Faulty plumbing, what are my rights?

bristolmike

We had a new bathroom done about 4 months ago and all was fine until a couple of weeks ago, when the shower stopped draining properly. We tried plunging and some unblocking agents but nothing worked, so contacted the plumber who installed it. He keeps saying he'll come and look but he won't commit to a time. We used him as he came recommended to us by good friends, and he has good reviews online, but having looked into things a bit further he doesn't seem to be registered with any organisation that we could complain to. I think this excludes us from using the Consumer Ombudsman

We paid a £300 deposit on credit card and are wondering if we might be able to get some assistance this way. Of course we need to give him another week or two to respond to us first. But in the meantime we are really stressing out over the prospect of having spent a lot of money on a shower we can't use. Our main worry is that it might need to be ripped out in order to fix the problem. There's no way we could afford that. Does anyone have any advice please?

bristolmike

Apologies, I thought I was in the consumer rights section. I'm not sure if someone can move this for me?

usefulmale

Did it not occur to you that the shower drain may block sometime in the future?

Showers are notorious for it. Slow water flow, trapped hairs, congealing shower gel.

The plumber has not given you any kind of guarantee that the drain will never block and none ever will.

bristolmike

usefulmale wrote: »

Did it not occur to you that the shower drain may block sometime in the future?

Showers are notorious for it. Slow water flow, trapped hairs, congealing shower gel.

The plumber has not given you any kind of guarantee that the drain will never block and none ever will.

Given that we've done everything possible to unblock it to no avail, I'm assuming it's the pipework. If he does come back and manages to unblock something for us then that's absolutely fair enough, and obviously we will happily pay him for doing so. But given that the old shower never blocked up once in four years, it concerns me somewhat that this one has in as many months. Leading me to think about the pipework.

missile

After four months ......... Call another plumber.

Furts

bristolmike wrote: »

Given that we've done everything possible to unblock it to no avail, I'm assuming it's the pipework. If he does come back and manages to unblock something for us then that's absolutely fair enough, and obviously we will happily pay him for doing so. But given that the old shower never blocked up once in four years, it concerns me somewhat that this one has in as many months. Leading me to think about the pipework.

Step back a moment and ask some reasonable questions.

Have you replaced an old shower with a modern low threshold one? Have you now got a shallow seal/small trap? Have you moved the location of the shower in the room? Have you increased the distance of drainage? If the answer is yes to any of these then you have to be wary of drainage. This is not an item you can simply blame on the plumber without first considering the reasons.

Also if you are in a room/drainage problem area you could/should have specified access for rodding and maintenance. If this was not discussed then you have to ask further questions. Your fault or the plumber's fault?

I have a shower waste installed 30 years ago.A simple, old, common sense design and it has never blocked. I also have a modern Mira tray and Mira waste which needs attention every month, or so. This is called progress, but is it really? I suspect you also have this type of set up.

bristolmike

Furts wrote: »

Have you replaced an old shower with a modern low threshold one? Have you now got a shallow seal/small trap? Have you moved the location of the shower in the room? Have you increased the distance of drainage? If the answer is yes to any of these then you have to be wary of drainage. This is not an item you can simply blame on the plumber without first considering the reasons.

The shower itself is quite similar to the old one, and no more powerful. Likewise the trap. The shower location has not been moved, it was like for like.

Furts wrote: »

Also if you are in a room/drainage problem area you could/should have specified access for rodding and maintenance. If this was not discussed then you have to ask further questions. Your fault or the plumber's fault?

I have no idea what this even really means to be honest. Since the plumber is the professional, if anything technical needed discussing then in my view it should have been him bringing it up.

Furts wrote: »

I suspect you also have this type of set up.

It sounds like it yes. What do you mean by regular attention? If there is anything else we could try ourselves I would definitely like to have a go.

Furts

bristolmike wrote: »

It sounds like it yes. What do you mean by regular attention? If there is anything else we could try ourselves I would definitely like to have a go.

Keep an eye on the waste when you are in the shower. When I see the water and soap starting to show signs I know it may need washing powder, or bleach, or just hot water to flush it through.

Equally after every shower the waste should be wiped over to remove any hairs. Here I always remain surprised by how many people cannot, or will not, do this.

Equally, regularly the top of mine can be lifted off with tweezers (carefully) to give access in the trap - useful if hairs are lurking in there. It also is a definite to remove this before any hot water, bleach or whatever is used. It is only dreadful plated plastic so it is designed to deteriorate. By recognising this one first removes it!

bristolmike

Furts wrote: »

Keep an eye on the waste when you are in the shower. When I see the water and soap starting to show signs I know it may need washing powder, or bleach, or just hot water to flush it through.

Equally after every shower the waste should be wiped over to remove any hairs. Here I always remain surprised by how many people cannot, or will not, do this.

Equally, regularly the top of mine can be lifted off with tweezers (carefully) to give access in the trap - useful if hairs are lurking in there. It also is a definite to remove this before any hot water, bleach or whatever is used. It is only dreadful plated plastic so it is designed to deteriorate. By recognising this one first removes it!

Thanks Furts. It has a hair trap which gets removed and cleaned every few days, so that should have helped to prevent any blockage.

I'm also not sure if it's normal for water to sit so high up in the trap, literally only 1cm or so below the opening (slightly above the hair trap!) It's been like that from the beginning and I assumed it was the p-trap or shower-equivalent, but starting to wonder why it is so high.

RainbowLaura

Have you checked your drains outside bristolmike? We had a problem with water draining away and discovered a load of leaves and things in the outside drain... It was fine once we cleared that

bristolmike

RainbowLaura wrote: »

Have you checked your drains outside bristolmike? We had a problem with water draining away and discovered a load of leaves and things in the outside drain... It was fine once we cleared that

We did check that and all clear, thanks for the suggestion though.