Plumbing Advice Blog

He can spot and diagnose a heating problem at a thousand paces. People call him gifted, and he loves learning technical stuff. Let’s meet Dariush, The Italian Plumber’s latest amazing addition to the team.

What do you do at the Italian plumber?
I work as a gas and central heating engineer, so I don’t really get involved with the plumbing itself.

What first made you want to get into plumbing?
I’ve always loved technical and difficult challenges. Problem-solving, combined with delivering great customer service, has always appealed to me. I like to do my best to go above and beyond for people and make them happy.

Where are you from?
I’m originally from Iraq, but I’ve been living here in London for the past 33 years.

What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had to attend?
I wouldn’t say that it was particularly strange, but I do find it hard to understand how this happens. I had a customer who had been living with a central heating circulation problem for more than four years. During that time, she had had numerous plumbers come in to try to fix it, but none of them could.

When I took a look at it, it didn’t take me long at all to diagnose the problem. The fix was relatively simple – I just upgraded the circulation pump. Quite simple, really.

I think I managed to diagnose the problem quickly because I often don’t look for the obvious cause of something. I try to apply a bit of lateral thinking, and that tends to help me get to the bottom of a complex problem very quickly.

What’s the most common plumbing problem you get called out to?
For me, it’s probably when a boiler keeps switching off as a result of the pressure dropping significantly. That happens quite often when the boiler isn’t being used much – especially in summer. It switches off as a safety measure. Most of the time, it’s a very easy fix.

That’s why I always tell people to switch the heating on for 10 minutes every three weeks or so – even in the summer.

Tea or coffee on the job?
if I’ve already had my morning coffee I’ll go for tea. Otherwise, just coffee.

What’s your favourite part of working for The Italian Plumber?
Very similar to what Samuele’s other employees have said, I consider the team to be my family. Everyone is so genuine and helpful – always ready to offer help and support. They’re just a very nice, down-to-earth team of people. I’m very happy here.

What’s been your proudest plumbing moment so far?
There isn’t one particular job that I can think of. It’s just being able to help customers, solve their problems quickly and leave them feeling happy.

If you weren’t a plumber, what do you think you’d be doing?
Just something that involved problem-solving or some other kind of technical engineering job.

What’s one boiler mistake people make all the time?
Overpressurising their boilers or just generally not looking after them. Boilers do need to be inspected from time to time. It can save a lot of hassle – and money – in the future.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
I like to read and learn things, especially technical stuff. I don’t go as much as I should, but I do enjoy the gym when I go. Otherwise, I mainly enjoy spending time with friends and family.

What’s one thing customers would be surprised to learn about you?
I can’t claim anything super interesting, but I used to work for insurance companies, diagnosing faults. I started to get a reputation for being ‘gifted’ because I was so quick at diagnosing problems. People could not believe the speed at which I worked and solved problems. It’s a reputation I was very proud to have.

How would other people describe you?
I’d like to think they would describe me as friendly, kind, helpful and a good team player.

Dariush, it’s been fantastic learning about you and your role at The Italian Plumber. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. It’s been my pleasure.

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