Re: Plumbing question
 

Good grief!
That's a bit of a shock. I can understand that they don't want Joe Public messing about with anything to do with Gas boilers etc. but rerouting a bit of waste outlet or changing a tap or two is second nature to my OH!!!

We've been rennovating delapidated houses for years over here with no problems, so it's going to be a bit weird for us having to call in people to do what he is perfectly capable of doing.
How does he go about getting a licence? We obviously want to stay within the law for sure!!!
If plumbing hasn't been his main job then is there any way to get a licence without spending 4 years at college :confused:

Cheers

Debs

Re: Plumbing question
 

Debs, unless he gets an apprentiship he is up shits creek its as simple at that, he may be lucky & get a company to take him as an apprentice but he will be on crap money for 4 years at least then after that he will have to sit all the exams for plumbing.

Now then he may actually do a better job than some plumbers here ive seen some rough sods & i mean rough they have no idea.
If you come here he wont be using yorkshire fittings they are crap plumbers in australia use oxy & acetylene and use i higher grade solder so they actually weld the copper pipes.

Re: Plumbing question
 

OH dear.
I'm not looking forward to passing this news on to the OH tonight!
He's an avid DIYer and finds it impossible to relax when there is a job to be done!

He won't mind being taken on as an apprentice for a while I'm sure, as we don't have major outgoings as no small children to bring up. But he might not be too thrilled about having to do it for 4 long years!

Re: Plumbing question
 

Plumbing over here is as rough as guts. Cowboy isn't the word. We built a new house in Carramar and I rang the supervisor as I was concerned about what I thought to be rough plumbing. Plumber had crimped a 3/4" pipe, inserted 1/2" in the end and silver soldered it; I thought they would have used a reducer like we did in UK. Apparently that's how it is done in Oz though. Our plumber must have lost his bending machine as most bends were just done over his knee and were flattened. I don't think they know too much about clipping pipes either; talk about rattle & roll when you turn the taps on! Our builder was highly reputed; but the plumbing side was sort of Dodgy Bros........ or so i thought; but that's how we do it down-under.

I had advanced City & Guilds in plumbing which had taken me round the world working; not worth a cracker here in WA though. Good thing over here is you don't have to stick to your trade.......... I'm glad I couldn't work here in WA as a plumber without going back to school again to obtain local licences. It forced me to get off my bum and find alternative employment for the first time in ages. Been off the tools for years now; and loving it.

Re: Plumbing question
 

Bobcat,
Good to see that you have learnt something new AND are enjoying it.
What are you doing nowadays then?

Re: Plumbing question
 

[QUOTE

=
hey matey dont tarnish all plumbing here,the company i work for has very high standards most of our apprentices win the apprentice of the year in their class. a lot of brits call plumbing because it is a big shock over here getting used to it. there is rough work here but i saw a lot more in the uk:zzz:

Re: Plumbing question
 

Your right there. You get good and bad the world over. But what would the good plumbers have to do if all the crap ones packed in. Most of my work is putting things right!

Re: Plumbing question
 

I'm not tarnishing all plumbing over here; I'm just saying plumbing on our new house (in Perth) was sub-standard in my estimation, it wasn't installed how I had been trained to do it as an apprentice plumber. To me it was shoddy workmanship, but, as far as the builder was concerned it was alright.

Well it wasn't really as the guy had to come back and clip pipes in the roofspace to stop waterhammer............... the drains had been thrown in too so the plumber had to come back and rectify that.

Good on you and your company for ensuring high standards are kept. In the mine training college I too trained apprentice plumbers and its a magic feeling when they do well. It's all a question of taking pride in their work and doing the job properly.

Replumbing done on our house.......... sorry but the pride had gone out the window. Could have been that the tradesman was on job and finish, on bonus rates per metre. I don't know? What I do know is that in my humble opinion the finished work was definitely shonky to say the least.

Plumbing down under is a shock to the system when you arrive from the UK; for starters no need to bring your bossing stick or a mallet as you will hardly use it. In the UK Navvies used to put in our drains; over here plumbers do the drainage too. All part of our learning curve........... I'm from the old school though; we shouldn't sacrifice quality work for speed.

Re: Plumbing question
 

It was a bit of a shock to the old system not being able to be a plumber no more without going back to school.......... because I'd never done anything else since 1964.

I ended up in Singapore on an oil rig working offshore....... magic.

For the last 10 years I've been in real estate; now I run my own real estate company.

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Wow Bobcat, that's a bit of a change of tack. Good for you.
I've always fancied a dabble in that area. We've been involved with buying, doing up and selling investment properties for many years now. I really enjoy trying to find the positives in a property and making the best of it.
Could be paying a visit to your agency to ask about possible investment properties when we get settled.

Re: Plumbing question
 

Oh yes!

Our new build has plumbing like you've never seen. And the water hammer...........

Anyone know of a hammer preventer which will protect the whole house?

Re: Plumbing question
 

you could try fitting a pressure reducing valve and a mini expansion vessell onto the cold supply [just after to stop cock] that should cure it.:)

Re: Plumbing question
 

Yes, I was looking for some sort of expansion chamber/damper piston but today the plumber fitted "fixed" piston washers in the isolation valves instead of the "floating" ones and that cured it, thank god! The floaters were just pistoning when the taps were shut off.

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You can get a special kind of shock-absorber type washer for the taps; it has a spring arrangement on it. An old plumber's trick was to bash the ends of the brass jumper to flatten them a little; then wedge them up the spindle so they become fixed.

Neither solution would have worked in our 'new' house as pipes up the attic had just been thrown in without any clips at all....... I tell a lie because we did find some bent over carpenter's nails acting as makeshift clips, but they were useless.

Re: Plumbing question
 

I didn't see the washers before they changed them but from what the builder said it sounds as if they were the spring type and were causing the problem. Anyway, all quiet now!