Plumber did powerflush and caused rad burst

spinningsheep

Hi, I recommended a plumber to my parents having used him for jobs before, and he has done them a powerflush today on their central heating, and is going to install a towel rail too, and when he was quoting for the job and having a look round etc he said that they would remove the downstairs radiators and powerflush them manually, as they were the worst for the sludging and it would be safer to avoid any possible bursts etc. Fastforward to today and they have started the job, but my dad has had a call from them to say that the hallway rad has burst, as it is corroded. However, this rad is the youngest in the house at 10 years, some others are original ones installed in 1977, so this makes no sense really, AND, they did not remove it as promised, they have flushed it via the system, and it has burst, precisely what they said may happen if they did it that way! He hasn't been home yet, but if any damage is caused aside from the obvious one of the radiator itself, what should he do? Can he withold payment? It seems like a really stupid error on their part, fair enough the system is old, but they agreed that they would manually do the downstairs rads, purely to avoid this issue.

EliteHeat

No one would 'power flush' individual radiators after removing them - this makes no sense at all. What would actually happen is that they would be flushed through outside with a garden hose.

Ordinarily, the risk for rad bursts when power flushing is borne by the householder if the risks have been pointed out to them by the contractor, but in your case he was mitigating against the risk by specifically saying he would remove them and then didn't.

I would have thought that the contractor would be responsible for any resultant damage, but not for the replacement and installation of a new radiator. The radiator would have almost certainly leaked no matter what was done to it, or where.

A situation like this is not usually too dramatic and is easily rectified and cleaned up.

bambibashercol

powerflushing can cause leaks to old pipework and valves, To burst from a rad, it must of been coroded quite badley from the inside. Microbore pipework from a manifold can often leak.
It does sound as if the system has not been powerflushed though. As said by eliteheat there would be no need to put a garden hose to the radiators.
I would speak with the plumber and try and come to a deal,

Wookey

spinningsheep wrote: »

that the hallway rad has burst, as it is corroded. However, this rad is the youngest in the house at 10 years, some others are original ones installed in 1977, so this makes no sense really, .

Radiator quality has not improved since the 70's, cheaper lower quality/thinner steel has been used to keep rad prices down. Also any system that hasn't had some form of rust inhibitor protection added to it is also far more susceptible to burst's/leakage.