22mm / 1" socket ?

[realstokebloke]

The problem is you have gone at the job piecemeal. Fit a bit, find a problem, resolve that problem find another one. You are going about the whole thing back to front.

Before doing the fancy bathrooms you should have looked at your basic plumbing system and worked out if it was up to the job.

My customers don't give me carte blanche to fit whatever I want regardless of cost but they listen to my advice on whether a solution is workable. I can then work out a cost to complete the job correctly. If this is beyond their budget it mat be possible to revise the job to make some cost savings or they decide not to go ahead until they can afford to have the job done to the specification that they want.

I give freely of my experience and my experience of the way you are approaching your bathroom install is that you need to sit down a look at the bigger picture and decide what you want to do in the future with your plumbing system to minimise wastage.

My experience of 17 year old cylinders is that I avoid working on them unless essential because they are liable to leak when you disturb them.

Fair enough & i respect your experience & knowledge i honestly do.

But sometimes, it's just not "bigger picture" sceanrio and a:

"we are going to plan a bathroom re-fit, with 3 months to plan it & think it through & here's a hefty budget to boot - so now please tell us what you think we should spend Mr Pipes".

Sometimes, something goes belly up in a bathroom (in my case a sink) and one thing leads to ano...

So yes, I have done it piece meal and (as i am discovering) it all knocks on and it has taken longer than i ever expected.

But... i know a hoot of a lot more about it all now (and even enough to know to plan it out better and consult the pro's earlier if that makes you feel better) and I am no longer completely useless at the basics. In fact i am quite chuffed with what i have done (despite however much you may scoff at an 'amateur').

And i won't even bother to tell you what i have learned about tiling and lighting on the same project... 🙂

Nevertheless, this will be finished largely as expected, will work fine and look great - and if we change the basic heating / plumbing configuration (go combi etc), so be it - we'll change the system, sell the pump but we'll have a stonking good shower in the meantime.

So yes, I am old enough & ugly enough to admit, that of course you are not wrong - but given i did get embroiled in a big (for me) job with (yes, i admit it also) too little experience and understandably came here seeking some help / advice, i don't think it fair / approriate or even that mature to just play the proverbial stuck record "should have hired a pro (& spend a small fortune)" - particularly one that i don't have budgetted currently.

Where does that get anyone?

You look arrogant and i / we (on be behalf of the mere mortals asking for some help) just get the bleeding obvious thrown back at us.

So if i am / we are in the wrong place - populated only by the plumbing elite just sniggering at the great unwashed (like me with no shower currently 🙂 ) overcoming simple (to you) problems, then somebody please tell me.

I did think it was a place to seek advice and a place where people with it would share same without a grudge.

Anyway, truce (at my end anyway), i now think you are the best plumber in the world - apart, that is, from Trevor - who is fitting my Essex no stop Saturday. 🙂

Simple really.

In the meantime thanks for your help.

 

[Mike Jackson]

Hopefully you've learned a bit about the proper way of planning a job in the process. There are also ways of minimising the cost of having a professional in to do the work.

I've just completed a large job where to save money the customer did a lot of the basic labouring like lifting floor boards etc. He saved himself the cost of 2 days labour on the job.

I've just started another which involves renovating two bathrooms ' fitting an unvented cylinder and replacing the cold main to the property. To save money the customer dug the trench for the new main. I'm disconnecting the old fittings and he is removing them and disposing.

I get very frustrated when people rush into jobs without proper planning. Not just DIYers some professionals are guilty of it as well. I used to work for a national company and a lot of the problems on installs were created when engineers rushed into a job without checking it out properly first and then waste time putting right problems that should have been noticed before the job commenced.