Plumbers: Two recommendations.

Being reasonably handy, I like to try to tackle most jobs around the house, but if I’m not sure, or it’s something critical that don’t feel I fully understand, I call an expert. Most peculiarly the two most recent visits I’ve had from plumbers were today and exactly a year ago today, and I’m posting to recommend them both as being helpful, straightforward, and a pleasure to deal with:

Michael Cosgrove
‭07956 917274‬
Last year Mike freed a stuck shut-off valve in a very difficult to reach place; a void in a corner of a tiled wall and a tiled floor, not even big enough to get your fist in, difficult to heat up or apply penetrating oil to (I had already tried everything I could think of), and with a risk of too much torque breaking the copper pipe on either side if the spindle was just forced. I'm sorry to say I can't remember how he solved it, but solve it he did, and the spindle is still turning freely.

Neil Protheroe, pH Plumbing & Heating
07731 997936
Mike's voicemail announced he is not available until September, so I called Neil this afternoon about a situation I found myself in while replacing a shower mixer bar, where I couldn’t turn the mains water back on without risking a leak that would go through the ceiling below. He asked me to send him a photograph of the plumbing problem by text, and came within an hour. I still wanted to do the main part of the job myself, so Neil identified the brand of hardware (which was mostly concealed behind tile!), graciously explained exactly what I needed to know about the nature of the problem fitting, and made sure (by testing) that it would be watertight when I finished the job.