• Dan
• General

Friends of ours

Friends of Ours

• UK Tiling Forum – Free tile and tiling advice from the UK Tiling Forum. Over 5000 members, 800,000 posts. Online since 2006.
• A1 Tiling Courses – A directory of all UK Tiling Courses from around the country. Find tiling course funding, grants, mentors and more.
• A1 Tile Suppliers – All the tile suppliers online and offline. Whether you’re looking for tiles, tile adhesives, tiling tools; it’s all here.
• Pro Tiling Tools – Professional Tiling Tools for all tilers, whether DIY or professional. Discounts on big brands including Rubi, Karl Dahm, Montolit, Sigma and more.
• Tilers Forums – The oldest tiling forum going. Launched in 2006 and has more than 5000 members. Free advice on wall and floor tiling whether it’s 2pm or 2am.
• Electricians Forums – The biggest electrical advice website online. Over 26,000 professional electricians, over 1.5 million posts. Online since 2006.
• Plumbers Forums – The world’s largest plumbing advice website with more than 17,500 members and over 1 million posts. Online since 2006.
• UK Tiling News – Tile and tiling news from the UK’s oldest tile news website.
• A1 Electrical Courses – An electrical courses and electrical training centre database. All electrical course providers from North to South.
• A1 Plumbing Courses – A database of plumbing courses and plumbing training providers. Also free plumbing training advice for the UK plumbing industry.

• Dan
• General

Plumbing Courses and Training

We quickly ended up knowing quite a bit about plumbing courses and training in the UK.

We setup our first trade-related forum in April 2006. I think the 22nd to be precise. It went well, it was a wall and floor tiling advice website and we always supported training centres, so that we could collate questions and answer them on a central website so we had a nice big database of common wall and floor tiling questions and answers.

Late 2007 we started a plumbing forum. And then an electricians forum.

As a result of those, we support some training centres, who recommended their students come visit the forum and share their questions and advice and grow each others knowledge together.

We now have some of those members that have been fully qualified plumbers for quite some time, providing advice to newer members that are on plumbing courses, and they even help budding trainee plumbers to find the right places to go on plumbing courses.

Some local colleges to plumbing courses but it can take a while going down that route. We’ll list a whole bunch of colleges across the UK further down this page.

Some Typical Plumbing Courses found after doing a quick search online.

National Training Centres, Courses Cover Both Practical & Theory Modules – From £35 P/Week. We Take You From A Novice To Be Fully Qualified And Able To Work In Your Chosen Trade. Limited Spaces. Fast Track Career. All Experience Levels.

The UK Government Website says an experienced plumber can expect a wage of £40,000 a year. I know plumbers earning much more than that. But I know some earning a lot less too. So it perhaps does average out to about that in all fairness.

Still working on this page – Last updated 15th October 2020

Tiling Courses Reviews and Advice

Tiling Courses information can be found on our TilersForums.co.uk blog. We have some course recommendations and also tips and tricks as to what to look out for when choosing a course.

Electrical Courses Advice and Reviews

Electrical Courses reviews and information can be found on our ElectriciansForums.co.uk blog. Similar to with plumbing and tiling courses, you should be able to use the information to help you select a good electricians course.

• Dan
• General

UK Trades Forum

UK Trades Forum and Websites are some of our best properties. We have the UK Plumbers Forum here, then ElectriciansForums.co.uk, and TilersForums.co.uk. The main and best three forums we have that are trade-related.

Our UK Trades Forum Network

In the early 2000’s I worked at a tiling training centre in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. As part of working there, in my spare time I built a tile forum that could be used by attendees of the tiling courses when they got home and actually started to practice well on family and friends.

They would end up with questions that we were happy to answer on the phone or via email in the training centre. Upto 15 people per week coming through the training centre at times, whether professional or DIY. So after a while I created the forum for those people to register to, for free. Then ask the questions, we could answer them, then the trainees shared their own experience. And then we had members register that were not from the training centre, which was fine with us. And we became the first tiling and tile forum this side of the pond, and the only one that specialised in professional trade talk, not just DIY.

Unfortunately I parted company with the training centre and gave them the tile forum

The First UK Trades Forum; TilersForums.co.uk Was Born

The UK Trades Forum, TilersForums.co.uk was born in April 2006. This forum still online now and is doing brilliantly (just had a new phase start but more on that later). Towards the end of 2019 we switched domains from .co.uk to .com to share our brilliant tile forum with the rest of the World not just the UK.

• refill tube in fill valve
  8 December 2023
  Hi, I have just installed a combination all in one WC/small basin…. Out of the fill valve there is a small tube which emits a lot of water during the refill (I believe it is known as a refill tube) and is connected directly into the overflow tube that drains into the pan, Googling suggests […]
• My first experience with CheckATrade
  8 December 2023
  Hello all, I have just joined, after being pushed into some DIY plumbing. Here is my first plumbing DIY effort. I had a cistern lever that didn't flush properly, and had become corroded and unsightly. I figured I'd get a plumber in to do it (after a couple of years apologising to guests for having […]
• Replace stop-tap/stopcock
  8 December 2023
  Hi all, I joined today and am a newbie at plumbing DIY. Thought I'd share my experience replacing the stopcock under my sink. The old one looked very corroded around the tap handle. An Anglian Water engineer was at the property measuring my water pressure and flow rate. When he saw the corrosion on the […]
• Low flow rate (5L/min) at electric shower, 30L/min at stopcock
  8 December 2023
  Hello, I have quite low flow rate for my electric shower (a piddling 5L/min), and would like some tips or advice about how to solve or find the cause. I would like a flow rate of about 12L/min. Here is my set-up: Standard gas boiler (not a combi) in the kitchen, have cold water tanks […]
• Very handy flow rate/pressure/bore diameter calculator
  8 December 2023
  I was looking into a problem with flow rate in my bathroom. A bit confused with how flow rate, water pressure, pipe length, and difference in height all interact. I found this very useful online calculator to assist. Do a google for "flow-rate-calculator" at copely dot com. It is a free calculator. I cannot pont […]
• Why does a 3/8" bush cistern lever actually measure 6/8" in diameter?
  8 December 2023
  Or does the 3/8" refer to the radius of the bush, not the diameter?
• Cistern lever: 3/8" bush means 17mm?
  8 December 2023
  I have bought a cistern lever that is described as having 3/8" bush According to the salesperson, the 3/8" refers to the diameter of the large white plastic threaded shaft which passes through the hole in the cistern. But when I measure the diameter of this large white plastic threaded shaft, it is 17mm. 17mm […]
• Pricing rads for friends
  8 December 2023
  Could do with some advice, might be fitting some radiators for a family friend. I've done loads of freebies for friends and family and still currently in my apprenticeship, theres five radiators in total, i haven't looked at the job as of yet so not sure whether pipework will need altering or anything. Just wondering […]
• Oil boiler keeps tripping when it rains?
  8 December 2023
  We've had a Grant Thornton oil boiler for about 5 years and suddenly it trips the electricity when it rains? The unit is in a wood shed and the exhaust goes out the wall horizontally. I can't see any water ingress in the machine, so at a real loss……and very cold..!!!!
• Sporadic Hot Water – Unvented indirect
  8 December 2023
  Good Afternoon all, I am hopeful someone may be able to offer some guidance on the following. In the home we have a gas boiler (serviced annually, October time) providing hot water to the CH system which is split into 3 zones (Honeywell 2-way valves) and it also heats the HW tank (Tribune 145L) in […]

UK Plumbers Forums part of the UK Trades Forum

UK Plumbers Forums was born around the same time. It’s still online to this day. The main forum for this has moved to a PlumbersForums.net