He drained the downstairs utility room radiatior to stop the water from the pipe with the nail hole and then he took ages replacing the pipe cos it was in an awkward place
Well going back to the plumbers proffesionalism, obviously the OP hasn't posted any pictures of the job, but my query is why he didn't slice the nail hole, and use a slip ring etc. I'd even have suspected an emergency plumber to have a freezing machine, to save the system being drained. £90 an hour is fine if the jobs done quickly, but this one doesn't seem to have been. There are a lot of guys that I know that will say that having drained the system, the water will stay in the rads because there's no air getting into the rad to allow it to drain out, but I'd say that as a matter of course, a quick check of the rads should have been done. And if he was certain that the rads didn't need bleeding, he should have been looking for the problem elsewhere, not telling the OP that he'll have to charge for it.
And yes, it almost looks as though someones used a remote rad valve to control the temp of the cylinder, but it looks open (which it maybe should be) so should be running all the time, and if the
Now it's interesting reading the different way that some of you bleed rads; I personally do it half hot, and that seems to help shift any air locks if there are any. If the rads are hot at the bottom, and cold at the top, then they need bleeding, so his response is a bit odd. Would I be cynical in suggesting that the plumbers turned something off, and won't admit it; and I'd hate to think that he's waiting for the addittional work to then suddenly fix it.
Kezz, do you have legal cover on your household insurance?