Have I hired the wrong person to replace a bathroom radiator?

[Nightmaretrade]

i needed a bathroom radiator replaced, didnt want to diy. Got someone from a checkatrade post job get quote site. They are here now and don’t seem to know what they are doing at all. I wish I’d tried to diy it. They just said the will be flooding the bathroom. I have handed over towels. It is costing £250 I thought they know what they were doing. I should have been suspicious when they had complexly clear availability

Did you hire a qualified plumber? Otherwise I would say yes you’ve hired the wrong person . No reason to flood a room when you change a radiator, but there’s normally some leaking . My plumber always brings his own flooring protection though . I trust he has at least turned the water off first and drained the system, unless you have an isolator valve.

You need an actual plumber? Have you just hired a random tradesman? Have they turned the water off? Shouldn't be to the point of flooding.

And remind him to bleed all the radiators in the house when he's finished flooding you out. I see it's costing £250 is that all labour?

Yes the £250 is all labour. I used this website myjobquote . He is still here. Feeling stressed now . I posted job and max price and the person got in touch. I assumed he was qualified but he has no online presence

Er Don’t just stand by and let him flood your bathroom!!!! Tell him him thanks but no thanks, that’s not how you replace a rad!

I would tell him to stop the job, secure the plumbing and get a qualified plumber in. The system also needs rebalancing after a radiator has been changed.

He was going to drain the system but couldn’t work out how to do it. He is now going for the flooding approach instead. Does he need to bleed all radiator? I am not sure I want him in all rooms as dirty boots

You don’t need to drain the whole system for one radiator. And you certainly don’t flood anything. Seriously tell him to stop. I hope you haven’t got a tank in the loft….

Bleeding the other radiators isn’t relevant - although if you let him continue lord knows what else you might have to get fixed

Well he is part way done now. I wanted to tell him to go but dh thought it’d be ok. He’s been here ant 2 hrs now

I wouldn’t panic just yet. Some water coming out when removing an old radiator is pretty normal, so needing a few towels doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t know what they’re doing.
I’d ask them what they’re doing and how they plan to drain and refill the system. If they can explain it properly and the work looks neat, I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. £250 also doesn’t sound particularly unusual for a radiator replacement, depending on the job.

I just assumed they would be qualified. I used the website https://www.myjobquote.co.uk
and it asked for max price for job

Sometimes the system does need draining to change a radiator. It depends on how the system is set up. There will be some residual water that comes out even after isolation or draining.

I'd be a bit concerned about using the word "flooding". It will be a bit wet not flooded.

I'd be extremely concerned about taking a radiator off without isolating or draining first. That could cause a whole lot of water to check out and cause airlock when it all goes back together.

I've never heard of that website. Is it definitely part of checkatrade? Trades people on Checkatrade do need to prove their qualifications, insurances etc.

Never assume. And I’d always google any tradesperson! I was the victim of a copycat website for a particular make of boiler. It was apparent after 20 minutes he had no idea. Told him to go paid his ‘call out fee’ then did some checking. Cost me £85 but it could have been a lot worse.
Tell him to go. Replacing a like for like radiator with no moving of pipes should take just over an hour or even less. No need to drain anything other than that one radiator.

Did you get anyone else to quote?

When you replace a radiator more often than not the whole system needs balancing which is why he might need to bleed the other radiators.

You do NOT need to flood a room.

I was £50 to get a radiator removed then replaced by a qualified plumber so the decorator could paper behind it.

Surely he just needs to shut off the inlet/outlet and drain the radiator. Remove then rebalance system when new is fitted. No need to flood the bathroom! Say no thanks and let him go.

Did this work out in the end OP?

Just came to say in future when you need tradespeople ask for recommendations on your town/village local Facebook group or even just do a search for previous recommendations. You'll see which names come up again and again.

This way I have built up a list of several trusted trades people to call when I need them. Plumber, electrician, roofer etc

We always drain our whole system to change a rad. Rather the plumber does.

He finished the work but left a mess that we had to clean up (not too bad though). A valve was leaking but we messaged him and he came the next day and finished it. I guess we should check the other radiators, we can bleed them ourselves if needed