Advice needed re Under Floor Heating Installation in Bathroom

Gopes

Hi,
We have recently bought our first home, and two key components of the redecoration were a) Fitting a new bathroom; and b) Rewiring.

We asked the electrician to install underfloor heating in the bathroom. He obtained kit from theunderfloorheatingstore.com, and has invoiced me £230 for parts and labour (very reasonable).

However, the under floor heating is not working - whenever he plugs it in, it 'fires the trip switch'. The electrician has investigated, but apparently specialist equipment is needed to find the location of the fault (he did run a continuity test prior to connecting). He has contacted the supplier, who have said that they can send an engineer to investigate. If the equipment is proved to be faulty, they will cover the cost of the repair - however, if it is an installation error, then they would invoice us for £300 (more than the cost of the kit).

The electrician has asked me what I want to do. He fears that because not all of the floor tiles were laid immediately after the kit was laid down, it is likely that the handyman may have damaged the heating cable - meaning we end up having to fork out extra £££.

I am not sure what to do. I can live without the underfloor heating, but am not sure whether / how much I should pay the electrician for the work undertaken on the UFH (£230). He will claim that the handyman (on a daily rate) is to blame - but for all I know, the fault may have been his. In any event, he should have insisted that the handyman install all of the tiles immediately - a couple in the corner were not laid for a couple of weeks

Like I say, I can live without the UFH, but am not sure how much to push back on the electrician and refuse to pay some/all of the £230, given that he hasn't delivered a working system.

What would you guys do?
Bcfaigg

keystone

As you contracted the electrician to supply and fit the UFH then I would suggest its his problem to deal with the manufacturer not yours and the bill (should there be one) would be to his account. He then deals with it and so does the handyman if fingers are pointed via their respective third party liability insurances. In these circumstances you have no grounds to withold any of the payment once he has delivered a functioning solution. Depending on the wording of your contract it would not be unreasonable to pay him, say, 90% now with the balance held on retention.

BTW if fingers are pointed thats all it will be - speculation. Neither will be able to prove anything one way or the other.

Just as a matter of interest what means were employed to protect the cables/mats prior to the laying of tiles (assuming it was the intention to spread the adhesive directly onto the cables) and whose responsibility was it to implement that protection? Should the cables not have been screeded over before tiling?

Cheers

Gopes

Thanks - not sure any screed was laid. Looks like adhesive was laid directly on to the cables. Will have a chat with the electrician.

Not sure whether handyman has liability insurance - on a simple daily rate - no contract or anything like that (I know - more fool me).

SUESMITH_2

ours came from there and is brilliant. did whoever installed it check the installation before fitting the tiles? our electrician had ours running to make sure it was ok before we tiled on top. they sell a tester that can check for faults, maybe one of those might be useful. was it installed according to their instructions?