. I fear the time I will need to pay people to mess things up. I once work alongside a plasterer I would trust, but I've never had a plastering job I need him for.

 

[Lefley]

My daughter's partner has been working on a house for four months and have just finished the job. He's shown me photos of the ground floor ............ with the bottom 18" of plaster everywhere wet. The plumbers (whom they use regularly but I suspect not for much longer) used push fit plastic under solid concrete floors, and the fittings have sprung. It wasn't the builders' fault and they're hoping the plumber's insurance company will get another firm in to do the job - they can't afford to put other work months behind.
My first though was why have they joints under solid floors, but I'm no plumber.

No good plumber puts joints where you can't access them. Lol. And they could not have pressurized the system for 24 hours to check for leaks and set home the joints to seal.

 

[stuckinthemud]

No good plumber puts joints where you can't access them. Lol. And they could not have pressurized the system for 24 hours to check for leaks and set home the joints to seal.

My father in law was a very good plumber/gas fitter. We had a major disagreement when he plumbed in our upstairs bathroom and I then went to box in the pipes. He only allowed the pipe work to be boxed after my better half joined in the discussion and still insisted the boxing was fixed with screws and easy (quick) to uninstall

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Inaccessibility? Immersion tanks have to be the worst - I've not seen one yet that hasn't 1/ the bleed valve installed at the back, 2/ the bleed valve too close to the floor to get a hose on, or 3/ both.

 

[MikeJhn]

Inaccessibility? Immersion tanks have to be the worst - I've not seen one yet that hasn't 1/ the bleed valve installed at the back, 2/ the bleed valve too close to the floor to get a hose on, or 3/ both.

The problem with hot water tanks is the inevitability of them being in the corner of a cupboard leaving only limited access to the connections, this could be overcome by having the connection and drain point within a 90 deg area of the tank, problem is it will only help on new builds, the nightmare of re-plumbing an existing instillation just puts the costs into the not worth it area.

 

[stuart little]

Push fit rely on the water pressure pushing back on the seal to seal properly. If the system wasn’t pressurised before the concrete went in the fittings would likely not have had the ‘movement’ needed to let the seal fully engage. I made the mistake once when using a push fit connector of jaunt the pipe a few mm too long. It wedged in nicely between the joists but the dammed thing wouldn’t seal. After way too long fiddling with it I bit the bullet and removed it and shortened the pipe by the required 5mm and it sealed instantly. Fortunately no concrete involved and I tested at pressure before fixing the boards back down.

I had a wet room installed by my local Housing Association contractors, as I live in a 'bunglehouse' they had to install a pump. After about 7 yrs the pump stopped 'sucking':- the Housing Assoc. sent their plumber who came & looked then called electrician who checked pump function - all OK. He, 'sparky', then shone a torch down the shower drain & noticed verdigris! The contractors had only buried copper pipe in concrete!!!!!!!!! Resulting in perforated pipe & pump sucking air. End result was the fitting of an above floor level shower tray (= 4" high 'trip hazard") Another bodged job. The Housing Assoc. were under new management & not interested in my loss of my 'wet room', so I got referral to the Occupational Therapist who then arranged for an independent plumber/builder to rip out the old bodged job & install 'all new'.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I had a wet room installed by my local Housing Association contractors, as I live in a 'bunglehouse' they had to install a pump. After about 7 yrs the pump stopped 'sucking':- the Housing Assoc. sent their plumber who came & looked then called electrician who checked pump function - all OK. He, 'sparky', then shone a torch down the shower drain & noticed verdigris! The contractors had only buried copper pipe in concrete!!!!!!!!! Resulting in perforated pipe & pump sucking air. End result was the fitting of an above floor level shower tray (= 4" high 'trip hazard") Another bodged job. The Housing Assoc. were under new management & not interested in my loss of my 'wet room', so I got referral to the Occupational Therapist who then arranged for an independent plumber/builder to rip out the old bodged job & install 'all new'.

Anyone got a story of a successful build?

 

[XTiffy]

The first house I built 20 years ago, I had full control over. The house has had no repairs over that time, the people who lived in it for the next ten years had the kitchen ripped out and replaced tiled floors. all in the name of "taste" not malfunction. Unfortunately most of these horror stories are down to poor installation, mostly due to lack of proper training. A few hundred yards from me there is a brand new estate and one of the new occupied houses has scaffolding around the front and they would seem to be replacing hanging tiles and their battens. Now why would that be, as the young like to say,"Go figure".

 

[treeturner123]

Anyone got a story of a successful build?

Yes, but horror stories are so much more fun.

Ask yourself, why are there so few 'Good News' stories in newspapers and on TV?

As a surveyor I have plenty of horror stories but on the subject of problems with new houses, I recollect that a very posh estate in Bristol a good few years back had to be virtually re-built because the bricklayers had put too little cement powder in the mortar mix. They saved a few pounds per house and it cost millions to rectify!

Phil