Bathroom or Kitchen Extension? Two Pieces of Advice!

abandonded

1 Check to see if the firm employs plumbers registered with APAH (Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors) or SNIPEF (Scottish & Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation).
If they are and things go wrong, then these professional bodies can force them to put things right assuming that the plumbers are in the wrong! If they are not registered with a professional association and things go wrong, then you can have a big, big, problem. See here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4241051=

2 Make sure that you pay by credit card even if its only the deposit! Then again, if things go wrong, you can lodge a claim for a refund under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. If you don't and things go wrong, you can be on your own with a big problem. Take my case for example:



After entering into a contract for a bathroom makeover with Kings Kitchens and Bathrooms of Inverurie earlier this year, when proprietor himself arrived to do the job himself, I thought that my bathroom makeover would be exemplary. I was so wrong! A week later when he had finished, I discovered that the installation was so bad that I refused to have him back in the house and insisted that a SNIPEF registered plumber be called in to rectify the many, many, faults. These included the failure to fit service valves,clips, pipe supports or pipe insulation, a sink that wasn’t screwed to the wall, a sink pedestal that was completely free-standing without any fixings whatsoever, out of alignment pipework for a towel warmer, a bath that took forever to empty and made loud clunking noises in the sink when it was being emptied, insulating tape used instead of clips to secure pipework, a flush-to the-wall toilet system which was not ‘flush’because the fitter installed it knowing that the wall was out of plumb, a failure to follow manufacturer’s instructions when installing a pump, so much so that the entire pump installation had to be dismantled and re-installed by another plumber, and a contravention of the Scottish Water Byelaws 2004, namely:

· the installation of pipework which was not adequately supported or clipped

· the installation of pipework which was not adequately insulated to protect against heat or frost;

· the failure to fit isolating or servicing valves to pipe work where necessary.



I got a letter from Kings stating that as per my request, my snagging list had been passed to another plumber and I checked to see that they were SNIPEFregistered. They were. The new plumber did a great job of correcting many, but not all of the faults and the situation now is that Kings bill has been settled but there is still a fair bit of work outstanding. They haven’t appeared back in seven months and have refused to accept delivery of letters of complaint sent by recorded mail.

There were, and are, other problems which are not listed above but all have been captured on camera and it is fair to say that everyone who has seen the photographs has been shocked at the poor workmanship. I did ask Mr King directly, if he was a fully qualified plumber and he replied that he was. Why then, would a fully trained and qualified plumber almost completely botch a bathroom makeover, ‘forget’ to fit service valves, clips and pipe supports in contravention of Scottish Water Byelaws and be unaware that the same Byelaws require that pipework must be adequately insulated to protect against heat or frost? I don’t know why Kings, for the sake of cost cutting, expediency or whatever, decided not to carry out the work in my home in a workmanlike manner or with due care and attention. What I do know is that, as a result of my experience, I could never recommend Kings Kitchens and Bathrooms and that choosing them in the first place was the worst decision I have ever made.

However, having paid the deposit by credit card, I have now lodged a claim under Section 75. The time limit, 8 weeks, given for the credit card provider to respond one way or another has now passed and I have therefore referred the case to the Financial Ombudsman.
I should point out that submitting the claim to the credit card company and the referral to the Ombudsman were simple and straightforward procedures.

keystone

The purpose of this rant is a mystery seeing as you've covered this in your other thread but even so you didn't handle it properly with your allegedly "bodgeitandscarper" categoried contractor as you've already been advised.

Cheers

southcoastrgi

neither of the "professional" bodies you list can force anyone to do anything complete waste of time, what you need is recommendations, any chance we can see these photo's so we can see what we think ?

keystone

Pics in OP's other thread IIRC.

Cheers

southcoastrgi

Thanx KS, yes i agree that installation isn't very good at all, i do use alot of plastic pipes but not where they are seen, even if he had clipped those pipes down the wall they would bend all over the place so he should have used copper & yes the pipes in the loft should be lagged