by Gary Mays | Feb 1, 2014 | Bunnings, City of Gold Coast, Consumer Issues, DIY Plumbing, Gold Coast Plumbing, Health Issues, Hot Water Temperature, Insurance, Plumbers, Plumbers Gold Coast, Plumbing Emergencies, Plumbing Legislation, Plumbing Maintenance, Plumbing Renovation
Understanding the Difference Bunnings Are Not Licensed Plumbers
Let’s be clear from the outset: Bunnings is not, nor will ever be, a plumber, electrician, carpenter, painter, garden centre, or any of the other numerous trade specialties they purport to cover.
In truth, they are not a traditional hardware store. Bunnings operates as a massive warehouse, employing supermarket strategies and pricing techniques to market a wide range of hardware-related products. They are far from the friendly, locally-owned hardware shops that once dotted our neighbourhoods.
The majority of Bunnings employees work on a casual, part-time basis and receive relatively low pay. They lack the specialised expertise or skills typically found in the traditional hardware sector.
Many trades and service businesses are irked by Bunnings claims of affordability. More importantly, they are annoyed by their staff who lack trade experience. These employees often lack the qualifications to provide informed advice, yet they routinely do so to unsuspecting DIY enthusiasts to make a sale.
In essence, Bunnings staff are akin to Coles supermarket employees – they are retail shop sales assistants.
Don’t Confuse Bunnings with Professional Plumbing Services
From a plumbing standpoint, Bunnings offers the public a range of plumbing pipes, fittings, and fixtures. Some of them are of such low quality that professional companies like Whywait Plumbing refuse to install them. Bunnings also provides informal DIY courses that teach homeowners and handymen basic plumbing maintenance tasks.
While replacing a tap mixer might be seen as “low risk,” it is still illegal. It may encourage individuals to undertake more dangerous or unlawful plumbing work based on advice from Bunnings staff. There is a need for better education on the consequences of DIY plumbing or hiring a “handyman.” Neither DIY enthusiasts nor handymen possess the comprehensive knowledge and experience needed to adhere to industry standards and Queensland plumbing laws and regulations.
The risks to your health, home, neighbours, family, and potential invalidation of insurance coverage far outweigh any perceived financial benefit of attempting plumbing work yourself or hiring a cheaper, unqualified handyman instead of a licensed and insured professional plumber. Moreover, DIY or “handyman” plumbing can often result in higher costs in the long run when you need to hire professionals to correct expensive mistakes or non-compliant work as per the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2002 and related regulations.
So, while Bunnings staff may be friendly and tell you what you want to hear, they are not qualified to provide expert advice. Moreover, in most cases, they do not hold contractor or trade licenses.
Understanding the Necessity of On-Site Evaluations by Professional Tradesmen
In conclusion, it is crucial to understand that professional plumbers, electricians, and carpenters cannot offer valuable advice without conducting an on-site inspection. Each situation is unique, and an in-depth assessment by a qualified expert is required to determine the best possible solution tailored to your specific needs.
While DIY projects may appear cost-effective, they often come with considerable risks, especially in plumbing and electrical work. There is a good reason why these trades are licensed in most developed countries: they demand specialised knowledge, expertise, and strict adherence to safety standards and regulations.
However, engaging in DIY work or hiring an unqualified handyman may inadvertently put you and others at risk due to hazards such as water damage, electrical fires, and health risks resulting from improper installations or repairs.
Furthermore, non-compliant work can lead to invalidated insurance policies, substantial fines, and expensive repairs. Over time, the perceived savings from DIY projects or employing unlicensed tradespeople can be quickly eclipsed by the potential dangers and costs they may incur.
Given these risks, it is vital to prioritise safety and compliance by enlisting the help of licensed professionals for all your plumbing, electrical, and carpentry needs. Unfortunately, while Bunnings’ friendly staff can provide basic guidance and sell you the tools and supplies required for various home improvement projects, they cannot replace licensed tradesmen with specialised knowledge and experience.
Always remember that investing in professional services is the best way to ensure your home’s essential systems’ safety, durability, and compliance.
by Gary Mays | Jan 11, 2014 | Bathrooms, City of Gold Coast, Cold Water, Consumer Issues, Gold Coast Plumbing, Health Issues, Hot Water Temperature, Plumbing Legislation, Queensland Government, Sustainable Plumbing, Water
You can save money by washing your hands in cold water because research just released by Dr Amanda Carrico a research assistant professor at Vanderbilt University proves you do not need hot water to wash your hands.In fact using hot water is completely unnecessary to hygienically clean your hands and is simply wasting expensive hot water.
Washing hands with soap and cold water is as effective as hot water.
In reality all you need is cold water, a good quality soap, friction to scrub your hands for 20 seconds followed by rinsing them off and then finally completely drying your hands. The research proves that this simple hand washing procedure is just as effective as using hot water plus it reduces your energy costs and saves you money.
The heating costs of hot water are the largest single energy cost in most Queensland homes with it generally being around 30% of your electricity or gas bill. Eliminating hot water from your hand washing routine will reduce your electricity or gas bill by 5%.
Dr Carrico’s research is conclusive that you cannot tolerate water hot enough to kill germs on your hands. Hot water at 55°C will kill some germs but even at that temperature will scald you. In fact constantly using hot water to wash your hands can irritate your skin and adversely affect the outside protective skin layer.
In Queensland the laws were changed in 1995 requiring tempering valves to be installed on new hot water system installations covering new homes, non like for like replacements or when moving an existing hot water system to a new location on the property. This means that it is law that hot water delivered to bathrooms used primarily for personal hygiene purposes be regulated by use of a tempering valve or a thermostatic mixing valve so that is does not exceed 50°C. Therefore unless your home was constructed prior to 1995 it is unlikely that your hot water is hot enough to effectively kill germs on your hands even if you could tolerate the high temperatures.
By all means use warm water if it is more comfortable for you but there is no need to have it hotter than 40°C which the research proves is just as effective as water at 55°C in removing germs from your hands.
By Gary Mays
by Gary Mays | Dec 31, 2013 | City of Gold Coast, Cold Water, Consumer Issues, Gold Coast Plumbing, Insurance, Leaking Pipes, Plumbers, Plumbers Gold Coast, Plumbing Emergencies, Plumbing Legislation, Plumbing Maintenance, Water, Water Hammer, Water Leaks
Do you know the risks of living with high water pressure because I frequently listen to clients of Whywait Plumbing recollecting the days gone by when high water pressure was the norm. For many high water pressure had been a bonus, especially when water was virtually provided for free. High water pressure enabled many to stand in one spot and water the whole garden or to literally pressure clean the car or driveway.
Both Gold Coast and Logan council areas in the past had high water pressure delivery. Frequently in excess of 800kPa and often as high as 1100kPa. In reality high water pressures caused many problems with damage to pipes, appliances, taps, valves and fittings from water hammer which also reduced their operational life plus caused excessive noise in the water reticulation system.
Legally under Australian Standards, AS/NZS 3500.1:2003, Plumbing and Drainage – Water Services, the relevant clause is 3.3.4 which states, “Maximum pressure within buildings – Provision shall be made to ensure that the maximum operating pressure at any outlet, other than a fire service outlet, within a building does not exceed 500 kPa.” This was further reinforced with amendments in 2010 to clause 3.2.1 which states, “The maximum flow rate from a shower, basin and kitchen sink or laundry trough outlet shall not exceed 9 L/min.”
These very clear definitions within Australian Standards create a dangerous situation that many home and building owners are unaware of. This is because they have the incoming mains water pressure set above the maximum legislated operating pressure of 500kPa level for most connected plumbing fixtures. These plumbing fixtures include dishwashers, washing machines, ice makers, boiling water units, mixer taps, refrigerators with water dispensers and hot water systems.
Having excessive water pressure can cause you more problems than you may be aware of. Aside from damage to pipes, appliances, taps, valves and fittings from water hammer which also reduced their operational life plus caused excessive noise in the water reticulation system, you may also be voiding your property insurance and manufacturer’s warranty on any number of these expensive household appliances.
Most insurance policies and appliance warranties are void if your water pressure is above the recommended operational levels. This will always come back to the requirements of Australian Standards which is of course 500kPa.
Most hot water system warranties are void above 500kPa once again with the reference point being the requirements of Australian Standards. Many people are fooled into thinking they have a compliant system as they have pressure limiting valves installed. In reality the majority of these valves over 3 years old are faulty and in need of replacement.
As council water retailers will not guarantee supply pressures the onus is back on home and building owners to ensure they are compliant with Australian Standards. Most homes and buildings constructed since 2003 have pressure reduction valves installed after the water meter but these frequently require recalibration. Homes and buildings constructed before 2003 seldom have a pressure reduction valve installed which means they are susceptible to the fluctuations in water supply pressure.
The risks of high water pressure can be devastating on multiple fronts so if you are unsure of what your water pressure is and whether your system is compliant in regard to your insurance policies then contact Whywait Plumbing Services now to carry out a comprehensive analysis of your incoming water pressure to ensure you are aware of the risks of living with high water pressure..
By Gary Mays
by Gary Mays | Apr 27, 2013 | Consumer Issues, DIY Plumbing, Gold Coast Plumbing, Health Issues, Insurance, Plumbers, Plumbers Gold Coast, Plumbing Emergencies, Plumbing Legislation, Sustainable Plumbing
Plumbing is public health, now and in the future. Just as Vaccination Protects Individuals and the Community. Plumbing Protects the Whole Community, and Individually Plumbers Protect the Health of the Nation.
The plumbers at Whywait Plumbing every day protecting your health
Albert Einstein towards the end of his life in 1954 wrote “If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber.”
Einstein, like many others, recognised that plumbing is public health, now, and in the future.
A survey of 11000 doctors by the British Medical Journal in 2007 voted hands down that the world’s greatest medical milestone since 1840 was sanitation. Despite all the tremendous medical breakthroughs and scientific advances, the seemingly mundane advance of reliable sewage and reliably clean water supply was judged the most significant medical advance.
The recognition of reliable sewage and water supply is a testament to the strength of plumbing laws, standards, and licensing in not only Australia but also in Europe and North America. This is because doctors recognised the best measure of medical advance is not its complexity, but what it does for the average person concerning the length and quality of our lives. The average life expectancy has increased 35 years since 1840, and roughly 30 of those years are attributable to the advances in sanitation and living conditions.
For most of us in Australia, plumbing is something we take for granted. We have never known what it is like not to have on-demand clean running water inside our homes or a fully functional sewer system to take away the used water. Close to 90% of us live in an urban environment, and for that, we can thank plumbing, that allows us to do so safely, without fear of contracting waterborne diseases. Yet even plumbers fail to understand the impact that they have on modern urban society and that their work is essential as plumbing is public health.
Clean potable water is the basis for life and without it the risk to public health and the population as a whole increase. The cost to the community of plumbing failures are substantial and always have been. Plumbing is and always has been a significant part of the public health system. This was first learnt by the Romans, who were the first civilised society over 2000 years ago to realise the requirements to have an integrated plumbing system to pipe in clean water and dispose of used water.
In Asia alone, some 2 billion people, which is over 60% of the population of Asia, live without adequate access to sanitation such as toilets. In many places, open sewers are the norm. This would not be tolerated in Australia, and we are protected from it by our plumbing laws.
Recent natural disasters here in Australia and internationally are essential reminders of the role plumbing plays in modern life. Homes in Brisbane during the recent floods were made uninhabitable with the loss of plumbing. This is further reinforced by the earthquakes in Christchurch, the tsunami in Japan, cyclones in North Queensland, and the floods in Victoria where homes were not suitable to be lived in again until full plumbing services were reinstalled. In all of these natural disasters, the restoration of plumbing was a significant component of the recovery process.
As with everything in life, change is the constant and this is undoubtedly true of plumbing. As we solve one problem, another one arises. Diseases related to water always have required vigilance in preventing their spread. This is as true today as it has always been. As always, this is where the plumbing will once again prove to be a significant part of the solution.
The mosquito has always been a significant source of transmission of serious diseases such as malaria, ross river fever, dengue fever, to name a few. New arboviruses such as Chikungunya are increasingly a threat to Australia. These emerging infectious diseases are all spread by mosquito and are dependant on water. This intimate dependency on water increase risk without high plumbing standards of becoming endemic in Australia.
With the increasing threat to the community from the mosquito-spread of waterborne strong plumbing, practices are essential.
Plumbers have a continuing obligation to the community to use their knowledge and experience to demonstrate the impact that poor plumbing could have in the future because plumbing is public health.
by Gary Mays | Apr 17, 2013 | Consumer Issues, Insurance, Plumbing Legislation, QBCC, Queensland Government, Sustainable Plumbing
Here at Whywait Plumbing, it gets very frustrating at times when clients want us to install products they have purchased “cheaply” online or bought from non-specialist outlets who import cheap non-compliant product. All products we install are required by law to have a WaterMark certificate and a WELS water rating label certificate. It is illegal for licensed plumbers to install non-compliant products.
WELS Water Rating Label certificates are on every product plumbers install. Unfortunately, many of our clients are confused by the rating 
requirements, which is mainly because there has been little public education and therefore awareness.
In 2005, the Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards (WELS) scheme as a joint initiative of the Australian, State, and Territory governments became law. Under the WELS Water Rating Label scheme, products that use water must be tested under standardised conditions in a laboratory by a government regulator. Each product is given a comparative rating score of between one and six stars to indicate the product’s efficiency. The WELS Water Rating Label certificates or stickers are very similar in appearance to those used for energy rating labels for things like fridges, dishwashers, washing machines, heaters and air conditioning units.
The WELS Water Rating Label scheme was instituted to eliminate and educate on unnecessary water use. The WELS Water Rating Label scheme on current projections is expected to save 800,000 megalitres of water by the year 2021 across Australia. This equates to about a billion dollars of water bill savings. A further little-known benefit of the WELS Water Rating Label scheme is a reduction in greenhouse gases which is estimated to equal to the removal of 90,000 cars from Australian roads every year.
When the plumbers at Whywait raise the issue of WELS Water Rating Label certificates, many of our clients ask which products have to have WELS labels? Very simply under the WELS Water Rating Label scheme, the bathroom products that need to be rated in Australia are:
- shower heads
- tapware
- toilets pans, cisterns and urinals
Installing water-efficient showerheads in your home’s bathrooms account for 25% of the water savings under the WELS Water Rating Label scheme. This is due to the significant difference in the amount of water used in showers with a standard showerhead using between 15-25 litres of water per minute. A 3-star rated showerhead only uses 6 or 7 litres per minute which means installing a water-efficient showerhead reduces your water consumption in the shower alone by 40%. Using less water in the shower has the added benefit of reducing your electricity or gas bill as you use about 40%-60% less hot water.
All taps used in kitchen sinks, bathroom basins, bathroom showers and laundry troughs must be WELS rated. However, a bath tap although in all likelihood WELS rated does not require to be flow reduced as you use the same amount of water to fill a bath no matter what. Flow restrictors mean the bath takes longer to fill. Most mixer taps and many combination tap spouts have an aerator that is combined with a flow restrictor, installed on the spout outlet that mixes the water with air, and in the process can cut the amount of water used from 15-22 litres per minute down to around 3 – 6 litres per minute.
Finally, the WELS Water Rating Label scheme requires flushing toilets and urinals to meet a basic level of water efficiency. Waterless urinals are not required to have any form of WELS certification. Concerning toilets, an average flush is calculated as one full flush and four half-flushes. Therefore a compliant toilet suite cannot exceed 5.5 litres per average flush. Water-efficient toilets make up a significant amount of the water savings under the WELS scheme with savings of 22% as a traditional toilet used 11 litres per flush compared to water-efficient dual flush toilets that use, on average less than 4 litres per flush. This adds up to savings of 52 litres of water per person, per day, and can add up to $800 less in your water bill over ten years.
When choosing plumbing products for your home, it is a good idea to take into consideration the information on the WELS Water Rating Label and the savings you can make over the long term on both water and electricity or gas bills.
For more information on the WELS scheme, go to waterrating.gov.au.
by Gary Mays | Mar 18, 2013 | Bathrooms, City of Gold Coast, Consumer Issues, DIY Plumbing, Gold Coast Plumbing, Health Issues, Insurance, Plumber Brisbane, Plumbers, Plumbers Gold Coast, Plumbing Emergencies, Plumbing Legislation, Plumbing Maintenance, Plumbing Renovation, Queensland Government, Sustainable Plumbing, Whywait Plumbing
Cheap plumbing fixtures on-line and the desire for a bargain has created an on-line love affair to compare prices of supposedly comparable products and services.
It is a guarantee no matter how much you pay for any product or service you will always find it cheaper on-line. This has given rise to an increasing belief by many consumers that they have paid over the odds and have been ripped off because they found allegedly the same product or service on-line “cheaper”.
It is worth remembering that “cheap” has two meanings. Where plumbing products and services are concerned “cheap” is responsible for some colossally expensive problems. In fact a large amount of work undertaken by Whywait Plumbing is because of consumers who took the “cheap” option. The old adage that you get what you pay for is certainly truer today than at any other time in our history.
Plumbing products that are sold in Australia are subject to stringent testing, designed to ensure that they meet Australian Standards. Once plumbing products meet the required Australian standards they are granted a WaterMark. The product whether its a tap or a toilet or a hot water service or a urinal must display the WaterMark logo as pictured to the right on the product by law.
If you are buying plumbing products on-line from overseas or if your builder or plumber is doing this to cut costs then it is a sure bet that it will end up costing you much more than the money saved in repairs and replacement.
Always make sure you understand what you are paying for and ensure that it has a compliant Australian WaterMark approval. Using a non compliant non WaterMark approved product will null and void your insurance policy if the product is defective and causes property damage.
When you are upgrading or replacing or renovating you will comes across a lot of great looking plumbing products to select from and ones that make great claims in terms of durability and long-life. Usually they are much “cheaper” and are tempting to purchase for the price being offered. Generally where mixer taps and toilet suites are concerned the cheaper the price means corners have been cut in their production. If you cannot see the WaterMark on the product then do not purchase it.
Unfortunately in Australia it is not illegal for non compliant products to be imported and sold. It is however illegal for plumbers to install them. Listening to unqualified salesman who tell you how wonderful the cheap plumbing product is have lead many people to have expensive repairs undertaken. It is always best especially if renovating to stipulate any product supplied for your job meets or exceeds the relevant Australian Standard and or WaterMark for plumbing products.
By Gary Mays
