Plumbing in the Grey Toon

I didn’t have any stinking houses today, well not proper stinking, so I thought I’d show you this.

Prohibition

Well it made me laugh. Happy St. Andrew’s Day everyone.Billy

Below are three pictures taken from two different houses I was in today, see if you can spot the common denominator…

House 1


House 2

Useless junkie tossers. The first house was just a total dive, the second a little better kept but still a “moger”. There would have been a third house to this too, coincidentally next door to house 1, but the stupid camera ran out.Not only this but in the missing third house the ‘previous occupants’ removed all the visible pipework, everything. From the Main stopcock to the sink(inc. sink top) to the bath,basin and WC cistern, boiler and radiators! I think my week is pretty much accounted for.

billy

Every junkie in the toon should be issued a set of pipeslices. That way when they rip out the cylinder for scrap money, the plumber has an easier job of putting a new one in.

Not like my job tomorrow where I need to renew the c/w storage tank, sections of cold mains, cold feed, hot water supply and drain off points along with the cylinder.

Along with their methadone programmes they should all be enrolled in classes including

1. how to turn off the water
2. how to remove sections of plumbing properly

Billy

I spent the morning on an object handling course. Now I can lift boxes of appropriate size and weight safely…

…until the next time I throw my back out.

If you are used to doing something in a certain way apparently even if the employer’s risk assessment shows it should be done in a different way, you still have a claim, since it’s the ‘done way’*.

Turns out there are risk assessments for every job I should come across held somewhere in the cooncil offices. These are, by law, to be made available to any employee on request…

I can see some poor office girl getting a new load of work in the near future!

Billy

*Done way was put using better jargon, C&C, but I can’t remember what the Cs stand for. Means accepted way of doing things anyhow, look it up!

[edit 18th April 2007 - Custom and Practise! not c&c at all[/edit]

I called the site stinking-houses because that’s what I work in.

under sink/washing machine area
behind the toilet, luckily I had to get stuck in there

mystery stain dropped from unit above

How people can live like it is amazing/appalling. All these pictures are from just one house I had today. I had to play ‘hunt the stopcock’, a game plumbers love, especially in stinking houses…

oh, there it is!

I’m not saying the place was rough or anything but it looks like someone nicked the vent from the window!

It takes all sorts I suppose but surely there are some out there we might be better off without!

I would die of embarrassment were I to leave a house in the state of the houses in which I find myself working.

When I was working for myself I used to get loads of letters from would be apprentices wanting into this job, haha. I hope they all ended up in IT…

Billy

It was an easy mistake to make, I got a line to replace a plug & chain at a bath. What did I do, well I ripped out the kitchen sink of course!

I suppose an explanation other than “I’m stupid” is in order.

I got 3 job lines at the same time, I thought they were all for the same house when actually the sink and W/M lines were for 105D and the plug & chain line was for 109D. I had all three lines together with 109 at the top. Went in the house, stripped out the sink for the joiners to fit the kitchen and left.

Sitting in the van I went to write out my time sheet and was checking the job number. That’s when I noticed the mistake.

*£$^&!!!!

I still had to strip out 105, not only that but I hadn’t even done the plug and chain in 109!!!

If only I’d had 105 at the top, what’s an extra plug & chain after all?

I put in a ticket to replace the taps at 109, they were needed anyhow so it’s damage limitation at it’s best. The sink was, luckily, salvagable.

If it’s any consolation it’s my tax money that pays for this too…

Billy ;o)

Of the most annoying things to happen when trying to do a job, near the top must be this…

Yes that meter does read -£56.39 the bloody joiners used up all the power didn’t they. Ok fair enough, I would have done the same probably, what I wouldn’t have done is cut the bloody worktop so close to the unit that I couldn’t get my clips in, they’ve even shaved the carcass itself…

As you can imagine I was already cursing them, then I saw the butcherwork of the carcass itself, in particular check out the gappage near the pump…

My opinion of the joiner was confirmed with this…

What you are looking at there is the drawer blank which came off in my hand as I touched it. Damn, I thought, believing that I’d burst the screws through the chipboard. HA! It was only siliconed on to the frame.This is just bad workmanship, which had a knock on effect on my work, I had to re-bore the waste holes for the washing machine as the joiners had notched them running back(away from the drain) on themselves and in doing so they had loosened the waste pipe anyhow, which then had to be entirely renewed.

I always say that a good measure of your work quality is if you would find it acceptable for your own house. What more can they ask for? I always try to leave my jobs of a standard I would accept if I were to be in the house…

…I’d hate to see these “joiners” shacks

Billy

Throwing a sickie today as I hurt my back over the weekend changing the outside lights at home!

- If only I weren’t scared of the dark…

Billy

There’s a generally accepted rule with taps and I am going to let you know it…

Hot to the left. Cold to the right. Unless it’s a bath then the rule is, Hot to the back, Cold to the front.

Working in Aberdeen however I would estimate that 75-90% (including my own above) of all kitchen sinks/wash hand basins are plumbed in backwards. What’s that all about then?

Billy

Saw this today while doing the time sheets, unfortunately I missed the start of it then the camera ran out of battery…

I’m thinking it was probably a joiner easing a window but was a neat effect.

Billy