The plumbing and drainage insurance we offer through HomeServe gives you piece of mind that you won’t be stopped in your tracks by a plumbing or drainage issue. Covering your home’s pipes, drains, toilets and tanks, their Home Experts are ready to get your job done in an emergency. Last month we had the opportunity to head out on the road with them to see what a typical day with a Home Expert looks like.
Our first job of the day was in Spalding in a very old thatched property. The customer had a tap that was broken and needed replacing. A replacement tap was covered under their insurance policy, but they wanted to replace it like for like so had sourced the tap themselves. It was an ornate brass finished tap to match the other fixtures in the kitchen, rather than the standard chrome tap that HomeServe would have provided. The whole kitchen was bespoke built so Sam, the technician we were with, had to do a lot of work to actually get to the tap. It wasn’t an easy job, but Sam got there in the end, and we left the customer happy. He was so grateful we had managed to replace the tap with what he wanted, without damaging the kitchen that he popped out to buy us some doughnuts* to say thank you – a perk of the job!
The next job we went to was in a very different house – a big, three story, eco house. We had been called in because there was a bad smell coming from the customer’s son’s ensuite and it wasn't just a teenage boy smell! Locating the bad smell wasn’t easy. There are so many sources that it could be coming from like the toilet, the shower, the sink, a leaking pipe etc. Sam had to put his detective hat on. It took him a little while to pinpoint the source of the smell but once he did it was an easy fix. The waste trap in the shower was ever so slightly out of line and it wasn't sealed properly, meaning that the smell from the wate water drains was coming into the bathroom.
It was encouraging to see the level of commitment HomeServe’s Home Experts have that they are prepared to hunt down a smell. If you’re called out because someone has a dripping tap, you can see the problem and fix it easily but with a call out like this, it isn't obvious what needs fixing. The homeowner and his son were really appreciative that we had taken the time to fix the issue.
After the eco house was a terraced house in Peterborough. The waste pipe from the kitchen sink was broken and instead of going down the drain, it was just running down the wall both inside and outside. The garden was waterlogged and the kitchen cupboard where the pipe flowed out from was water damaged. It looked like the pipe had been broken for a while to cause that much damage. Luckily the pipe was a quick fix. Sam just took everything apart, put in a new bit of pipe and connected everything up again.
Our last job of the day was elsewhere in Peterborough, and it was a simple job of replacing a toilet’s flushing mechanism. This is the sort of job that is bread and butter for HomeServe, and it didn’t take long. Sam took the relevant bits apart, replaced the broken mechanism, put it all back together, flushed it to test and that was job done. It would have taken the homeowner a lot longer to make the fix, but the skill and expertise of HomeServe meant it was done in no time and with that job finished we were done for the day.
It was encouraging to see the lengths that HomeServe are prepared to go to help their customers. HomeServe is one of the country’s leading home assistance providers, with 30 years of experience in looking after UK homes, and that was very clear in the day we spent with them. Sam went to a lot of effort to make sure that his customers were left happy, with the problem resolved – no matter how mundane or unusual. With a HomeServe policy, you can be confident that they will provide you with first rate service.
*Please note, buying your HomeServe expert doughnuts is not compulsory but does make them very happy!
Osprey House, 1 Percy Road,Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE29 6SZ
Part of
