Can't have pump for shower installed?

[Esms]

We are having our en-suite done by a qualified plumber. Everything has now been taken out and he was supposed to start putting all the new equipment back in. We have bought a hansgrohe raindance 120 S and a matching hansgrohe tap.

We obviously needed a pump installed to increase the waterpressure to be able to have a decent shower but...........he is now telling us that we can't have a pump installed :shock:.

I can't understand why. Our house is about 6 years old. We have got a cold water tank in the loft and the warm water is coming from a 'tank' in the airing cupboard. According to him it is because the warm water is fed to the current mixer via a pipe from the tank in the airing cupboard through the floor up to the mixer and the cold is coming through the ceiling straight from the loft.

We were going to have the pump in the loft or the airing cupboard so I am failing to understand the issue (obviously not a plumber myself), as I was under the impression when he priced up the job and investigated the options there wasn'n any issue.

Shedding light on this would be appreciated.

[rosebery]

It's a physical layout issue. The cold water comes from one direction and the hot from another. The only place they come together is at the mixer and you can't put a pump there.

Did he give you a quote or an estimate? In either case there will be (if he had any sense) an exclusion clause about "unforseen issues arising in the course of the work"

It's most unusual NOT to find problems when you start taking things apart and I have to say that second guessing at the quoting / estimating stage that the supplies would come from different directions has a very low probablilty of occurence.

Unless you allowed him (or he asked for) the time when he visited to trace all the pipework the I would think he had a reasonable expectation that the feeds would be close together although it could be argued that he should have checked.

It sounds to me as though he hasn't said you can't have one what he has said is you can but at extra cost over and above my estimate / quote and there is the following additional work to be done......

From my perspective there are a number of practical options:

1. Reroute the hot via the roofspace, have a double ended pump up there and drop the hot feed downwards. Almost certainly involves retiling part of the area.

2. Reroute the cold via the airing cupboard, have a double ended pump in there and run the cold feed upwards to the mixer. Ditto tiling.

3. Fit a single ended pump in the roof for the cold and another single ended pump in the airing cupboard for the hot.

4. Re-route the hot via the roofspace, fit a double ended pump up there plus a blending valve to give you a constant temperature shower via a single (the current cold) feed pipe. Blank off the hot feed at the mixer. No retiling but you won't be able to alter the temperature at the mixer valve it will have to be done at the blender. This would not be a completely satisfactory solution but would avoid any retiling issues.

5. As 4 but reroute cold and put the pump and blender in the airing cupboard.

All of which are going to cost money in time and materials if not considered earlier. If it was an estimate you probably don't have much of a leg to stand on if you want it done. If it was a quote you'll be having an interesting discussion with him and you HAVE to discuss this with him in order to reach an accommodation acceptable to both parties.

I won't (and no-one should) advise you any more than that as I would be getting myself involved in a contractual discussion of which I have insufficient knowledge and over which I have no authority.

Sorry not to have been more help.

Cheers

[htg engineer]

There'll be away around it,

Ask your plumber to explain why he cant/wont do it ?

Ask is there's any alternative way of routing the pipes so that a pump can be fitted.

And at what extra cost - as there will be additional costs to you.

If he can't/wont do it, or you think the price in unreasonable - get a few more estimates.

[rosebery]

Isn't that what I said earlier? :-)

Cheers

[htg engineer]

It is, just made my post shorter for easy reading :-)