Expecting a massive price uplift - radiator install

Doozergirl

Anthony147 said:

If you’re satisfied with that as “workmanship” from someone charging £60 an hour for professional trade skills and experience, I’m flabbergasted.
Tradies may talk - but whoever did that is not a tradesperson.

Agreed. 

Genuine tradespeople would quite rightly be horrified.  

DRP

What on earth is that? 

I suppose it’s an ok job if you actually told them you’re not bothered how it looks…however there’s red flags all over the place.

casper_gutman

If you were quoted a price for the job as opposed to being given an estimate and agreeing an hourly rate, then there shouldn't be an uplift just because it it took longer than expected. That's the risk the trader takes when quoting a job. 

It might be different if they had encountered problems with your existing building or heating system, which couldn't reasonably have been foreseen and made the job more difficult. But I'd expect them to raise that at the time. It wouldn't apply to overruns due to their own lack of skill or failing to have basic fittings in the van.

If anything, I'd consider asking for a discount on the quoted price because the finish is so poor. I know you told them you didn't care what it looked like, but in my book that would imply e.g. that surface mounted pipework would be okay and there was no need to chase pipes into the wall. Even in an area where a functional appearance was acceptable (like a garage or under stairs cupboard) I'd still expect a neat finish with pipes running in straight lines!

jcb208

Sorry but the instal should of been done in copper as it was on show.I couldn't live with that

ThisIsWeird

This is weird in all sorts of ways.
For a start, I understand that you can freeze plastic pipe. 
And then there's the 'heating engineers's' choice of pipe and fittings... Lawdie, that is worse than most DIY jobs. That is 'incompetent' DIY standard.
Since copper and plastic are easy to combine, then these runs could very easily have been made in copper with soldered elbows. Or, they could almost certainly have been run in 10mm plastic, or copper - it's only a 600mm rad, after all 
It doesn't really matter if a customer says "I'm not bothered about how it looks", as this is clearly not fully true - they wouldn't accept the pipe running diagonally across the floor, for example - there should be a minimum standard that a professional will work to. And that job is utterly shameful.
If you accept it, you are doing them a favour - you could almost certainly refuse to. I mean, just threaten to post that on FB... £120 for that job is barely fine.

Lorian

Show us the radiator and the piping that end....

mcplumb

Can we see some more pictures please ?

I wouldn't be paying anything for that effort - that is poor DIY standard at best. 2 men for 5 hours !! 

I fitted a radiator yesterday including lifting floor and extending the pipework 7-8 metres in around 2 hours ( and wasn't in a hurry)

badger09

Doozergirl said:

What is that routing, because it really isn't okay.  

I'm not one for exposed pipes but a run of copper above the skirting would have been far neater - if that is genuinely the best routing.  

I agree. Unfortunately, sometimes exposed piping is the least worst😊 option. Last year we bit the bullet & had all our CH & HW pipes rerouted due to persistent undetectable leak(s?) in pipes buried in concrete floor of sprawling bungalow. 

Having had 1/2 of the rooms redecorated & newly carpeted since moving in in Feb 2021, we couldn’t face having them all channelled into the walls. 

Our plumber did his absolute best to route them inconspicuously & we can live with it. But I couldn’t accept OP’s result. 

breaking_free said:

Some funny comments above   
Yes I agree that finish isn't particularly good and I know the main guy wasn't happy with it himself. I'll be able to make good the drilled out wall and I'm not really bothered about the exposed piping (he asked if it would be possible to box it in but I nixed that idea). 

To answer some questions, yes it's a bog standard radiator, 600x600 from Wickes, so nothing special. 
Yes I do have a quote (not an estimate) in an email.
Yes it does seem strange that they don't already have pipe freezing equipment; perhaps they always drain down? They didn't even have any cable clips in the van - the chap bought those when he went out to buy extra inserts.

I live in a small town so won't be making a big drama out of this - tradies talk!
Thanks for all your input so far.

I live in a large village where ‘tradies talk’ & so do their customers. If they did a job like that, they’d soon be out of business. 

breaking_free

Okey, dokey, for those who asked: more pics.
The red bit sticking out of the righ-hand side on the image below is actually my red jersey reflected in the chrome!

In fairness to the blokes who did it, they had to work with the parts I'd bought - the main guy was not happy with the finish either.
In fairness to me, I was given a shopping list of parts e.g. 6 x elbows, 10mm pipe, etc, but no specific brand or pointers to buy slender elbows and Ts for example.

Below is the new rad...



and this is the existing rad that they've connected to/from. The pipework was above the skirting board before and hidden behind the rad. He's pulled it down so that everything runs along the skirting board now. 

pmartin86

I have no idea how the &%$£ that is 5 hours work for 2 "professionals" - Thats the sort of job I've done in an hour when i needed a temp rad quickly installed. Copper SHOULD have been used, idealy, a new drop would ahve been infinatly better, whats been done is biggest and shittest bodge that could have been done, If a "pro" did that in my house theres not a chace they would have been paid.