On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 21:38:26 +0000, BigWallop wrote:


"PoP" wrote in message
...
Just musing over whether bathrooms in flats are plumbed differently to
regular houses......

I'm fitting a bathroom suite for someone on a ground floor flat
presently. I really can't believe the original plumber got paid to do
the job he did, but maybe it's just a feature of flat installations
that I haven't previously seen.

Problem 1 is that the hot flow is extremely slow. Reason being that
the hot tank has a head of water about 1 foot above the bath, so it
almost dribbles out of the hot tap.

Problem 2 is that the waste pipe to the stack is about 6 inches off
the ground, and the water level is equal to the top of the bath
plughole - so when the bath is emptied it stops emptying at the top of
the plughole. Emptying the bath is of course extremely slow.

With problem 2 the situation is exacerbated by the waste pipe being
run horizontally for several feet to the stack.

I thought at the outset that I might be able to lower the waste pipe
and introduce an incline so as to improve the waste flow. No such deal
was available once I'd exposed the pipework behind the wall, I'd have
had to do some serious structural work to accomplish that little feat.

Why oh why did the idiot who did the plumbing in the flat originally
not use a couple of braincells?

Fscking plumbers.....

PoP



The reason the bath waste is wrong is for exactly the reason you say - it
would have taken some serious work to put right.
There must have been a reasonable run for the bath waste when it was new
what has changed (the bath has been turned around 180 so the plug is not
near the waste? - Odds on I'd say).

Let me guess further we are talking about a 1970s flat, give or take, with a
silly set of tanks holding water to give about 0.05 bar at the kitchen hot
tap on a good day.

Combi boilers are the solution, or if no gas, electric unvented.


Plumbing in flats is no different from elsewhere except that 30 years ago
the industry tried to include the same equipement as for house and then
flatten it. Previously the method was to install large tanks at roof level
which worked well but requires lots of 'management' when any work need
doing.


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at www.diyfaq.org.uk
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