Is it normal to cut pipes including mains water pipe into the wall?
Anonymous user 03/03/2024 - 3.13 PM
A builder was renovating my bathroom. He stripped it bear of old basin, bath and toilet and replastered the walls. He then walked out of the job just as he said a plumber was going to fit new bath, loo etc. What alarms me is that whilst the tap pipes for the bath and basin protrude from the floor, the pipes - carrying the water/waste etc have been severed. He cut the pipes at the wall and then squashed them together (the only pipe that now protudes is the toilet waste pipe all others are in the wall). Is it normal to sever pipes in this way? I have a terrible feeling that the reason he scarpered is that when the plumber turned up he saw what the builder had done and could not afford to put this right. I am so worried that any reassurance or not would be gratefully received. All one can see now of the previous pipes is a squashed end in the wall.
Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?
The builder was obviously not a plumber and has just bent the pipes out of his way with no consideration for the next stage, the only way to re-connect the services now is to renew the pipes, if he has left the pipe bent up in the wall it will need tracing back to the next connectable point and re- doing. It may also be possible to make a hole in the wall and connect onto the pipe.
it would depend on wether the severed pipes had been re routed with new pipe. if new pipes have been run, then it is quite common to cut the old pipes off and if they are too difficult to remove then they are often left in situ. If no new pipework has been run then i would suggest that you have a problem that will get worse very soon as pinched pipes under pressure could last ten minutes or a lifetime time depending on your luck.
Answered29 December 2014
1
Anonymous user
Builders do not think sometimes, a good plumber will find a way to connect back on to the pipework. he might have to remove some plaster to do so !
I'd be worried about potential 'dead legs' in pipework. These are against regs because stale, stagnant water can form in them and leak back out into the drinking or potable water pipework. In warm areas legionnaires can form over time too so please pay a professional to sort this out for you asap.
I don't like builders doing plumbing any more than they like me doing brickwork (so I don't), there's more to it than folks think and mistakes are costly.
