Any competent PLUMBER can lower the waste srm enough to make that work. No need to fire the guy when you can just have him call the plimber, and add that as a change order. A kitchen designer would have known about the conflict in measurements immediately. Contractors are not kitchen designers. In the absence of one, you that that responsibility by default. And you didn't know what you didn’t know. Pay the plumber and call it good.

I did know the drain needed lowering and told him. I called the plumber and was told what the fix is. My contractor on the other hand doesn't want to use a plumber for the fix.

Dave-

I don't understand. Did you just say your kitchen doesn't have water?

How can your contractor not want to use a plumber?

If you hire a plumber on your own (and pay him,) will your contractor walk off the job?

I don't think your contractor will walk off the job.

If he does, he would be in trouble, wouldn't he?

It seems to me you should just call the plumber to start work.

Verbo, what do you think?

Can Dave just call the plumber to start work (knowing that Dave will pay him/)

Where is Joe Corlett LLC ?

Dave- Joe Corlett LLC is a pro on Houzz. Invite him into this thread, he will have some insights here.

Yes my contractor is trying to do the repair as cheaply as possible. Once the walls are open lowering the drain is pretty simple. Right now I am negotiating with him on the final payment to cover just what he has done up to this point minus the repairs and then have the rest done by someone else.

"The only solution is to remove the countertop, sink base cabinet open the wall and lower it."

No, it isn't.

One of my guys apparently broke a drain line in a wall and we had to pay to fix it. Virtually the same problem/solution. Cost just less than 1K.

Joseph-

Dave needs to know if the contractor can do the job, or if he has to get a plumber to do it- what do you think?

The contractor obviously isn’t skilled enough to do it, or he wouldn’t be giving so much pushback. Just hire a good plumber and be done. the tailpiece doesn’t have to be as long as the original. A close quarters P trap setup under the disposal, and the waste arm barely has to be lowered.

OK, Dave, there you go. If you know a plumber, hire one.

If your contractor walks off the job because of it, then your contractor would be in deep doo-doo I think.

I don't know anything about change orders, ask Verbo and Joseph Corlett.

First, this is on your contractor unless you have made a change to the project that created this problem. He can't neglect to add something to your bid and then claim he didn't have to do the job properly because of that omission. That is utterly ridiculous. Your contractor may not be required to move a drain, but he is required to know if a drain needs to be moved and not do work that makes it difficult or costly to move.

Three inches is plenty of room for a standard trap, you don't even need a bottle or low profile trap. However, I don't know of any garbage disposal that can be properly installed in three inches.

It is impossible to know what steps would need to be taken to remedy the problem as we don't know what the pipe does inside the wall. If your pipe has a horizontal run inside the wall a plumber isn't going to be able to lower the pipe behind one cabinet and would need solid access to the area to move the pipe.

So we don't know how to get a garbage disposal in there, but we do know someone who is responsible for knowing... your contractor.

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My advice, if your contractor is ok with emails subtly get him to acknowledge that you brought this to his attention before and he noted it would not be a problem. Without his acknowledgement this is still on him, but with his acknowledgement it is even more actionable.

@loobab - the OP said the plumbing company told him there is not enough room to move the drain. Is the plumbing company not a plumber?

With respect to @User and @Joseph Corlett, LLC, how do they know what the pipe does inside the wall. I have several rental properties in the same neighborhood and every kitchen sink hits the wall and turns horizontal for 6'.

There is a neat trick for moving a horizontal run down 5 inches. It is called remove every single cabinet and drill holes through every single stud 5 inches lower than the current one.

Tell him if he doesn't fix it to code with his plumber doing the work that you'll be calling the local division of inspection. He will not be paid until he has their approval. If he refuses, have the work done and subtract the bill(s) from his final payment.

You want it inspected anyway because pipes will still drain that don't meet code.

The pipe in the wall is verticle from the crawl space under the house until the kitchen window so no need to do anything else except cut lower it.

At just 3 inches of space between the sink bottom and drain, it was suggested above that there was enough room for a trap without the disposal. Fitting a tail piece with a connection for diswasher might be difficult I think.

I could sue him but @ $250-500 per hour for lawyers not worth it for the amount of the final payment. As of yesterday I dont have to terminate him or go through a big legal battle. We have come to an agreement and he no longer is on the job.

I can easily have the plumbing repaired. My biggest problem now is finding someone to remove the quartz countertop and sink base and then reinstall them when the plumbing is repaired. The contractor as not willing to do that job either.

IMO the first thing was no signed contract spelled out perfectly. Now hire a plumber and IM deduct the cost of the plumber from the final payment and I aslo think thank goodness if you can't have a disposal IMO they should be illegal. If you ever move again hire KD

Thanks Patricia. I would gladly forget about the disposal. I am going to have another plumber look at it to see if there might be someway to hookup the drain and dishwasher with so little space.

@Dave Larson - You can try a direct connect dishwasher tailpiece in 3 inches. To work the dishwasher inlet needs to be in about the first 1.5" of the tailpiece and I am not sure they are.

If that doesn't work, I don't know of any rule that says a dishwasher has to use the sink trap, it is always done that way for sure, but it doesn't have to be. So your plumber should be able to install a wye at the wall and install a trap for the sink and build a separate trap for the dishwasher.

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If you didn't have a garbage disposal in your original plans this is acceptable and you really can't force your contractor to do more. However, if your original plans had the garbage disposal figuring out how to fix this with a garbage disposal and how to pay for it is your contractor's responsibility.

Being negligent in the bid process and negligent in the construction process is his problem. However, there is a lot of land between it being his fault and getting him to take responsibility for fixing it, so losing the disposal, hiring a plumber and deducting from the final payment may be your best bet.

"My biggest problem now is finding someone to remove the quartz countertop and sink base and then reinstall them when the plumbing is repaired. The contractor as not willing to do that job either."

You don't need to remove the tops to do this work. You can tap the cabinet front(s) off, the cabinet sides will hold the top in place, and you can unzip the cabinet backs too if need be. I've done this hundreds of times.