The dodgy tradesmen of old rant

[Dave Barter]

Today I’m out of isolation. Son calls me and asks if I can help him buy and install a new bathroom basin as his is cracked. Of we go to Torquay and return with a new bathroom suite as the sale was too tempting. We bought him a set of tools for Xmas and he is keen to learn on his first job. So I help him turn off the water, uncouple the taps, cap the pipes and remove the basin from the stand. I thought things were not quite right as the waste trap was bodged onto a 1 1/4 inch copper pipe. It got worse as at the floorboards this was further bodged onto a 1 inch pipe via a reducer. I told Jake we ought to get a few floorboards up to see how this had been attached to the bathroom waste outlet. This revealed a little shop of horrors. There were THREE separate copper pipes draining the basin, shower and boiler. Each had been channeled out of the house into the gutter. Two of them were leaking, one was wrapped in some fetid sticky muslin at a joint. I’ve never seen such a mess and am amazed any waste water ever left the house.

Am I wrong in thinking that 1 inch is not enough to discharge a shower? I cannot fathom how it has stayed unjammmed for so long. Anyway there goes the rest of my week as we have to replace the lot. At least Jake will learn plumbing (and swearing) super fast.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I read this and smile with you Dave. Any job I do in our house usually takes far longer than it should due to sorting out the previous work prior to starting. This is especially true of plumbing and electrics ... and yes, you want something bigger than 1" for a shower.

[whitestone]

Having worked in construction I've come across loads of horrors.

When I started going out with Cath she had a terraced house in North Wales. We decided to rebuild the bathroom - it was a single floor extension with single skin brick walls and a corrugated asbestos roof I'd demolished the existing building (old door frame just rendered over, wall plate used as the top part of the window frame, footing of 2cm of mortar) and was looking at turning the toilet waste pipe 90degs. I cracked the u-bend so had to replace that. I slid my tape measure down the pipe. There was a catch. A bit more investigation showed there was a gap! The builders had obviously thought that they needed four lengths of pipe to reach the manhole but they actually needed 4 1/2 so just stretched things out!

We were doing some work in a well known climbing hut. "Knock the power off while I connect up this heater" - cue a bang. Turned out that they'd put a shunt on the consumer unit so they could turn things on and off at the door!

Fixing up a property to sell it, I removed an old electric cooker. Thought I'd take the cable out back to the consumer unit. Halfway along the back of the skirting board I came across an unshielded 13A connector block.

50mm for a shower I believe.

[Bearbonesnorm]

50mm for a shower I believe.

[Rob S]

Sounds a proper nightmare. I think most waste water pipe is 32 or 40mm, never heard of anyone doing it in copper...

I hate finding stuff like this, straight away I'm thinking have they mucked about with the heating or electrics as well. I've found 10KW showers on 4mm cable and no rcd for instance.

[Boab]

Not just old. When we had our extension built, I had them wire up my shed so I could homebrew in there without having to run extension cables from the house. They put in a consumer unit with a 63A fuse thingie, but ran it through a 13A fused switch in the house. That was a fun evening when I found that out, wondering how I'd taken down the entire bottom floor of the house...

[jay91]

50mm for a shower I believe.

Shower/bath traps are for (40mm)inch half pipe and basin ( 32mm )inch quarter


Copper waste must be an old house Dave ??

[Dave Barter]

House was built 1920s but the shower base was modern as per the sink so some dodgy bugger did it 10-20 years ago

[Hamish]

Sounds like a plumbing nightmare!

Each had been channeled out of the house into the gutter.

Hmmmm. If the gutter drains to a surface water/storm drain you have a bit of a misconnection too. When we surveyed a few areas in Swansea, 10% of the properties were misconnected and were discharging foul/grey water to the local streams. Your gutter may drain to a combined sewer of course.

http://www.connectright.org.uk/

[Rapideye]

I agree with Jay91 with 50mm only required for longer runs. Renovated my bathroom and found the bathroom and sink waste didn't fall away but instead had to make its way uphill for most of the length.

[yourguitarhero]

Every person who worked on my Leyland DAF camper is a lunatic.
Every job involves removing everything and redoing it.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I use 50mm as I find the acid never really breaks everything down properly and what you're trying to get down the plug hole can be a bit sludgy

[Dave Barter]

It’s going to have to be 40mm to fit under a joist but the run is < 2.5m so I hope it’s Ok

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYGtY3fsCCd ... =copy_link

[jay91]

It’s going to have to be 40mm to fit under a joist but the run is < 2.5m so I hope it’s Ok

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYGtY3fsCCd ... =copy_link

Yeah that'll be fine.

I'm surprised it lasted that long.

[arkay]

Reminds me of the plumbing in my bathroom before we redid it. First time the Mrs had a "deep bath" (aka right up to the brim) I went into the garage (which goes underneath the bathroom), turned on the light and found a steady trickle of water dripping from the lightbulb. Subsequent investigation revealed that the bath overflow was not actually connected to anything.

Still better than a friend who moved into a new house a few years ago and discovered that the toilet waste pipe had come adrift below the floorboards and he was effectively living over a very shallow septic tank.

[ledburner]

turned on the light and found a steady trickle of water dripping from the lightbulb. ...

This happened on the back a porch. Turned on light unlocking outside door. ..Bang, hair full of light build shards then cold water drips..

...new house a few years ago and discovered that the toilet waste pipe had come adrift below the floorboards and he was effectively living over a very shallow septic tank.

. fragrant.
There he as washing his R's , thinking it still mucky & he smelt.
I thought sales of air freshener had plummeted

Happy new year, now bugger off..


...Outside on ya bike

[Teaman]

Interesting reads of what cowboys get up to.

On a very positive note, it would appear that you all have the skills and ability to put those jobs right and make good

Thankfully we have stayed put in our place for a long time so no scary discoveries but what with the cost of good tradesmen these days, it would cost the likes of me (who wouldn't or couldn't tackle such jobs) a fortune.

I used to do some gardening jobs as a little job after retirement but not so much now (my back disliked it) but was staggered when asking around for some clients, that the going rate is now £25ph/200 a day!.....so what are the day rates for chippies, plasterers and sparkies these days?!!

I'm located in Southampton so appreciate prices will perhaps be higher than some other areas but does seem staggering how prices seem to have gone up so much.

Andy

[Dave Barter]

As an update Jake’s sister who will remain nameless has somehow managed to put her foot through the bathroom floor into the kitchen. My DIY skills end at plastering so they are on their own with that one.

[Bearlegged]

Try asking Trep nicely?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CYMIzLaBTWY/