What would you have done?

[stratobuddy]

I recently had a new boiler fitted, which needed 14 radiators to be drained down.

On one of them, a double panelled rad, both bleed valves sheared off when the plumber tried to open them (they were old-type rads so the valves could not be replaced).

Therfore I had to have a new rad fitted, which I had to pay for.

I am in no way blaming the plumber, it could have happened to anyone, including myself if I'd tried to bleed it.

But it cost me a lot of extra money over the agreed price for the boiler.

Would this normally be covered by your insurance? BG gave a quote that stated it would not cost any more even if there were unexpected problems, but I don't know if that would include a new rad. In any case, their quote was twice as much (they even charge for delivery of the new boiler, plus another charge to take away the old one!

What would you do in this sort of circumstance ie if you accidentally damaged something?

 

[Dotty]

Bleed screws, as you said, can go any time. Especially when they've been groinched in by a heavy handed householder. Not down to the plumber.

 

[mountainman]

I agree with Croppie.

 

[Mike Jackson]

You have a choice in this instance. Go with BG and pay twice the price but be sure that any eventuality is covered or go with the more reasonable quote and be willing to pay extra for anything extra. I bet with the cost of the radiator extra you still paid less than the BG quote.

 

[tamz]

It is the householders problem. BG or no one else would cover this as it would not be deemed an unexpected problem as it can and does happen.
Can you imagine if someone went round tightening every radiator bleed screw to just before the point of breakage the day before the boiler was swapped because they wanted some new free rads. It wouldn't happen.

He (the fitter) could have filled it if he knew how.

 

[secret squirrel]

Oh dear, why do customers always look for away out?

Why would an insurance company pay out for something that you already said could go at anytime to anybody?

 

[stratobuddy]

I wasn't looking not to pay for it.

But come to think of it, I pay insurance on my whole CH system which covers everything including new rads, although I would not claim for this one. I did have one in the past though that sprung a leak.

 

[Dotty]

That's the difference. A radiator can spring a leak. But usually when a bleed screw breaks it's because the screw's been overtightened.

 

[stratobuddy]

Actually, that one's never been touched for 20 years so probably corroded up. But luckily all the others were OK.

 

[REDSAW]

i hold the customer responsible for over tightening the bleed screw, plumbers only nip them up not crank them down.
if a plumber used the toilet and could not flush it is he deemed to have broken it?....

 

[kay-jay]

I wouldn't have wasted my time asking 'what would you have done' ...............

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[petercj]

I recently had a new boiler fitted, which needed 14 radiators to be drained down.

On one of them, a double panelled rad, both bleed valves sheared off when the plumber tried to open them (they were old-type rads so the valves could not be replaced).

Therfore I had to have a new rad fitted, which I had to pay for.

I am in no way blaming the plumber, it could have happened to anyone, including myself if I'd tried to bleed it.

But it cost me a lot of extra money over the agreed price for the boiler.

Would this normally be covered by your insurance? BG gave a quote that stated it would not cost any more even if there were unexpected problems, but I don't know if that would include a new rad. In any case, their quote was twice as much (they even charge for delivery of the new boiler, plus another charge to take away the old one!

What would you do in this sort of circumstance ie if you accidentally damaged something?

What you describe is not "accidental damage", i.e. the valve broke off due to the engineer's attempts to loosen it.

If the engineer made every effort to free the valve without breaking it - using the skills and knowledge that you could reasonably expect a heating engineer to have - then I reckon the cost falls to you.

If you could show that the engineer failed to apply some knowledge or skill that would have successfully loosened the valve, then you might have a case in a Court of law.

The seized valve was not something that the engineer could reasonably have been expected to anticipate when s'he did the quote, so it's a non-foreseeable extra cost that falls to you, imo.

I doubt very much that your general home insurance will cover it, because it's not accidental damage.

If you have insurance on your system, such as BG Home Care, then they might have covered it if you or a member of your family had broken the valve, but then if they knew it had broken during work being done by another contractor, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't.

 

[stratobuddy]

As I said, I didn't blame the plumber.

However, if I had tried to loosen it myself, I would have realised it was too tight, and would NOT have applied so much brute force that I sheared the square head off the threaded part, twice!

I would have tried some releasing oil or WD40 around the thread first, and possibly used some gentle heat from a blowlamp to see if that helped.

 

[petercj]

As I said, I didn't blame the plumber.

However, if I had tried to loosen it myself, I would have realised it was too tight, and would NOT have applied so much brute force that I sheared the square head off the threaded part, twice!

I would have tried some releasing oil or WD40 around the thread first, and possibly used some gentle heat from a blowlamp to see if that helped.

But what is "too much force" when attempting to undo a radiator bleed valve?

Most of the keys made for the purpose of undoing such valves don't provide for the kind of leverage that might be deemed "too much". Also, too much force after the event is a judgement based on the wisdom of hindsight, i.e. on most occasions firm pressure will probably do the job OK.

WD40 is good stuff when threads are corroded, but I doubt it would make much difference with a radiator valve that has been jammed up tight.

Using a flame on the valve would probably have marked the finish on the rad, so it would be up for replacement anyway.

 

[peteheat]

I suggest you take care when considering claims on your home insurance, and looking for someone to "Blame"

The rad is 20 years old, a claim to home insurance and you can find your policy in the "unofficial" vexatios claims files basically the folder they keep for time wasters.

Should you decide to move insurance companies for a cheaper quote that is on offer the line that asks "Have you made any claims in the past five years" catches you :
Tick No and the central claims database (that does exist) will show you lied, they will still take your money but your not insured:
Tick yes and no other Insurance company will quote you even if your claim was not successful.

Annoy your local plumber and you could end up losing even more, we all meet at the suppliers and surprise surprise we do talk to each other especially about unreasonable customers.

I have a list of consumers names that I won't even return a call to, they were never my customers and never will be all because they ripped off a fellow tradesman.

They are in the file called Rogue Customers, every tradesman in every trade has that list maybe not written down, maybe not such a nice title but they have it.

 

[ne1ls0n]

you take a blowtorch to the nipple and melt the rubber washer and or ptfe tape and then wonder why you have a leak and cannot unscrew the fitting? good one