# a cluster f***



## Kentheplumber (Aug 18, 2010)

I was at a party hosted by a member of my wife's extended family this evening. It was a beautiful new construction home and they were having their basement finished. I was down stairs looking at the work that had been done with the owner and asked to see the bath room.
At this point drywall was finished and painted, trim installed, no flooring and the plumbing was still in rough in stage. This is where things went horribly wrong. 
First I noticed the drain for the walk in shower was rediculously off center. Then I realized that it was in fact the original 3 inch water closet rough in 90. No trap. In concrete. But built into a brand new shower stall just waiting for shower pan and finish work. Then I saw the backwater valve where the water closet rough in should have been. Complete with water service and all. The owner told me that the plan was to set the toilet right on top of the valve. To his credit he had absolutely no idea what a backwater valve was or that he even had one until I brought it to his attention. Also, the location of the water line was way too high and almost centered with the WC rough. not to mention all the water lines for toilet and lav were just pex lines hanging out of the wall with shark bite caps on them.
Until I walked into the bathroom I was completely impressed with the work. We are talking 10 ft ceilings. Concave and convex curing walls. Arches with the support beams enclosed and beautifully trimmed out.
I guess what Im getting at is I cant believe that the plumbing was so completely botched in a job that seemed to be done so well. He is asking me to give him a bid to fix the drains. I do this work everyday for the company that I currently plumb for but I am not licensed so I feel shady about it. I also need the money. I have a family to support after all.
I was wondering if any one else has ever ran into a situation even remotely like this and how they dealt with it? Thanx.


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## RW Plumbing (Aug 16, 2010)

Don't be doing stuff you arn't licensed for. Everyone needs money sure but let a professional licensed guy do the work. People don't pay for the actual work to be done, they pay for the knowledge that a licensed person did the work to code.


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## Plumber Jim (Jun 19, 2008)

Give the guy the number of the company you work for and ask your boss if you can do the work if they get it.


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## Kentheplumber (Aug 18, 2010)

Good call. I pretty much knew that turning it over to the company was the right thing to do. Money will just sometimes make you get a little less than moral. 
Side note. The place I work for only has one master plumber that holds the license for the entire company of 20 other "plumbers". Including myself. of those 20 mabey 2 even have a journeyman's license and I have never seen the master plumber ever show up on the job to inspect. 90% chance it is gonna be done by someone unlicensed anyhow. Just driving a company truck.


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## Plumber Jim (Jun 19, 2008)

Kentheplumber said:


> Good call. I pretty much knew that turning it over to the company was the right thing to do. Money will just sometimes make you get a little less than moral.
> Side note. The place I work for only has one master plumber that holds the license for the entire company of 20 other "plumbers". Including myself. of those 20 mabey 2 even have a journeyman's license and I have never seen the master plumber ever show up on the job to inspect. 90% chance it is gonna be done by someone unlicensed anyhow. Just driving a company truck.


Sad to say that goes on alot here too.


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## rocksteady (Oct 8, 2008)

Kentheplumber said:


> Good call. I pretty much knew that turning it over to the company was the right thing to do. Money will just sometimes make you get a little less than moral.
> Side note. The place I work for only has one master plumber that holds the license for the entire company of 20 other "plumbers". Including myself. of those 20 mabey 2 even have a journeyman's license and I have never seen the master plumber ever show up on the job to inspect. 90% chance it is gonna be done by someone unlicensed anyhow. Just driving a company truck.


 
If that's the way they do it in Kansas then that's fine. It's the same way here in Ca. If you called a dozen plumbing companies I'm sure you wouldn't get a single licensed plumber unless they were one man shops. Stick to the local laws and just have them call your employer. That way you'll still get to do the work AND be legal about it. This way everybody is protected.






Paul


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*Refer it to Nacho...*

How did this fellow take the news that his
plumbing was a total abortion???

Did you tell it to him easy and gentle like???

Usually ,
news like that can totally ruin the party mood..:laughing::yes:

Where was nacho when they needed him??


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## Kentheplumber (Aug 18, 2010)

Yeah he actually took it pretty well. Of course he did go off and start drinking a hell of alot after we came back upstairs. His wife on the other hand looked a little worried after hearing the news. She asked me " Everthing is gonna stay in the same place once it is fixed right?". I told her " sort of," and tried not laugh about it. Its gonna take alot of digging and repiping to keep things the same. plus there cant be any vent for the shower because as of right now the shower stall is where the toilet should be. Crazy.


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## Kentheplumber (Aug 18, 2010)

I think Nacho was the guy who got them into this mess in the first place


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*Nach0 gets around*

That *nacho guy* gets around......

I went on a very nice home that had about a 10k shower
unit finished in it , large beautiflu heavy clear 3/4 inch glass shower doors.... beautiful tile , 6x5 concrete base with tile floor .......completely finished.....

they were getting water down in the crawl space dripping
on the plastic sheeting.... 

 I went down to find that they used a pvc trench drain imbedded in the concrete with the shower pan folded down around the edje of the wood cut out. and so it would natrually drip into the crawl space.......

Eventually after they threatened to sue the home remodeler
it got all torn out and re-done.... I later heard that the fellow that did the work anctually KNEW he was doing it wrong, but did not care to go get teh right drain becasue he was gonna quit in a few weeks anyway.

I think I would have beaten him to death.......


I should have taken pictures


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## bigdawginc (Sep 6, 2010)

hmm the wind blew the **** flew & he knew just what 2 do!!! whowho... lol


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## Herk (Jun 12, 2008)

I can't even comprehend something like this job, but of course I've seen my share of them. 

A good many years ago, a contractor hired me to hook up a sump. He'd heard that they could be hooked up wrong and then wouldn't work so he wanted a professional. Right. 

But his guys did everything else.

I was called back about a year later to find the wall under the basin was black with mold. The flunky who installed the basin stuck the p-trep into the pipe without a connector. No glue. No nothing. I shudder to think what else is under that floor.

Back in the day, when there were a lot of tract-type houses going up (I say that because there are seldom any groups of houses in this area large enough to be actually called a tract) the goal was to plumb the upstairs and put in a basement rough, but the basement rough didn't actually have to work because, apparently, nobody ever finished it the way it was plumbed anyway. So it wasn't unusual for plumbers to have the rough plumbing less than useful - the concrete would have to be cut and the piping would have to be re-done to accommodate the actual shape of the bath.

I've seen a lot of houses plumbed by amateurs, but I can't recall ever seeing a toilet ninety used for a shower or a backwater valve used for a closet.


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## Hero Plumber (Sep 2, 2010)

add 400$ bucks to the price of the job to cover your insurance. If u only do one job a year then it costs you 400$ for insurance for that one job.


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