good bad or what? Friends house just got "fixt" - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

nEighter · 07-29-2009, 07:30 PM

This is a friend on another forum. He was wondering if this was a legit job. Have a look see.

Quote:

Mainly looking toward you on this one nate. with all your apperant knowledge with fixing up your own house, but anyone else with some uptodate knowledge about the industry norm with plumbing please weigh in because im having a small amount of buyers remorse. about $130 or so dollars of it at that.

Backstory:
Sunday of last week (10 days ago) my wife noticed water was seeping up through our garage floor. so Monday i called the same plumber who did the work on the outside when our main gate valve broke and i couldnt shut water off. so he came out that day and started the work.

a few pics:

he determined that the leak was about 5 to 6 feet to the right of where the hole was dug and decided to bypass the main line from the outside and rout a temporary 1/2" line through to the elbow in the hole.

Temporary problem in place he said it was highly unlikely he could get to it by friday and that he only came out then because im a friend of his friend from his church and that they had pervious work on my house.

Cool, fine NOOO problem.

Called him monday afternoon to see when he could be out to finish the job (i'd really like to use the same people for this stuff if they are decent price and do good work...) he told me he was still working on his contracting site till tuesday night and that he would call me wednsday to settup a time to come out. SWEET!!!

Today about 7:20am i get a call

him: Hey we can be there in an hour
me: sweet see ya then

him and his assistant got here around 8:00am and startted working i only walked out there once and they were working above the water heater and such, offered them each a coke or water, they declined so i went back in.

Around 9:45 i get a knock on the garage door "Hey, were done"

checkbook in hand i walk out there and this is the first thing i see on the opposite wall of the garage

i knew it was going to be routed through that spot in the wall but the plastic piping and the fact that it bends like 8 or so inches to the right was unexpected. anyway he shows me the two new cutoff valves above the water heater they also installed and tells me the price is $450.00 even. Kinda a relief at first cause with the leak being underground i was worried it'd break 4 figures, but after having seen the materials used for the "fix" it seems over a hundred too much to me so here i am wondering if they did a job thats standard with the indutry or if they half assed it and i just overpaid for the work

i wasnt looking for a break or anything and on the first fix they used copper and did a great job for $125.00 so i kinda thought that given the same level of difficulty and work required that this one was gunna come in around just a hair over $400.00 if they used copper piping and whatnot. not $450.00 and plastic tubing.

Granted they did also relocate the cutoff box to the air handler to a higher position away from this tubing but stil...

Anways here's the finished product inside the garage.

nEighter · 07-29-2009, 07:30 PM

Quote:

on the first job earlier this year they had used full copper pipe and some was recycled for this (up by the water spiket) but all the tubing under the insulation is plastic and once was copper...

You can see where he bypassed the original line as its directly under where the spiket is now, and is sticking out about 2 feet out of the ground

and finally the hole.

he said they could refill it and pour some concrete down but that they would have to charge his boss' minimum of $100.00 and that i could do it for less than $10.00. Him saying this and being honest kind of put me at some ease with the rest of the work, but i dunno still seems like its a relatively hack job and that appart from the 2 extra cutoff valves i could have done this myself for less $100.00 and still produced the quality of astetics

so nate did i get "hosed" or is this plastic tubing the relative industry norm (that you know of...)

what do you plumbers think?

Ron The Plumber · 07-31-2009, 12:17 AM

What did Nate say?

nEighter · 07-31-2009, 12:26 AM

I said Ell if I know?! I don't do plumbing. Told him I would put it up here for you guys to see and comment on. Was this a good job? Is that line good?

Ron The Plumber · 07-31-2009, 12:33 AM

Looks like a DIY did this job to me. Looks like crap.

nEighter · 07-31-2009, 12:54 AM

kinda what I was thinking. It is supposedly a licensed guy in florida that did this to my buddy's place.

A W Smith · 07-31-2009, 07:10 AM

looks like he made an attempt to match the quality of the electrical work. I see the problem, The plumber could have at least taken down the dyno Jet banner and placed it over the plastic pipe. And whats with all those mismatched trusses? were they salvaged? and is one of the lower chords on that one truss cut where that blocking goes past it? Looks like a few tradesmen can pull up lawn chairs on a lazy Sunday, sit in your garage, point out errors and talk about it for hours over some beers.

Ron The Plumber · 07-31-2009, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nEighter

kinda what I was thinking. It is supposedly a licensed guy in florida that did this to my buddy's place.

Must have been someone to have claimed to be, that was no plumber that was a hack. Those shark bites with the mixture of pipe and fitting is beautiful.

A W Smith · 07-31-2009, 08:21 AM

Quote:

and finally the hole.
he said they could refill it and pour some concrete down but that they would have to charge his boss' minimum of $100.00 and that i could do it for less than $10.00.

I think we figured out where a case of empty beer bottles went

nEighter · 07-31-2009, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A W Smith

looks like he made an attempt to match the quality of the electrical work. I see the problem, The plumber could have at least taken down the dyno Jet banner and placed it over the plastic pipe. And whats with all those mismatched trusses? were they salvaged? and is one of the lower chords on that one truss cut where that blocking goes past it? Looks like a few tradesmen can pull up lawn chairs on a lazy Sunday, sit in your garage, point out errors and talk about it for hours over some beers.

I thought florida had to have licenses for all contractors? BTW this is not my place.. It is a friends in Florida, I live in kc.

So it is bad. Huh. I am not sure I have the heart to tell him now

assocplumbers · 07-31-2009, 03:10 PM

Looks to me like he got what he paid for.

We don't deal with PEX, but if it had been in copper at least 3 times as much.

nEighter · 07-31-2009, 03:13 PM

huh. Do you think that that is even remotely right? The long runs of line not secured?

Framer53 · 07-31-2009, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nEighter

huh. Do you think that that is even remotely right? The long runs of line not secured?

shoot, I'm a framer and can tell that was a hack job!!!

nEighter · 07-31-2009, 05:05 PM

Welp yeah. He said he is contacting the guy and asking WTF on monday. Hacks R us back at it again. Any other plumbers want to chime in with specific problems with this "fix"?

Ron The Plumber · 07-31-2009, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nEighter

Welp yeah. He said he is contacting the guy and asking WTF on monday. Hacks R us back at it again. Any other plumbers want to chime in with specific problems with this "fix"?

Yea everything, dude it looks bad, not clean at all, there is nothing about it that looks right.

nEighter · 07-31-2009, 05:12 PM

Thanks Ron. I will let him know

protechplumbing · 07-31-2009, 05:47 PM

Oh my freakin gowd!

That is terrible. I don't even know where to begin. Pex outdoors exposed to UV? Sharkbites? Pex strapped with copper straps. Long unsupported lengths. I could go on and on. CRAP CRAP CRAP. That is a insurance claim waiting to happen!

Looks like a twisted game of russian rollete with that uponor 90 touching the roof deck. Can't wait for the rooferes to start poking nails threw that roof deck on the reroof

A W Smith · 07-31-2009, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nEighter

Welp yeah. He said he is contacting the guy and asking WTF on monday. Hacks R us back at it again. Any other plumbers want to chime in with specific problems with this "fix"?

why wait till Monday? Hes a church buddy right? why don't he just stand up during a quiet moment during prayer spin around pointing his finger at him sayin "THERES the sinner!! over THERE!

A W Smith · 07-31-2009, 08:29 PM

And who the heck paints their walls turquoise?

Never mind just realized hes from Florida. Trying for that Miami art deco look I suppose.

nEighter · 08-01-2009, 01:20 AM

Yep. It is a florida home