What makes a good plumber?
Find the best plumber or heating engineer for your project with Tim Doherty’s expert tips
ese professionals are essential for a home project; Tim Doherty shares how to employ the right person for the job
Plumbing in a whole house takes in a wide variety of skilled tasks – from bringing water supplies into the property, through to running effective hot/ cold pipework, installing heat sources and emitters, and even fitting out entire bathrooms. Many of those same skills are needed on renovations, too. Not all plumbers specialise in all aspects of the role, so the trick is to identify the right specialists to tackle the job at hand. Here’s what you need to know to engage the best trades.
Plumbing training
Some people choose to move into plumbing from an unrelated career, typically via intensive training programmes where they can learn the basic skills in just eight to 10 weeks. These City & Guilds-accredited diplomas are classroom based, so offer no practical site experience, and they don’t cover gas works. But they do provide a foundation for career hoppers, who can continue to upskill thereafter.
A more comprehensive, time-served apprenticeship takes four years. It usually involves two weeks working on site for every one week in the classroom, so it welds theory and practical experience in the right balance. In the third year, an apprentice should learn about domestic heat systems – setting them well on their way to Gas Safe registration at the end of their apprenticeship or shortly thereafter.
In the past, plumbers would learn all the skills necessary for working with metal and so part of their remit would be lead work (plus copper and zinc) on roofs, walls and chimneys. Times have changed, however, and ironically much domestic plumbing work now uses very little metal.
Plastic pipes are now generally preferred for waste systems, hot and cold supplies and underfloor heating. Metal flashings on roofs are now more frequently completed by the roofer or a skilled general builder, leaving the plumber to concentrate on space heating, water supply pipes, wastes, and bathroom, kitchen and utility fittings.
Properly qualified plumbers are likely to join an umbrella trade organisation such as the Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors (APHC) or the Chartered Institute of Plumbing & Heating Engineering (CIPHE). Both have busy websites and offer training to their members. They also have helpful consumer services, including search tools to find qualified members in your area. It is a very good endorsement for a plumber or heating engineer to belong to one of these types of organisation, as it suggests they take great pride in their well-earned skills and knowledge.
Regulation & building control
Domestic plumbing works must conform to the UK standards, as set out in three core parts of the Building Regulations. Part G covers sanitation, hot water safety and water efficiency; Part H deals with drainage; and Part J covers combustion appliances and fuel storage. Qualified contractors should know these regs inside and out, especially for their specialist areas of routine expertise.
Works such as installing or extending a heating system, replacing a boiler or fitting a new bathroom all need Building Regulations approval. However, suitably-qualified plumbers and heating engineers who have joined a governmentapproved competent person scheme are able to self-certify their work as compliant. This means they can do the job and simply register completion on the relevant local authority’s building control website – speeding up the process.
If this wasn’t in place, there would be a duty on you as the homeowner to have the plumber’s works inspected by a building control officer to ensure compliance. So, when you’re looking to engage these tradespeople, a key question should be whether or not they are registered under the relevant competent person scheme.
Bathroom specialists
Some plumbers either lack heating and gas installation skills or don’t find the work rewarding. In some cases, they may not
want the rigmarole of keeping their knowledge base topped up by completing regular CPD (Continuing Professional Development) courses or the obligation of paying an annual fee for Gas Safe registration. So instead, they might prefer to specialise in bathroom installations.
That’s fair enough, but they should still have sufficient technical design knowledge, as you’ll no doubt need to rely on their skills to ensure the right details are used.
Here are some of the most common mistakes made on bathroom makeovers and extensions:
Using the wrong diameter pipes (for either waste or supply), making the system unnecessarily noisy. Inadequate venting to the above ground drainage, which means some WCS can have a poor flush. Combining waste runs, which can lead to one fitting syphoning water from another.
It’s mighty difficult and very expensive to put these elements right once floors and walls have been closed up and surface finishes completed – so make sure your tradesperson understands how to get them right.
Bear in mind, too, that if the plumbing has to be altered as part of a bathroom renovation, then Building Regulations approval (or registration under a relevant competent person scheme) will always be required. So, when searching for a plumber for bathroom or kitchen/utility works, be mindful that there are a lot of tradespeople operating in this space who don’t have the requisite knowledge and experience that you should be entitled to rely upon.
That said, some plumbers specialise only in bathroom installations because they like the work and are exceptionally good at it. Many are multi skilled and will provide a full turnkey price including carpentry adjustments, ceramic tiling to walls and floors and the provision of electrical ventilation and heating products. Anyone operating in this space should have a great portfolio of completed work, probably a good website and plenty of positive customer testimonials and references to help you make up your mind.
Heating engineers
With heating and domestic hot water, the level of technical design is greater. Boiler works require specific qualifications and a current registration with either Gas Safe for gas or OFTEC for oil. The importance of boiler safety is obvious, and it’s easy to understand why this work is heavily regulated. Unvented, mains pressure-fed hot water cylinders are also a regulated installation that should only be carried out by suitably registered plumbers and heating engineers. If you’re after a heat pump or other renewable energy appliance, look for membership of relevant trade bodies and registration under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).
For new build properties, the heating engineer/plumber will carefully calculate heat loss in the proposed new structure so they can size radiators or underfloor heating provision accordingly. For the domestic hot water, sufficient capacity should be designed into the cylinder size and, to some extent, its location. More and more people are now installing secondary supply loops, which provide an access point for the hot water close to each bathroom, WC or kitchen/utility outlet. This avoids the need to wait for up to a minute for the water to turn hot while you drain the cool water already sitting in the pipe run.
Common problems with heating and hot water design (in both new and existing houses) often relate to the size of the incoming water main, particularly where its diameter or the supply pressure inside are insufficient for the water volumes required when the overall system is at peak load. Good plumbers and heating engineers will never make this error, as they will match supply and capacity correctly with demand.
Costs & tenders
Cost varies significantly with daywork rates ranging anywhere from £35 to £75 per hour, depending on location and the complexity of the job. The larger (and typically more expensive) firms will be registered for VAT. It’s always best to get a fixed price for your works. Although the prospective firm quoting will apply their respective labour rates to the indicative time it will take to complete, at least with this route you will have de-risked any rise in cost thereafter.
When going out to tender (inviting quotes for the works), do not treat all plumbers as equal: you need to ensure your chosen trade has the right skills for the right job. Your contract with them will almost certainly include design, product supply and installation, and only those with suitable qualifications and experience will be able to deliver all three. In summary, they must be regulated for boiler-related jobs, they must be a registered member of a plumbing/heating competent person scheme for the appropriate scope of works and they will ideally belong to an overarching trade body.