May
6
This is British Plumbing, Plumbers in Great Britain includes English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish
May 6, 2012 | 1 Comment
This is British Plumbing
The British Plumbing which was inspired by my latest friend over in Texas who is a Master Plumber.
My thought of the day is, “should we be thinking about Plumbing outside of Great Britain?” The answer to this is, “I think it’s a good idea.”
So here is our long journey which is called: This Is British Plumbing
British Plumbing is all about Climate and the Manufacturers we use in making these materials. It is also about population and economics and how we can manage to obide by the Regulations.
Emergency Plumber
A typical example would be Scotland, this is a country where it is not essential to make an Oil Engineer regulated to have a licence. However I’m sure when it is economical, these regulations will change, just like they did with the latest laws with Electricians.
There is plenty of talk in Great Britain to make Plumbers have Plumbing Certificates. This law will include paper work being submitted to the Council every time a Plumbing job is done, this is due to the amount of jobs that are done incorrectly. There are also alot of Bodies against this, this is why the reason their accuracy of Plumbing will stay at a poor standards for sometime to come.
Our Plumbing Installation
Just below starting from the ground upwards is all about the British Plumbing.
Blue Alcaphine is the current colour for water mains coming under the ground at 30″ deep and into the house via a 4″ Pipe generally under the kitchen sink.
There must be a Stop Valve to be able to turn off in-case of any Emergency Plumbing issues.
Flexi hose to the taps are not covered by manufacturers guarantee on mains water pressure, but it always seems to find its way under the sink.
Most New Builds don’t come under the Plumbing regulations. The problem we find with this country is, there’s no separate inspector going round inspecting the work that is done afterwards.
My Plumbing idea for all Plumbers in the UK, Plumbers abiding by the Plumbing Regulations, Plumbers to do there Plumbing job, then there being a check list to go through once job is completed. This would help all manufacturers on there guarantee which will include a tick list, for example: Storage Tanks, Cylinders, Toilets, Basins, Baths and Showers.
It would be great if the check list was filled in by the Plumbing Engineer, then Plumbing Regulations would not be broken.
- Plumbing Weather
Here are some more British Plumbing examples and why we moan about our Plumbing.
Outside Bib Taps are suppose to have Non Return Valves, but why are there never any fitted?! The Central Heating is suppose to be seperate to the hot water circulation, but why when we put on our hot water, there’s a Radiator getting hot?
When the Central Heating over heats due to a broken Stat, the expansion pipe to the Hot Water Storage Tank starts to flow due to incorrectly directed to the wrong tank causing contamination.
Why is it that there is a big thing that most Plumbers don’t know the Plumbing Regulations about how much Lead Pipe we take out of a property when there’s a leak? This is because Lead Pipe is only found in small print and there’s so much confusion still.
If the Regulations state: Where there’s Lead Pipe, there should be no temporary fixture and the Lead must be fully removed. Why is it we can buy Lead fittings if we are supposed to remove all Lead Pipe? I was lead to believe when making a Lead pipe repair that your suppose to replace as much Lead as possible but never add any Lead to the system as this is illegal. This I would say is a much fairer approach due to the population struggling for money in this current economical situation.
The point I am trying to make is that as a community why are we still getting these problems occurring and there’s nothing in place to stop us Plumbers from making this Plumbing industry a better place?
Our hot water code is the same to the Central Heating Pipes, why can we not colour code these pipes?
If this was my choice, I would choose Blue for cold water, Red for hot water to taps, Brown for Central Heating, Yellow for Gas.
They do on paper so why not in the properties where it is more important? Are we still in the days of black and white?
All new appliances should have Isolation Valves. The Soil Stack should have an inspection hole a meter above the ground.
In every cloakroom toilet we must have a basin.
The minimum size of a Hot Water Storage Tank is 25 Gallons in a house with just one bathroom. This may include a mains electric shower but must not be pumped. To every extra bathroom, regulations state an extra 25 Gallons must be added to every Pump to 1 bathroom. The minimum size of the tank is 50 Gallons, and yet the Plumbing Regulations are not right in almost every house I have visited in the past.
Why dont we bring out a qualification in fitting complete Bathrooms for Bathroom Fitters ?
I hope you have enjoyed my enoying plumbing moments as much as I’ve enjoyed writing about them, so please leave us some comments below so i can do my best to answer them about British Plumbing.
Comments
1 Comment so far
If you Like our Blog then we would appreciate a +1.
Welcome to My Blog. I Hope you enjoy My Plumbing site as Much as i will enjoy yours.
Want to advertise here then please feel free to make an enquiry.
Plumbing
Recommended Plumbers
Members & friends
Mr Plummer
How to Plumbing
Plumbing Register
Plumbing Stories
Plumbing Reviews
More List
Site Navigation
A-Z
Thanks for your comments on British Plumbing. I lived in London for 3 years and noticed that the plumbing was different, somethings good, some not so good. I noticed that, in most places where I was the plumbing lines were exposed on the walls, here they are between the walls. From a utilitarian point, it makes sense to have the pipes exposed. I was looking for images of these on-line and came across your article. Could you point me to images of the pipes on the exterior of interior walls, please? I want to get my bathroom re-done and the plumbing exposed in the bathroom. Thanks, Karen