Is this a bodge?

[Phil]

Secret squirrel

What a totally bizzare situation to be in!!!

I've have customers literally breathing down my neck and customers going round turning rads off a quick as I'm going round turning them back on but I've never been squashed into a tiny and cramped shower enclosure with one in my face and on my back!! 😛

What size was the cubicle 760x760? 🙄

 

[stevetheplumber]

Secret squirrel

What a totally bizzare situation to be in!!!

I've have customers literally breathing down my neck and customers going round turning rads off a quick as I'm going round turning them back on but I've never been squashed into a tiny and cramped shower enclosure with one in my face and on my back!! 😛

What size was the cubicle 760x760? 🙄

i find waving a lit blowlamp around gets them of your back

 

[Winston]

Blow torch it is then 😀 Today I am going to get this blasted shower sorted! I am going to get cold water through that blasted shower if it kills me 😀 I am positive 😉

 

[Alanka]

I have to agree with Plouasne on this one - you can use an expander tool to very slightly increase the internal diameter of the olive to allow it to slide onto the pipe. One of the stated uses of these expanders (certainly the REMS one, which I have) is to shape up malformed pipes, and I have used them several times to do this on pipe-ends that have got bashed.

They're expensive (I'm talking about the lever ones, not the hammer-bashing ones), but how much is your time worth trying to source an odd-sized component?

 

[HTB]

Winston a quick thought for you. The "repair" you created at the start of this thread is obviously holding under existing head`of pressure, if you put a shower pump on the system, will it stand up to the increased flow and pressure??. Good luck mate.

 

[newbie1]

wouldnt mind them in the shower with me if they were 24 fit and most important female and naked😀

 

[quality]

wouldnt mind them in the shower with me if they were 24 fit and most important female and naked😀

olive was 25mm and did not fit😀

 

[Winston]

Well oh well the customer not a happy bunny 🙁 But I have been paid, after a brief discussion 😡 which is something wont go to the pump to costly. So agreed on the tee in to the main but without the PRV 😕

Why is it that you explain the pressure has to be balanced they wont listen? Anyway did as he asked and now a cold shower 🙄 So now will look at finding a cheap PRV off the net 🙄

The funny thing was guys you were right my olive did not cope with the mains pressure😱, but have found the shower manufactuer who is sending me 5 new ones so I will go back to sort.

I have hated having the discussion the customer, and I had but I have gone out of my way to accomodate and not quibble moaned all this for £400.🙁 But once again I feel that there are a few that want everything for nothing, and because he was successfull at installing a shower at his home from mains pressure and tank fed hot he thinks that all there is to install showers.

 

[bobpape]

Winston
When you mentioned that the olive did not fit the chrome pipe I assumed the chrome
pipe was the one that lead up to the shower head, the shower riser, which as long as
the head was not completely blocked the pipe would never reach mains pressure.

 

[Winston]

Hi bob the shower I installed if you can imagine the letter F The top horizontal for the hot the second horizontal for the cold immediatley after wards the mixer/valve with one off the olives, clamped to the chrome riser. Then near the bottom of the vertical where the controls the user would use is the need for the other olive. where it wouldnt fit.

I am not sure I have explained it well but hope that sort of helps.

 

[Plouasne]

Whilst still a "bodge" in my eyes, perhaps I was a little "liverish" in my remarks, but don't any of you carry an assortment of different rubber "O" rings, in your tool kit, it could have helped Winston out if he had carried a set around with him

 

[REDSAW]

Whilst still a "bodge" in my eyes, perhaps I was a little "liverish" in my remarks, but don't any of you carry an assortment of different rubber "O" rings, in your tool kit, it could have helped Winston out if he had carried a set around with him

my opologies next time i shall pop around with my box of2,000 'o' rings and give i'm an and?😉

(funny tho i can never find the right size especially for taps😡

 

[quality]

my opologies next time i shall pop around with my box of2,000 'o' rings and give i'm an and?😉

(funny tho i can never find the right size especially for taps😡

BSL (yes that a mechanical supplier) do sell Imperial and metric kits each containing around 250 "O" ring in a storage case for about £ 20 takes up no room in the van well worth having.

Not to sure if it would have helped winston though even if he had one

 

[Phil]

My van is stocked up like a plumbers merchant, I have a big box of different pan connectors including most of the special Mcalpine ones, 2 big boxes of traps including anti-syphon, telescopic, bottle, P shaped, running traps etc, a massive box of waste pipe fittings in all sizes and colours, box of end feed, box of brass connectors, box of stopcocks and isolators, pressure equalising valve, pressure reducing valve, box of syphons, box of flush valves, box of flexi's for tight spaces, box of push fit, box of tap valves, box of assorted goodies like cc brackets, overflow stand pipes, wastes, box of different bath and basin taps, box of washing machine hoses and waste pipes, flush handles, flush pipes, fixing brackets, screws, plugs and loads of other stuff.

I carry probably too much weight as my clutch is begining to slip. 🙁

 

[Winston]

Its all very well carrying stock but you have to be aware of the likelyhod of damage, cashflow, theft. I have found though that I increase my stock month on month, by adding new items. But I have only got a escort van and its cramped.

 

[REDSAW]

dont know about the clutch, but me wallet would be slippin

dont fancy the van getting done over with all that stuff.

 

[Plouasne]

My van is stocked up like a plumbers merchant, I have a big box of different pan connectors including most of the special Mcalpine ones, 2 big boxes of traps including anti-syphon, telescopic, bottle, P shaped, running traps etc, a massive box of waste pipe fittings in all sizes and colours, box of end feed, box of brass connectors, box of stopcocks and isolators, pressure equalising valve, pressure reducing valve, box of syphons, box of flush valves, box of flexi's for tight spaces, box of push fit, box of tap valves, box of assorted goodies like cc brackets, overflow stand pipes, wastes, box of different bath and basin taps, box of washing machine hoses and waste pipes, flush handles, flush pipes, fixing brackets, screws, plugs and loads of other stuff.

I carry probably too much weight as my clutch is begining to slip. 🙁

Can not be a big enough van then, if there's no mention of the generator, set of bottles, half bag's of cement, plaster, MAP (plaster board adhesive), sand, work bench, coils of wire 1.5mm through to 10mm, in red, blue, purple, black, brown, green/yellow colours, electric cables plastic conduit, different sizes of msbs electrical boxs and face plates, plastic waste pipe, copper tube, step ladder, plus the all important coffee maker, most plumber/electricians drive a long wheel base high top van, Renault, Citron, VW etc

 

[Phil]

Hi Poulsane

I wouldn't say I carried much more than any other plumber and most plumbers round here only drive small vans like mine. I'm sick of having to disappear from a job to go and get basic parts. Also it makes you a faster more efficient plumber for the quick jobs at short notice.

LWB high top are totally impractical in my opinion, yes you can carry more stuff but they are clumsey and ***bersome.

Yes I carry copper & plastic waste pipe on the roof box.

 

[helpsy]

Hi
As I'm new in the trade(only done a few jobs),I've already got frustrated with having to go off into town to get bits.The journey is only 3 miles but I don't half make a big carbon footprint sat in the traffic,the return trip can take well over an hour!!
Because I'm new I don't have the experience to know what is essential stock(maybe you will enlighten me)and having to get bits gradually,but I couldn't stand the thought of having to sit in the traffic again to go and get a 50p part.I realise that you won't always have the parts you require,and have to go and get some,with a bit of forward planning I shall be ordering for delivery.
Yesterday I ordered some items abs waste,traps,compression fittings,end feed,push fit,barrier pipe, microbore pipe and syphons.
What I would like to know is what 1 item of tools or product could you not do without on a job?
Just interested to see your responses
Cheers

 

[Plouasne]

Phill,

Apart from being able to carry more gear, a high top will allow you a bit of room to do a bit of work on the bench in the dry when its pishing down out side, and I dont wear that remark about them being ***bersome to drive, I have driven most vehicles at one time or another from a mini to a a 40 tonner, (blagged my way with a UK restricted D licence (automatic gear box)in France) when I came back to the UK for a divorce, and after nearly breaking my back, I took up a sitting down job, driving a London bus😛 , for a couple of years; right through to wheeled diggers and track layers like dozers, for ease of use in crowded traffic, an automatic box is the best, but I did like that Renault 40Tonner to drive, 8 forward gears high and low ratio, with a pre select, you could drive that with one finger, the old routemaster was a drivers bus, pre-select gearbox, its one drawback was that bloody great mechanical hand break, give me air breaks any day