Plumber removed copper piping

Mrs. Delany

Hi all. I'm getting some work done on the house at the moment, new bathroom and kitchen. All of the existing pipework for rads, gas, water etc was in copper. The plumber has taken out most of this and put in some sort of flexible hose-type material instead. Is this what should be done? I would have thought the copper piping better.

meercat

no thats standard procedure.qualpex pipework is more flexible and cheaper to work with.no problems there.

Outkast_IRE

The plastic pipe is cheaper and easier to fit than copper piping , it has cut down on costs for you and the plumber.

Mrs. Delany

Thanks for that. Was mainly just curious as the guys seem to be doing a good job but it's still reassuring to know that it's the standard thing to do.

mickdw

It good also as you can typically reduce the number of joints under your floor. Less chance of leaks in future

Wonky Knees

What has he done with the copper he removed. I hope he has offset the money he will get for the scrap against your cost.

mad m

fatimamansions wrote: »

What has he done with the copper he removed. I hope he has offset the money he will get for the scrap against your cost.

Ah cmon, give the plumber his scrap...Sure it goes without saying if a plumber is changing a cylinder, he gets it.....:)

mrgaa1

the only think about the qualpex is to ensure that each connection is pushed in correctly - if not it can leak but at least you'll find out quick enough when he turns the water on. Keep the copper yourself or ask him for a small discount.

Greenmachine

hell no. He was right to replace the the copper pipes. But this is not like having your old washing collected when the new one is delivered. It costs them money to dispose of the old one and they have envioromental resposnsibiltys. Copper on the other hand is a commodity and is yours to keep and do what you will with it. Melt it use it as a prop for something. It doesn't cost yoy anything to keeep and you can even dump it in the corner of the garden until you think of something to with it.

scotchy

mrgaa1 wrote: »

Keep the copper yourself or ask him for a small discount.

The scrap value of the copper pipe he removed is probably quite small and not worth worrying about.
When I used to work at plumbing and heating we would take all the scrap with us and then sell it all together twice, maybe three times a year. If we were lucky it would pay for a few pints. If anyone questioned us taking it, we would just leave it in the house and let them sort it out themselves. To be honest, the plumber is doing you a favour taking it as the money you will get for it from a dealer is not really going to pay for your time, effort and petrol. Just my opinion.

Ohh. And don’t worry about the Qualpex, its excellent, 99% of plumbers use it now.


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Greenmachine

Yeah but there is a little bit of rag and bone man in my blood. The man on the street doesn't know the price of copper. But if someone thinks they they need it and I have it, they can give me as much for it as they want. Either They give me twice what it is worth or try to get themselves a good deal and offer me way over odds. In which case i would say because it is you, you can have it for €xx. A little less than what they offered so I am selling and have negotiated the price down, they are hapy as larry and I have a corner to jump some new scrap.

You have heard of the one red paper clip story. Through swapping one thing for another a guy started off with a paperclip and ended up with a house after 12 swaps. Not a feet I could pull off but if someone wants to give me €25 for something I got in the 2 euroshop I'D tell him I would give him 2 for €40 but only because I am stuck of course. And you know what 4 times out of 5 theguy would shake on €40 for two of them and. I would go another car boot sale the following week.

scotchy wrote: »

The scrap value of the copper pipe he removed is probably quite small and not worth worrying about.
When I used to work at plumbing and heating we would take all the scrap with us and then sell it all together twice, maybe three times a year. If we were lucky it would pay for a few pints. If anyone questioned us taking it, we would just leave it in the house and let them sort it out themselves. To be honest, the plumber is doing you a favour taking it as the money you will get for it from a dealer is not really going to pay for your time, effort and petrol. Just my opinion.

Ohh. And don’t worry about the Qualpex, its excellent, 99% of plumbers use it now.


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scotchy

Greenmachine wrote: »

Yeah but there is a little bit of rag and bone man in my blood. The man on the street doesn't know the price of copper. But if someone thinks they they need it and I have it, they can give me as much for it as they want. Either They give me twice what it is worth or try to get themselves a good deal and offer me way over odds. In which case i would say because it is you, you can have it for €xx. A little less than what they offered so I am selling and have negotiated the price down, they are hapy as larry and I have a corner to jump some new scrap.

You have heard of the one red paper clip story. Through swapping one thing for another a guy started off with a paperclip and ended up with a house after 12 swaps. Not a feet I could pull off but if someone wants to give me €25 for something I got in the 2 euroshop I'D tell him I would give him 2 for €40 but only because I am stuck of course. And you know what 4 times out of 5 theguy would shake on €40 for two of them and. I would go another car boot sale the following week.

Yeah, good luck with that.:D




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CJhaughey

Qualpex pipe is good stuff, the pushfit connectors are crap IMO, better to use compression fittings with inserts, less chance of popping off.
The old style push fit were more secure, the newer stuff has a collar that can disengage the locking ring if the pipe is pulled back against an edge.

Poor Uncle Tom

CJhaughey wrote: »

Qualpex pipe is good stuff, the pushfit connectors are crap IMO, better to use compression fittings with inserts, less chance of popping off.
The old style push fit were more secure, the newer stuff has a collar that can disengage the locking ring if the pipe is pulled back against an edge.

+1
This is also my experience. While at home one evening I heard water spraying against a hard surface and went to find a pex piping pushfit connection had popped out inside the hotpress spraying water against the ceiling. I changed all the joints for compression fittings straight away.

Regarding the old copper, if you are not into hoarding, haggling and scrap dealing you will not make anything from second hand piping. The price per tonne for copper or aluminium is for clean, uncontaminated material, the pipework doesn't fit into this category. They're doing you a favour getting rid of it for you.

10-10-20

What's copper these days? €4.15/kg last I heard...?

CJhaughey

10-10-20 wrote: »

What's copper these days? €4.15/kg last I heard...?

US$6915 per ton

Davy

CJhaughey wrote: »

Qualpex pipe is good stuff, the pushfit connectors are crap IMO, better to use compression fittings with inserts, less chance of popping off.
The old style push fit were more secure, the newer stuff has a collar that can disengage the locking ring if the pipe is pulled back against an edge.

I presume your talking about the techtite ones, the surefast fittings are better but are not compression. Only thing is their not as compact

Wonky Knees

CJhaughey wrote: »

Qualpex pipe is good stuff, the pushfit connectors are crap IMO, better to use compression fittings with inserts, less chance of popping off.
The old style push fit were more secure, the newer stuff has a collar that can disengage the locking ring if the pipe is pulled back against an edge.

very good point! that's why when using these fittings it's important to tell the people in the house not to be pulling on the rads. If there is no give the joint will pop.

Davy

fatimamansions wrote: »

very good point! that's why when using these fittings it's important to tell the people in the house not to be pulling on the rads. If there is no give the joint will pop.

Eye opener with them after using nail clips close to the fitting, they acted exactly like the opening tool, and the pipe popped out

Outkast_IRE

if someone gave me hassle about taking the copper after i dug it up or took it out , i would dump in a big pile with all the insulation with all fittings still attached and say there you go.
And if they asked for a discount id , id rather give them the copper rather than strip it bag it and bring it to scrap yard.
Its a plumbers sacred right to take the scrap copper

Greenmachine

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

if someone gave me hassle about taking the copper after i dug it up or took it out , i would dump in a big pile with all the insulation with all fittings still attached and say there you go.
And if they asked for a discount id , id rather give them the copper rather than strip it bag it and bring it to scrap yard.
Its a plumbers sacred right to take the scrap copper

IF you dumped all the crap in my yard I would tell you get the f off my property and keep it myself. Ring the guards and all say that someone is ttrying to steal my copper.

Outkast_IRE

Greenmachine wrote: »

IF you dumped all the crap in my yard I would tell you get the f off my property and keep it myself. Ring the guards and all say that someone is ttrying to steal my copper.

Well insulation and fittings are attached to the copper pipe so if im not taking it why would i bother stripping it ?? thats not part of the job to make a nice neat copper pile for you.
And i would gladly leave your property if you ask and then enjoy finding a good plumber on short notice and you would be left without water as the pipework was out. you will probably end up with this guy

http://www.transparent.com/polish/files/2008/06/polishplumber_1.jpg

When my SIL had the house renevated in the summer(???) She hoped the plumber would reuse as much as possible of the existing CH system, it was only about 4 years old.
Te reused the boiler and the radiators but just dumped the pipework, it was too much effort to salvage any of it.

I claimed it and used it in my solar & stove secondary water heating system so it didn't go to waste & I saved a fortune in fittings.

Outkast_IRE

Deleted User wrote: »

When my SIL had the house renevated in the summer(???) She hoped the plumber would reuse as much as possible of the existing CH system, it was only about 4 years old.
Te reused the boiler and the radiators but just dumped the pipework, it was too much effort to salvage any of it.

I claimed it and used it in my solar & stove secondary water heating system so it didn't go to waste & I saved a fortune in fittings.

I wouldnt reuse it if it meant more fittings , the less fittings the better.less chance of leaks over the years.

Outkast_IRE

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

I wouldnt reuse it if it meant more fittings , the less fittings the better.less chance of leaks over the years.

It's OK, all the joints were needed and all the pipe runs were shorter than the original pipework.

Greenmachine

Okay then it is lawsuit time and I take a case of professional misconduct against you. You lose your SIMI endorsement and I seize your assets and those of the good plumber you recommended.

I win: You lose

Good luck finding emergency accomodation and a handout SVDP and the simon community are stretched to their limits. I know that for a fact because I am involved with thme both.

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Well insulation and fittings are attached to the copper pipe so if im not taking it why would i bother stripping it ?? thats not part of the job to make a nice neat copper pile for you.
And i would gladly leave your property if you ask and then enjoy finding a good plumber on short notice and you would be left without water as the pipework was out. you will probably end up with this guy

http://www.transparent.com/polish/files/2008/06/polishplumber_1.jpg

Poor Uncle Tom

Stay on topic please.

Outkast_IRE

Greenmachine wrote: »

Okay then it is lawsuit time and I take a case of professional misconduct against you. You lose your SIMI endorsement and I seize your assets and those of the good plumber you recommended.

I win: You lose

Good luck finding emergency accomodation and a handout SVDP and the simon community are stretched to their limits. I know that for a fact because I am involved with thme both.

Sure if you asked someone to leave your premises before any misconduct actually took place then its your own issue not theirs ,
and sure i would have my mountain of copper to fall back on :pac:

muffler

Infraction given to Outkast_IRE.

Next off topic comment earns a ban.

T-Square

mad m wrote: »

Ah cmon, give the plumber his scrap...Sure it goes without saying if a plumber is changing a cylinder, he gets it.....:)

his scrap?
goes without saying?

with the prices plumbers (including the cr@p ones) charge,
I wouldn't give them the steam of my you know what.

muffler

T-Square banned for 7 days.

Mrs. Delany

Lads, belated thanks for all the comments. It was, to say the least, an eyeopener! Pity it all ended badly, I had quite a good laugh reading it !

Gretchy

Hi All
Pricing plumbers for a new build at the moment.
One worships copper, the other qualpex.
Copper guy likes copper cylinder, qualpex guy likes stainless steel cylinder.
Copper guy runs single pipe from water tank and branches (joints) beneath floor to individual radiators.
Qualpex guy lays a run and return for each individual rad. Seems like a lot of pipe to have below ground.
Little help please!!!