Taps, silicone and small plumbing
from
£56
About 45 minutes for a dripping tap, 90 for a bath reseal
Dripping taps, tired silicone round baths and showers, loose toilet seats, slow-draining basins and radiator bleeding. The small water jobs that a plumber's minimum charge makes expensive.
Priced jobs in this group
Several jobs? A half day is £190 and a full day £340, if that works out cheaper.
A plumber’s minimum charge makes sense for a burst pipe and very little sense for a washer. We carry the common washers, O-rings and ceramic cartridges in the van, so most dripping taps are fixed in one visit.
Resealing a bath or shower
Silicone that has gone black is not dirty, it is mould growing inside the sealant, and no amount of cleaning will shift it. We cut all of the old bead out, clean the joint back to bare tile and enamel, dry it properly and run a new bead of mould-resistant silicone. On a bath we fill it with water first, so the joint is sealed at its widest and does not split the first time someone gets in.
Where we stop
We do not touch gas, boilers or new pipe runs. If we open something up and find a job for a plumber, we stop, tell you, and do not charge for the time it took to find out.
Included
- Isolating the water and checking the valve works before we open anything
- New washers and O-rings carried in the van for most common taps
- Old silicone cut out completely, cleaned and dried, never sealed over
- A water-tight check with the tap or bath running before we leave
Not something we do
- New pipework, boilers, gas appliances or anything inside the boiler casing
- Blocked drains outside the house
Job HP-4350, Droitwich Road: hourly, 2.5 hours, £140
“Two small jobs a plumber wanted a day rate for. Done in an afternoon, and the silicone is actually straight.”
Questions about taps, silicone and small plumbing
- Is a dripping tap a handyman job or a plumber's?
- A drip from the spout is almost always a worn washer or cartridge, and that is a handyman job. A leak from a pipe under the sink or from the wall is a plumber's.
- How long before I can use the shower after a reseal?
- 24 hours. The silicone skins in about half an hour but needs a full day to cure before it gets wet.
