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A belated Happy New Year to everyone. We’ve been lacking in our blogs over 2011 and that is about to change. Unless you live in a cave you know how bad the recession has been and despite the sleepless nights that the government spin doctors are having trying to make it sound better it isn’t better. We’ve spent the last year, like many businesses trying to adjust, cut back on expenses and find new income streams so we can continue to provide good services and stay around longer term so we’re here when you need us in the future.

What we have noticed in the last year is that cowboys or just plain unqualified builders have been coming into the market place in droves. Why you might ask? Folks with no job who are good at DIY think it’s easy money to get into the maintenance market. Do a few jobs here and there and their problems are solved. It doesn’t always go that way however and many bite off more than they can chew. They start a job and discover that they don’t have the skills and then disappear. Or worse they do the complete job and the problems are hidden behind the floors and walls. We fix many of these leftover disasters all the time. We’re working on one such disaster next week as a matter of fact. An improperly installed boiler to heat an indoor swimming pool. In fact the entire plumbing in the same house is incorrect! That property will be our first Cowboy of the Week award for 2012.

So come back and visit this weekend to see just how bad ‘bad’ plumbing can be.

As written to LG looking for information to help one of their clients:

A client has asked us to plumb in and repair a damaged hose on a GRL207TUJA.
Can we obtain a valid installation manual and a parts list for the door?
Thanks.

The response we received from LG UK:

Dear A H Maintenance,

In regards to your email we are sorry but we can’t send out the requested manual and for a parts list i can provide you with a number for if you have any further queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us again or call our Customer Services on the number below.

Best regards,
LG Electronics UK Helpdesk

Our response back to LG UK:

You win!

Location: Shaw, Oldham, Lancs

Date: Nov 2010

Description: This bathroom renovation was part of a larger refurb…we practically rebuilt the entire house! Our client had purchased the property and had always planned on having all the work completed before she moved in. Although we’re only showing the bathroom here we also installed a new boiler, radiators and relocated the boiler from the kitchen to the upstairs airing cupboard, we completely gutted the kitchen and installed a new kitchen including all electrical work, we cleaned up the rest of the properties electrics and fit a new updated consumer unit, many walls and ceiling were repaired and re-plastered, the outside gutters and facia were repalced and the entire house was decorated and carpeted when complete. continue

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD
Bad ‘Plumbing’
Regulations broken: BS7671:2008

We were at this property a month or so ago to repair some dangerous electrical work left over by a central heating engineer. He left some live and uninsulated wires in a wall and told the homeowners it was safe to cut them out. It wasn’t safe and fortunately they urned the power off first. We came back this time to look at running an outside cable to their new shed. They moved the washing machine aside so we could see the wall behind. Ooops! Band plumbing.

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD
Bad ‘Plumbing and Decorating’
Regulations broken: BS7671:2008

We received a call to look at ‘some’ water around the bottom of a tub. When we arrived we removed the tub panel and found a leaking flexi connector which had been previously packed with a cheap DIY leak repair epoxy. It didn’t work and the joint kept leaking. The leak had been there for some time as the floorboards were well soaked. When the landlord went to the empty downstairs flat to see if anything had leaked through the fun began.

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD
Bad ‘Business Owners’
Regulations broken: BS7671:2008

It’s the time of year when boilers get switched on after a long break. It’s good practice to get your boiler serviced sometime before it needs to be switched on to make sure it’s safe. What is safe? Safe can mean a few things more than just the boiler itself. It relates to the room the boiler lives in, the air vents if required that allow the boiler to burn and dispose of the products of combustion properly and many other factors that you the end user may not fully understand. Here’s a good example of what could happen when you don’t service or inspect your boiler regularly.

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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD
Bad ‘Electricians’
Regulations broken: BS7671:2008

You may have never heard of a Marrette or Marr connector and I was surprised as anyone to see one in a job to remove a fluorescent light fixture. As an ex-Canadian I’ve used hundreds and have seen thousands of Marrettes over the years…but never in the UK.

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