Problem with leaking radiator pipe under floor and recently installed

bozzy18

Hello, I would be grateful for advice please. Last June I contracted a friend who’s a builder to carry out some building work including relocating a radiator in our kitchen and we paid him £8k in cash. No receipts or paperwork was done.

Unfortunately, since then, the friend and I have fallen out big time and now we are having problems with our heating with the boiler packing up due to lack of water pressure. We had three experts in and they’ve all said the boiler is fine. They checked the radiators and narrowed down the fault to the radiator in the kitchen and plumbing under the concrete floor (builder laid new pipes and fitted the radiator to the wall and then concreted over the pipes!).

Unfortunately, the pipes under the floor is leaking and in order to fix the problem the plumber need to remove the whole concrete floor to access the leak/fix it. The estimates given for this work came to £500.

It is unfortunate that we have come to this and surely we are entitled to expect that the work is carried out with reasonable care. The other work he did for us were very good so its disappointing that it all comes down to the one small radiator! The builder is refusing to come back and sort this out so we are facing a hefty bill to sort it out ourselves by employing a different builder to take up the floor and plumber to sort out the leak!

Is this fair? What are my rights even though I do not have evidence/receipts of his work! Grr! Never employ a friend to do the work for you!

ormus

you still have the right for the work/faults to be repaired.
in reality though, the cost and time to enforce any rights will be far more than the 500 quid required now. winter is very near!
makes more sense (and more practical) to pay out the 500. and learn a big lesson.

alared

Tell him to get back and do the repair or you`ll report him to the tax/vat man.

bambibashercol

You could ask him for a £500 refund for the work.
He has either used compression joints or not wrapped the pipes before concreting. The lime in the concrete eats through unwrapped copper pipe.
If he did the work then report him to gas safe if he is not registered.

EliteHeat

How long is it taking to lose pressure? leak sealer may be your answer, it's sometimes useful in difficult situations. Did none of your three experts mention it?

It is very unlikely that the copper has been weakened in such a sort space of time, if it is copper and it was unprotected.

The other thing worth mentioning is that the entire floor would not have to come up. You would have a number of options and none would need to be quite so drastic.

bozzy18

Thanks Eliteheat. Whenever it gets cold in our house, I would fill the boiler up and switch the heating on. The radiators throughout the house would get hot (except for the kitchen one which is full of air despite it being bleeded several times) and then the boiler would run out of water and shut down in about 30 to 40 mins. The house would be warm enough by then. I would have to do the whole thing again when the house gets colder in a couple of hours time!

Thanks.

EliteHeat

That is a serious leak which leak sealer cannot fix. It actually sounds like an unsoldered joint that has come adrift.

Is this a discrete leg of the heating system, or does it extend to other areas under the screed?

bozzy18

you think it is that bad do you? we can't see any water as its all happening underneath the concrete floor!

I'm not sure what you mean by discrete leg of the heating system and screed!

EliteHeat

Discrete; Adj. 1. Constituting a separate thing 2. Consisting of unconnected distinct parts.

So, is the pipe-work buried in the screed connected to just a single radiator, or is it connected to other parts of the system in the screed?

bozzy18

I have no idea to be honest!

EliteHeat

Ah, that's a problem then.