Plumber been, radiator now leaking, wont come back to fix it. Advice please

[Bramble]

Hi

I have a Potterton 1993 'fanned balanced flue gas fired' boiler with a hot water tank upstairs. There is a little tank in teh loft to pour inhibitor into.

I asked a local plumber to install thermostats on two upstairs radiators, replace another upstairs radiator and put a combined shower and mixer tap unit on the bath.

When he came to do the work he said he couldnt work out how to drain the system so couldnt do the radiator thermostats. He replaced the old radiator with a slightly narrower radiator. To get both ends to meet on the narrower radiator he fitted 3 brass 'hexagonal with a screw thread at one side' connectors in a row between the right hand pipe and radiator.

He managed to fit the shower/tap mixer on teh bath and put an 'on/off' valve on both the hot and cold pipes without draining the system.

That was over a month ago.

As of today both sides of the new radiator leak slightly. I have to keep a teatowel wrapped around both ends. The mixer taps dont leak, but the adjacent bath plug pipe (which ends in a little ubend) now leaks onto the ceiling below when a bath empties. The plug pipe end screws into the little ubend and I think water is coming from there. A bowl is now resting on the ceiling below to catch teh dripping water.

Could you give me some advice.

1. Is it ok to use 3 brass connectors in a row - will this be prone to leaking? Should he have moved teh vertical pipe that the radiator connects to instead? Could he have done this without draining hte system?

1. SHould the plug pipe have silicon around the screw end to stop water leaking or should it be water tight by itself. It didnt leak for the last 20 years, but started the day after the plumber had been.

2. Is it possible to fit radiator thermostats without draining hte system?

I am trying to get this plumber to come back and mend the leaks. After more than a month of trying I have had no success. What should the next course of action be - trading standards?

Thanks for your help

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Was he registred with any affiliated bodies ie *fair trades* That would be my first port of call.

ps how did manage to get a bowl to rest on the ceiling. ;-)

[TheScullster]

"Bramble" wrote

To

All sounds like shoddy work! There are spacers available to make up the difference in length between old and new "standard" radiator lengths. Available in increments of 10mm - I have used these in the past. Not as neat as re-piping of course, but made for the job and a fair compromise.

Was this guy recommended?

Phil

[John Rumm]

Bit of a cop out since he could have added a self cutting tap to a suitable pipe to provide a drain point.

It may look a little clunky, but it is OK in the sense it ought to work.

Ideally

Not easily. It is possible to work on a live system in some limited circumstances, but it is a pain to do and tends to make a fair amount of mess.

It should be ok by itself. It may just want tightening a bit. Chances are it got moved slightly when the work was being done.

Again, it can be done (I have done it) but it is not the sort of thing that you do out of choice usually. It may not even be possible at all if the thermostatic valves require a different pipe spacing from the original ones. Then you need pipework changes again which really require a drain down.

Write a letter to the plumber explaining why you are not happy and stating that if he does not fix it within the next days (where n is a "reasonable" time - say three weeks), then you will employ another plumber to rectify his faulty work and seek to recover the costs from him.

[Owain]

Usually, letting the water out of the lowest point does it. Or he could have frozen the pipes and just drained the radiator.

Sounds like a right bodge.

Proof it *is* a right bodge.

Tell him he has 14 days to rectify matters or you will employ another plumber and recover the cost against him through Small Claims.

Take photos of all the shoddinesses for use as evidence.

Owain

[Ed Sirett]

There are ways and means to get started here. Adds a little time but either it shows inexperience, he really didn't want the job or had reason to not want to ask for extra for the extra work.

If he had solved (1) then these shenanigans would not have been necessary because he might have been able to modify the pipework. There are also sliding couplings to solve this. Since smaller (

That's because they are nothing to do with the heating system (other than the boiler heats the HW indirectly).

Quite unacceptable, none of us is perfect we all make mistakes (hopefully none too big), not to come back and fix things apologetically is unacceptable. The fact that it did it at both ends, at least, suggests a systematic error.

I'm not sure to what you are referring exactly. Sounds like the bath waste is leaking - which could easily have been disturbed during the works.

1. It's functional but not what you wanted. The less joints the better but no reason that they will leak anymore than any other correctly made joint....Um. Almost certainly. Only with difficulty.

I think you mayt mean the bath waste. They do not need silicone to work correctly. Old stuff once leaking can be very difficult to repair - replace is often the easier route, compared with someone's time the cost of the fittings are trivial.

Yes, but if there are more than one or two it is often easier and simpler and less of an accident in waiting to drain the system.