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Lise77

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Everything posted by Lise77

  1. We did, we didn't ask to keep costs down but rather said we were looking for a thorough survey as we were newbies and this was a very big deal for us as it was going to be our home. We did attend. We did ask questions. And he had no problem sticking his neck out to say many other things were wrong, just not the life threatening things. It's HIS responsibility to make sure it passes basic health and safety, it did not.
  2. Well actually yes we did get the name of the surveyor from this site and yes it was censored by the admin. I have now lost all respect and trust for everything written in the forum. And actually the problem when you don't name and shame is that it allows the perpetrators to continue to rip people off without warning. Thank goodness TrustPilot knows this and respects consumer protections. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.angloeuromarine.com. It has long been the case that customers can leave negative reviews about their experiences with companies, that is our right as a consumer. If the company feels the review is unfair, it is within their right to respond. I informed the surveyor about our complaint and rather than trying to right the wrong he called his insurance company to ensure he was protected. Those are not the actions of a guiltless party. This is what openness and transparancy is about. Keeping quiet from fear of liable simply enables companies to screw people over and get away with it. Proper review sites and forums are designed to be our voice and a way to protect our consumer rights. A negative review will always be judged by the reader and left up to them to decide if they feel it is fair or not, but should never be censored unless it is threatening to ones personal safety. Which this review was most certainly not, quite the reverse.
  3. I think you're also right so going to start with the expansion vessel, replace the pump and watch for water carefully. Shall report back how I got on tomorrow. Thanks again
  4. Thanks boilerman that sounds like you've hit the nail on the expansion vessel. Shall confirm if so tomorrow after a trip to Toolstation. And thank you for the advice, we have a serious space issue so that was why we decided to go this route. Don't suppose you know if there are any new addition models which tackle this issue? & thanks to everyone for their help, I do love this forum.
  5. And finally for anyone who is able to come back, the pics....apologies for the slowness.
  6. Working on pics just slow internet out here so waiting patiently... Not taken wrong way, I know I'm a complete novice so trying to sponge up all the info I can grab hold of. We were always planning on taking the current calorifier out as it's far too big for the size of the boat and so we're eventually planning on replacing it with a 15L horizontal tank to place in the stern area port side area next to the engine and redo the rest of the plumbing so it's based off a dual hot water system with a wood stove back boiler, but we're still saving up for all this so were just hoping to get by for a bit longer with the current system. It was set up based off an eberspecher but that's not working either. Anyhow because of this I had a few of the more knowledgeable gents at the old mooring have a look at it before we set off so only turned off the valves they told me to. They did warn me though that the original builder didn't exactly do things normally and the local engineer didn't even want to touch the system to try to fix it because of this. They all suggested ripping it out and starting fresh so that's what we've been trying to work towards.
  7. Thanks so much for getting back so quickly, it's leaking from the back on the inside so can't really see exactly, can feel the water dripping down on the edge of the bottom... Not sure what this is, I'm guessing this would be a valve that looks similar to a radiator, it has these on the connections going on the pipes going out for the central heating, these are both extremely hot but not leaking. If I'm wrong here and you mean something else please do explain further. Shut off the water from the tank gate valve because of the leaking water pump, and ran the taps until there was no water coming out and then some, also tried turning the valves in the engine area to stop the water coming in but doesn't seem to do anything, still flows through and leaks when the engine is on. The gate valve (thanks for the correct term) on the tank literally does nothing on or off - I don't think it was installed correctly to begin with. I can send pics if that would make this easier
  8. Hi, I found a few posts about this but all quite old and none offering quite the right advice for our problem so thought I'd try a new thread... We have quite a mess to deal with in regards to the plumbing on our boat. The biggest issue right now is the calorifier is leaking when the engine runs or when the water pump is running (the water pump is also leaking but let's save that for later). We don't actually have any money to replace it right now so just desperately looking for a solution that can get us running with at least cold water in the kitchen and run the engine without having to chase after the consistent drips. I am admittedly terrible with plumbing but don't have any other options so please if you offer advice be patient with my lack of knowledge. The calorifier's located in the bathroom which is in the middle of the boat and has six attachments going in and our of it. One right at the top which goes to the kitchen hot water tap, the next four are in vertical series, the top two located just above the middle of the tank run out to the engine and are larger, white and quite hot when the engine runs so must assume they carry in the water off the engine; the third is a smaller pipe like the standard cold water pipes but also appears to run out to the engine; the fourth, also standard pipe running forward to the 3x baseboard radiators (also not working). The final connection is just below and slightly to the right of the other four, it has a red valve which does nothing (assume it was originally to turn it off?!) then splits one end going to the pump, the other going out to the kitchen cold water tap. I would like to know if there is a way I can take the calorifier out without leaking the engine coolant or water everywhere, keep the engine in tact and if so, how and would that leave us without any water pressure? It's now 35 degrees in here for the fourth day without water, I cannot express enough how grateful I will be for whomever may be able to talk us out of this mess.
  9. Thanks for the empathy, just wanted to tell our tale to both name and shame as well as put it out there to help others from falling into the same trap. I do wish there was somewhere people could go to for some accountability, but it seems the only thing we can do is come on here and share with others so hopefully this post will help someone. Sadly no, seems to be going from bad to worse and now have no running water (had to turn it off when the pump and calorifier started leaking) and leaking drainage pipes to add more fun. On here today to find diy directions at how to fix some of our mounting issues on our own, quickly...I'm sure we'll get it sorted eventually, looking forward to that day, but until then we're baking in the hottest weather I've ever experienced in this country without any water. Could have definitely used that money wasted on the survey now, that's for sure!
  10. We ended up using a surveyor from Rugby and I cannot say enough how much I regret this decision, in fact, the whole purchasing experience ended up being a complete nightmare thanks to his incredibly inept survey and the incredibly deceitful chandlery. We paid £780 for the survey, FYI for any out there looking for a survey, that is far too much and if you think you're paying that much because the surveyor claims years of experience, think again. Our money would have been better spent buying our own ultrasonic reader to get the depth of the hull as that was the only part of the survey that was of any use. The surveyor was grumpy and clearly tired and the broker from the chandlers didn't help by his non-stop chattering and continually hovering over everything he did, which to be fair, would make his job incredibly uncomfortable, but we paid him a hell of a lot of money so he should have bucked up and done the job anyway. Instead he pointed out ridiculous things and missed rather important life-threatening items. The main one of which was the 3" of corroded chimney, he wrote this in as a suggestion (the lowest level of importance listed in a standard report which means it's something you may want to get fixed at some point) rather than an urgent recommendation (something needing fixed asap, ie. before the boat is used), and despite standing next to the corroded chimney for over 20 minutes while he felt the need to point out the potential risk of leaking from the wooden windows, he said nothing about the chimney and didn't point this out to us at all. We scanned through the report for all the urgent recommendations and recommendations but knew we couldn't afford the low level suggestions at the point of purchase, so left them. We almost killed ourselves with carbon monoxide and fire risk because of this oversight, and when I went back to the surveyor to call him on this, he told me I was mistaken on how chimney's work. We had a welder, Martyn Jones, who was also a qualified boat builder came and look at the chimney and confirmed, not only was it a danger of carbon monoxide but because of the level of corrosion it meant the heat was escaping onto the wooden ceiling of the boat meaning the entire boat could have gone up in flames. So no, I didn't misunderstand how chimney's worked. You simply ignore modern day health and safety and have clearly never known anyone to die from carbon monoxide, I have, so would have appreciated not having to pay you nearly 1K for you to risk my life. Of course we tried to take the complaint further but the regulatory bodies in this country are a complete joke and so he continues to provide expensive surveys with outdated health and safety ideas for others. He also missed the horrific plumbing. Mind you, he claimed his surveys were to take a superficial look, but with a Philips head screwdriver I discovered more in ten minutes then he did in his half a day 'investigation' and I didn't have to tear anything apart. The plumbing, which was done in a rather spaghetti style design, had a wet room style shower added to it. The brokers/chandlery had convinced the grieving widow who was selling our boat after her husband suddenly passed away, that she needed a shower in the boat in order to sell it and this was the best way forward. Well our surveyor did point out that a wet room on a narrowboat was a bad idea -though his word was worth little at this point. Martyn Jones and a neighbour, who had built his boat himself, agreed with this. Our original plan meant renovating quite a lot of the plumbing and electrical anyhow, so we thought best to start our plans renovating here. (So sadly the 'repairs' which cost the widow thousands, were for nothing). Turned out to be a pretty good idea as the drain for the shower was not on correctly and water was leaking under the floor. Not only this, but a more thorough look from our surveyor should have spotted that there was a whole in the floor itself next to the toilet, so the room wasn't even water tight to begin with. All in all, my experience in getting a survey and buying a boat was very very poor and if I had it to do over again, I don't think I'd bother with a survey at all. It'll be a long long time before I hire anyone to do any work on my boat now. Sadly it seems there are very few trustworthy people involved on the waterways, and no accountability for those who are ripping people off.
  11. Thank you, that's very reasuring...Our broker has been very lovely so I'm sure she will do the best she can with whatever we decide, I think I'm just being too indecisive. Do you or anyone else happen to know much about the YDSA and how reliable it is as per it's list of surveyors? I personally prefer the personal recommendations as I worry these qualifications are often just bought but it is somewhat consistent with many of the names others have recommended http://www.ydsa.co.uk/surveyors.asp Apologies if I'm asking too many questions, just very new and quite nervous with making such a large purchase.
  12. Thanks Geoff, unfortunately he's moving house so too busy at the moment, we got his name off Craig Allen who recommended him, then Tom recommended Iain Jones or Chris Williams, they were busy but Iain recommended Peter...I think we've spoken to everyone whose been mentioned or recommended on this forum now
  13. Thanks everyone for the advice, it seems to be quite a small group who do these surveys well, unfortunately also seems an incredibly busy time of year, most are booked up for the rest of the year. Best we could do is offers by John Balliol (potentially free Monday) or Peter Tindall definitely free Monday to do this but we're away for that week and were really hoping to be there since we're so new to this and really wanted to be able to get in some one on one feedback and questions. They both produce detail reports and have been recommended by other surveyors and boaters, Peter is closer geographically and said we could meet him when we're back if we want to go over it, I'm sure John would do the same but he is a bit more out of the way. Does anyone have any advice on what we would be best doing here? ie. Should we go ahead and have it done while we're away then settle when we're back (assuming the broker is okay with this) or should we just see if the broker is happier to wait until we're back? She was concerned that because it's been getting so cold they might have issues getting the boat out of the water into the drydock if we wait any longer as they've already had a bit of snow out there. Much appreciate any advice you can give!
  14. Hi all, My partner and I are trying to join in the amazing world of narrowboats, we've found one we love and want to buy but are having difficulty finding a surveyor that is recommended and available. We've tried Balliol as there seems to be a lot of recommendations for him on the site but he's not available unfortunately at the same time as the marina has dry-docking availability and sadly he said anyone he'd recommend is also fully booked right now, guess it's a busy year for boat buying! If anyone else knows of someone who is either in the area already or okay travelling out to Worcestershire way and excellent with surveys that please let us know, it is our first time so we want to make sure we get someone who is both friendly and willing to take the time to go over everything with us as well as thorough enough to ensure they won't miss anything. This is the biggest venture of our lives to date and we're really quite nervous about the whole thing so really want someone great. Thanks for any help you can offer
  15. We're looking at buying one with the same situation, I'm rather nervous about the under the bed situation, can I just ask, does it get smelly?
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