Crooked Combinations...

Dear Chaps,

I've just had my Plumber mortar-in some new in-wall Combinations into the brick walls of the Shower Recess and the Kitchen of the Flat. Well anyway, while I was grinding away today at a few cracks here and there in these same walls, it became obvious to me that the protruding stubs of the new Combinations didn't seem to be anywhere near accurately perpendicular to the surface of the walls. I grabbed a couple of leftover old taps that were lying around and screwed them into the stubs, and whilst I didn't have a protractor or anything else with which to measure the angle, I'd nonetheless estimate that the stubs are probably out by about 5deg from perpendicular! They've well and truly got an upwards point about them. I think he must have got them crooked because he's bent the pipes backwards that feed the Combo's so that they poke out through the brick walls, where they can be hooked up to the new external water pipes. He either musn't have got the angle of the pipe bends to be spot on at 90deg, or the holes that he's drilled through the bricks for the pipes haven't been drilled exactly horizontal.

So what exactly can I do about something like that? :?. The mortar has fully set, so it's too late to move them around, but there's just no way that the chrome covers of the new taps are going to screw down onto the tap bonnets and the surrounding tiles with anything like a proper fit onto the tiles. And the chromed part of the spindles that the handles sit on are going to be noticeably pointing upwards...

I've got a lot of time for my Plumber, so I don't want to just be an R'shole with him and tell him to pull them out and replace them for free if there's something else that is usually done to straighten them in such situations. Trouble is, for the life of me I can't see what that could be...

Any ideas anyone?

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

P.S. The taps are Ram Ceramic-Disc separates by the way.


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