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Original poster

New house woes....

41 replies

Becaroooodolf · 09/12/2011 13:41

...hello. Its me again.

So. We are in the new house. Most of the stuff is packed away, have sorted out the tumble dryer issue and everywhere is nice and clean.

BUT we cant get any hot water to the bath taps Hmm Its hot in the WC, bathroom and kitchen basins but not the bath taps!!! Have rung a plumber but they havent got back to me yet.....

The main issue though, is the conservatory roof...its leaking Sad And with all this rain its not good...big puddle on the dining table this morning again Sad

Do I have a leg to stand on to contact the seller and complain about this?? I think not but dh is livid and seems to think we have some legal rights???

Thanks x

OP posts:
ChasingSquirrels · 09/12/2011 13:45

is it a new NEW house, or a new-to-you house?

If NEW then there will be snagging - get onto the developer.

Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 09/12/2011 13:51

sorry should have said, it was built in 1985!

OP posts:
Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 09/12/2011 13:51

there were no building regs probided for the conservatory but they did takje out an indemnity policy I think...could we claim on that?

OP posts:
ChasingSquirrels · 09/12/2011 14:01

The conservatory may not have needed building regs, and the indemnity is probably in respect of not having them - but check out the paperwork to see.

I would have thought in general you don't have a comeback against the seller (are you in England?), but these may be things that your surveyor should have picked up and you may have some claim there?

Hopefully someone with some legal knowledge of this will be along, maybe worth posting in legal?

minciepie · 09/12/2011 15:08

What Squirrels said.

You can't claim against the seller unless the seller actually told you that there were no leaks and that the hot water etc all worked fine - i.e. they actually lied to you.

(Just the fact that they didn't tell you about the problems is not enough for you to have a claim - the sellers have no duty to tell you about problems like this if you don't ask, it's for you as the buyer to find out).

However you might be able to claim against the surveyor, if you can show that a competent surveyor should have picked these things up (and therefore your surveyor has been negligent not to notice them).

Unlikely that even a very competent surveyor would check all taps for hot water, I'd have thought, so I doubt you'd get far criticising your surveyor for not having noticed that.

As for the leak - it really depends on whether there was any evidence of the leak existing. If there was evidence and the surveyor didn't pick it up then you might have a claim against the surveyor.

I expect the indemnity is for the lack of building regs, but worth checking the wording.

Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 09/12/2011 17:02

Thats what I thought mincie

OP posts:
HarrySantaatemygoldfish · 09/12/2011 19:34

Caveat emptor sadly is what you would probably be told by a solicitor.

PigletJohn · 09/12/2011 19:51

the hot water in the bath tap - do you mean no water, or water but it is cold?

is there a shower, and does that deliver hot?

is there a hot-water cylinder? is there a combi boiler?

PigletJohn · 09/12/2011 19:52

p.s. please describe the bath tap

Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 10/12/2011 09:09

Hi pj Its a glowworm cs30 combi boiler which is about 7 years old.

HEating fine, very hot water from taps downstairs (wc and kitchen) but only warm water from shower and bathroom basin and tepid water from bath tap. ITs a mixer tap. (kitchen and bathroom sink tap are mixer taps too)

Just very confused...its not like we have no hot water but cant bath my yyoungest atm and its getting me down.

I hope the sellers didnt know about the roof leak...I wouldnt like to think they knowlingly sold us a leaky roof with 2 young dc Sad

OP posts:
MiddleOfTheStreet · 10/12/2011 09:27

when i saw the title of this thread i was hoping it wasn't you.. Sad
perhaps just a wonky tap? [hopeful smile]
the leaky roof is awful. check your survey. if it doesn't say something like they couldn't check gutters/roofs for leaks because it wasn't raining, perhaps you'd have a case against surveyor?

Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 10/12/2011 09:35

Hi middle

Yeah, me again!

Had the guys out to look at it yesterday and they cant come out til tuesday to check it....just seen the weather forecast and its going to tip it down all weekend! Sad They are hoping its just a case of taking the ceiling off and re-sealing the roof but who knows???

Am hoping the water issue is just us not knowing how to work the boiler!!

OP posts:
mylovelymonster · 10/12/2011 09:53

Dear Becaroooooodolf - jumped on to give you such a big
So sorry you're having these niggles. Really odd about bathroom taps - is there a thermostatic valve in the bathroom which regulates the max temp coming out of the mixer taps? Looks like another tap but with a button on it that you turn one way or another to change max temp up or down? Could there be one somewhere that is set/stuck on cool? Doesn't sound like your boiler...... (not a plumber, but we've fitted bathrooms/plumbing in the past) Only thing that I could think of - unless something similar on your mixers that is malfunctioning?
much love, mlm x

Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 10/12/2011 10:21

Hi mlm

House is great, we like it - lots of space for dc and nice garden but these niggles are upsetting Sad Plumber hasnt got back to me yet...

My dad is coming up later to sort out the 2 horrid electric storage heaters (we are taking them out) and taking the light down in the conservatory so they can access it on tuesday.

Oh, and my car needs 2 new front tyres (failed MOT yesterday)

You have to laugh though Smile At least my poor toes are healing!

Thanks for the sympathy x

OP posts:
MiddleOfTheStreet · 10/12/2011 11:04

don't think it's your boiler either. sounds like a knackered mixer tap to me, though i'm not a plumber either...
actually, come to think of it: when we had our bathroom replaced and a mixer-shower put in, the plumbers managed to switch the hot and cold... that kept us puzzled for a while!

hope your tap problem is something as silly and easily solved as that!

PigletJohn · 10/12/2011 11:16

mixer taps you say.

and are they the ceramic type with a lever that only moves a quarter-turn?

If so, quite likely one or more of them is faulty and cold water is leaking through. Have a look under the taps. If you are lucky and/or they have been recently fitted, they will have a flexible hose connecting them to the copper pipe. With a bit more luck there will be a plastic lever or metal screw-head for a service valve close to the copper pipe end, and the hose will have been positioned so you can reach it. If you turn this off (slot at right-angle to direction of pipe) on the cold supply, see if that helps.

There's a lot to be said for old-fashioned taps

PigletJohn · 10/12/2011 11:17

p.s. It is possible to have a hot water cylinder even though you have a combi boiler (it fills the bath faster). Have you?

Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 10/12/2011 16:02

PJ I dont know! Pretty sure there isnt a cylinder - there is an empty cupboard where I think one used to be Hmm

The taps are chrome and althought they mixer taps are what I would call "proper taps" IYSWIM? i.e. they are tap shaped!!! Blush

Oddly, the hot and cold taps are opposite on the sink and the bath (i.e. left on sink but right side on the bath) but have already checked that they just werent the wrong way round!

Bathroom was put in last Feb so not that old really.

OP posts:
PigletJohn · 10/12/2011 18:14

only one other thought... have you had a combi before?

in cold weather like this, the incoming water from the main is very cold. The boiler can only deliver a certain amount of heat. If it is trying to deliver 8 litres a minute, and can only increase its temperature by (let's say) thirty degrees, the water coming out of the tap might only be (say) 5C + 30C = 35C which is not very hot.

It you close down the tap so it is not delivering much flow, you should find the temperature increases.

If so, it might be that your boiler is undersized, or for some reason is not modulating up to full power. Even a 30kW boiler can't fill a hot bath very quickly (this is why I prefer cylinders) through a big bath tap, although the smaller amount of water needed by a shower or basin is within its capacity.

(I should have thought of that before, at this time of year)

Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 10/12/2011 21:44

Hi pj hmmm.....I did try turning the flow down but it didnt seem to help....oh dear....please please please say I dont need a new boiler!!!

OP posts:
Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 10/12/2011 21:45

pj what temp should our boiler be at? I am wondering if we just havent turned it up high enough?

(think its on 48 degress atm)

OP posts:
Fizzylemonade · 10/12/2011 22:42

Becaroooodolf, it is awful when there are problems with a house that you have just moved into. Takes the shine off it a bit.

Some combi boilers allow you to adjust the water temperature to accommodate the very cold water in winter coming into the boiler, mine never have (have had 2 houses with combi boilers) so I know you have tried but try putting the hot bath tap on to a tiny flow, leave it for a good few minutes and check the temperature again.

The hot water pipe to the bath is 22mm so wider than the others so it allows more water to flow through. Sometimes combi boilers just can't heat the water fast enough when you have to tap fully open.

Try turning your hot water temperature up (I found your instructions on-line I think) here and you can go up to 62 degrees, might be worth a try. Or you may just have a faulty tap!

Re getting any recompense for it, we had our seller tell us on the day we picked up the keys that the hot water tank was leaking and that they had rang a plumber 2 days before and he couldn't come out before we exchanged to they left it leaking. Thanks. They said they would pay for the repair, so we had the tank replaced but of course they didn't pay the whole amount. They paid half as a good will gesture and had a solicitor send us a letter stating that the money was no indication of blame or responsibility. You just have to suck it up I'm afraid. Xmas Sad

Re your conservatory - if you can get to a window above your conservatory can you see any gaps where the roof panel may have slipped down? It isn't necessarily visible from the inside. We had one that constantly slipped down so we would have to tap it back into position. We eventually found a conservatory repair company who used silicone sealant to sort of glue it back into place.

PigletJohn · 10/12/2011 23:11

48C sounds low. The water in the taps will always be colder than that in the heat exchanger. I just had a look at the manual Fizzy posted, agree about turning the temp up to max, and only turning it down if there is a risk of scalding.

Looking at the spec, your boiler should be able to deliver 12.3 litres per minute at a 35C rise in temp. But that means, if the water main is 5C in this cold weather, it will only come out of the boiler at 40C which is not very hot (and there might be other losses if the pipes are uninsulated and pass through a cold space or a concrete floor before they reach the tap)

I would still go with turning down the flow from the tap. You can try filling a bucket from the bath tap to see how many litres per minute it delivers, then compare that with the kitchen tap which you say is hot.

Having just moved house I doubt if you want to be splashing money around. Your boiler is 30kW which is about as much as you will get from an ordinary domestic boiler. If it was me I would have a think about getting a cylinder back, it will be much better for quickly filling a hot bath (I like baths and I like cylinders). You can also get a modern thing called a Megaflow (rather like a cylinder, but more expensive) which runs at mains pressure (so has to be installed and regularly inpected by someone qualified on high-pressure devices) and is highly thought of in the plumbing and heating trade, provided you have a good water mains flow and pressure. It can be installed using your existing boiler and does not require a cold water tank in the loft. Not everyone knows that you can put a HW cylinder on a combi with ease (it is heated using the pipes which supply the radiators, with a thermostat and motorised valve).

Have a look at the boiler manufacturer's website to see if they have a list of Approved Installers, if you want it serviced or repaired. BG may still be offering their fixed-price repair which isn't a bad deal unless you have a very minor problem.

Original poster
Becaroooodolf · 11/12/2011 17:11

Hi fizzy Thanks to the huge amount of rain today (!) we have pinpointed where the leak is coming from which should hopefully help the chaps on tuesday!

Re; temp...will turn it up and see what happens...its just so strange its warm/hot from all the other taps!!??? Hmm

Ugh. Really dont need this 2 weeks before xmas! AND my car failed its ruddy MOT and needs 2 new tyres...grrr..

pj thanks so much for all your help....will look into that!

Thanks so much for all the advice everyone...much appreciated. x

OP posts:
Fizzylemonade · 11/12/2011 22:46

Who would have thought you would say hooray to rain to help you pinpoint a leak Grin

We were in same boat, we moved but it all went completely pear. My Mum died, we moved house but couldn't get our completion dates to match, meaning we had to put all our stuff into storage and live in a hotel for 3 weeks. This meant double removal costs too.

Unfortunately I was doing a school run 3 times a day as Ds2 was in nursery there in the morning so we had to live nearby. The only hotel nearby was a 4 star meaning we spent £2k living there.

When we moved in, we had to pay £350 for half the cost of the leaking hot water tank, buy a new fridge freezer and dishwasher, and new curtains and poles for a couple of the rooms.

It was soul destroying. It definitely takes the edge off the joy of a new house. Having said that I am almost 2 years in now and I absolutely love this house.

Good luck with the boiler issue, PigletJohn has come up with some brilliant suggestions.

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