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I’m sure it’s not uncommon but I have a very hard time with plumbers. The local Yellow Pages may be stuffed to the brim with plumbers but it seems that whenever I need one I don’t know who to call.
The problem is, finding a good plumber. Someone who turns up when they say they will; does a decent job; actually performs the tasks you ask of them; doesn’t need you to take out a second mortgage to pay them and, above all, is actually a nice decent sort that you would trust to take care of your water pipes in an emergency. So when you do find one like that, you want to hold on to them. This has always been my guiding principle with any such people. I want to have just one plumbers phone number except it doesn’t always work out like that. While the same guy has been servicing my boiler for the last 15 years and the same man has actually been servicing my washing machine for 30 – plumbers seem to come and go. Since my plumber of choice decided about 15 years back that we lived too far away I have had a stream of surly and difficult grunters or the odd happy guy who while he seems to know what he’s doing cuts corners and puts the wrong bits on that annoy you ever after.
Which is why, when I found Barry the Plumber last year I let out a big sigh of relief that at last I had a new plumber of choice who would be my plumber of the future. Friendly, punctual, realistically priced, practical, perfect. Didn’t take one look at my pipes and want to rip them all out. Came back instantly to correct a mistake with no charge. Cleaned up after himself. I had found the perfect plumber. Except he died last month.
I didn’t know Barry well and I didn’t know him that long but he was a bloody nice guy, a decent plumber and my condolences are with his family. And as hard as it is to say it – I don’t take his untimely death personally.
And I need a plumber.
Plumber comes from the (Greek/Latin/Whatever) Lead = Pb, and since water was once carried in lead pipes we have ‘plumber’.
Andy, you have applied your mind to create a clean, elegant web site, with far less effort you could easily become a plumber, my better half had a CORGI registered plumber round to fix her central heating boiler, after 4 attempts at fixing a 20 year old boiler he pronounced it dead, I got the fitting instructions from the maker – Glowworm in Derbyshire, and following the instructions I found that the ‘plumber’ had cut the overheat thermostat wire with clamp.(for reference it took me 5 mins to find the problem that had kept her cold for 8 weeks(DEC-FEB), because I ‘respected’ the ‘tradesman’) – NEVER AGAIN.
The man is/was a complete moron, his sole game was to extract ÂŁ1600 for a new boiler, anybody that can build a website as slick as yours DOES NOT NEED A THICK PLUMBER TO FIX STUFF.
Ah… but you have never seen me wield a spanner. Thinking about that – not a lot of people have seen me wield a spanner and there’s a good reason for that!
And… if you had inherited the water and heating system that we did in this house you’d think twice about touching it I assure you. If a plumber ever did come in, take a look and groan I’d have to respond ‘yes, I know!’
It is of course your decision, but I have rewired and replumbed my house and provided you read up and take your time, the hardest part is being on your knees !In fact you can now buy plastic push fit piping, you just cut the pipe  and push fit it together.How to’shttp://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/templates/content_lookup.jsp?content=/bq_advice/common/howtos/basicplumbing/&ts=1206103374264One place to buy from, if you buy the plastic pipe you must use inserts in each end to prevent it collapsing, but other just google ‘plastic push fitting’ or ‘Speedfit’http://www.screwfix.com/cats/100985/Plumbing/Push-Fit-FittingsAs an aside I have just installed Inquisitor for Safari – really good little search engine function http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari/ it might even move me from the brilliant Firefox 3Apologies for all the links
Just seen the mess of my last post – first one using Safari 3, seemed to lose all the layout
Being honest I have done some small tasks with push-fit pipes and working as well. There is still ‘plumbing’ and ‘Plumbing’!
I don’t think the problem is with Safari – it’s basic HTML. Put in a long url and there are no spaces. HTML won’t ‘wrap’ that.