Hot and cold shower connections the wrong way round

[pfm401]

What are your views on this? The issue is fixed but the contractor's attitude to it worries me for the rest of the job and using them in future.

When my new shower was fitted it was either really hot or really cold, the issue was the hot and cold inlets were the "wrong way round" and the fitter hadn't checked it. Luckily they were able to reverse the pipes by getting under the plinth rather than rip the fittings out and start again.

However they've said that they have effecitvely worked for free fixing it because the quote said "fit to existing pipes". Which I suppose is literally true but it was a bit of plastic pipe work to switch them which is "fitting to existing pipes" to a simple customer like me. And it seems absolutely ridiculous for a professional to work to the letter of the quote if it delivers a product which doesn't work.

I'm shocked by all this, wouldn't a fitter check before fitting an entire shower set up? Seems basic to me - run the water out to check, or at least check the shower unit. They claimed they couldn't because they'd put silicone down but really - a shower hose into a bucket of water perhaps?? Or check before silicone?

They also claimed they'd won a court case by arguing they're entitled to rely on previous installations, not sure of context but again, really in this case? I suppose if it's a drainage block way down in the walls yeah but hot and cold is a pretty simple check.

Thoughts? I can't get my head away from this being a pretty basic mistake, am I being horrible?

 

[Chuck]

They also claimed they'd won a court case by arguing they're entitled to rely on previous installations, not sure of context but again, really in this case?

I suspect the case they won, assuming they didn't make it up, would have involved a commercial business-to-business contract where the specification was drawn up by the buyer and the contract limited the scope of the work to following the spec.

Where the buyer is a domestic customer, however, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives them extra protection. In particular they are entitled to services undertaken with 'Reasonable care and skill'. I don't believe that a judge would consider it reasonable to expect a domestic customer to know that the existing installation was 'left-handed' but they would expect a professional plumber to be aware of such a possibility and to investigate / advise the customer of the possibility before starting work. If, for some reason the handedness couldn't be established in advance the quotation should have included a contingency sum or specified a shower that had a 'reverse supplies thermostat' available as an option.

Armed with the above information and a threat to let the Small Claims Court decide the matter I think your contractor will probably agree to rectify free of charge, which is what a decent firm would have done in the first place.

 

[RSD]

What are your views on this? The issue is fixed but the contractor's attitude to it worries me for the rest of the job and using them in future.

When my new shower was fitted it was either really hot or really cold, the issue was the hot and cold inlets were the "wrong way round" and the fitter hadn't checked it. Luckily they were able to reverse the pipes by getting under the plinth rather than rip the fittings out and start again.

However they've said that they have effecitvely worked for free fixing it because the quote said "fit to existing pipes". Which I suppose is literally true but it was a bit of plastic pipe work to switch them which is "fitting to existing pipes" to a simple customer like me. And it seems absolutely ridiculous for a professional to work to the letter of the quote if it delivers a product which doesn't work.

I'm shocked by all this, wouldn't a fitter check before fitting an entire shower set up? Seems basic to me - run the water out to check, or at least check the shower unit. They claimed they couldn't because they'd put silicone down but really - a shower hose into a bucket of water perhaps?? Or check before silicone?

They also claimed they'd won a court case by arguing they're entitled to rely on previous installations, not sure of context but again, really in this case? I suppose if it's a drainage block way down in the walls yeah but hot and cold is a pretty simple check.

Thoughts? I can't get my head away from this being a pretty basic mistake, am I being horrible?

I have a Customer who’s 2012 Redrow 750K home, has the main bathroom mixer shower pipework the wrong way around, since built.
Both myself and the Customer have spoken with Redrow, who don’t want to know, as she’s only reported it 12 years later.