Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

[MarkAqua]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Thought of one today - it's probably obvious to most, but for what ever reason when you have had to install flexi hoses rather than rigid copper then be very carefull not to twist them or bend in a position that is liable to kink, even temporarily as this cracks the rubber lining inside and is a perfect place for bacteria to store and grow at a later date I.e Legionella.

 

[Guest123]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Thought of one today - it's probably obvious to most, but for what ever reason when you have had to install flexi hoses rather than rigid copper then be very carefull not to twist them or bend in a position that is liable to kink, even temporarily as this cracks the rubber lining inside and is a perfect place for bacteria to store and grow at a later date I.e Legionella.

Hold them as you tighten them. And the cheaper ones are not for potable water. Use the WRAS ones. Best is rigid pipe.

 

[WaterTight]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

On your website have a clickable link to email you. Many customers, given the choice, will take the option to pen an email while online rather than phone. After including one I find I can get up to 5 a week.

 

[stevie t]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Thanks watertight wasnt aware I could do that i'll look into it. I'm not too hot on the old computer/giggleywotwots I know just enough to get by but i'll give it ago

 

[Phil]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

The one may be obvious...

When sorting your scrap metal out, remove the little brass screws, nuts and washers from taps, shower valves rad valves etc and put them in a little tin. They really come in handy when you accidently shear off a brass screw when putting Hudson Reed a shower back together!

In that case some numpty had been there before me and failed to fix it, in the process he over tightend a brass screw and it sheared as I undid it.

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Also keep back any odd, unusual and weird looking nuts, fittings, strange threads etc from your scrap - you never know when you will need them.

Keep a few good lengths of scrap 3/4" pipe as one day you will be faced with the end of an inaccessible 3/4" compression fitting, which 22mm pipe will not fit into!

Note to newbies to the trade - you need 3/4" olives for 3/4" pipe - Don't try and make do with and squash up a 22mm one!!

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Note on Wiped Lead Joints - this came up again on a discussion.

Wiped lead joints may not be used on any pipework or equipment carrying potable water. The regulations actually say that no new lead may be used, rather than referring to wiped joints as such, but a wiped joint by defnition uses new lead.

However this applies to potable water only and there is NO REASON at all why you cannot use a wiped lead joint on pipework not carrying mains or drinking water!!

 

[Colin68]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

always check the condition of WC's or basins before installing them, never assume because they are in a nice box that it all is good, check for marks and chips. Check the supplied cistern fittings are good enough for the job and will fit and have sufficient protection for overflow should an inlet valve fail and test the overflow protection works as part of your final commissioning!

When installing any taps sets, use the bubble wrap or some packaging to protect the taps with rubber bands or tape while you install, stop any scratches.

Always .. Always be polite to the customer and clean up after yourself, do leave any bits or metal filings on carpet.

Take a small tub in with you on the job to catch any waste bits, nails screw old washers, nuts .. always keep as many old parts as you can .. you never know when you'll need them

It has also been said on here before .. the job is done when it's done .. don't put yourself under pressure to complete and cut corners this will result in costly call backs and if you p the customer off he or she will tell 10 other people about you!!

Get a wet vac .. advice given to me by somebody which I initially ignore in favour or more expensive tools .. I have used this bit of kit so many times in recent months 🙂

 

[Kyle87]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

always check the invoice....... i learned the hard way...... afterall the guy at the merchants is only human.

 

[JR John]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Don't waste all day draining a gravity fed hot water system, shut off the gate valve which comes from the header tank!

 

[Dannypipe]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Here's a very useful link. I just came accross it because I was worried about something I did today. I serviced a Potterton Suprima, and hoovered it out.

Then used the hoover later without the filter (as I was sucking water this time) and the hoover blew out a load of dust into my face. Nice.

Anyway, if you want to know whether an old appliance contains asbestos, this list is pretty comprehensive.

Click the link and save it to your PC.
http://www.stop-think-asbestos.co.uk/pdf_downloads/GAS_ELECTRICALAPPLICANCESLIST.pdf

 

[Dannypipe]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

that's fine if the bloody thing shuts off lol

If it doesn't, I'll sometimes use a rubber bung, then change the valve while I'm there. Though in larger houses the standard rubber bungs arent big enough - I think 28mm is too big.

 

[tamz]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

If it doesn't, I'll sometimes use a rubber bung, then change the valve while I'm there. Though in larger houses the standard rubber bungs arent big enough - I think 28mm is too big.

big lump of blue tack :wink: or denso

 

[Guest123]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Best bung for a storage tank is a parsnip. Got that tip on here and it works brilliantly! Plus you get one of your five fruit and veggies after it.

 

[Gray0689]

If it doesn't, I'll sometimes use a rubber bung, then change the valve while I'm there. Though in larger houses the standard rubber bungs arent big enough - I think 28mm is too big.

Wrap a roll of ptfe on it then it works fine

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Putting many of your tools in the dishwasher cleans them up a treat. Remember to spray with WD40 immediately afterwards

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

If you shove a turnip or a potato on the expansion pipe and a carrot in the outlet it works a treat as a bung. Be careful not to leave any in there though.

 

[philip mc geown]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

i use a piece of 15 or 22 copper pipe with plenty of ptfe wrapped around the end of it, works a treat! Just use a normal pushfit stopend for the expansion :boat:

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Point to note - I discovered yesterday that Oventrop radiator valves and lockshields won't accept some makes of 10-15mm reducing olive sets as the recess in the valve is not long enough. Beware! Best to use a 10/15mm solder reducing fitting instead.

 

[kay-jay]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Putting many of your tools in the dishwasher cleans them up a treat. Remember to spray with WD40 immediately afterwards

i tried this earlier, she was happy with the grips and my hammer but she called me kinky when i got the wd40 out

 

[Phil]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Annoying drip from new new basin waste?

Wrap PTFE around the thread on the brass waste and then fit the flat washer or coned basin mate then tighten the nut. Nothing worse than that slow teardrop spiraling down the thread just when you thought you've finished.

Since I've used PTFE I've not had a single leak.

 

[WaterTight]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I've a couple of tips for anyone like me who satisfies the two conditions of owning an expensive freezing machine and also being an idiot.

1) If working on rads/primary pipes remember to tell the customer that the heating must be cold by the time you arrive.

2) When you arrive remember to check the heating is not due to come on.

I did neither of these on a job earlier and upon swapping a rad and filling it up put my tools away and then came back amazed to find it was now hot. Lu-cky.

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Remember to regularly sharpen the blades on your plastic pipe cutters to ensure a clean and easy cut.

 

[southcoastboile]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

if you get an iscolation valve leak from the spindle after turning it off to drain down a boiler drain down completely, layer it with flux and solder around the spindle, have done this a few times, you cant turn the valve back off but atleast it stops the leak untill you can gt hold of a new valve which can sometimes be a long wait

 

[Mr leaky]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

if you tighten a compression fitting onto a pipe and realize you have made a mistake you can remove olives with a flat file basically you tap the olive with the file and rotate the pipe slowly the olive can then be removed they can then be re-used some people say they leak but personally i have had no problems there are a few other tips on u tube that i have found the link is bellow

TheTomplum's Channel - YouTube

another thing i do is i write down faults in a small book so i can go back to it in the future it helps me remember things i would otherwise forget such as what ohm readings you should get from certain components, formulas and rules

 

[Guest123]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

This isn't really a plumbing tip but a matter of courtesy that my customers really appreciate. When working on a bathroom, the smells from open soil pipes. wastes and every day materials like flux, silicone etc can be very off putting, especially as it's someones home. I now always put a air freshener in the stripped out bathroom and the one that squirts out a scent on a timer.

 

[Steve @ TheHeatingHub]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

always keep half a length of imperial in ya van

 

[dontknowitall]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I find a couple of sheets of newspaper stops the smells and also soaks up the extra drips of water.

 

[fuzzy]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

use the correct tool for the job

 

[GQuigley67]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

buy one of those LED head lights they are the muts nuts for under floors and other confined spaces

 

[SimonJohns]

Mapp gas for soldering when a pipe has a slight amount of water in it

Making sure you always have an open end when soldering with a slight amount of water. The steam will blow the solder out of fitting

 

[Steve001]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Use your blow lamp to heat up a screwdriver tip to undo screws and ballofix vales that' are covered with paint

 

[REDSAW]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

put the blowlamp on the pipe slice for a few minutes then tell the apprentice to cut some pipe.
shuts them up for the rest of the day!.

 

[REDSAW]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

neat end feed soldering?.

a 15mm pipe end feed requires 15mm of solder, 22mm pipe fitting = 22mm of solder = no snot.

 

[REDSAW]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Did some wazzer in collage tell you that :lol:

lol,
i think it was the copper guild?. something to do with yorkies too, the solder in them is the fitting circumfrance divied by 2 = dia.?. or pie rsed.
some days when i feel lazy i just lay solder across pipe like a robot. seems to work well.