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plumbers and i use the term very generously...
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dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46239
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 15 5:36 pm Post subject:

BahamaMama wrote:

dpack wrote:

it is a good example of making sure you pick a tradesperson well or find out how to do it properly and diy the job..

Sorry to hear this dpack - water-related incidents are grim.

The tricky thing is how to know you have a decent tradesman....

i am

this stuff was done before i met tt.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46239
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 15 5:39 pm Post subject:

Tavascarow wrote:

& I bet he charges �70.00 an hour. At least that's what the local plumber charges. & that's his day rate, emergencies cost a whole lot more.
I encourage all children to take up a trade, you will never be hungry.
Don't become a doctor or a nurse, there's no money in human plumbing.
They are vocations not career choices.

for a decent job his prices were quite reasonable ,it is the decent job bit that was missing from the equation .

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15988

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 15 7:00 am Post subject:

Finding a good plumber or other tradesman is difficult, particularly when they now learn 'on the job' or just do a bit of training for a few weeks. Although husband never trained as a plumber, a friend of ours always got him to do her plumbing as well as her electrics (for which he was fully trained), and he solved her leaking bath when nobody else could. Simple as putting a bit of mastic behind the overflow fitting.

jettejette

Joined: 01 Jun 2013
Posts: 225

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 15 7:15 am Post subject:
I sympathise, dpack. We had a leaky shower when we bought our house due to cowboy plumbing. Fortunately, like you, hubby can do basic things himself. Which goes to show that it was basic things which weren't done correctly in the first place.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46239
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 15 12:15 pm Post subject:

when i ran a refurbishment company about a third of our work was remedial to put right cowboy jobs.

among the seemingly improvement/modernisation jobs about half involved putting right something that had been done extremely badly

it is amazing the damage a minor cowboy job can cause ,the issues that a water source from plumbing or weatherproofing botch are often a thousand times more expensive than the original job ,"dry" rot is a good example(nice little earner/loadsamoney)

unless electrics have been done recently ,properly and throughout to 17th ed regs there is a good chance that it has been done "one piece at a time" and /or extremely badly and is best removed and replaced as finding un terminated lead sheathed cable in a wall when hanging a picture or replastering(see above) or that a unsupported cable behind a kitchen unit (with added kinks) has half burned through is a surprise nobody needs.

it isnt a modern problem i have fixed stuff done by georgian cowboys(a lack of foundations was an 18 c speciality )

etc etc .

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 15 4:58 pm Post subject:

dpack wrote:

for a decent job his prices were quite reasonable ,it is the decent job bit that was missing from the equation .

If there is a lot of it that is below par, you should consider sending him a bill for remedial work...

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46239
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 15 6:21 pm Post subject:

Hairyloon wrote:

dpack wrote:

for a decent job his prices were quite reasonable ,it is the decent job bit that was missing from the equation .

If there is a lot of it that is below par, you should consider sending him a bill for remedial work...

i prefer the option of honest reviews get results. the kitchen wires were shown to a nice chap we know who happens to be head of trading standards along with a short list of about 5 other jobs we know that chap has done .

tis a small town hidden in a city

and quite a lot of potential clients and contractors now know him by his works

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15988

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 7:22 am Post subject:
The first house we had had some interesting Victorian work. The builders didn't know too much about slate damp courses, so only had one layer of slate, rather than 2 separated by a brick, and as far as we could see, the missing bricks in the fire wall between us and the next house in the terrace were an original design feature.

cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 8:53 am Post subject:
D Pack, I like your style.

Lorrainelovesplants

Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 6521
Location: Dordogne

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 11:11 am Post subject:
Indeed - nothing worse for business than a customer who can detail all your epic fails.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46239
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 12:24 pm Post subject:

i have seen some truly dreadful things a few classics include :

being called to a chap's house to discover a bloke in a suit and wellies removing a chimney from the fireplace up.
lots of scaff boards and acrows and strict instructions to call a structural engineer as i left forever,i didnt want to do it.

a 3 story gable end on a downward slope sitting on 3 m of clay with a couple of little streams coming out of it after somebody decided to make a nice driveway to park their car.
more scaff tube than i have ever put in a 7 m long triangle braced to the foundations of his house to stop the thing collapsing.the structural engineer examined it from a safe distance and recommended 25 tons of concrete and a lot of rebar. i left them to it at that point.

more leaks than wales

including many causing serious rot issues.they are a nice earner.
drains that end under the lawn or basement.

horrible electrics ranging from potentially deadly to "i know it looks a charred mess but the walls are still solid and yes we can fix it so long as the loss adjuster thinks it is better to fix it than put what is left in a skip and build a new house"

horrible gas ranging from potentially deadly by fume or explosion

etc etc etc

imho even if you dont have the skills or tools for the job it is easy to find out how it should be done and make sure that it is done properly

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 12:36 pm Post subject:
I didn't see it but a plumber who I trust told me he'd gone to do some work at someone's house and found a gas fire mounted on the inside of the kitchen door which had been connected to the gas using a rubber tube so that they could swing the dor open and use it as a patio heater as well as for warming the kitchen.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46239
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 4:21 pm Post subject:

mousjoos

Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 1986
Location: VERY Sunny SW France

Posted: Sun Nov 29, 15 11:27 am Post subject:

sean wrote:

I didn't see it but a plumber who I trust told me he'd gone to do some work at someone's house and found a gas fire mounted on the inside of the kitchen door which had been connected to the gas using a rubber tube so that they could swing the dor open and use it as a patio heater as well as for warming the kitchen.

win win

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46239
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 15 2:38 pm Post subject:

tis now dried out enough to have been put back together with only a little cursing cos the carpet gripper managed to do it's legendary mini iron maiden thing yet again

with a bit of adjustment at the far end i managed to have 75% of enough pipe into each fitting and by actually doing the compression joints to hand tight plus a quarter turn all seems solid and waterproof.the saggy pipe is wedged between wall and bath stand with a bit of wood.

not ideal but an improvement from washing the kitchen floor.

at least it is only bathroom/kitchen/plumbing and some electrics as the structural stuff like the knock through and loft conversion was done by real builders

remedial on structural is a job i only ever want to do for money.

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