Communal Plumbing

[Chester]

Hi everyone. I have recently been granted listed building consent to remove a wall in my kitchen. Unfortunately I have discovered lots of pipework that is left over from the communal heating and old water tank systems. Does anyone know who I can speak to at the City of London about this? Or is it an estate office matter?

Thanks!

[Belhr]

You also need landlord's consent to, e.g., remove a wall - regardless of whether or not you've got listed building consent. There's a pack of info you can get info from the estate office on how to apply/ who at CoL to apply to. I expect it'll be the same dept that will help re. your pipe issues.

[JM]

Hi Roland.  I'm doing up my flat in CWH and I too want to remove the space-wasting redundant pipes the council were too mean or too lazy to remove at the time they took out the communal heating/hot water supply.  I was planning to ask the Estate Office to recommend a plumber who knew the layout of the estate plumbing, where it goes under floors/in walls etc. and so I don't mess up anyone else's water supply.  Judging by your reply, asking the Estate Office to assist sounds hopelessly naive on my part - would that be fair?

And if so can you recommend a good plumber.  I'm more concerned about getting the flat restored properly than a quick fix.

Huge thanks if you (or anyone) can help.

Jean.

Roland Jeffery said:

I had the same difficulty - when wanting to clear my airing cupboard of the several apparently redundant pipes that run through it, which seriously curtail the available space.  

I enquired at the Estate Office and was told record drawings were unavailable, probably lost, and that if my plumber removed any piping it would be at my own risk - talk about helpful !!

[Belhr]

Jean and Chester, 

You might try asking John Todd's advice. He offered me technical advice about external boiler flues.

John Todd

Head of Repairs and Maintenance

Community and Children's Services

Housing

Technical Services

Office 020:7332:3019

[e-mail]

[JM]

Will do, thanks so much for your help.

Belhr said:

Jean and Chester, 

You might try asking John Todd's advice. He offered me technical advice about external boiler flues.

John Todd

Head of Repairs and Maintenance

Community and Children's Services

Housing

Technical Services

Office 020:7332:3019

[e-mail]

[JM]

That's really helpful Roland, many thanks.

Roland Jeffery said:

Jean - that sounds like a better bet than the Estate Office. For plumbers: last time I looked the <services> section on this site had no plumbers.But have you tried looking on Barbicantalk, the sister forum to this (which GLE people may join and contribute to).  They have a <classified> section for tradesmen of all sorts including plumbers - with lots of frank feedback on how good they were. 

[Mei Yu]

Hi Chester, I hope you could share your experience with me as you have applied for listed building consent to remove a kitchen wall. I'm also planning to remove the wall of the boiler cupboard in our kitchen. Could you tell me where you got the plans of the estate, building and so forth ? these plans are required for submission and the management office couldn't help much on the issue. Was there a fee (if so how much), for the application and how long did it take you to get the consent from start to finish?

Many thanks !

[JM]

Hi Stefi,

It would be very helpful if you could give me the plumber's contact details, thanks.  I'm assuming he did a good job and you are happy with his work!  There is a fair amount of plumbing I want done to restore some of the original features in the kitchen as well as the bathroom.  Such a shame the old pipes defeated your attempts to sort them out.   I'll let you know how I get on. 

Thanks again

Jean.
 
Stefi said:

Hi Jean

I wanted to remove the weird pipes in the cupblard but it turned out to be too tricky and ended up boxing them in instead.

I had a plumber put in a radiator and new shower in my flat in CWH so he;s familiar with how the flat works, if you are still looking for somewhere I could give you his details.

Stefi

Jean McMeakin said:

That's really helpful Roland, many thanks.

Roland Jeffery said:

Jean - that sounds like a better bet than the Estate Office. For plumbers: last time I looked the <services> section on this site had no plumbers.But have you tried looking on Barbicantalk, the sister forum to this (which GLE people may join and contribute to).  They have a <classified> section for tradesmen of all sorts including plumbers - with lots of frank feedback on how good they were. 

[Nancy Honey]

Stefi said:

Hi Jean 

His name is Tommy, 07880 986027

He did a very good job. You're welcome to come and see my flat to see the work he did (and have a nose ; )  )

Hi Jean, This is an older post by you, but I am having similar problems that are causing me grief and time and money.

I applied for and got permission to refit my bathroom. I wanted to remove the bath and install a shower. The whole thing is now ripped out as of last week, and the plumber tells me I cannot have a shower as there is no waste!

The pipes he refers to as a nest of vipers. I am severely restricted by what looks like very old solutions. Is there anyone who can help, please?

Thanks,

Nancy

Hatfield House