Replacing a shower yourself

zax47

hubb wrote: »

Ok, so I can't get ANYONE interested in this job. I have used rated people.com and Mybuilder.com and have had no response for 3 days.

On those sites, sadly, us trades-folk have to pay just to learn about the job/get in touch with you via them and it just ain't worth it as 10 people might reply and no guarantee you get the job!

Forget them - go for a local sparky, we are used to showers and even though we don't get taught "pipes" it's usually easy to adapt to suit the new shower. Ask friends/neighbours or even on Facebook for recommendations locally. What bit of the world are you in?

hubb

zax47 wrote: »

On those sites, sadly, us trades-folk have to pay just to learn about the job/get in touch with you via them and it just ain't worth it as 10 people might reply and no guarantee you get the job!

Forget them - go for a local sparky, we are used to showers and even though we don't get taught "pipes" it's usually easy to adapt to suit the new shower. Ask friends/neighbours or even on Facebook for recommendations locally. What bit of the world are you in?

Cheshire. I did invite one local company (as suggested by the site) but they never responded. The site tried to get me to quote the job as £100 or over but I opted for "I'm budgeting". There is no way fitting a shower is £100 plus.

zax47

hubb wrote: »

Cheshire. I did invite one local company (as suggested by the site) but they never responded. The site tried to get me to quote the job as £100 or over but I opted for "I'm budgeting". There is no way fitting a shower is £100 plus.

Sorry, but IMO those sites serve no-one but themselves, certainly not us Tradesmen. To give you some perspective, it could easily run to a couple of hours work and I'd be charging £35/hr. I'm in sunny Yorkshire, but that's fairly standard outside the M25/Home Counties.

Try looking here; http://www.competentperson.co.uk/

Good place to find comparative costs; http://www.whatprice.co.uk/prices/electrician/shower-repair.html

hubb

zax47 wrote: »

Sorry, but IMO those sites serve no-one but themselves, certainly not us Tradesmen. To give you some perspective, it could easily run to a couple of hours work and I'd be charging £35/hr. I'm in sunny Yorkshire, but that's fairly standard outside the M25/Home Counties.

Try looking here; http://www.competentperson.co.uk/

Good place to find comparative costs; http://www.whatprice.co.uk/prices/electrician/shower-repair.html

£35 sounds very reasonable per hour. Thanks for the site. If only rated people let you just look up reviews without having to faff around posting jobs it would be so much easier. I would just ring a few good ones and get quotes.

benson1980

I'm guessing by switch you mean one of the pull cord ones? In which case I found ours no harder to swap over than any other switch. Funnily enough our Gainsborough shower also went kaput shortly after the switch broke so I just rung them up and got the slightly upgraded model but everything inlet/outlet wise was in exactly the same place. Again this is pretty basic stuff. Just turn off power obviously, and change everything over. Gainsborough showers don't seem to have the greatest reputation but their customer service and speed at which they posted out the new shower was excellent.

This does not warrant an electrician surely?? I didn't even consider it for this kind of job and I only know the basics when it comes to electrics.

hubb

Well there is no pull switch, just one inside the airing cupboard. Again, one of the wires in the shower has melted the plastic junction it is secured in so wouldn't this be an electrical fault or the shower ? If the shower, I will just replace the switch and fit the shower.

benson1980

Ah sorry missed that bit, no idea why wires would have melted the junction. I'd just google it and try and fix it myself (a quick google suggests this happens when the connection is loose) but that's just me. I appreciate there are those more cautious who would get an electrician in.

zax47

hubb wrote: »

Well there is no pull switch, just one inside the airing cupboard. Again, one of the wires in the shower has melted the plastic junction it is secured in so wouldn't this be an electrical fault or the shower ? If the shower, I will just replace the switch and fit the shower.

Melted joint in switch or shower?

A loose connection (often the neutral, not the live, as amateurs pay less attention to it) heats up and damages the junction. Changing the switch is not beyond the remit of a competent DIYer to do but be sure the circuit is dead, check, check again and check once more before you do anything. You will need to remove any blackened wire from the cable - cut it back - before reconnecting into new switch. To avoid loose connections - tighten the connections, fit the switch in place, wait 10 mins (tidy your stuff up etc.) then remove the switch again and re-tighten the connections. I guarantee they will have eased a little in those 10 minutes. Copper is soft and "relaxes".

hubb

It's not the neutral that has melted, it's the other 2 wires. I thought it was just one.

zax47

Nope - that's the neutral! Pretty sure it would be. The give away that a DIYer fitted that is that a sparky wouldn't wrap the incoming earth in yellow/green tape - we'd have the correct sheathing.

With all due respect, if you couldn't correctly identify that melted mess as the neutral connection then please do get a professional in. Given the melting sheath on the incoming live as well, I would suggest that the supply cable is probably undersized for the shower - looks like only a 4mm cable to my practiced eye, only good enough really for a 7kW shower.

That damage can be repaired, but needs a sparky. I have big concerns about that supply cable size though.