We're looking to install a new bathroom suite in a house we're moving to and a friend in the UK is willing to come over to do this as a favour to us.

Our Swiss builder who will be doing some renovations work in the house has advised that Swiss plumbing is different and requires special tools and so we should employ someone local to do this. Does this sound correct? He mentioned something about Geberit systems.

Also we have found a towel drier/ radiator that would be perfect but we can't find a Swiss supplier but can get it in France. Is there anything that means it won't be compatible with Swiss systems? I have also been told Swiss plumbers don't like installing anything not bought in Switzerland.

The Geberit system is for the waste water pipes. These are melted together.
Why do'nt you have a look around the internet site of GEBERIT.
With the freshwater pipes, most of the inside work is done with PEX pipes, or stainless steel.
These are with joints which are pressed together.
For all of these pipes one needs special tools.

Salut Zämma

Thanks for the reply, I will take a look

a plumber is a plumber anywhere in the world special tools can be bought much cheaper than the job itself.

That's what I would hope - maybe these tools can be hired from somewhere, which is what I'm looking into currently.

Yes. It's more expensive.

Yes....unfortunately true of almost everything here, hence the kind offer of a friend to do the work for beer tokens & board for a couple of weeks was greatly appreciated.

Hello

Last year I renovated my UK house from top to bottom. We installed Geberit systems in all toilets and the plumber was English and educated as a plumber in England.

Gerebit is sold everywhere in the UK and it is not different from other systems. It is considered top of the range, that is all, and it is made in CH.

Your friend should not have any issue..........

Good luck!

I'm sure the last part is true, but then being Swiss probably pre-creates that attitude. As long as the pipe diameter is compatible there shouldn't be an problems. I've used German kit in France, but not in Switzerland, so can't be 100% certain on this.

As for the rest of it, I've replaced a couple of taps, re-plumbed a dishwasher, including modifying the waste outlet/merging, and a few other small jobs in our Swiss appts. None of it seemed especially different from the UK, and especially not from France. It may be that some of the fitting available locally have been different to what I would have been used to in another country, although I've never been able to work out of this is just a change over time with new standards etc.

As for special tools - naah, I don't think so. As someone else said, a plumber is a plumber, so if he can't work out how to do the job in a slightly different system then he shouldn't call himself one. As long as he sources the actual fittings, pipework, etc. in CH I'm sure it should be fine.

The main problem is not the system or tools used but rather if you have work done by someone other than a qualified swiss registered tradesman, and it goes wrong the insurance companies can refuse to pay up, claiming it wouldn't of happened if it was done by the correct person.

Are you speaking from experience?

True, but the tools most likely cannot be brought cheaper than the job.

Big Mara, is totally correct and has answered.

My Swiss FIL, a restorer and plumber by training, just a few months back was asked to step out of retirement and over see the renovations and re plumbing of a house. He had to turn the job down as he said he no longer had his specialist tools for the pipes,(threaders and pressing machines) couldn't rent them and they were far too expensive to buy them again!

I would say to the OP that you need to find a friendly Swiss plumber too and the pair can work together....

Our local plumber will only plumb in showers, etc, bought through him at HIS suppliers! (All local plumbers here do so) - we wanted to buy a corner shower cubicle in France and ask them to install it - but we just can't find somebody who will do this!

The other difficulty here is that in the UK you could get a PLUMBING SERVICE to come and install a shower, bathroom, etc- and they would make a plan and give a quote for the full job, arranging for tiler (builder if a wall has to be erected), electrician to do the relevant part of the work. Here you have to find and employ them all separately - which is very expensive and complicated and a real pain in the proverbial! Grrr (and yes, I am Swiss!)

Plumbers buy supplies at trade price and bill you at retail price. They factor this mark-up into their overall job prices.

Electricians do the same.

This is the same as it is in the U.K.

First, if you are in Nyon have you had a look around Challande and Getaz Romang. They are the main plumbing supply stores that all local plumbers use in my experience. And yes, they do have those heated towel bars there as well.

Second, we've had some minor plumbing issues that have all turned into major plumbing issues (nightmares) all involving blasting/jackhammering a good part of the concrete wall apart, and these were not renovations. What initially looks like a simple task may not be so in the end. All local plumbers here are also end up as good stone masons, with what they have to deal with. Assuming your friend has experience in these types of buildings, materials as well, it may indeed be necessary. One issue we had was the retiling of a floor raised the level by a few millimeters, which then off set the evacuation of the toilet by a few mms, not an easy fix.

Ok. I just went through a nightmare of a renovation. I can tell you that Getaz is piece of sh@t store. Challande is better but they don't speak English. You should buy everything from Reuter Badshop online in Germany. Cheap, quick, helpful. We bought almost everything there.

The drainage piping from Geberit is an HDPE (also known as PE100) Polyethylene system, which is butt-welded (Stumpfschweissen / Soudage bout à bout) & electro-fused (Elektroschweissen / Électrosoudage). The tooling for this is the same worldwide. 90% of the welds will be done with butt-fusion, the remainder done with electro-fusion sockets, where you can't get the butt-welder into place.

The hot & cold water piping is where the differences in tooling come in.

Each manufacturer has his own jointing system; with plastic piping there are push-fit, crimped, electrofusion and socket-fusion systems, and this is where the problem of having the right tools for the right manufacturer comes in.

Or if you go with metal (not so common these days) there are crimped systems, soldered systems or old fashion threaded fittings. It seems the metal is used for heating, and the plastic used for hot/cold water to bathrooms & kitchens.

Typically PEX piping (e.g. Geberit) is done with crimping tools, which naturally only work with Geberit fittings, there are a few push-fit systems out there which require very little in the way of tools (e.g. JRG and +GF+). Polybutylene is also done with push-fit, but also Electrofusion or Socket Fusion.

The other plastic option is Polypropylene which is again Electrofusion or Socket Fusion. The fusion systems (butt, socket, electro) need some pretty expensive equipment.

The push-fit is cheaper to tool up. No I'm not a plumber...

I think the comment from SimonHicken is pretty close to the mark, at the very least the installation would have to be inspected by a qualified Swiss plumber and signed off that it was up to standard. A friend had to have this done when he re-wired his house (he's a semi-retired electrician from the UK) to get it signed off by a Swiss and luckily it was a friend of a friend, otherwise that signature would probably have cost a bomb...

We are having solar heating (see photo) installed, with a new boiler. The fittings are all stainless steel and are crimped with a very expensive crimping tool (see photo). Thus, you could not really do it yourself, as we didn't. I did connect up the hot water tank heating elements and the temperature detectors myself, though.. (shhh, don't tell anyone..)

Must admit, it does all look very nice and shiny indeed, but is there anything really wrong with what we use in the UK (22mm copper; at least you can handle this yourself)

Cheers,
Chris

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hmmm some of the answers are a bit bizzare, from the mains and boiler point of view I don't know if things are the same, but the fittings comming out of our boiler and to the taps etc and the waste pipes etc are exactly the same as the ones in the uk, so just fitting a bathroom should be a piece of cake for a uk plumber

what's the advantage of the geberit mapress vs traditional copper and soldering?