Have my water pipes been plumbed the wrong way?

[jennys07]

Good morning,

I recently had an extension, new bathroom and new en-suite fitted. Prior to the works the hot water worked.

Now we have moved back we have no hot water. British gas came for 5 hours on saturday and replaced every single part of the boiler to do with the hot water as well as the heat pump. After not knowing what else it could be, the engineer was able to manually ‘trick the boiler’ and turn the hot water on at the boiler - you could hear it firing up to heat. However, when I turned on any of the hot taps (kitchen sink, 2 bathroom sinks, bath tub, 2 showers), no hot water would feed through.

The gas man said that it’s most likely that either something has been plumbed in the wrong way, a shower isolator valve has been left off or I have a faulty shower mixer. Does this sound right? I explained this to my builder who completely disagrees and said I need a new boiler but british gas have said even if I replaced the boiler I would have the same issue.

Our central heating works fine. As an aside, if I turn on the central heating for a while then try one of the new loft bathroom taps only, the cold comes out very slightly luke warm for about 15 seconds before reverting to cold. The hot tap remains very cold. I don’t think we have a big problem with the diverter valve as the engineer just changed it on saturday.

Any advice would greatly be welcomed!

Best,
Jenny

 

[RayW]

I am not a professional but I know builders are not plumbers , they are also not gas engineers or electricians. You need a experienced plumber who can work through the system to discover what you builder has been up to.

 

[jennys07]

Thanks, Ray. Agreed, the builder is coming with his plumber to check it out today but he said he’s already spoken to his plumber and they maintain it’s a ‘boiler issue’ and so I was hoping for some advice to contest them.

 

[Chuck]

Tell them that you have consulted BG and they have demonstrated that the problem isn't the boiler so you are giving the builder an opportunity to diagnose and fix the problem. If they can't, or don't want to, deal with the issue, you'll need to employ someone who can and reclaim the costs from them.

Be nice and polite. You're going to win this one so the aim is to get it resolved quickly and amicably. Obviously, the more you can get in writing the better.

 

[snowhead]

Did the builder's plumber check and prove Hot water to each tap /shower when they finished their work?
And that would mean not only check each Hot tap / shower for flow but also for Hot water.

The easiest way to check if it's piped up correctly is to open up 1 Hot tap at a sink, basin or bath, then go to the boiler and isolate the mains cold water supply to it.
If the tap is correctly piped then the water should stop flowing when the supply to the boiler is turned off.

Turn the water to the boiler back on and turn off the tap and repeat for each individual tap and shower.

Has all the plumbing for Hot water been altered or is there still Hot tap that is piped as before the alterations?

 

[Last Plumber]

I can't understand why all the parts on the boiler were replaced?
Surely they could fault find without doing that?

 

[jennys07]

I don’t believe the plumber did check the hot water - which is another annoyance in itself! He’s also yet to turn up to check his work.

Thanks for the advice on how to check the pipes, we will try that.

Our kitchen sink remains untouched from before the work started, and the hot water no longer works there either…

 

[jennys07]

Did the builder's plumber check and prove Hot water to each tap /shower when they finished their work?
And that would mean not only check each Hot tap / shower for flow but also for Hot water.

The easiest way to check if it's piped up correctly is to open up 1 Hot tap at a sink, basin or bath, then go to the boiler and isolate the mains cold water supply to it.
If the tap is correctly piped then the water should stop flowing when the supply to the boiler is turned off.

Turn the water to the boiler back on and turn off the tap and repeat for each individual tap and shower.

Has all the plumbing for Hot water been altered or is there still Hot tap that is piped as before the alterations?

I don’t believe the plumber did check the hot water - which is another annoyance in itself! He’s also yet to turn up to check his work.

Thanks for the advice on how to check the pipes, we will try that.

Our kitchen sink remains untouched from before the work started, and the hot water no longer works there either…

 

[jennys07]

I can't understand why all the parts on the boiler were replaced?
Surely they could fault find without doing that?

We and BG thought we had an issue with the boiler so that’s why he ended up replacing everything before confirming it certainly isn’t the boiler!

 

[Last Plumber]

We and BG thought we had an issue with the boiler so that’s why he ended up replacing everything before confirming it certainly isn’t the boiler!

I know. The bit I don't understand is why? There isn't much on a boiler that can't be tested so why replace things that are in good health?

Why not test through it and decide that there is nothing wrong. Maybe it's just me who is old fashioned in my approach to these things.

 

[Timmy D]

It shouldn’t be hard to fault find this. If there are isolation valves on the outlets, could have this figured out in an hour.

 

[Michelle S]

We have had an extra radiator installed and an existing one moved to a different position. we found out the builders have piped these up wrong and only 1 radiator is working. Will this damage our boiler

 

[Ben-gee]

No it wont damage the boiler, well it depends how wrong i suppose!
Generally if s radiator is plumbed in incorrectly it wont work, but thats about all.

 

[jh2254]

What was the outcome please? Would be interested to know what the problem was and the solution? Thanks.

 

[Jerry]

A skilled gas engineer should not need to change everything in the boiler to prove that it's not the boiler.
BG are more interested in their guys being salesmen than tradesmen.

Builder wants to cover his bum.

3rd party