Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipes

[king of pipes]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

Belive me bud bare copper and in a screed floor is a recipe for disaster, could you not abandon the pipe work in the floor and re run it on the surface put it in a box skirting ? ,you will have more leaks if not what are the marks on wall it looks like water marks did the bath leak address the problems now or you will end up living in a damp unhealthy environment

 

[king of pipes]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

Double posting is a pain ?

 

[cammy0102]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

Belive me bud bare copper and in a screed floor is a recipe for disaster, could you not abandon the pipe work in the floor and re run it on the surface put it in a box skirting ? ,you will have more leaks if not what are the marks on wall it looks like water marks did the bath leak address the problems now or you will end up living in a damp unhealthy environment

Appreciate the input mate. Unfortunately it's not an option to re-do it. I bought a flat and did a full refurbishment and got the builder to replace pipes and boiler thinking that I'd be able to live without any leaks for a long time. At the time I was inexperienced about these things and relied on builder to supervise and his men to do the work properly obviously it hasn't turned out that way.

I've got new kitchen, new bathroom, new wooden flooring in the living room so I don't want to destroy them/drill holes on the walls at this stage. If i have leaks in the future and I can't find where it is, I may well have to do something like that but at the moment I am not going to re-run the pipes.

I'm in a pretty difficult situation without any easy options. I will email the builder my concerns and see what he says. I know he's said that if there are any issues, he'll come and fix them and so far he's kept his word but I don't if he'll do the same in a few years time when he might not be legally liable for damages.

 

[Best]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

Your builder probably knows little about plumbing. If he did inspect those pipes without insulation or when screed floor was going in on top of the bare copper, then he is a cowboy.
Always ask a plumber about plumbing, not a builder.
Concrete, or any cement mix will rot copper if it gets even slightly damp.
Personally I would involve building control, plus other plumbers in giving you reports about the uninsulated copper pipes, even if that means digging a few inspection test points in concrete floor. Then get the cost of a repipe job back off your builder. He deserves to pay for his bad work.

 

[Scott_D]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

It looks fluxed but not soldered in the picture

 

[Riley]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

It looks fluxed but not soldered in the picture

Funnily enough I thought the same but assumed it was the pic

 

[Riley]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

It looks fluxed but not soldered in the picture

Funnily enough I thought the same but assumed it was the pic

 

[Scott_D]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

smells fishy

 

[Riley]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

If the builder/plumber have genuinely been involved in this get on top of it now at their cost Once you've paid and they vanish off on the horses into the sunset you've got no chance

 

[Old Account]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

I also would not use a push fit ... will definitely leak at some point ... as mentioned here many times get a proper plumber out and let him do a professional job .. pay a few quitt more but in the end you safe a whole lot.

Once everything is been installed and hidden it will be a lot more expensive to you to sort those leaks out.

What's the point of leaving it in as it is ? Just get it done and bite in the bullet that way and get it proper installed, you will eventually thank your professional plumber and ukplumbingdorum for all the advise you got from fully qualified engineers.

As mentioned above did you make sure that the other joints are welded ? If not next time you fill up it will gush ..

 

[king of pipes]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

Looks like you have made your mind up to accept the builders word foolishly bud , just get it in writing off them that they will stand by the work for 12 months your won't have much luck in getting them to do any repairs after that period , keep part of their payment back until they do so and you are happy ,make sure you have a good home insurance policy I think you may be needing it in the future all the best k

 

[cammy0102]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

I don't think some of you understand the difficulty of the situation. The refurbishment was finished with everything new in the house with new plaster in the walls, new floors, new kitchen, new bathroom. I know some of the copper pipes run under concrete in the kitchen, bathroom and part of the living room. Rest of the house it's just running under joists.

I don't want to rip everything out re-do because that will cost 10s of thousands and I will have to move out of the place which is not an option plus I have a flatmate/lodger in the flat with me.

So tell me realistic solutions. I don't think I'm going to be able to get say 10K from the builder to do the whole thing. Only option I have is to take him to small claims court but firstly they'll ask me whether I tried resolving amicably and gave the builder a chance to fix it. So far builder has promised to fix everything and he's sent his men around to inspect the loss of pressure in the boiler and to find the leak, numerous times. So I can't say he hasn't co-operated. I don't think I'm going to get 10K from him that way. And as soon as I take him to the courts, he'll stop co-operating with me.

What's paying council building regulations going to do?

Builder's plumber (yes he's probably a :nono: plumber) insulated all the copper pipes in the bathroom floor and put concrete over it. The bath has already gone in. But I could ask him to take it all out and re-do the plumbing in the bathroom and remove the plastic push fitting and all the other joints and have one straight 22mm pipe maybe with a T junction for the drain off.

I'm going to call a friend of a friend who's a plumber that works at a hospital so I'm guessing he's certified. I'll ask him for advice as well.

This is really stressful.

PS: The 2nd picture was taken before the guy could solder the joints at the top.

The main contractor I don't think saw must of the work. He was only in the building a few times. I gave the refurbishment work to to this guy and he's got multiple teams that does pretty big refurbishments so he's got a reasonable reputation to uphold.

 

[cammy0102]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

Double post

 

[Dotty]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

Caveat emptor.

Goes to prove that the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweet taste of low price fades.

 

[cammy0102]

Re: Central heating leak found but not sure about how the plumber has welded the pipe

It wasn't 'low price' either. He was more expensive than one of the other contractors (I had 3 quotes). I went and checked one of his refurbishment at a multi million pound property in Hammersmith in London and I know he's worked/working with in other expensive properties (far more expensive than my flat).

Obviously had I known about all the dodgy or incompetent tradesmen back then, I would have done things differently (would have asked for certificates for the plumbers he used, kept a very close eye on the job, etc) but what's done is done.

I've just spoken to plumber friend (he's certified and works in hospitals) and he said get the builder to change the new work (he'll have to get his men to remove the bath, dig the floor again and replace the pipes) but leave the other pipe work in the rest of the house as it's going to be difficult to replace them now. Builder is certainly not going to pay me thousands to rip everything out and replace.