Sprung a leak!!

[NW tiler]

Had a nightmare today. Currently doing a bathroom, wall and floor. Boarded out the floor yesterday, came in today and the customer was sitting in the kitchen with a bucket on the floor catching water from the ceiling!
Took up my boarding, no problem, took out the screws that I put in the joists and hey presto, water starting p*ss*ng out!
Turns out that the plimber had taken away most of the joist to lay his pipes which I screwed into. Floorboard was 20mm and I had used 25mm screws.

Luckily the customer was understanding but I was rather embarressed. I know I should have lifeted the floor boards up first but they were all full boards. Will have to invest in decent pipe dector.

Anyone had similar experience?

[Dave]

Pipe detectors are fine if copper has been used, but a lot of plumbers are using plastic pipes and fittings know...so it is best to ask customer what plumbing work has been done and if un-sure lift boards to check suspect area's.......

[tysfoot]

done exactly the same. i went thought hot water cold water and gas pipe all on a 1.5 m2 job that only charged £50 for. what a bad day that was for me

soz, but 20mm boards.....25mm screws.............4mm ply?..........does sound odd!

[Sir Ramic]

4mm ply sounds VERY odd.

[Dave]

Where in his thread does he say 4mm ply????

He used 25mm screws into the floor boards to secure them and hit a pipe....no mention of ply....

i may have got this wrong but....you put more screws in the floorboards....right?
if u did then ooooh... but although its your fault for not checking, the plumber is a naughty boy....drill core holes to pass pipe through centre of joist...much storonger than cutting nogins...(esp. polyplumb).........unlucky....on the upside it only happens once.........
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soz, dave......stupid moment.....the 4mm ply thing was a guess at the thickness of ply used leaving 1mm to hit a pipe.........my bad!
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just as an addon.....
if you screw 18mm ply over floorboards that are in a good solid state at 6" centres countersunk, you do not need to put any more screws in the boards themselves.....the rigidity gained from screwing at 6" centres is sufficient...
however if the floor is flexing alot (test with cup of water and jump etc.) the problem will always relate to the joists as the floorboards are mearly a covering..not a structural element of construction.....

[Raja]

these things happen mate we all at some point in our work drop some clangers atleast u will walk away learning somthing from it. Best of luck for future and dont let it dishearten u

[Fekin]

Originally Posted by tysfoot

done exactly the same. i went thought hot water cold water and gas pipe all on a 1.5 m2 job that only charged £50 for. what a bad day that was for me

Ohh we know mate.... we know

[NW tiler]

Just to clear up any confusion........

I used 25 mm screws to secure the floorboards at the joists only, floorborads 20mm, leaving 5mm to go into the "joist".

Then boarded out with 12mm ply, used the same 25 mm screws at 300mm intervals.

Thought that would be safe, did not account for the plumber taking away the joist and sticking hot, cold and radiators pipes through it.

As I said before, I should have lifted the floor boards to have a look but the boards ran into the hall way which meant taking up the carpet.