I quite often receive phone calls from customers either looking to convert an existing gas point in there living room that feeds a room heater to a bayonet fitting or customers who wish to extend there existing gas main into there living room for the installation of a bayonet fitting.  Ok so far so good right?  Yes not a problem at all I agree, BUT as a licensed gas fitter in Adelaide I know the intention of what this bayonet fitting is being supplied for and its not to hang coats on or rest a book up against, its for the future installation of a portable gas room heater and is therefore my duty as a gas fitter to ensure that when I leave the property a few things have been performed.
Adequate room ventilation from the outside of the house (atmosphere) both at low level and high level has been provided (extremely crucial).  It is very important to note such information about all of this is written clearly on the Certificate of Compliance, things such as the position of the air vents, the current size of the room and the exact location of the bayonet fitting,  by doing this you are completely covering yourself from future liabilities after you have left the property.
In most installations that I have been to the appliance that is going to be used is not on site at this stage but is being collected shortly, so it is vital to write all the information about your installation down on a COC.
As you may or may not be aware of portable gas appliances burn off the air from the room and also emit back into the room so it Crucial that free air from outside is readily available other wise carbon monoxide poisoning can occur and lead to the loss of life.  It is amazing though on this note how many people will still try and coach me into just providing a bayonet fitting and they promise to put the vents in later themselves or something similar, wow really would you seriously risk your life or that of some one elses?  I certainly will never and that is why I have taken the time this week to post about the serious nature of having a bayonet fitting installed which complies with Australian Standards by a licensed gas fitter.

I can remember when I started my apprenticeship as a plumber every toilet pan was secured to the floor with a sand and cement mix (mortar).  We would place the toilet pan on the floor and mark out the foot print with a pencil and the remove it again, the next step would be to cut a hole in the floor under the pan for a key (this would create a lock between the pan and the floor).  The final step would be to mix up a stiff mix of mortar and place a large amount of this inside the under neath of the toilet pan and also a mound on the floor.  Then the challenge would be to carefully turn the pan over and land it on top of the mortar bed without loosing the mortar inside the pan, once this was achieved you would then level the pan off and just carefully dress the excess mortar away and clean the floor etc with a damp sponge.

Over the years securing a toilet pan to the floor has changed in a good way.  Today the method most commonly used by plumbers to fix a toilet pan to the floor is with clear sanitary grade silicone.  How I perform this is to put the toilet onto the floor in its desired location, place some small packers or wedges under the toilet to raise it by approx 2 to 3 millimeters and until a level toilet pan is achieved (this providing the floor slope is not to drastic, I don't like to have a larger gap than 5 or 6 millimeters at the front of the pan when using silicone), then go around the whole base of the toilet pan with the silicone applying it to the gap between the floor and the toilet pan, once this has been performed I then spray a solution of soap and water over the silicone and wipe the excess off.  The purpose of the soap and water solution is to avoid the excess silicone sticking to the floor and also your fingers as you carefully remove the excess silicone.

Like the method of using mortar mix it is advisable to always leave the toilet pan as long as possible before its initial use, but as a minimum I always suggest 24 hours before any sort of weight is applied to the pan, your plumber will always be the best person to advise this of course.

Please leave any comments about any of your experiences with setting a toilet pan to floor or visit us at: 
http://www.houzz.com.au/pro/mayfairplum/mayfair-plumbing-and-gasfitting

Winter 2015 has been busy again for us at Mayfair Plumbing with the Hydro Jet crew clearing year's worth of silt and sediment build up from our customer's storm water drain lines.  Not only have we been busy jetting storm water systems but also blasting our regular customers sewer and trade waste drainage systems.

Successfully taming the hydro jetter is not a 5 minute lesson it takes year's worth of experience in getting to know the mannerism of the high pressure jetter in all the many different situations it can get into.  You're talking about a hose that has over 4000 psi of pressure going through it with a variety of different nozzles attached if this was to accidentally come out of the drain or perhaps go into the wrong drain line it spells BIG TROUBLE BIG TIME, that's why you need to know how to tame the jet.

At Mayfair Plumbing we use the Honda V Twin engine to power our hydro jetting drain cleaning machine.  Strapped to the back of this piece of muscle is an Italian made water pump which pushes up to 26 liters per minute through the various nozzles connected to the remote mini reel. If you think about a garden hose turned on full with a watering nozzle connected to it you will notice it goes off like an out of control snake, but then take this mean piece of kit which operates at over 100 times the pressure you can get a picture of just how dangerous this machine can be in the wrong hands.

There are various nozzles on the market which you can use with the hydro jet drain cleaner, take for example the screw driver nozzle it relies on a huge amount of reverse thrust so it wants to really race down the drain and hit the blockage fast, you want to be on your A game when this bad boy gets full throttle introduced to it otherwise it will take off out of your hands.  Then take the wart hog nozzle, this is a self-propelling nozzle which relies more upon huge volumes of water being dis-burst into the drain but also operates at a large amount of pressure which is not to be sneezed at.

How the jetter performs in smaller tight drains such as 90 mm storm water lines and 50 mm waste lines is really where the inexperienced jetting operator can be caught off guard.  Entering these very tight throats of an elbow in these drains needs to be done with due caution as the jetter can get stuck and this can happen at the blink of an eye.  When the jet is in full throttle mode the hose will become stiff and drive through these bends with a bit of manoeuvering, but when the throttle is turned down the hose becomes very limp and can drop into places you really don't want the jetter to be and bang you've got it stuck.

It is due to all of the above points I have mentioned that a lot of plumbers simply will not get involved hydro jet drain cleaning, its serious business and needs to be treated with great respect otherwise the consequences can be catastrophic.  Jet blasting of drain lines is the best method of cleaning drains and any licensed plumber would vouch for that but it must only be performed be a trained technician. If you have a hydro jetting story we would love to hear from you at, ATT: Aaron and email address: plumbers@mayfairplumbing.com.au

In South Australia we have a government organisation which looks after the maintenance of the sewer infrastructure and there name is SA WATER.  When a plumber Adelaide is contacted by a customer to attend a blocked drain the best practice by an ethical plumbing company is to arrive on site and identify where the government inspection point is, also known as the government IO or the Government or the Gov IO depending on which plumber you speak with.  The purpose of identifying the government IP is to establish where in the drain line the blockage actually lies.  The government IP is the point where the customers internal sewer drain line joins into the main infrastructure of the street or easement which ever the case.  If the customer does not have an easement then they will have a government IP located somewhere out the front of there property connecting them to the street sewer mains or in the case of a sewer easement then there will be a government inspection point located close to a boundary (usually at the rear of the property but not always, it can be on a side boundary sometimes).
If for some reason the plumber Adelaide cannot locate the government IP there are a few options, one is to contact SA WATER and ask for directions over the phone and if there is still no success with this then the licensed plumber can request that an SA WATER employee come out and locate it with there metal detectors etc (it is important to note that SA water do not always come out straight away, usually in a 5 hour window for metro Adelaide).
Once a government inspection point is located it can be opened and inspected to asses where the blockage lies.  If the inspection chamber is full of sewerage this indicates that there is a blockage on the SA WATER side of the drainage line and if the inspection chamber is empty this indicates there is a blockage inside the customers internal sewer drainage systems.
So if it does happen that the Adelaide Plumber finds the government IO to be full you get a "FREE DRAIN UN BLOCKED", that's right, your plumber from Mayfair Plumbing and Gasfitting will fill in a plumbers claim form get you to sign it and SA WATER will attend the site and have your drain from the connection point to the street cleaned.  In most cases this is the only cause of the customers blocked drain Adelaide, but in some circumstances the plumber may also need to return with the HYDRO JET DRAIN CLEANER and also have the internal drain pipes cleared.
Of course if the government inspection point was found not to be blocked then the plumber will need to hydro jet your drain lines at your cost to un block your sewer drain in Adelaide, South Australia, but this is determined only after the government inspection point has been opened.  If you have engaged an ethical plumber this is how he or she will go about helping you with your blocked drain.