"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...

Which reminds me... I did some plumbing for a friend recently, rerouting
some pipework which was in the way. It was copper so I used end-feed
solder fittings and lead-free solder. After I'd done this, the bathroom
floor was taken up for other reasons, and they deciced to reroute the
pipework again under the floor as it could be completely concealed that
way. I wasn't around so he got a plumber in to do it.

I looked at the job afterwards. My soldering is neat with no drips left
on the pipework (which would otherwise look like paint runs after
painting),
and a nice small silver filet ring of solder just visible around the join.
The plumber's joins have got solder running over 6" down the pipe from
the join whereupon the solder turns into large drips, not to mention
a pool of solder on the floor under the job. There's probably the same
on the inside of the pipe too. One of the joins is a JG speedfit one too
(no idea why, but he'd probably used up his whole reel of solder by
then;-)
The plumber is actually CORGI registered too (although this wasn't gas
work).

A friend did the plumbing for our CH system. The installers for the stove
then came in to connect that up, and asked who did it - "my mate" - which
prompted guffawing of the "oh, it'll be crap" kind. I think when they
actually saw the quality of the job they might have changed their mind
again - his stuff is as you describe yours, all lovely. The worst bits in
the system are theirs...

Still, tbe builder who did our 'extension' takes pride of place for the
worst pipework in the house :-( Drips, not cleaning flux off, poor routing.

cheers,
clive