Had plumber in to take off old rad and replace with heated towel rad....pipe work looks dodgy. Am I right in thinking this or is this normal? He has been struggling with it for a couple if days. Thank you
A plumber using compression fittings,looks more like a diy job! Me,I use proper end feed soldered fittings.
Agreed. Soldered joints would have been much better. Some symmetry of pipe length either side would have been nice. The PTFE tape round the threads on the bottom of the valves ought to be round the olives under the nuts, and not visible. If he couldn't get under the floor to alter the pipework it's not disasterous, but as Kiab says, it's very DIY.
Ok thanks. It's not very aesthetic. I'd expected a much larger radiator to fit the pipes really but I daren't say anything as it took so long to do.
If the rad had been wider, given how close the original pipes are to the wall, he might have had even more trouble lining them up with the valves. Towel rails do stick out a fair bit.
That does not look as if it was done by a Plumber. There is no need for any ptfe tape on the bottom of the rad valves joining to the copper, the olive only needs a smear of paste, very diy.
I quite agree about PTFE tape. I tend to use jointing compound if it's needed, but as he'd used PTFE tape, that's why I mentioned it.
Embarrassing work. White towel rail. Chrome valves. Brass compression fittings. Copper pipe. I think a wider towel rail would have looked far better. Easy to offset pipes slightly to suit a wider fit.
We've just discovered the radiator is leaking from the joints!? This is the second plumber we've had to fix our bathroom, only to make it worse and cost us loads! Can I fix this myself?
Try to get some compensation from the idiot that installed that towel rail, - or if you haven’t paid the full money to him, don’t pay. DIY work at a quality only just above a scale of zero. Pipes ideally need to be redone from below floor and all soldered. Not every job is this possible - tiled floors etc and customers who don’t want floor disturbed, or say they don’t care, etc. But a towel rail with pipe centres close to existing pipes and pipes offset would look quite professional. In my opinion in the photo even using angled rad valves would have looked better due to one less connection. Try to find a real plumber who is also honest and experienced. Seems to be lots of pretend trades about nowadays. I guess the plumbing is an easy job according to them, until they actually attempt any.
I would get him back to sort it out. You paid him after all. Did he bend those pipes over his knees?! As above, wider rad would have better plus no compression joints.
Did the 'plumber' explain to you before starting the job that "yes, it can be done but as there's no access below the floor... it ain't gonna look pretty".?
Do I take it the new radiator isn't very tall or has the installer simply used the old radiator mounting bracket holes? Can you post a picture showing the whole thing?
It's only a vinyl floor on top of floorboards. If it meant we prevented this then of course he could have gone under floor but he assured us he'd get a towel rail that would fit existing pipework