Is this acceptable?

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Is this acceptable?

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Jimmy2k

Just had plumber come round to take heating pipes down from upstairs down to new radiator in the living room. Couple of things:

1. He said the conduit would look neat just like on the original work done in the house - I don't think it does.

DSCF0503.jpg

2. He's taken quite a large chunk out of one of the joists - apparently it shouldn't be more than 1/8th of the height of the joist, this one has gone from total height of 17cm down to 10cm at the deepest part of the cut (the closest pipe to the picture).

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Should I be concerned about any of this? If so what is the best way to go about putting it right?
 
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Thanks for your replies.

He's charged £240 for the job (including reconnecting an outside pipe with copper instead of plastic tubing although he used big white plastic push-fit connectors on outside of the house too) - but I supplied the radiator.

I'm sure it's difficult to run pipes into coving but he said it would look like the other boxed-in drop pipes in the room which it clearly does not. If he had used a multitool or even a bit of care or measurement then I think it would have looked better rather than just bashing a hole in the coving.

I'll have to have a think about what to do - either pay him and fix myself or get second opinion from other plumber and see what it might cost to fix.
 
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Jimmy2k said:
Thanks for your replies.

He's charged £240 for the job (including reconnecting an outside pipe with copper instead of plastic tubing although he used big white plastic push-fit connectors on outside of the house too) - but I supplied the radiator.

I'm sure it's difficult to run pipes into coving but he said it would look like the other boxed-in drop pipes in the room which it clearly does not. If he had used a multitool or even a bit of care or measurement then I think it would have looked better rather than just bashing a hole in the coving.

I'll have to have a think about what to do - either pay him and fix myself or get second opinion from other plumber and see what it might cost to fix.
Click to expand...

just get a years warranty from him cover it up?
did he bash the coving or try to cut it? sometimes a piece just falls out!
and what was the state under floor boards before he started/how many notches did he chop?
 
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Bashed I think.

Didn't check under the floor before the job but no real reason for the notch to be there apart from to take that pipe.

I suppose I can fix what I think needs fixing and if anything goes wrong then go back to him.
 
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Jimmy2k said:
Thanks for your replies.

He's charged £240 for the job (including reconnecting an outside pipe with copper instead of plastic tubing although he used big white plastic push-fit connectors on outside of the house too) - but I supplied the radiator.

I'm sure it's difficult to run pipes into coving but he said it would look like the other boxed-in drop pipes in the room which it clearly does not. If he had used a multitool or even a bit of care or measurement then I think it would have looked better rather than just bashing a hole in the coving.

I'll have to have a think about what to do - either pay him and fix myself or get second opinion from other plumber and see what it might cost to fix.
Click to expand...

As others have said, I don't like to make comment on other peoples work, that said I've turned down jobs because the money wasn't in the job to do it right and i'd rather not do the job than do a bad job and potentially ruin my reputation,

My advise would be to get a quote off another plumber to make good his mistakes and get a structural engineer/ surveyor round to look at the joist, then go from there, don't pay him a single penny until you've done these to things, but let him know your not happy with his work, your getting it looked at and will pay him if no fault is found or if he rectifys the things your not happy with/that aren't up to scratch,

Your home is Your castle and you've got to live there as said some things like the coving are sometimes un avoidable and can be made good fairly easy, however notching a joist far too much because your lazy is no excuse
 
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Am i reading this right ?

The job was £250 , the plumbs has supplied a double radiator plus valves, the trunking and pipe plus sundries supplied .

He or she has then gone under the floor to cut into all this .

If this is correct then£250!!!!
 
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Is touch rough however i have seen a lot worse than that .

Personally if it was my house i would let it go your house won't fall down .

Most older houses round here that have been renovated numerous times have much worse under the floor than that .

Are they still standing.
 
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Thanks for that. Nice to know it's possibly not as bad as I thought - we wanted a quick job before new carpet comes and that's probably what we got. As was said above - the joist can be strengthened and the coving replaced.

Thanks for everyone's help / replies!
 
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Polyfiller on the coveing probably no more than a 10 minute job....the joists won't come through your ceiling .....put your carpet down & forget it.....then move...
 
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agreed you see much worse in some joists! the pipe has to go through somewhere. if you worked the loads out etc probably say the joist is compromised, but its 1 joist it wont go anywere! Its like foundations on houses if a structural engineer looked at the footings on my house they would say its inadequate blah blah blah! house is still here after 120 years! sometimes these formulas they have take things to far and a bit of common sense needs to prevail. Although its a bit rough and not how i would of done it i have seen far far worse!
 
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the older the house is, the more the joist size was guessed anyway or whatever they had in the yard!!

the joists in my house run front to back 6'' x 2'' in one length of 7 metres with 3 brick bedroom walls on top of them!:ack2:
 
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Check out the actual span of the notched joist. The notch has reduced the 170 x 50 to the equivalent of a 100 x 50 joist. If the span exceeds 2.5 metres structural integrity has been compromised. The span is the clear distance between supports and should not be confused with the total length of joist.
 
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I was on a job once and the hole backroom floor was like a trampoline, after someone had notched 5 22mm pipes in a row and they where all tight notches
 
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Joists span 3.4m by a rough estimate. The deepest notch is 15" out from the wall.

Apparently he could fit the new radiator without draining the system by doing it this way. He put a bung in the header tank somewhere and switched off the heating allowing him to make the cuts, put the valves on and then do the rest of the work...

Another pic of the layout (this is in upstairs bedroom and the new pipes are teeing off to the downstairs radiator):
DSCF0511.jpg
 
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size of them notchs for 10mm pipes? , every thing else aside I really cant stand the ticking time bomb's full of flux corrosion after the tees?!!! did he not mention anything about that? i recommend you get them cut out,
looking at picture 2 , it looks like the notchs for the 10mm pipes have been made a lot bigger recently as the woods fresh?
 
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As I said on previous post, - the ballofix valves, or any valves have no reason to be fitted.
The OP has said the guy bunged the system and had to use ballofix valves. He didn't, - all he needed to use was 2 stopends to allow the rest of new pipe work to be done. And it is so handy with 10mm very flexible copper pipes! It's DIY and no better
 
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As above all's it needed was two stop ends on the pipes where the 15mm SPF tees are, cut out the old pipe work and them two tee's with the bashed over ends and make new connections then quick swap from blanks to SPF fitting and 10mm could of been ran allt he way from the tees instead of butchering the joists, i'd say the installer didn't really think it through
 
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Hi, just thought I'd update you on what happened with all this. I phoned the plumber and told him I wasn't happy, explained about the joist etc and that I would withhold a portion of the invoice fee. He didn't even question this, which I suppose says a lot.

In the end the damaged part of the joist was cut out to allow a new block of wood to be fitted in with a pre-cut notch. This was glued and screwed to the joist with a tight fit. The pipes were re-done and lagged where they came into contact with wood.

I don't have many pictures of the end result but here is one. Thanks again for your help.

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Jimmy2k said:
Hi, just thought I'd update you on what happened with all this. I phoned the plumber and told him I wasn't happy, explained about the joist etc and that I would withhold a portion of the invoice fee. He didn't even question this, which I suppose says a lot.

In the end the damaged part of the joist was cut out to allow a new block of wood to be fitted in with a pre-cut notch. This was glued and screwed to the joist with a tight fit. The pipes were re-done and lagged where they came into contact with wood.

I don't have many pictures of the end result but here is one. Thanks again for your help.

View attachment 26012

View attachment 26013
Click to expand...

Thanks for keeping us updated, its good to know how these things turn out,
Glad to see you got a good outcome and a much better job by the looks of it
 
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