by Gary Mays | Mar 1, 2013 | Bathrooms, Consumer Issues, Drain Odours, Health Issues, Plumbing Maintenance, Sustainable Plumbing, Toilets, Whywait Plumbing
Aidan Clarke
Drain odours have plagued Aidan Clarke the owner of Marine Energy Systems at Murarrie since 2006. Since opening his workshop and showroom, he had been trying to solve the problem of foul odours in their bathroom. The smell was so bad that employees had complained that it was making them nauseous.
ADCO Constructions, the builder of the complex, had organised their plumber to replace the drainage connection for the toilet suite to no avail. Odour blockers had been placed in the bathroom, but they too were of limited value and failed to address the problem with drain odours continually there.
The problem was particularly acute after weekends with the door having to be jammed open on Monday to get fresh air into the bathroom. The problem was particularly embarrassing when clients of the company viewing product in the showroom needed to use the bathroom.
In May 2011 in absolute frustration, Aidan Clarke contacted Gary Mays of Whywait Plumbing to solve the drain odours problem. After a thorough inspection of all existing drain connections to the toilet, shower and basin it was concluded that the only logical place that the drain odours could be emanating from was the floor waste trap in the middle of the floor.
As a result, Gary Mays from Whywait Plumbing Services contacted John Carroll from Eco Guardians to obtain his advice to see if a new product he had discussed with Gary Mays previously would solve the problem. A DrainGuardian™ was supplied to us to fit into the floor waste. The DrainGuardian™ was installed in less than 5 minutes, replacing the existing grate cover.
Once installed water was poured down the floor waste ensuring there was a water seal in the DrainGuardian in addition to the existing water seal in the main 100mm trap that makes up the drainage floor waste system.
DrainGuardian™ eliminating drain odours from floor wastes
The entire process of installation was completed to ensure the sceptical, long-suffering Aidan Clarke that the DrainGuardian™ would provide greater protection to any form of odour emission from the floor waste and end the problem he had been enduring.
The DrainGuardian™ works by creating two physical barriers to smells and vermin while it also kills airborne bacteria, waterborne bacteria and fungi. In the smelly bathroom at Marine Energy Systems the improvement was immediate and permanent.
The results were almost instantaneous as within one day the DrainGuardian™ had eliminated odour problems in the bathroom. The elimination of the odours in such a short time proved conclusively the problem that Marine Energy Systems had been enduring since 2006 had been the floor waste trap all along. There was nothing structurally defective with the floor waste trap that was causing odour emission’s which makes the source of the odours a common problem we find these days in that it is a venting problem in the entire sewer drain system to the property. What had been happening was a siphoning effect that caused the floor waste trap to be sucked either completely or partially dry that allowed drain odours to be emitted through the floor waste and into the bathroom.
Aidan Clarke now categorically states, “ DrainGuardian™ should be compulsory in every floor waste in every bathroom as a clean bathroom environment cannot be underestimated. I have wasted incredible amounts of money on trying to solve this problem as it was a cause of acute embarrassment to me, our staff and to clients. Our bathroom is now a pleasure to enter with there being no drain odours at all thanks to a straightforward solution in DrainGuardian.”
If you are experiencing drain odours book Whywait Plumbing to investigate today by calling us on (07) 5580 4311
by Gary Mays | Feb 23, 2013 | Bathrooms, Consumer Issues, Health Issues, Sustainable Plumbing, Toilets
Recently the highly respected magazine “The Economist” ran a cover story that asked the pertinent question if we will ever invent something as useful as the flushing toilet again. No matter which way you look at it the flushing toilet has done wonders for public health in modern society.
The humble toilet and its associated water flushing in its many variations and improvements over the years have helped to stop the spread of infectious disease. In fact 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 which of course the toilet is an integral part of. Despite all the staggering medical breakthroughs and scientific advances the seemingly mundane advance of reliable sewage and reliably clean water supply was judged the greatest medical advance.
The ancient Indus Valley Civilization were the first to use hydraulic engineering in the earliest version known of flushing water toilets. The Romans used latrines over pipes with running water that carried into the Tiber River. The Romans 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 1596 Sir John Harrington installed a toilet for his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, who would not use it because of the noise it made. Contrary to popular opinion Thomas Crapper did not invent the toilet but he did popularise the siphon system used to empty the tank or cistern.
For most of us in Australia flushing toilets and the associated plumbing is something we take for granted. Like most of the population the staff at Whywait Plumbing have never known what it is like not to have a flushing toilet inside the house or 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 water borne diseases.
Clean potable water is the basis for life and without it the risk to public health and the population as a whole increases. The cost to the community of plumbing failures are substantial and always have been. The recognition by “The Economist” and “British Medical Journal” that the flushing toilet coupled with reliable sewage and water supply is 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 with respect to 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.
Even in today’s society, not everyone has access to a flushing toilet and in Asia alone some 2 billion people, which is over 60% of the population of Asia, live without an 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 thankfully by our plumbing laws.
No matter which way you look at it “The Economist” is correct we will possibly as a society never invent anything as useful again as the flushing toilet which has improved billions of people’s lives.
by Gary Mays | Feb 25, 2012 | blocked toilet drain, Consumer Issues, Drain Odours, emergency plumber Gold Coast, gurgling drains, Health Issues, Septic Tanks, sewer odour
Personally, one of life’s great pleasures is walking into Zarraffa’s Coffee at Hope Island most mornings and getting that immediate lift that the aroma of coffee gives. As a plumber, one of the more problematic issues we face is when a building has a problem with sewer gases or sewer odour. I was not surprised when I came across research that showed that the leftover coffee grounds could eliminate that offensive odour that is sewer gases.
Sewer odour is hydrogen sulphide and has a characteristic rotten egg smell which can be detected at very low levels, well below those known to cause health effects.
The sewer odour smell can cause worry, anxiety and resentment as it overwhelms the sense of smell. Repeated odour events may culminate in real symptoms such as headache, fatigue and nausea. Although these are not direct health effects, they are undesirable. It is unlikely the odour will affect your health as humans smell it at shallow levels, as hydrogen sulphide is denser than air and tends to pool on the ground or the floor, especially inside a building. In addition, any absorbed hydrogen sulphide does not accumulate in the body as it is rapidly metabolised in the liver and excreted in the urine.
The problems with sewer odour inside buildings are often related to the drainage system’s venting, which requires filters. Over the years at Whywait Plumbing, we have tried many different filter systems and non-return valves with varying degrees of success in controlling sewer odour.
New research to develop a novel, eco-friendly filter to remove toxic gases from the air has found that a material made from used coffee grounds can sop up hydrogen sulphide gas. CCNY Chemical Engineering develops and tests materials that scrub toxic gases like hydrogen sulphide from the air in industrial facilities and pollution control plants. Similar to the grains of charcoal packed into water filter cartridges, the CCNY filters use a form of charcoal called activated carbon.
The manufacturers of activated carbon producers already use materials like coal, wood, peat, fruit pits, and coconut shells to make filters. CCNY concluded that our modern coffee culture could supply an abundant source of eco-friendly organic waste. An added advantage is that coffee grounds also have a special ingredient that boosts their smell-fighting power. The stimulant that gives coffee its energy jolt, caffeine, also contains nitrogen. Nitrogen dramatically increases the carbon’s ability to clean hydrogen sulphide from the air through adsorption.
Manufacturers traditionally have treated the carbon with nitrogen-rich chemicals such as ammonia, melamine, or even urea, the primary nitrogen-containing substance in urine. All of these treatments significantly increase the cost of adsorbents. Instead, CCNY carbonised coffee grounds turn them into charcoal by activation that fills the carbon with scores of minute holes about 10-30 angstroms in diameter and roughly equivalent to 10-30 hydrogen atom widths across. These densely packed pores are blanketed with nitrogen, perfect for capturing hydrogen sulphide molecules passing through.
Trials are continuing on the filters with positive results so remember, next time you have a coffee, the grounds that made it can be developed into an environmentally sustainable green filter that can control the most nauseating odour of all – sewer odour.
by Gary Mays | Feb 14, 2012 | the recommended rate for plumbers
The Challenges of Plumbing Business Ownership
Owning a plumbing business is easy, or so many people think. The reality is a plumbing business is a business, not a hobby or a charity. Owning any business is a challenge.
Owning a maintenance plumbing business has always been challenging, as so much of what we repair is a grudge purchase. For most experienced master plumbers, the biggest challenge is other plumbers.
“You have overcharged us because I rang three other plumbers and told them what you charged us for that job, and they all agree you have overcharged us and ripped us off.” This was a phone call we received at Whywait Plumbing last week.
The Issues with Unprofessional Quotations
A call like this always makes us wonder about the competence and integrity of the three so-called licensed plumbers who said we overcharged.
For a start, no professional plumber can or should or could give a price over the phone without thoroughly inspecting the job onsite and undertaking a complete diagnosis of the plumbing problem.
The Joe Bum-Crack Plumbing Business Phenomenon
Generally, the plumbers who indulge in giving prices over the phone use it to gain entry to the client’s home. Invariably, their final price always ends up being much more expensive because they find all these additional problems after they start the job.
These “Joe Bum-Crack Plumbers” seldom last in business beyond two years. But in the short time they exist, they cause legitimate plumbing businesses countless problems with their shoddy business ethics and lack of business acumen. Sadly, another generation of Joe Bum-Crack Plumbers emerges with their brand-new QBCC plumbing licenses every few years.
Every day at Whywait Plumbing, we receive phone calls or emails from plumbers looking for a job. A significant number of these plumbers fit the category of Joe Bum-Crack plumbers who have been running their own plumbing business and discover it is much more complex than they thought it would be.
Joe’s Story: The Dream and The Reality
We have in the past employed such people, always to our detriment. The last person we employed, who could be described as a Joe Bum-Crack plumber, was a perfect textbook example.
In fact, let us call him Joe as he came into the interview perfectly dressed in answer to our advertisement for an experienced maintenance plumber. Joe was in his 50s and had done everything from working in construction to being an inspector to running his own business. When asked why he was giving up running his plumbing business, he replied that his wife had told him to go and get a real job.
Joe then described what it was like running his own plumbing business, which he had started with high hopes after 27 years as an employee of various large companies and a water authority. Joe described how he wanted to be his own boss as he knew there was a fortune to be made running his own business. Plus, he was in control of everything for the first time and could work when he chose and be at home when he decided.
The reality was much different from Joe’s perception of being the boss. Joe soon discovered that being the boss is much more complicated than it looks. Joe had found that running a business was more than being an excellent technical plumber.
Now, he was the boss. Joe was in charge of marketing, employee relations, customer relations, credit management, bookkeeping, answering the phone, dealing with plumbers merchants, and so on.
All Joe wanted to be was a wealthy plumber.
Joe knew running a plumbing business was not a path to instant wealth, as he had initially believed.
The opposite was the truth, with every minute of his time being spent on running the business. Joe was shocked at the reaction of Reeces Plumbing Supplies when his account was late being paid. Joe, as an employee, had used Reeces for years and the people behind the counter he considered as mates. He was shocked when his credit was suspended because, after all, these were his longtime mates, and he was sure they would understand that a client had not paid him, so he could not pay them.
Joe was well aware of Whywait Plumbing and confided that he had always believed we were ripoff merchants.
Joe was aware of our sign-written Utes, websites, Yellow Pages advertising, radio advertising, broadcast email, diagnostic charges and letterbox drops, which he had always regarded as a waste of money because everyone knows word of mouth gives you plenty of work, or so he once thought. He was astounded when word of mouth did not provide much work.
He was astounded to learn that to get his phone ringing, he would need to spend what he believed was a “shitload of money” on advertising and marketing to get his name out there.
After 18 months of being the boss, Joe now understood why Whywait Plumbing spends what he called a “shitload of money” on advertising and was astounded when he was informed it was only 4% of our turnover.
Joe couldn’t believe the extensive safeguard measures we had implemented, spanning numerous insurance policies, WorkCover, and even trademark protection for our business name and logos. The trademark protection particularly caught his interest, a facet he had not considered previously. He was astonished to realise that, without a trademark, any entity could potentially use your business name, as technically, it isn’t owned by anyone.
His interest piqued even further when we introduced him to Squadhelp, a free online platform where you can conduct trademark searches to check for both exact and closely matching names. Joe appreciated the initiative, recognising the immense value in securing a unique and protected business identity.
Now Joe wanted us to give him a job because his wife had told him after 18 months of struggling to make ends meet to get a real job.
Joe’s Stint at Whywait Plumbing
Joe worked for Whywait Plumbing for three months but, in the end, was unable to adapt to a plumbing business that was upfront about the cost of the work before undertaking the work. Joe just wanted to turn on the taximeter, keep charging the client until the job was complete, and then let someone else worry about who was paying.
Ultimately Joe had the wrong attitude toward small business, and this was why:
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Joe, the boss, had his credit stopped at Reeces.
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Joe, the boss, had constant arguments with clients.
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Joe, the boss, is just Joe, the disgruntled employee who still thinks he knows more than the boss.
Through Joe’s story, it’s evident that understanding your business’s costs and your potential clients, plus setting fair and transparent prices, are crucial.
The Fundamental Rule of a Plumbing Business
Very simply, there is only one rule in business: “To make a profit, you must first know your costs.” That is why at Whywait Plumbing, we price every job in advance, whether with a fixed quote or an estimated budget price….no ifs, no buts.
To experience reliable and professional plumbing service, contact Whywait Plumbing anytime because, as we always say, “Choose Whywait and consider it done.”
by Gary Mays | Jan 28, 2012 | Gold Coast Water
Currently receiving publicity is the Mayan calendar which predicts the world’s end in December 2012. The actual translation is “A time of great change.” Not so much the end but more the beginning of a new era. It is a time of significant change for Gold Coast ratepayers, who will receive what is possibly their last Allconnex water bill in the next week. Unless there is a change of government on 24 March, the ratepayers of the City of Gold Coast have been duped by misguided media and activists from Disconnex into reviving Gold Coast Water.
Gold Coast Water may come to life on 1 July but is only a water retailer. Therefore, it will not lead to reductions in the cost of water simply because the Queensland Government controls the price of water sold to retailers.
As a result, the wholesale cost of water is the bulk of a water bill because someone has to pay for the reckless spending by the Beattie-Bligh governments on projects that include the $7 billion water grid that may never be used and the troubled desalination plant at Tugun plus the $500 million for Traveston Dam, which wasn’t built despite costly planning and land resumptions.
Gold Coast City Council is not responsible for the originally highly respected water utility being taken over by the Queensland Government. It was legislated that way. The spin by Anna Bligh and Andrew Fraser into making Gold Coast ratepayers believe the high water bills are all the councils’ fault is bizarre because they control the wholesale cost price. The government spin campaign caused a misguided people-power revolt on the Gold Coast, with Allconnex Water workers even having their cars attacked. Allconnex has to collect rates to a prescribed formula set by the State Government.
Gold Coast ratepayers should direct their anger at the Queensland Labor MP’s who voted to destroy Gold Coast Water, not at the Gold Coast City Councillors who were forced to vote to disband Gold Coast Water in accordance with law changes enacted by the Queensland Government. The new Gold Coast Water will only be a shadow of its former self but will still have to generate income to fund more than $1 billion in new water and sewerage plants over the next decade. The Queensland Labor Government has removed all subsidies, so Gold Coast Water revived will be looking for new revenue. Unfortunately, it means ratepayers will pick up the tab in raised rates and water charges – or Gold Coast Water will go broke.
Current Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clark has consistently spoken against the Queensland Government takeover of water in South East Queensland. Even the Council of Mayors warned in 2007 that the proposed takeover of water was simply cost-shifting by the state. If the Gold Coast Water revival proceeds, we may not have to wait two years before understanding the negative impact of Labor’s reforms. In the meantime, Gold Coast ratepayers will continue to pay and pay and pay. Even the Queensland Government’s water commissioner, Elizabeth Nosworthy, in 2007 released the pricing for water in southeast Queensland, said that “by 2012-13, a typical household’s annual cost would increase from $355 to $876, an increase of 147 per cent”. This was ignored at the time, but she was on the money.
So when Gold Coast voters receive their Allconnex water bills next week, remember when you go to the polls on 24 March, it was local Labor MP’s Peta-Kaye Croft, Peter Lawler, Christine Smith and Margaret Keech who destroyed Gold Coast Water and drove water prices up 147% in 4 years.
