I'm not looking for a solution to a problem here - I'm just interested
why a plumber would have done something like this!

Went to install a dishwasher in a flat this morning. Started wrecking
the kitchen cabinet below the work surface, the cabinet was to be
replaced by the dishwasher.

As soon as I removed the bottom shelf of the cabinet I saw the
showstopper - two 15mm pipes which had been brought out of the floor
by approx 3in (75mm), joined by a solder fitting, then taken back down
into the floor. These formed an inverted 'U' shape in the pipework. In
over 30 years of being involved in DIY projects I have never seen this
sort of implementation before.

The pipes appear to have run from the boiler in the kitchen to the
bathroom - turning on the hot tap in the bathroom caused the pipe(s)
to get hot.

Now, the question is, why on earth have these pipes been taken out of
the floor like this to perform a simple joint???? Is this some sort of
expansion joint, or just a pipe jockey who couldn't be arsed to do the
job properly?

It is very unlikely that the bathroom was added as an extension to
this flat afterwards, so those pipes would've been put in at build
time.

Supplementary question: Am I chasing a mad plumber around the district
in which I live and work? This is a completely different development
to the bath fiasco in a flat which I reported a few days ago.....

PoP