Blooming Cowboy Plumbers

A while back we descovered we had no hot water in the house, and I'm no good with pipes & water but I had a look, and supprise supprise couldn't see anything wrong.

So after consulting friends & family we consulted a fairly local plumber, only to be told that the boiler had a crack in it. At the time, I never thought to question how this would affect the hot water & not the cold, but bygons. A quote of £500 for parts & labour was given, so we gave the go ahead.

Long story a little shorter, my other half has just sent me a message on MSN to say "he's leaked the pipes, there's water everywhere upstairs, but he says it's OK." My advice to her was to make sure it's sorted out to her liking and if it's not, politely tell this c-nut that he'll be getting a bill for carpet cleaning and any inspection/repairs to damage.

I've also told my other half that if he gets picky about the finer points of waterleaks on carpets & floors, that she should get the digital camera out & start taking photo's before he leaves. If he's in any way argumentative/threatening about it she's to call my office number & I'll be jumping on the bike.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, 1) he's a c-nut, and 2) I'm pretty bored at work. I suppose I should look at it as an "Oh, I might get out of work early" thing, but at the moment I'm looking at it more in a kind of a way.

At least if I do get a phone call, I can use it as an excuse to test the rev limiter on the SV

Yeah. You have to love the contractors.

I told mine to straighten up and square the recessed lights in the ceiling.
Then I told him again. Then my brother did.
Then the guy putting up plaster board told him. Then the guy doing the skim told him.
Then I told him again. Then my brother told him again.

Then we had a little fight, about how he doesnt understand how many favours he is doing us. And I didnt see him for two days. Then he came back...



the lights are still not straight as of this morning.

No messing; I to take a Xanex yesterday, cause I was starting to shake. Un f**cking believable.

And this is just the lights.

[Red ones]

Welcome to the world of contractor management. It gets little better when you deal with the big boys on a professional level.

I am currently battling with a large construction firm over the fact that I usually expect the lock on a door to be on the opening side of the aperture, not the hinge side. I have another contractor who asked when he could switch of a water supply, I said "first thing in the morning" - I don't believe the pipe just broke 5 minutes later.

[TSM]

When you say no hot water, do you mean its not hot or that its not running? It depends very much what type of system you have if its a C or D type. Its diffrent though if you have a combi boiler. I know a bit about the C type system as i overhalled the wiring in our house a while back, the D type has a couple of diffrences.

Originally Posted by Red ones

Welcome to the world of contractor management. It gets little better when you deal with the big boys on a professional level.

I am currently battling with a large construction firm over the fact that I usually expect the lock on a door to be on the opening side of the aperture, not the hinge side. I have another contractor who asked when he could switch of a water supply, I said "first thing in the morning" - I don't believe the pipe just broke 5 minutes later.

its about right for joiners isnt it...

"well the drawing doesnt say that"

cause it shouldnt fkin have to !!!!!

[Red ones]

Originally Posted by 454697819

its about right for joiners isnt it...

"well the drawing doesnt say that"

cause it shouldnt fkin have to !!!!!

Sadly, the drawing did show it (I am too used to this now and I make sure the drawings show it) just as the drawings also showed a door handle on the OUTSIDE of an outward opening door. I now have a door with no door handle and no way of getting in!

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by Red ones

Sadly, the drawing did show it (I am too used to this now and I make sure the drawings show it) just as the drawings also showed a door handle on the OUTSIDE of an outward opening door. I now have a door with no door handle and no way of getting in!

If that wasn't so tragic, it would be funny. In fact, it goes BEYOND tragic............it's actually quite frightening that people really ARE that stupid!

Originally Posted by TSM

When you say no hot water, do you mean its not hot or that its not running? It depends very much what type of system you have if its a C or D type. Its diffrent though if you have a combi boiler. I know a bit about the C type system as i overhalled the wiring in our house a while back, the D type has a couple of diffrences.

I have no idea what type of system is it but I do know that the work has been completed. He left bits all over the floor & made a mess of the cupboard the boiler is in. Nothing that I can't fix next time I get chance to get my hands on a little wood.

The problem with the hot water was that it wasn't hot, but it was coming out the taps.

I've got the guys address, and just gor ****s & giggles I'll be calling off there tonight (I know he's on another job). He lives in a caravan and I'll be rigging a new security alarm to his door It'll involve fishing wire & a shotgun shell amongst other things. I wont be there to see it unfortunately, but hey, the thought is enough.

[timwilky]

Now when I had a new boiler fitted in the kitchen to replace the old back boiler in the lounge chimney, I realised that there would have to be a certain ammount of pipe cutting etc.

So I asked the guy "Do you want me to drain it down before you arrive as I will be at work". "No you are ok, we will do it". Draining down is not difficult as I fitted a valve years ago under the sub floor with a permanent drain pipe and only takes about 20 seconds to access.

Imagine how annoyed I was when the wife phoned me at work to say they had simply cut through the pipe and dumped the whole heating system contents in the floor void. They then used her brand new vaccum cleaner to suck up the brick dust as they core drilled for the new flue and completely blocked and then burnt out the motor. Next they cut through a work top to route the new gas pipe, but left the pipe on the wall surface instead of sinking it.

I had offered to pre install cabling, pipework etc so that it would be hidden, No we will do all that. He wasn't happy when I withheld £250 to make good the damage.

I then contrast this with the cable TV guy. knowing they were comming. I had pre installed draw wires and ducting to enable them to route within the floor void instead of on top of skirting boards etc. He thanked me as I had reduced his install time from several hours to route all the cable to several minutes.

Tim:

I'm beginning to thing that you are the most unlucky guy in the world; everything that can go wrong seems to have gone wrong and there doesn't seem to be anything that you haven't experienced.

I now know why you are opinionated