Burst water pipe

[Howdy84]

Hi I've just had a carpet fitter in and they've burst a pipe. They've said the pipes were too close to the surface and it is against building regs.
I was wondering if someone could confirm the depth they need to be by building regs and when this came into affect.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Newboy]

solid floor or traditional timber/chipboard?

 

[Howdy84]

Asphalt flooring in a flat.

 

[Newboy]

As far as I'm aware there is no specific regulation covering depth of (central heating?) pipework. I wouldn't expect to find pipework buried in the the first 20 mm of any screed/floor surface. If they hit the pipe with standard gripper bars then I'd suspect the pipework was too close to the surface - unless you advised them otherwise. Given the repair may need to involve an insurance claim (breaking out the asphalt and repairing the damaged pipe) then why not refer to your insurers and see what they make of it.

 

[Howdy84]

Thank you. It wasn't buried as such the flooring is asphalt but over the pipes was a piece of wood and this leads to the water tank.
We advised the carpet firm it was asphalt and they got us to pay more to glue the grippers instead of nailed them they've then included free fitting with their self employed carpet fitters who came along and nailed the grippers then told us we had to pay out for plumber as it's against building regs.
Needless to say I have advised them to pay as they have fitted them grippers wrong.
I was just curious about the building regs as there is no way the pipes could be lower.

 

[Newboy]

Based on your last post almost certainly fitting company liability - the wooden top to the duct should have been obvious to anybody used to fitting carpets (especially in a flat where screed depths can be limited) they might have expected the ply to be a reasonable thickness but should have been cautious. Given the width of the duct it would have made sense to skip a nail or move the gripper bar to align the nails outside the ply area

 

[Howdy84]

Thank you, this was my thoughts exactly. My elderly father was in the flat when this happened and they at first told him we'd have to sort it, they insisted they they could tape it with something called Weld-it which they tried even though I told them I wanted it fixing properly, then once they'd left and I told them I was going to the shop manager (they insisted the shop wouldn't accept liability as it's against regs) they bombarded my father with calls saying they'd get their own plumber.
I sourced my own plumber and have billed the shop/fitter but I wanted to get facts regarding the building regs and if they are right as I'd hate to think of a vulnerable person being treat this way.

 

[Agile]

I am not aware of any actual Building Regulations covering this.

But nevertheless there is what is called "good practice".

It seems the pipes are in what we would call a duct with a wooden cover.

That alone should have been obvious to any experienced carpet fitter.

Reminds me of when I had to repair a pipe damaged by floor layers. They said they had never seen anyone repair it as I was doing. My reply "do you nail through a lot of pipes then?"

Tony

 

[Howdy84]

Cheers again. It seems the building regs line is a carpet fitters "get out of jail free" line - I searched the 'net after it happened and it seems quite common for them to nail through pipes. I spent a few hours searching for this "building reg" but got nowhere that's why I decided to turn to the professionals. Thank you both.

 

[nauseous]

There's no way those nailed down gripper rods will hold anyway. Sure to have cracked the bitumen with every nail. Shocking job.

 

[Howdy84]

Oh I know, I have written confirmation that they will take full responsibility for any problems that arise with the asphalt in the future, I got some money back and now have money back for the plumbing work.
I will be contacting their head office as well just to let them know how poor a job it has all been.