Can you guess what a Polish flooring contractor and damaged gas pipes in a kitchen wall have in common? It’s easy when you hire workers who are unqualified, uninsured but still  willing to ‘give it a go!’ One of my long time clients hired three workers to put down his new solid wood flooring, cheaply. When they finished their day jobs (as flooring installers) they ‘borrowed’ their bosses van and came by to do this floor. While they were working on the floor in the lounge the homeowner asked if they could also install a new cooker extractor which he had just purchased. They said yes. The result?

They went right out and rented a core drill and without checking the wall space directly above or below the hob & oven for gas pipes work or electrics they started coring. The picture says it all. They cut a four in chunk out of the gas pipe. At that point they went back to the flooring, finished, got paid and left. I received the call from my client and went over to see what had happened. It was fortunate they they hadn’t tried to do something even more foolish like solder it back together. We removed the damaged pipe and replaced it using approved fittings.

Cheap labour usually means untrained labour (see previous blog on value by clicking here). As footnote, the hole for the extractor is still in the wall without the extractor. Why? Because the core went through an outside corner and you can’t put a vent on an outside corner. They didn’t check to see where the hole would come out before they started. Not so cheap in the end as he had an emergency call out to pay for and he still has a big hole in the side of his house and the kitchen extractor still isn’t working.

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