emergency call out

[vampire]

Finished for xmas on monday but had a call out yesterday to a little old lady with a burst pipe,when i got there at 10 o clock she had a fountain of water going across here drive which had started at 5 o clock :o .

Poor old dear didnt know what to do or who to call,whoever put the outside tap in didnt fit any isolation and the 3m of pipe only had the thinest lagging (cowboys) and the stop cock was seized as always,so turned it off on road and fitted a valve,replaced pipe section,for £50 and she wants me to fit a new kitchen when i have time

[Cookiemonsterandmerlin.]

Had numerous call with the same situ I had plans to do not much work this week but been flat out.

 

With over 10 customers wanting me to return to fit isolator taps when I have time.

 

The strange thing is I never trained to be a plumbing but seem to have more knowledge than most round our way.

 

Cheers OTH

[vampire]

Same here,not been college trained in plumbing but have been fitting bathrooms etc for 10 years now and have got my self registered with ciphe,have been on a lot of jobs where local so called plumbers have botched a job and have now built up a good reputation,but new customers never check my qualifications which inc city and guilds,degree in construction or take up references,check with ciphe,fmb,trusted trader etc etc and all they want is someone cheap who can start tomorrow

[petethegeek]

We have an 'outside' tap that is located inside the garage which was built onto the side of the house afterwards. The pipe comes up through the concrete floor of the garage and does not appear to be connected through the house isolator.

 

The copper pipe to the tap itself runs up the wall which adjoins the house and has some reasonably thick lagging on it, but I am obviously slightly concerned about it in these somewhat testing conditions.

 

Should the worst happen how difficult is it to turn off the supply at the road? Am I allowed to do so, and how would I go about it?

[Cookiemonsterandmerlin.]

We have an 'outside' tap that is located inside the garage which was built onto the side of the house afterwards. The pipe comes up through the concrete floor of the garage and does not appear to be connected through the house isolator.

 

The copper pipe to the tap itself runs up the wall which adjoins the house and has some reasonably thick lagging on it, but I am obviously slightly concerned about it in these somewhat testing conditions.

 

Should the worst happen how difficult is it to turn off the supply at the road? Am I allowed to do so, and how would I go about it?

 

Double check its not connected to your system by turning of yout mains supply and see if it still runs.

 

Generally the mains could supply a couple of houses or not but can be quite hard to turn off unless you have the iron tool to reach deep into the supply tap.

 

And a tip is to even few months turn your mains stopcock off inside the house so if you do get a burst pipe you know that you can turn the water off quickly.

 

The amount of houses damaged due to the owners being unable to turn the water off due to a seized stopcock is very high.

 

Cheers OTH

[mark@mbb]

We have been fitting heat tape around the taps in the stables they have a fortic foam lagged cylinder which runs off an emersion heater during the night the hot & cold were always freezing so we fitted heat tape which is connected to a frost stat and never had a problem since

 

Mark

[CZ550Kevlar]

I would have grabbed the oppurtunity to rip her off and have myself a very merry christmas. :yp:

[jacksdad]

£50 IS robbing the old bird :blink:

Really, I'd have charged about the same, plus you've got a kitchen fit out of it, well done.

I tell all my customers, mates etc to close and open the stop tap every few months, you would be amazed how many don't even know where it is!

Newer houses with meters are best, all you do is turn a plastic wheel a quarter turn, but if possible leave something in the meter box as they can be a bit stiff for the wimmin :blink:

The old terraced houses round here are a nightmare, the street tap, if you can dig down to it to start with, turn off about 20 houses at a time, plus the feeds are still made of lead, and leadlocks can take (me anyway!) 2 hours to do

[12borejimbo]

Finished for xmas on monday but had a call out yesterday to a little old lady with a burst pipe,when i got there at 10 o clock she had a fountain of water going across here drive which had started at 5 o clock :o .

Poor old dear didnt know what to do or who to call,whoever put the outside tap in didnt fit any isolation and the 3m of pipe only had the thinest lagging (cowboys) and the stop cock was seized as always,so turned it off on road and fitted a valve,replaced pipe section,for £50 and she wants me to fit a new kitchen when i have time

Well done Karl, Father Christmas will be good to you and your mad dog!

[vampire]

Well done Karl, Father Christmas will be good to you and your mad dog!

Happy xmas mate