Domestic
Boiler servicing
The annual service most manufacturers ask for, and the one that catches the faults that turn into a January breakdown.
Domestic
Bathroom installation
Full bathroom installs — first fix to final seal, including the tiling, waste runs and everything behind the wall.
A full bathroom is several trades running in sequence, and most of the pipework and waterproofing is buried once the tiles go on. We take the plumbing side of the room from strip-out through first fix to second fix, then seal, test and clear up, and we sequence the boarding, tanking and tiling around that. We work across Nottingham and the surrounding area.
How the work runs
We isolate the water and strip the room back to the fabric, taking out the old suite, the tiles and usually the old pipework with them. This is the point where anything hidden shows up: soft boards under the bath, a waste that has been weeping into a joist, plaster that has been damp for years. If we find something like that, we stop, show you, and agree what it changes before we build over it.
First fix is the new pipework and waste set out to suit the layout you have settled on, run while the walls and floor are still open. Feeds go in for the bath, basin, WC and shower, wastes get their falls, and routes are left ready for the extractor and any shower supply. Once boards and tiles are on, moving a waste means cutting the wall back open, so the layout is fixed here rather than later.
Walls are then boarded and brought flat, and the wet areas are tanked before a single tile goes up. Floors are levelled first, screed or ply depending on what is under them, because a tiled floor laid over movement cracks along the grout lines. Tiling wants a set-out marked up beforehand, so the cuts land somewhere sensible instead of as a sliver in the corner.
Second fix, sealing and testing
Second fix is where it becomes a bathroom again: bath, basin, WC, shower and taps hung, connected and levelled, extractor fitted, trims made off. Wall-hung items land on framing or noggins put in at first fix, so nothing is carrying its weight on plasterboard.
Silicone goes on last, onto a clean dry joint, and we fill the bath before sealing round it so the seal is not stretched the first time you use it. Everything is run up under pressure and checked at the joints, the shower is commissioned and the traps checked for flow. We leave the room clean and usable, and we agree at booking who is taking the old suite and the strip-out waste away.
What you choose, and when
The two decisions that hold up everything else are layout and suite: where the bath, WC and basin sit, and which units you are actually having. We need both before first fix, because the pipework is cut to them. Tiles, taps and screens can follow on, though tile size affects the set-out, so the earlier they are settled the better.
You can supply the suite and tiles yourself or we can order them with you. Either way it helps to have everything on site and unboxed before we start, since a back-ordered screen or a cracked basin stops the job dead at second fix.
We work Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and we will talk you through the expected sequence and when the room is likely to be out of use. Rates and how the job is priced are set out and agreed with you when you book, and if the strip-out changes the work we tell you before we carry on.
Common questions
How long will the room be out of use?
It depends on the size of the room, how much of it is tiled, and what the strip-out turns up underneath. Drying times for levelling and tanking set a floor under it that hurrying does not move. The WC normally goes back as soon as the waste and feed allow, but there is a stretch through tanking, tiling and grouting when the room genuinely cannot be used. If it is the only bathroom in the house, tell us when you book so we can sequence it to keep that gap short.
Can I buy the suite and tiles myself?
Yes. Send us the model numbers before we start, because the pipework and wastes get set to the actual units rather than to a guess. Order more tiles than the floor area needs and take them from the same batch, since cuts and breakages eat into a tight order and a later batch rarely matches.
Will my boiler run the shower I want?
That depends on what you have now. A combi gives you a flow rate rather than stored hot water, so a large rain head can outrun it; a gravity-fed cylinder often needs a pump to make a mixer shower worth standing under; an unvented cylinder usually has the pressure already. Tell us the shower you are looking at and we will say whether the existing system will carry it, and what changing that would involve.
Do you do the electrics and the tiling as well?
The plumbing, heating and gas work is ours, and we are Gas Safe registered for any gas work. Electrical work in a bathroom is not ours and needs an electrician, and some of it is notifiable under the building regulations depending on what is being done and where. Whoever does it is wanted twice: once at first fix for cable routes and once at second fix. If you already have your own electrician or tiler we will sequence around them, and if not we will set out what the job needs when you book it.
Also from us
Other things we do
Domestic
Boiler repair & maintenance
Fault-finding and repair on gas boilers — no heating, no hot water, pressure loss, lockouts and error codes.
Domestic
Landlord gas safety certificates
The annual CP12 every rented property needs by law, with the record produced on the visit.
Need a plumber?
Tell us what has gone wrong, or what you are planning. We will tell you what it takes and what it costs before any work starts.