Not Feeling Confident With Plumber

12 years ago

My daughter's house and my house have plumbing issues we are starting to address.

First my house has three bathrooms, one that had a shower drain leak, and one that I will probaly need to gut. My plumber has excellent reviews and referred the major work to another plumber who will give me an estimate later today for the bathroom that needs gutted and my daughter's cracked shower.

But in the meantime he is fixing one shower leak and capping a gas line in the basement that went to an old gas space heater that I don't need. After replacing the shower strainer he also needed to untangle the the weird installation of the lines which is all in the basement.

My issue- He needs to reconnect the lines also to the basement shower. When I checked on the progress I told him that I am sure he knew this but could he make sure there were shut off valves to the basement shower. He acted surprised and told me they did not originally have shut off valves but he would put them in. He also said it would have been nice if I had told him that before he went to the store for supplies.

Huh? I don't understand this. Wouldn't a plumber who is fixing your plumbing know this? And there were shut off valves which I pointed out to him as the pipes he cut out were still on the floor. I may be blonde and female but seriously I know what a shut off valve is and have done minor plumbing repairs before.

Super ticked off right now. Angie's list gives him an "A" rating.

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Comments (6)

eholmes1
12 years ago
Trust your instincts! I went with a roofer that had great reviews and now I think he wrote them all himself.

The last plumber I hired, highly recommended by a friend, installed a sink that was visibly crooked. I mean, very, very crooked. I gave him a level and he didn't know what to do with it. My boyfriend wound up redoing it-- and even though he's not a plumber, he did a much better job.

I'm sorry you have to deal with this -- it's aggravating!
Acadiafun
Original Author
12 years ago
Maybe I was too harsh and should have communicated this better to him. I think I just assumed he would know to do this. I guess if I look at it another way- a customer might get angry at the added expense to do more than was agreed upon. Another assumption on my part was that it was agreed upon to do this because shut off valves only make sense to me. I know now for the next plumbing job to make sure I am very clear on what I want done. This might take some research on my part when I get the other two bathrooms worked on.
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geoffrey_b
12 years ago
Not to make excuses for the guy but it sounds like you requested that he install shut off valves for the shower.

There doesn't have to be shut offs - he can just shut the water off (for the entire house) while he repipes.
toxcrusadr
12 years ago
IMHO a good plumber would have asked before he started whether you wanted those valves replaced that were going to be removed with the old piping, so it would not have mattered if you forgot. And unless they were a weird size, he should have had some in his truck. What kind of a plumber has to buy all his supplies for every job? My FIL is a plumber and his truck has all the common stuff right there so he doesn't have to make trips back to the shop. Well, he always does, but it's one trip instead of two. :-]
geoffrey_b
12 years ago
@toxcrusadr: "a good plumber would have asked before he started whether you wanted those valves replaced that were going to be removed "

If you would read the original post it clearly states that: "He acted surprised and told me they did not originally have shut off valves"
robo (z6a)
12 years ago
"And there were shut off valves which I pointed out to him as the pipes he cut out were still on the floor."