Advice needed - not quality plumbing work

I hired a tiler to do a new bathroom 3 months ago. His brother is a licensed plumber so they did all the plumbing work & tiling & finished the whole bathroom. We only start to use the bathroom about 4 weeks ago.

Recently, we just found out the water has been leaking inside the wall so we cut out the internal wall and the water was leaking from the joint where the copper pipes & nuts were attached.

The plumber blamed that it was the manufacturer fault as the nut was cracked hence the leaking.

The damage has affected to gyprock wall, mdf skirting and also hardwood timber floor as I have not polished the floor yet.

Damage bill could go up to thousand of dollars & plumber has refused his responsibilities for poor workmanship.

Should i take this matter to Fair Trading or just bad luck on my part?

thanks for any advice

ttn

I believe all licenced operators are required to have insurance and must provide a warranty period for work. Regardless of manufacturer, the pipes should have been tested before walling them up for leaks and defects.

Threaten (scratch that) ... explain to him that ... 'You'll use your own insurance, and then they'll chase him down to pay for it'.

That should make him hop, skip and jump over your hurdles.

Nut is his problem, he supplied it. Fair Trading is the way to go.

Ed

thank you for all advices

will see how the timber floor people assess the damage first & then go from there

cheers
ttn

If it's a product issue he can carry out the work then "back charge" the supplier, who will intern back charge the manufacturer.

Have you contacted the Plumbers Licensing Board? They would be able to advise what to do and if needed inspect the work.

It sounds like poor workmanship.

The nut you describe should not be behind the wall. Im guessing its a compression type nut known as a kinko nut. Its not supposed to be installed behind a wall.

The best advice you'd had is to allow your insurance company chase him up. Hes most likely not a licensed plumber and may not have insurance. Im a plumber and I have 10million dollars public liability insurance....he should too.

Plumbers are funny fellows some times.
They charged our lines and there was a small leak, they blamed one of the other tradies for rupturing the main line in.
Another tradie saw water dripping down a cavity onto our slab and screamed at them THERE IS YOUR FUC&*ING LEAK.

What the plumber had done was screwed the shower rail into the tile then the wall, then it just (and only by 1mm) punctured the supply hose to the shower! If it had been 5mm over to any side it would have missed it.
So down came the tile, cut a hole in the wall, replaced the section of hose, re-patched the wall and re-tiled it.
YAY.... (insert sad face)

Henley's plumbers were useles... Aaron is still re-doing most of our plumbing in the house...

don't get me started ... I used to work for a company who employs over 100 of them.

Try marrying one

Pass...

cant agree more 5 years on and still having sewer issues the guy who did our house couldnt be trusted to fit a garden hose.

poor gradient if any,
rocks on top of pipes ( under slab)
dislodges connectors
pipes laid on top of rocks.
used chipboard with mortar mix on top for bath support.
What a moron and guess what im the one still paying for all the crap work 5 years later.

Now time for the plumbing commission and VCAT.