OFF TOPIC - FOR THE AMUSEMENT OF NEWGASFITTER
Hopefully this'll make you understand my anger and that it's not directed at the guys who try to help and care. I'm not an expert and listen to advice, and like hearing it, but this is my experience of a 'pro' job.
Keep in mind that he did this work for my mum, who's over 60, has just retired, isn't on a full pension, her husband died ten to twenty years ago after having cancer for ten years before that and she has had four kids.
There was more of this elsewhere, these are just the only pictures I can dig out of the memory card. E.g. 22mm pipes popping out of their clips, hanging a foot off the wall, 4m up (overhead), two meters long and full of hot water from a pressurized tank.
There were so many examples in fact, I'd forgotten some of them and had a laugh when I remembered them. And they were just as bad. If you think this is long, it'd be an essay before I got close to them all.
Yes... he touched the gas, and things got worse than just the money and quality of the job. E.g. he started trying to rope me into growing cannabis with him. Read... FOR him. And then ended up saying how he would "beat the ****" out of me if I mentioned it to anyone, once he had his mate present because he didn't have the balls to do it himself. Had to have his mate, and mention his "other mates". Surprised he didn't start with "his dad" and "his dog". And then how he was "going to murder" one of the other builders for suggesting to me that tile cutters usually have water in them to deal with the ceramic dust. He kept going on about it, and cannabis, way too much. The other guys just shut up, got on with it and did a great job. But everyday was 'pro' and 'skunk' or 'murder' with this guy, the wannabe pro and wannabe gangster.
His wife has left him, he's been kicked out of the house and he's declared bankruptcy after receiving a heavy bill from a supplier (means he's not worth suing since he has nothing to take). I suspect he's tried to do a credit job on them. Or just been outsmarted by his 'co-worker' who got him to put his details on the account. And what he was attempting to do with cannabis and going on about it to me.
He wouldn't come back to the house and left his tools here, which were then moved to the porch and he was told they were waiting for him to pick them up. He lives in the same road. He wouldn't pick them up. And started talking **** about me not bringing them back to him. Like I'm his personal tool caddy.
His tools were a fk'ing disgrace. I'm all for a bit of dirt, but a tile cutter from the tip with no water bath, drill bits that are brown from rust... He'd leave them out in the ****ing rain.
That aside, I hope you understand I'm trying to help my mum and appreciate you helping back, this just drove me nuts to watch and hear the word 'pro', and it's annoying me, a lot, just looking at the pictures now.
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Clips are falling out of their holes, because he used any drill bit or screw he had. Flux hasn't been cleaned off the copper. That pipe coming off the T really IS, that bent, because he couldn't think far enough ahead to negotiate the soil pipe.
On to the plastic. That elbow at the bottom is clipped too far back, and is under a lot of stress - in the real world, not just theoretically. The MDPE hasn't been straightened and is bending the joints & it's self out of the clips. Note the branch from the blue T has actually unclipped it's self, as have many others around here and despite the clips needing a screwdriver to open.
The T is under so much strain, he had to use a pipe wrench on the hand grips to do it up. It barely stopped leaking with enough force on the grips it has mauled the surface. I seem to remember him fitting the plastic, then firing up the blowtorch to do the copper beside it.
Using the blue pipe to save money and increase flow wasn't his idea. It was because I'd already bought a spool and said that's what I wanted to do.
He's used an MDPE to copper pushfit, when a universal adaptor would have replaced one of the screws on the T and done it all in one.
It's normal to leave T&E fairly loose in cavities so spare wire can be brought down, but this is 2.5 hanging off the walls, in the garage and next to the copper and water. EVERYTHING connected to the water in the house could then go live - like someone lying in the bath if it gets yanked out of it's screw terminals by say... a bike being pushed in.
Look at the grip on the bottom of the blue T, you can see the marks where the wrench has been used on something that normally only needs hand tightening.
I don't think I need to say much about this, except, that good ole compression fitting, minus any tape, is leaking (you can see the drip on the nut). And my garden tap, along with every other connection I've ever made, isn't.
Same thing, different angle, for more horror porn pleasure. Going into the mortar line hardly ever works, especially when the mortar is almost 100 years old.
This seems ridiculous to even include on the list but, no pipe collar, no silicon.
This had to go on IMMEDIATELY, for reasons you can imagine. It was 'finished' with a cloth poked into the end. That cap was about £2 or something, and took me less than 10s to push in.
Oh and er... that plastic container there, that's to catch the water when the 170l pressurized, scalding hot tank pops. Or when you need to drain down the CH.
The water was 'scalding' hot, because he also didn't turn the storage temperature down on the display, yet is using plastic close to the boiler. One of the other builders walked past it, having never read the manual or called himself a pro, and turned it down without even mentioning it.
Old soil pipe left open and feeding in behind the boards inside, for a cool ventilation system.
Note the copper pipe hanging off the back and into the container. I wasn't bs'ing. The brickwork the tank is standing on is wonky enough I can see it tapering by eye without any effort, it's off by an inch or more. Also note, there is a gully about 6ft to the right, where the vents on the boiler should be going.
Let's move inside and take a look at his internal efforts, as he did claim, many times, to be an absolute 'pro' when it came to finishing.
Erm yea... not joking about the 2" nail heads. Or being able to fit my finger under the trim.
The door was supposed to open inwards, which'd be an impressive feat with it the way it is in the picture. I could pull this apart with my hand, without even snapping the architrave. A solid wood door would have no chance, even if never used.
CANNOT COMPUTE< SYSTEM OVERLOADZ!!!!
"Fk this... I'm gettin' out of ere!"