Home DIY

I waited six weeks for this chap to be free, he came with great references, and when I got another quote as a sanity check it came in significantly higher.

What do you need doing? I can ask my plasterer if he knows/can recommend someone?

Now I'm a little lost here, where is the ptfe tape going on the compression joint? On the threaded part of the joint or elsewhere. I know ptfe as a thread sealer and lubricant, so can be used in bleed nipples on brake calipers if you are using a method to draw the fluid through the caliper, the ptfe seals the thread but also acts a lubricant meaning that bleed valves have less chance of seizing. Hence using a few turns of ptfe tape if reusing an olive, in my case replacing radiator valves, to lubricate the join.

Oh yeah, that was without VAT which would bring it to pretty much 5k. £600 a day. Get t fook.

I was told that PTFE tape has no place in copper compression joints.

It's just used as a crutch by amateurs.

I use PTFE on threaded joints and use jointing compound on compression joints. /csb

Whole bathroom. Would be great if you could ask, I have a couple of others I'm trying to pin down but more the merrier, cheers!

It wasn't a compression joint that I was screwing the hoses in to. In hindsight I think this was a mistake as the gaskets in the hoses weren't sealing against anything. Now I've thought it through properly I'll redo it with a compression joint. What I could do with for easier access is a hose that's 2m long. Longest I can find is 1.5m http://www.screwfix.com/p/wras-hose-15mm-x-1-2in-x-1500mm-x-10mm/41845#product_additional_details_container Any suggestions?

Anyway, that has all become less of a concern than the fact that my boiler is playing silly buggers. Heating works but no hot water. I think it's a Vaillant TURBOMAX 242/282

Running the hot water tap doesn't seem to activate the hot water. The hot water demand light on the boiler doesn't light up. I'm not getting error lights, just nothing happens.

On top of that the boiler seems to be slowly leaking which I'm guessing isn't a good thing. Any suggestions for a plumber around Harringay, North London? @sacredhart ? Cheers

plumbing thread

Are you sure these guys are working on their own. 1 1/2 weeks is a quick turnaround for a guy on his own. 4k labour is not too far off the mark if it's a complete refit.

£200 per day for a tradesman equates to a lot less annually than you think once you take into account operating overheads and downtime.

Get two hoses and join them together.

Its a pretty small bathroom, but if you don't think thats toooooo bad maybe I should ask some questions (is it two guys?). I think I could give it a damn good shot in a week and a half but thats based on zero experience. I know folks who have had full refits for around 2k plus fittings, larger bathrooms too, so 2.5x that strikes me as a touch crazy... he did seem good though.

The last one I did was 5.5k including fittings. That was complete rip out, reorganise plumbing, swap all the facilities around re-plaster walls and ceiling. Basically everything brand new. It was a tiny bathroom, barely enough room for the basics which probably made it a longer job as there was also barely enough room for a toolbox. Also on the 4th floor which means a lot of humping stuff in and out.

It does still seem a bit pricy but you need to establish the quality on offer too. That's why word of mouth is the best way, or maybe you can speak to one of their previous customers?

Might be worth doing the basics yourself... Our recent tiling job came out really well thanks to the two guys who actually did the tiling and no thanks to the boss who put in half a days work (more like 2 hours) doing a really shitty screed which required us to buy a lot more adhesive, didn't provide any materials (or even a bucket?!), didn't remove the rubbish and was very happy to take £500 'in cash thanks'.
Point being, if you can do the unskilled work and just get pros in to do the skilled stuff (and avoid anyone sub-contracting), you might save a lot and be able to get the money where it's deserved.

@Airhead @Dramatic_Hammer wise words chaps. The rub is I am a contractor too/on a day rate so I have to balance the time I take off work with the day rate of someone else to do it. I imagine I will be slower at even the basics due to inexperience and my soft office bod build. I am pretty sure I could guy the place, remove tiles, plaster, re tile (did my kitchen tiles) but I do not want to even risk messing with the loo, i'd prob find a way to reverse the magnets and have the whole blocks sewage pump into my bathroom.
Also, anyone asking for payment "in case" and triple jog on. Pay yer taxes like the ret of us you cheeky cunce.

Yeah, I had a man in to make a loft hatch and replace a tile for a vent - he didn't say upfront that the price he quoted was a cash price. Fucks me right off.

@chrisbmx116 - if you can gut the room leaving toilet/sink/shower/bath in place this should significantly reduce the labour costs. We did that and then bought all the replacement stuff (we weren't changing the layout), got the plumbers in, took under three days for them to reinstall everything. I asked them to do 1.5 days of install, leaving sink and toilet loose/moveable. I then tiled behind toilet and sink and tiled the floor and walls and got them back in to finish connecting everything up. Then it was just tidying bits up. We saved loads of money and now I know I could rip out and replace a bathroom for next time.

Give it a whirl, what could go wrong...

You need http://www.full-flame.co.uk/
Your diverter valve needs replacing - they fail every 10 years on average on this model. Some last longer some shorter.

I already took my sink out and put it back for a laugh. Pretty sure I could do the rest. I have tiled walls and floor which is prob a day's worth of removing, not worth paying £500 for that. There is a decent amount of skilled stuff as we were talking moving things around and hiding all the pipes.

I've dropped him a mail saying roughly that, lets see what he says, although would totally understand "nah mate, they are my rates". If someone came to me and said they would do the easy part of my job and I could do the hard part, for half the money, I'd prob say get t' took.

If he wants the work and understands you have a specific budget in mind I'd hope he'd be fine with that - our plumbers had no problem working around my own diy stuff and understood we didn't want to pay for ripping out and re-tiling (I think they found it pretty funny at points!) Good luck with it.

chris - you are in bow on old ford aren't you? my mate who lives in the Connaught works has just had a bathroom installed by a chap, haven't got details to hand but I do remember being shocked at how cheap he was and what a good deal he did. do you want me to get the details?

Most trades are used to working like that, it's not a huge difference between someones diy project and a building site where you come in to get a specific job done. On the other hand you're now the client, project manager and labourer so you have to get used to wearing the different hats. You also have to chase people to get them in when you need them.

Most tradesmen enjoy seeing someones diy efforts, just as long as it doesn't get in the way of their own job. You can get a lot of conflicts of interest on building sites anyway, the plumber won't fit something until the tiler has been, the tiler needs the pipes in place etc. etc.

Any idea how much it would cost and who I should be asking to remove a brick pantry from the kitchen. One of the walls is supporting a staircase so it would need steel inserted. Roughly 3ft X 2 ft of wall and door to lose.

Pretty much! Grove Road (just round the corner) and yep, that would be awesome, cheers!

He replied pretty quickly, doesn't have a prob with it at all.
Will see if we can thrash out the details... I expect I will be turning to you for some advice at some point!

Cheers, sounds like that could be it. I'll give him a ring.

@Dramatic_Hammer I have two hoses at the moment. A slightly longer hose would mean I wouldn't have to attempt to contort myself to get under the bath to sort out the leaking coupling.