How bad is this plumbing?

Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Confusedcustomer

New Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2016
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
,
Hi

I've just had a lot of radiators in my house replaced (and some moved) and a new loo put in the downstairs cloakroom. I'd be grateful for your thoughts on the work in the photos. I have raised some concerns, which the plumber dismissed, and I'm not sure whether to take it further or if so, how. I am not a pushover, but I don't know much about plumbing.

1. Corner bend photo - here the radiator pipes on the left of the photo need to connect to the pipes going through the wall. The radiator in the photo is being removed. The plumber has fitted pipes that go a foot to the right and then bend back on themselves before connecting to the wall. I don't understand why he didn't just join the pipes together at the wall. Soldering them might have damaged the plaster a bit, but the room is being replastered and repainted anyway.

2. Loo connection - here the plumber has fitted a flexible pipe to connect the loo cistern to the water pipe. But it's too long, so he has bent the flexible pipe into a loop. That doesn't look great. The water pipe connection is also lower than where it goes into the cistern, so water is flowing uphill a bit as well as round the loop. The cistern takes five minutes to fill. The upstairs loo only takes three minutes to fill. The plumber says it's slow because of the water pressure.

3. Radiator pipes - we had a couple of radiators moved in the lounge. The new radiators are 5-8 feet from the old ones. The plumber has used the original connections to the old radiators, and threaded flexible pipes under the floorboards for the 5-8 feet, with quite a few connections in the pipes to wiggle around the joists. I was expecting him to fit new connections much nearer the new radiator positions. The radiators seem to work OK, but is what he did acceptable?

4. Corner rad - this is a relatively minor one. The plumber has fixed the copper pipe away from the edge of the radiator, because there are joists in the corner of the room. Again it looks a bit odd. Should he have drilled through the top of the joists to fix the pipe in the corner of the radiator, or would that have been worse?

There are a few other minor faults like a couple of radiators and a washbasin not totally horizontal. The rest of the radiators look OK.

I found the plumber on Checkatrade and he had great feedback. He had to work quite hard to flush out the radiator pipes before fitting the new radiators and I think maybe he got fed up with the job and cut corners.

How bad is all this plumbing on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being terrible)? What do you think I should do? I'd be grateful for any advice. Sorry this is such a long post

Confused customer

corner bend.jpg

loo connection.jpg

radiator pipes.jpg

corner rad.jpg
 
I really, REALLY dislike this "plumbers" work. All push fit connections? Come on man. No reason why they shouldn't be soldered connections. I've saw those blow apart in heating applications. If he didn't want to solder, he should of used heat pex. Speaking of which, that white pex looks like potable water pex, not heating. You would have to read the label on the pipe to see for sure though.
 
Unfortunately, I agree with the other plumbers: Terrible work by not a "plumber". The work does look dangerous. Have it re-done by someone who is a real plumber and knows what they are doing. This handy hack knows nothing.
 
Those are John Guest fitting.
We use those to make repairs to polybutylene systems.
I just used a couple 90's today.
We do not guarantee any repairs made with those.
We do recommend re-piping the system to eliminate the polybutylene.
 
On a scale of 1 to 10, that is a minus 25! There are so many deficiencies in component and material choice, routing, and workmanship that I would not in any way consider paying for that.

How does this guy make a living? I'm certain it is not as a plumber!
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top