Mains Cold Water Supply - Think I had a cowboy plumber at my house !

[IATM]

Hi Guys,

I have had various plumbing issues in my house after having a few plumbers in and I cant seem to find one who knows what they are doing or how to fix issues so I have decided to investigate them one by one and fix them myself or tell the plumber what to do.

Roughly a year agoI had a leak in the mains cold water supply tap/stopcock under the kitchen sink - this got worse and worse and eventually we have a plumber in to "fix" this - he spent 2 hours apparently fixing it but said we could not open it full as that was not a good idea/good practice ....

This "not a good idea" he fobbed my parents off with I realize now was proboably because if you turn the stopcock more than half approx it starts to leak which leads me to think he diddnt fix it properly as he should have done and took 300 quid off me for the pleasure of doing.

Can you correct me if I am wrong but I should have the ability to turn it full to benefit from the full mains pressure ( I think this is having an affect in the upstairs gravity fed system I have in the two bathrooms)

any links to quality stopcocks etc I can use to tell the plumber to fix and any other notes when fixing this issue.

I would be really grateful for any help as I just can't seem to find anyone who can say yes thats the issue this is what it will be to fix it

happy to provide pics if need be

Thanks

 

[IATM]

Probably wrong but shouldn't the feed to the bath be 22 mm pipe

sent from my annoying box

no you are correct - i thought the same and a few of the experts in this thread have thankfully confirmed and agree

 

[snowhead]

looking at it the bathroom fitter probably cant solder/fit copper??

Or fit solvent weld waste correctly.
Looks like he /she knows where the nearest Wickes / B&Q is tho'.

 

[IATM]

I want to fix this myself - I just can't trust anyone to do it and I can't afford to pay out hard earned cash to people who don't even have the passion or moral to do a fair job.

I just need to know what to do - i just need to figure out the set up and I'll be able to do it myself.

 

[WHPES]

If you fit a shower pump put part of a paving slab beside the base of your cylinder and stand the pump on it. Plumb the pump tails up with plastic pipe not copper.

From your last photo, the large white pipe I assume is a waste pipe has a crazy angle.

 

[Millsy 82]

I want to fix this myself - I just can't trust anyone to do it and I can't afford to pay out hard earned cash to people who don't even have the passion or moral to do a fair job.

I just need to know what to do - i just need to figure out the set up and I'll be able to do it myself.

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Sorry for that ( Hopefully I have your attention) I have said time and time again try for an AIRLOCK AIRLOCK AIRLOCK ( I think 3 times is enough) I have been in this trade for 14 years and I was always taught start off with the easiest to solve but hey start changing everything else first if you want. Once you have tried that then start on other things

 

[Chrissy1966]

Why don't we all spend money getting qualified then use our knowledge and experience to help members of the public resolve their issues for free. Heaven forbid we would do a job ourselves and then charge for it. Did this guy really pay £300 for a stopcock or maybe just looking for a bit of sympathy. Come on guys if a member of the public needs a job doing they should do the decent thing and pay for a reputable tradesman to come and do the job not have a go themselves and come on this forum when they get stuck.

 

[Chrissy1966]

Originally Posted by gavinwilson
Probably wrong but shouldn't the feed to the bath be 22 mm pipe

sent from my annoying box



on a pressurised system the feeds can be in 15 mm, the dhw pipe work on a combi is always 15 mm so increasing the pipe size near the bath will make no difference.

 

[Mike Jackson]

True but as the system in question is gravity it's not particularly relevant in this instance.

 

[jtsplumbing]

Easy way out now is to change the bath supply to 22mm, put some support under bath legs , if the 15mm pipe going into wall is supplying a electric shower, see if you can get this pipe connected to the mains water, if airing cupboard is on other side of wall to to bath then would be easey to pick up cold main were it go's up to roof tanks, A point that Chrissy1996 brought up was the standerd of work and the price you have have paid for both these jobs (£580) and can-not get it put right by the people you paid !! HAVE YOU DONE THIS WORK YOURSELF ??? Has I cant see a experienced Plumber or Bathroom fitter turning out this standerd of work !! I take it the prices quoted were Labour only ??.

 

[Chrissy1966]

True but as the system in question is gravity it's not particularly relevant in this instance.

Hi mike I just didn't want people to think you always need to use 22mm.

 

[IATM]

Hi Millsy 82 - If you could advise exactly how I would get rid of this airlock I would be really grateful - Like i said all this stuff is fairly new to me after reading it up and having issue after issue.

Also I just want to clarify I WOULD NEVER DO A JOB LIKE THIS AND PRETEND SOMEONE ELSE HAD DONE IT. Firstly I wouldnt want to give an honest tradesman in my area even a hint of a bad reputation if it wasn't true and secondly I would never have done such a bad job - the type of person I am is that either I start a job knowing I can 100% do it to a very high standard or I find someone who can. SO far I have had 2 plumbers come in and do work and each of them were local businesses - they came in and said the usual chat about it was "no bother" I can do that etc - I have had three other plumbers come in and have a look about the water pressure including one 15 miles away and they said yeah there is certainly something wrong with the pressure but when I ask basic questions they don't seem to know what I am talking about.

For example - when reading the internet I realized you could get low/high pressure taps and in the rest of europe a lot of the systems are high pressure - mainly it is UK that has this type of low pressure system and when companies order in goods etc they come from these countries and therefor are mainly designed for them so I thought the taps may be wrong - I asked each plumber could it be the taps they were changed and it reduced the flow and ALL OF THEM said no way it can't be. I started to read up on things again that restricted flow and started to look at taps in BandQ that specifically said low pressure and noticed they diddnt have the mesh sort of exit but just bigger holes I would imagine to let the water flow better and this was confirmed on this thread.

I am sorry if I have annoyed anyone some how - I have had this problem for almost a year - I have tried to call various plumbers after the two that have been in but when I ask basic questions about if taps can cause an issue or if the set up under the bath tub is acceptable they don't how to answer yes or no - and when I show some sort of basic minimal knowledge and ask about stuff they don't seem to like it - I have never been rude or asked them in a bad way; to the contrary I have asked them to help me and even if they don't know, to provide a name of a person who does - they don't care.

Its why I have got to this point that if I am equipped very well with the knowledge I guess as a worse case scenario I could speak to this new plumber and say to him look this is the issue and this is what needs to be done - what do you think or just to tell him thats what I want done and ill take responsibility for it - It took me almost 3 months to even call this plumber after he was recommended to me by a few people at my works who's bathrooms he had refitted because I was aprehensive he was going to be some sort of clown as well with my luck and wouldn;t beable to resolve the pressure.

I just don't want you guys to think I have came here because of a problem I created - if it was me I would just own up to it and say im an idiot can you help - call another plumber or just revert it back to what it was - it was all done by my mum who called in local plumbers because she wanted the bathrooms sorted and done up for when my dad got back home.

Also on a positive note - this new bathroom fitter I am talking to seems to know what he is talking about to a certain extent - When I showed him the problems he said that yes the taps can cause a problem - the pipes for the bath should be ideally 22m and don't know why someone would reduce it to 15mm - he also went to the airing cupboard and like you guys said the two gate values sometimes break inside reducing flow. However I am just really cautious because when I asked if two electric showers can be fitted in one house he said he would find out (I was grateful for his honesty - very imp) he came back saying yes as he spoke to an electrician however I am inclined to think not if both were on at same time (once again this is information from the net) I am going to speak to him today and ask how the lectrician thinks this is possible and what he would do to find out. This made me seriously just think about a mixer shower of some sort and since the hot and cold pipes are there already if I had to I am happy to make the taps for the bath redundant and take the pipes right up to the shower - its the most important item I require next to pressure being ok.

 

[SimonG]

You can have multiple electric showers, but on a domestic electrical supply you would need relays installing to ensure that only one shower can be used at a time. Seen this done before. If you had two running at the same time along with all the other 'household' requirements you would pop the main fuse.

In this situation, if you have one electric shower already then fit a pumped shower. Takes a cold tank feed and a feed from your cylinder on the hot, they work off of a 3 or 5 amp supply.

 

[IATM]

You can have multiple electric showers, but on a domestic electrical supply you would need relays installing to ensure that only one shower can be used at a time. Seen this done before. If you had two running at the same time along with all the other 'household' requirements you would pop the main fuse.

In this situation, if you have one electric shower already then fit a pumped shower. Takes a cold tank feed and a feed from your cylinder on the hot, they work off of a 3 or 5 amp supply.

Yup thats exactly what I have read too. Thanks for confirming - Thats what made me lean towards a mixer shower.