Which plumber to believe?

goodcheer

Hello,

I'm in a situation where I don't know who to believe about plumbing practice, and I'm hoping someone can help me sort it out.

I am having a renovation done to my house, mostly by builder M. However, as part of needing to replace the heating system, I engaged eco-heating company E to do the heating system. Part of this was removing the existing cylinder from a bedroom, which builder M did, and installing a new one in the new utility room, which builder E did. Builder E also supplied and installed new radiators on the first floor and underfloor heating on the ground floor.

Unfortunately, when builder E was testing the system the bedroom where the cylinder had previously been flooded. This ruined the near-new carpet in that room (which I did not intend to replace) and damaged some furniture in there. I'm lucky it didn't damage more of the house.

The timeline of the damage was that I went to the house to meet with a tiler on Thursday evening. Water was dripping from the bedroom into the ground floor. Builder E told me briefly that there had been "a leak", saying that builder M hadn't capped the pipe when removing the old cylinder, and then rushed off. I expected a bit of moisture when I went upstairs to check but found a soaked carpet and no indications that anything had been done to dry it out.

I immediately texted builder M, who was shocked to hear about it and told me he had gone over the layout of the existing plumbing with builder E and that builder E should have done basic checks before running the water and that this was typical of the questionable work they had seen builder E do (some of which I am in dispute with company E over).

Since I had to travel the following day (Friday), builder M assured me he would take steps to dry out the carpet. I don't know what he did, but when I returned and could visit the site on Monday I found that the carpet was still very wet and musty smelling and had been stained by the varnish in my furniture, which had not been moved out of the room. The carpet was ruined and I'm paying a lot to replace it.

So my questions are:
- Who is responsible for the leak and resulting flood? Was M negligent in not capping the pipe after removing the cylinder, or E negligent in not checking the system before running masses of water through it?
- Should M have moved the stuff in the room out, or brought in a fan or dehumidifier, or brought in someone with equipment to vacuum water out of the carpet, or done something else to mitigate the problem of the wet carpet? That might have left the carpet still usable, and it's what I would have done had I not had to leave town at that unfortunate time.

I'm interested in hearing what people think, especially plumbers. Many thanks in advance.

Jill

keystone

Elements of both regarding the flood itself but I'd pin it all on E tbh. He knew the cylinder had been removed. He should have double checked. Last person to touch it is responsible for it.

If M undertook to take steps to mitigate your other losses as you were going away then its down to him but then again you should also have done something to protect your property on the Thursday rather than leaving it until M got there.

Cheers.

-taff

goodcheer wrote: »

- Should M have moved the stuff in the room out, or brought in a fan or dehumidifier, or brought in someone with equipment to vacuum water out of the carpet, or done something else to mitigate the problem of the wet carpet? That might have left the carpet still usable, and it's what I would have done had I not had to leave town at that unfortunate time.

If you agreed with him he'd take steps, ask him what he did.
I doubt anything would have left the carpet usable, because if it was soaked, it wouldn't have dried it out in a couple of days.

If it's what you would have done, then really, you should have done it.

If E is repsonbile for the leak, then I assume he has insurance to cover the loss of the carpet?