MeNext / Plumbing & heating
I do the pipework myself, and the wall that goes back over it.
Most plumbing jobs go wrong at the handover between two trades. On my jobs there isn't one.
I have been fitting kitchens and bathrooms since 1988, and almost all of the plumbing in them is mine. Cylinders, first fix, waste, the water main coming into the house. It is the part of the job nobody sees once the wall goes back on, which is exactly why it is the part worth getting right.
The usual arrangement on a refit is that one man strips the room out, another comes in to do the pipework, and a third makes good afterwards. Each of them is only responsible for his own bit. When a joint weeps behind a new wall eighteen months later, everyone is quite sure it was somebody else. I have been on the other side of that conversation more times than I can count, because the person who eventually gets called to open the wall up again is usually me.
So I do it differently, and not because it is clever. I strip the room out, I run the pipework, and I plaster and tile over my own work. If something I fitted fails, there is nobody else to point at. That concentrates the mind at the moment you are making a joint you are about to bury.
What that covers in practice: hot water cylinders and the pipework around them, including the expansion vessel, the pressure gauge and the valves that let you isolate any part of it without draining the house. New copper first fix with brass isolating valves, so the next person who has to work on it can shut off one tap rather than the whole system. Blue mains pipe from the boundary and a new meter where the old one is buried or seized. Waste traps and soil connections. Pipe runs under a lifted floor, clipped properly to the joists so they do not tick when the heating comes on.
There is one thing I do not do. Gas is a Gas Safe engineer's work — the boiler connection, the meter, anything carrying gas. I bring one in, I have the wet side ready for him when he arrives, and he signs for his own work. That is the law and it is also just sensible.
Almost everything I do comes from someone passing my name on. That has taken me all over London, from the streets around Peckham and Catford to jobs in the middle of town. Nobody has ever recommended me for the pipework. They recommend me for the bathroom. The pipework is the reason the bathroom is still fine.
Nobody has ever recommended me for the pipework. They recommend me for the bathroom. The pipework is the reason the bathroom is still fine.
How the job runs
- I come and look — no pipework gets designed off a photograph. I need to see where the existing runs go and what the floor is made of.
- Strip out and find out — most of what actually needs doing only becomes visible once the old units and the old boxing come off.
- First fix — copper and waste run in and clipped, isolating valves fitted, everything set out before a single wall closes up.
- Test before I bury it — the system goes under pressure and stays there while I watch it. A joint that is going to weep will weep now, not next winter.
- Make good — plaster, tile and boxing over my own pipework.
- Second fix and hand over — taps, cylinder, traps, then I show you where every isolating valve is and how to turn it off.
What goes wrong
The expensive failures are almost never dramatic. A joint weeps a few drops a day behind a boxed-in wall. Nobody sees it. Eighteen months later a floorboard gives slightly underfoot, or a ceiling below stains, and by then the joists are wet and the repair is not a plumbing job any more — it is a floor, a ceiling and a room. The second one is pipework buried without isolating valves: a dripping tap that should be a ten-minute job means draining the whole system, and every future repair costs more than it should for as long as you own the house. The third is a pipe clipped badly, which is not a leak at all but will tick and knock every time the heating fires, and cannot be fixed without opening the floor you just paid to lay.
Questions people ask
Do you do gas work?
No. Gas is a Gas Safe registered engineer's work — the boiler connection, the meter, anything carrying gas. I bring one in, have the wet side ready for him, and he signs for his own work. Anyone who tells you otherwise, ask to see the registration.
Can you find a leak if I do not know where it is?
Usually. Most of the leaks I find are behind kitchen units or under a floor, and they have been running for a long time before anyone notices. It normally shows up as a stain, a soft floorboard or a smell rather than as water.
Will you have to lift my floor?
Sometimes, and I will tell you before I start rather than halfway through. If pipework runs under the boards there is no way to reach it from above. The boards go back afterwards.
Why do you fit isolating valves everywhere?
So the next repair is small. Without them, changing a dripping tap means draining the whole system. With them it is a ten-minute job, and it stays a ten-minute job for as long as you own the house.
If something is leaking, or a room needs stripping back and doing properly, I will come out and look at it before I say anything about price. Call Andrew on the number at the top of this page.