TECHNICAL
35
Home renovations require a professional touch
By
Eamonn Ryan
Maintenance plumbers are not yet as busy as they were pre-lockdown , but Plumbing Africa joined a team from ARM Plumbing and Electrical for a routine morning ’ s rounds .
The ARM plumbing team – consisting of Philani Mpontshane , plumber , and trainee Ben Swanepoel – started work at 07:00 when they are given their job cards for the morning by owner Wesley Armstrong . This was a quiet day so far with just three calls , though typically the office would phone through other jobs throughout the day . Such jobs may either be geyser replacements authorised through insurers , or jobs reported directly to ARM through its marketing campaigns .
Mpontshane is not yet a licensed plumber . Following a fivemonth stint at Dells Plumbing , he was employed in 2017 by ARM and has learned the plumbing trade through practical experience . He is now , in turn , training Swanepoel .
By 08:30 , with the bakkie fitted with all necessary the tools and spares they may need , they set off . En route , they phone the client to coordinate their arrival , explains Mpontshane . Once at the premises , they hand the client the ARM business pamphlet and attach their business sticker on the DB board ( so they can be contacted in emergency ). Then they discuss the task at hand .
All images by Eamonn Ryan
Ready for the day .
Once on site , in the case of a geyser , they firstly check that the installation was originally done to standard , and secondly confirm whether it is now burst , and finally whether it is an insurance claim . They write a report and prepare a quote which is subsequently sent to the office for pricing and verification . Finally , the team gets the go-ahead to replace it . “ Frequently , we are called in to complete a job started by another plumbing company ; for instance , a geyser the installation of which is not compliant , that we then have to make compliant ,” says Swanepoel .
ARM has a quality control manager and qualified plumber , Darryl Lauren , who in addition to doing jobs with his own team , does random inspection visits of completed jobs , while the Certificate of Compliance ( CoC ) is later completed at the office . “ My job is to ensure that workmanship accords to the standard and is to PIRB ’ s professional specifications . Within five days of completion of the job , and following payment ,
Connecting the water supply .
the homeowner is issued with the CoC , or with a certificate of non-compliance if not compliant in which case we will make them aware of the faults we found and urge them to have them corrected .”
November 2020 Volume 26 I Number 09 www . plumbingafrica . co . za