I just spent 8 hours swapping a pedestal basin for a vanity unit basin.

[WaterTight]

Fail.

 

[mountainman]

As long as the job was nice in the end, that's all that matters!!

 

[Guest123]

Not every job has a predefined time limit mate. I spent 4 hours on a bath today, because it had been leaking from various parts for some time and I had to lift the floor and renew it with 18mm ply.

The joys of plumbing!

 

[WaterTight]

I was satisfied with the finished job. Neatly and professionally done. It was just every thing that could prove fiddly and problematic did. Including an airlock, a completely unlevel floor, no isolation anywhere. But even given all that I just don't know how I managed to spend a full day doing it. Found it slightly embarrassing since I'd estimated half a day max. But he was happy with finished job.

 

[WaterTight]

Sounds to me like had I been doing your job system I'd still be there now.

 

[SimonG]

Chin up mate, it happens.

Cust happy so jobs a good un.

 

[Guest123]

Don't worry about it mate. Every one has days like that. We can go 4 jobs without any problems andour confidence goes sky high, then along comes job number 5 and BANG! something goes wrong and we start to doubt our abilities. Such is the nature of plumbing mate and it happens to evryone.

Alls well that ends well and you've stuck it long enough to just take the good with the bad.

 

[Best]

Yea, - you feel useless when this happens, but remember there is no such thing as an easy job. Rarely will everything go right! You can lose 1 or 2 hours just if a gate valve breaks or a heating system airlocks. Just be happy you didn't leave a mess of a job which would backfire badly.

 

[JCplumb]

As said above, don't worry it happens.
Once every couple of weeks or so a quick job ends up taking forever. Things like air locks and bad original fitting can't be helped, nor are they your fault.
Some days I would love to get my hands on the original installer.
I had a bad one today - 3 hours to replace 10 inches of 15mm after I'd told the cust it would be about 1/2 an hour...

 

[Dannypipe]

Yep, happens to us all.....and most of us feel like you do. Don't beat yourself up.

As said, if the finished product was good, then that's all that matters.

I once had a loo to repair. It was a funny shape cistern and I had a mare with it. Totalled up to 7 hours of work, just to change a siphon and fill valve.

 

[WaterTight]

Thanks everyone. This board is 80% information, 20% group therapy.

 

[Rickster123]

The customer was happy. That's the important thing. That means he'll tell his family and friends and you'll make that extra half a day back in no time! Keep smiling mate.

 

[dontknowitall]

Must have been one of those days.

I went to change an oil pump on a boiler - an hour from leaving door to returning home.

Closed door and went to shed. No pump. Into merchants to buy pump. None in stock. Round to another. £101??!!!! Flip! Oh well. Off to customer's house. Fitted by 4pm. Boiler locked out. No oil coming through. Finished at 7pm. Need to buy another filter so that will be another hour or so tomorrow or Thursday - at least, judging by the way this job is going.

Some jobs just seem to go on and on. It's the life of a plumber.

I also feel embarrassed if I've quote a day and finish in 3-4 hours!

 

[DustyM]

I've not yet had the pleasure of a job going completely wrong, but I know it'll happen sooner or later. I'll definitely be looking for that therapy after that!! Keep smiling WaterTight!

 

[Finpecia]

~~~~~~~~~

how do you do sir?

 

[glenno1]

Had a few days like it.I have also found that from my experience i have found that if it goes wrong it tends to stay that way all day,then next day it goes great

 

[Bobleponge]

i had one of those about 3 weeks ago, 3 trips in the end to install a new close coupled cistern after the old one had broken. Fail. However it happens, and as was said up there ^^^^^ the customer is happy and will tell his friends, which is what counts. Got a call at 1040 this morning when I was out walking the dog, got home, got into van, drove to customer, spent less than 25 minutes in the house (of which 10 was drinking a coffee) and was home before midday with a big fat cheque in my pocket. If only every day was like today.

 

[jase158]

I know we cant always help it, but is there sometimes things we can do to help prevent such days.

the big one for me is Mcalpine traps, whenever I buy screwfix ones, i spend days trying to get them to seal, they seal and an hour later they leak, ahhhhh

 

[Guest123]

I know we cant always help it, but is there sometimes things we can do to help prevent such days.

the big one for me is Mcalpine traps, whenever I buy screwfix ones, i spend days trying to get them to seal, they seal and an hour later they leak, ahhhhh

Totally agree. Mcalpine seal first time, don't cross thread and can stand high water temps, while the Floplast ones leak, cross thread and CAN'T stand high water temps and the seals expand and leak. The worst ones are the shallow seal bath traps, the ones with the rodding eye (why they put that on I don't know) as the rodding eye leaks everytime unless horsed up tight.
Toolstation ones are worse. They don't have the coloured plastic ring before the rubber compression ring and I've stood and watched a pipe coming out of one after flushing out a full bath. Thank goodness, the bath panel wasn't on.

 

[WaterTight]

Well I'm obviously getting better. Because, four months on from my originally posting this thread, today I only spent 6.5 hours changing a vanity basin unit for another vanity basin unit.

Mind you, I did have help for a couple of hours.

 

[mfgs]

Dont worry about how long it took, worry about the end result. No point in bragging about doing it in 2 hours and it looks rough as a badgers arse, take your time and get it looking perfect the first time and you will have a happy customer.

 

[secret squirrel]

Fail.

Amateur :74:


Today, I had to re-light a pilot light for an old dear a good customer of mine, an hour later she called that it had gone out again, she tried turning up the thermostat to test it but it hadn't worked. Returned and it was still alight, she turned the thermostat up to 20 degrees.......

Second job, I had previously installed a new set of kitchen taps and turned (apparently) the o/s tap off via an isolator. Turned up, turned the o/s tap on and went to the hose, turned the nozzle and it worked!

M U P P E T S

 

[secret squirrel]

I find jobs are as never as easy as they look, if they are I'm very very pleasantly surprised.

Now if I think something will take a couple of hours I take sandwiches!

 

[Carl86]

Better to have a happy customer and a good end result, than a slap and dash with an unhappy one. No matter how long it takes you, you are paid for your knowlege and skill so as long as the jobs a good one thats what counts. Unforseen problems can always arrise, and im sure any customer would apreciate you working with these problems to get the job right first time, they tend to see an end product and pay more attention to the lovely bit of kit they have had fitted.

Ive never heard a customer praise a quick job as such, but they always mention a neat one when they have a lovely suite fitted or you have pulled them out of a sticky situation.

Another thing with plumbing, with alot of things in life.... You never stop learning theres always something that crops up that you have never seen before so it takes time to take it in so you dont balls anything up, sometimes we do have mishaps its human nature it's our mark up so we remember and hopefully don't repeat the same errors again.

 

[mountainman]

I would always try to strangle my oppo when he said 'we'll be done in another hour'.
Kiss of death in my experience.

 

[Dannypipe]

I would always try to strangle my oppo when he said 'we'll be done in another hour'.
Kiss of death in my experience.

True. Never say we're almost done. It's dangerous!

 

[WaterTight]

I actually did that today. I said I'll be another 45 minutes. I left an hour and 3/4 later.

 

[jase158]

Better to have a happy customer and a good end result, than a slap and dash with an unhappy one. No matter how long it takes you, you are paid for your knowlege and skill so as long as the jobs a good one thats what counts. Unforseen problems can always arrise, and im sure any customer would apreciate you working with these problems to get the job right first time, they tend to see an end product and pay more attention to the lovely bit of kit they have had fitted.

Ive never heard a customer praise a quick job as such, but they always mention a neat one when they have a lovely suite fitted or you have pulled them out of a sticky situation.

Another thing with plumbing, with alot of things in life.... You never stop learning theres always something that crops up that you have never seen before so it takes time to take it in so you dont balls anything up, sometimes we do have mishaps its human nature it's our mark up so we remember and hopefully don't repeat the same errors again.

Too true,

Doing job at moment and lever valves were leaking and the gate valve was working.
Never had that before, normally other way round.

Also the cylinder was blocked, I have tried pushing mains through the hot so many times and never worked once.

Today it worked, just goes to prove, no matter how good you are or how long you have been doing it, everyone gets problems.

but as said before, its what it lloks like at the end that matters.

 

[jase158]

Amateur :74:


Today, I had to re-light a pilot light for an old dear a good customer of mine, an hour later she called that it had gone out again, she tried turning up the thermostat to test it but it hadn't worked. Returned and it was still alight, she turned the thermostat up to 20 degrees.......

Second job, I had previously installed a new set of kitchen taps and turned (apparently) the o/s tap off via an isolator. Turned up, turned the o/s tap on and went to the hose, turned the nozzle and it worked!

M U P P E T S

Aren't you partly to blame for not checking the hose before you left and for not explaining to the customer how the thermostat works and having to go back to both for free?

 

[WaterTight]

If you're busy you forget to do at least one non-vital thing on every job.

Incidentally what was blocked on the cylinder? The cold feed?

 

[Pipes Plumbing]

Had one of these days yesterday!

Fitting a modern (FIrebelly Pod) woodburner, which looked the mutts nuts - Installing external twinwall flue as no chimney, spent the day cutting out the hole in the wall that they were adament that they'd have cored as "their friend is a professional diamond driller"... Shame he cored the hole at 8" instead of 10", and about a gnats nose hair below an RSJ in the wall. First piece of fun...
Then, after installing 90% of the flue system, grabbed the final piece only to find the inner skin distorted and spattered with weld so it wouldn't fit. Cue a 45 minute drive to the nearest suipplier for a replacement at a STUPID price.

Finally got back, finished it off, got it sealed and commisioned and looking good only for the customer's wife to start kicking off massively about the agreed price (as they'd cored the hole), and the fact that some dust had made it's way into the house (because I'd had to chop up their nicely cored hole to the right size)...

Ended up getting home at gone 9 last night, having barely made a profit for the day.

On the plus side, her husband was more than happy withthe job and has passed me a few other really nice recomendations and leads. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself that the day wasn't a complete waste of time!

 

[Phil]

One thing you can bet on is if someone else cores a hole for you it will be in the wrong place/wrong size.

 

[stevetheplumber]

True. Never say we're almost done. It's dangerous!

thank god i thought it was just us the going home gods hated

 

[Mike Jackson]

Just to tick everyone off. Allowed 4 hours to take out a basin and fit a vanity unit including running a new waste and fitting lever valves to the supplies for further alterations. Started at 9 and finished at 11. I'd done my days work by 2. It's a shame more days don't go as well.

 

[jase158]

If you're busy you forget to do at least one non-vital thing on every job.

Incidentally what was blocked on the cylinder? The cold feed?

yes, cold feed, nothing coming out of top.