Is Plumber at Fault?

[Aquilani]

How much did he charge you to replace the bath tub if you don't mind me asking?

 

[expertgasman]

It may have been one of these.....

in which case its possible to overshoot the finish line. [/quote

]

yeah, fair do's. But my point stands that we don't know if we have the full story. And the OP has pi55ed me off.

 

[Agile]

Of course no lawyer would want to get involved because there is not enough money in the case. To deal with any case most would want about £2000.

I think that the OP has been fairly reasonable apart from implying that the plumber has insurance which will pay so he eill not be out of pocket.

Most insurance for plumbing has an excess of about £350-£1000 so in a case like this he would have to pay out of his pocket.

Its still not clear to me exactly how and where this connection to the soil pipe and why its easy/difficult to see how far the pipe protrudes. Or if the colour indicates its been like this for a long time.

Like everyone else I do hope we will be kept informed of the outcome.

Tony

 

[0wen]

Hi, that's what was used when I looked at it. I put a metal ring around the end now to prevent it from being pushed back in.

 

[profplumb]

Owen sorry to hear of your dilema can you tell me was your plumber a member of any trade organisations such as the Chartered Institute Of Plumbing and Heating Engineers ?????

Hi,

Thanks for your replies, I think the plumber is a nice guy but when I pointed out it was blocked he did not look at it and I asked if he had put anything down and he said no. I said I would try plunging it and he left so did not offer to help.

I called back that evening and said it had not cleard he still did not say he would look so I said I would get a drains person out.

I understand he made a silly mistake but I am no plumber and I know that a the waste pipe should not move back and forth and I should not assume it is fixed with a stopper at the end.

It has cost me £300 to fix and its cost me 2days of trying to fix resove the issue when I got someone in specificaly as I did not have the time to do it myself. I did my kitchen my self but was too busy to do this.

I will speak to him but I think he did make an incorrect assumption which caused the block and when I told him it blocked twice he did not think it might be the waste pip so I am not sure that I should pay the £300 bill on top of paying him to do the work....

Do that seem unfair?

 

[Agile]

From the way that Owen has described the lack of interest of this plumber in taking ownership of the problem, I very much doubt that he is a member of the CIPHE.

Owen, so that we can put the financial implications of this problem, could you tell us how much he quoted for replacing the bath?

Was any other work done at the same time?

Tony

 

[0wen]

Hi,

The guy is a tiler/bathroom fitter, I found him on check a trade. I asked for a quote to remove old bathtub, fit new bathtub, tile room & floor and fit bath screen but leave toilet as is.

His quote is about £1200 in total which was about average from the quotes I recieved.

I think is was originaly a tiler who has moved into the bathroom fitting trade.

I have the image below
pink pipe is the bath waste
red is the vent/waste flue
Green is where you can access the pipe upto the rubber bung

Below is what you can see from the access point the end of the pip is only slightly blackened so its clear that its not been stuck all the way in for long also in 5years the toilet never blocked or had an issue.. untill last week.

With regards to insurance my point was not that because he has insurance its ok... hounestly I wish this issue never happened but now it has and needs to be dealt with fairly so I am looking for others opinions before I make a decision what to do.

Thanks

 

[gasservice85]

i would say that a mistake like this can easily be done but should have checked. it would be normal to mark the pipe so you can see how far it has inserted.

although this is an easy mistake i havnt done it myself but if i had i would sort out the problem and either pay out for the drain guys bill or come to a middle ground which both me and my customer agreed on say half the cost for example. i think its clear that it hasnt always been like that or it would have always blocked.

denying responsibility in situations like this is no way to run a business

 

[profplumb]

owen can you tell me is the wc branch (fitting) above or below the bath connection as your photo does not show the whole installation

 

[gasservice85]

i think if you show the plumber this picture you can clearly see that the pipe has been inserted too far and he cannot deny responsibility.

contact him see what he says but to be honest that is about as far as it goes if he doesnt want to pay the bill or refund part of then theres not much you can do

have you now fixed the problem?

 

[0wen]

Hi profplumb,

The bath pipe goes in below the toilet pipe.


I have not yet paid him the final monies I did explain to him the cause of the blockage and his reply was that they normally have a bung to stop it going in too far I plan to call him this weekend to discuss the issue so as of yet I really don't know his reaction.

 

[alan999]

Hi
I'm still a bit confused as to what actually went on here.

Originally "...A few days later and the toilet blocked up, it had never done before but plumber could not clear block"

And later "...I think the plumber is a nice guy but when I pointed out it was blocked he did not look at it"

Can both of these be true?

 

[0wen]

He did not think any thing he had done had caused the blockage, I don't want to take the bloke to court over this mistake and wish I were not in this position now.

 

[DP]

Of course no lawyer would want to get involved because there is not enough money in the case

Pure speculation. I can get the inhouse laywer to look at what you write Tony and see what she says. I could be wrong (my wife says this often enough).

 

[profplumb]

If that is the case I would suggest that the engineer should have,A.reattended the property and looked at what he had done to double check it was/was not his install.B.If it was rectify at his cost,If not yours.Judging by you photographs it would lead me to believe that the evidence is not in his favour.
Two options open to you if you get no satisfaction with the engineer.A.Trading Standards.B.independant engineer visit perhaps someone from the CIPHE in your area they do have professional standards/expert witness inspectors all over the uk,it may involve a cost but at least not as as dear as litigation