Question

Thanks very much. It has always made a gurgling noise, and was put in six months ago or so. Where on the trap should the air admittance valve be placed?

We are getting unexplained gurgling noise when water goes down the drain, either in our sink or in our bath next to it. The waste pipes under my sink looks a bit like an S bend. See attached photo. Could that be the cause of the gurgling noise we get?

We have a number of new plaster patches in our house, for example 1.5 meters by 0.8 meters on the ceiling. When I ran my hand over the existing ceiling to the plaster, I felt the plaster sticks out a bit (towards the ground). It can abruptly stick out around the edges of the new plaster next to the existing ceiling. I am planning to skim that area with Easyfill to smooth it out. Is my approach sensible to use Easyfill to smooth out the area? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks everyone for your comments. It really is a case of our plumber not applying reasonable care and skill. Not only did he connect the pipes the wrong way around, he never tested the shower to make sure it was working OK. Not too surprised.

The shower has a safety feature that one has to click a button on the tap/handle to let the water get hot. At the moment, I can only get scolding hot water whatever I do. I wonder whether the safety feature is preventing it working OK in reverse flow? In any case, the instructions have a diagram showing the hot water pipe on the left. https://s1.thcdn.com/design-assets/product-pdf/bathstore/en_GB/12915461/1646341213114-20007015000.pdf

The plumber has connected the hot water to the right side of the shower. I was able to see as the pipes are visible in the room behind the shower. Is this correct?

Our plumber has installed a new shower which is scolding hot regardless of how I adjust the temperature tap on it. The shower is thermostatic controlled. I tried it for the first time today. We informed the plumber and he does not want to come back to sort it out. The shower is still under guarantee. What should we do?

Thanks for all your advice and comments which is really appreciated.

GOOD NEWS ! The plumber found a leak. It was on a new radiator installed by a previous plumber and the floorboards were not yet fixed in place. The leak was in the pipes under the floor and he was able to repair it. Hopefully that will resolve it, but I thought the plumber should be monitoring the pressure gauge, not me. My expectations are quite low with tradesman, and I feel sometimes that I am doing their work. They always want to cut corners.

Can I exclude the radiators as a source of the problem, as they are not heating up at all? It is summer and it does not get cold enough. so the radiators are off.

Thanks for the information. One other thought is to put some liquid around the shrader valve and see if it bubbles. That is what they do with car tyre leaks so perhaps it will work a shrader valve. I'll see what the plumber does first.

Thanks for your reply. How did you find out it was the shrader valve when it could have been so many other things?

A plumber has recently installed an unvented system, replacing a gravity system. I noticed the pressure has dropped from 0.8 to 0.7 bar over a week (gauge over red expansion vessel), and I think it is still dropping The pressure figures were recorded at the same time of day (6.15pm) as I wanted to exclude the effect of the boiler being on or off. I have spoken to the plumber who is still working on our site. He said that it could be very small leak and that he would have a look. He seemed somewhat unconcerned. I am disappointed that the plumber was not monitoring the pressure level himself. I imagine finding a very small leak to be very difficult. If this does not get resolved, I would presumably need to re-pressurise the system every two to three weeks. I am worried. Do you have any advice please.

All four are wrong (for one, the hole is just too small). There are also three others but the lights and holes are all smaller and they are all fine. The smaller ones have the same style as the bigger ones. So we want to keep them all.

Is there any really strong filler we can get, as the holes are just 2mm too big?

any solutions for a bit too large ?

Miek, thanks for the reply. There is another problem that another hole is just too small for a light.

Thanks for response. The electrician fitted new lights removing olds one of a different model. I think the holes were slightly too large, but the outer edge of the lights were resting at the bottom of the ceiling. The plasterers removed the lights, and plastered the ceiling. They plastered over an old ceiling. Now, the lights do just above fit into the hole, but the holes appear to be wider. The inner of edges of the holes look as if they have been cut by the same person. If I carefully position the lights, then they don't fall inside the hole and they look close to being correct - their outer edges lie just below the bottom of the ceiling. See photo of current situation after carefully adjust position of light, and the hole (on the left hand side, it looks like there is a cut leaving a ridge on both the ceiling and plaster). I am not sure, but I think the ceiling was just plasterboard. Any advice on this and how to resolve would be very welcome.

We have had new low level lights installed in our ceiling, and then the whole ceiling was plastered by a plasterer. The holes for the lights are too big, and so don't fit. Is it the plasterer's responsibility to sort it out? Thanks for any advice.

What about Trading standards? I think I'll start by warning the contractor about the NIC EIC complaints: it may worry him about his ability to practice as an NIC EIC electrician. Then I will make a complaint to the NIC EIC and I know how to make really effective complaints. There is no hurry but it is a bit time consuming. I won't expect too much. Following that and using any evidence from the NIC EIC complaints procedure, I'll go to the small claims court.

He checked the electrics for the whole house and installed a new CCU. Then he resolved some issues with the house and then issued me with an EICR for the whole house. He did not issue me with an EIC, though it is mentioned in the initial quote. So perhaps the small claims court is a more promising avenue?

Thanks again for your replies. How depressing to find out that complaining to the NIC EIC often does nothing. If it clear that that the electrician has not followed the rules (not issued an EIC report for a new CCU), then would the NIC EIC do something if we complained?

Thanks very much for your reply. We have had real problems with our electrician. He has installed a new CCU but has just given us an EICR for it. I understand an EIC is required, and we are now asking for one. And I could go on..... The immersion will be used for a back up, but he did NOT discuss anything about it or did NOT warn us about anything. Not surprising with the electrician we had. Should this limitation with the immersion heater be mentioned in the EICR? Perhaps code C3 (Improvement Recommended) under Part 6 ?

I have just had an NIC EIC electrician do some work on my house, and carried out a conditions report on all circuits. He has installed a new immersion heater circuit for my 250 litre water cylinder, and has connected it via the kitchen ring/power sockets. I thought immersion heaters had had to have their own dedicated circuit connected directly to the consumer unit. There is an isolation switch though for the immersion heater. So, has the NIC EIC electrician done the right thing?

Thanks for your comments. The electrician said that the resistance between live and neutral (or was it the earth) is too low, and that was the case for all the power sockets and lights in the four rooms. So he is recommending a full rewiring for those rooms. Is this sensible?