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The end is in sight

At least it ought to be. Leonie is due with Henry on 12/18, so we've *got* to have a functional bathroom by then. Unfortunately, I don't think that our plumbers share our view. Here's an email I wrote to the Rehabbers Club mailing list.

We had First Call (Dave Reddick and associates) do two jobs on our house, one for a half bath/laundry and the other for our second floor bath.

The first job (half bath/laundry) was done promptly, for an acceptable price and quite well.

The second job, well, that's a different story.

The first third or so went along pretty well. The plumber they sent out to do the work was *exceptional*, a real perfectionist, everything by the books. Unfortunately, after about 3/4 of the water and drain lines were run, he stopped showing up. A week later, two different plumbers came out to finish up the rough in until the bathtub was delievered, about four weeks later.

After our tub arrived, I called First Call. And I called again. And again. It took two weeks before anyone even returned my calls. Finally, the tub got installed and the plumbing went in. Unfortunately it went in incorrectly.

After the last plumber had left, I noticed that the shower valve, instead of being mounted flush to the finished wall surface, was 2.5" pround of the finished wall surface. The documentation with the shower valve states that the valve is to be flush. In fact, I pointed this out numerous times to the plumbers. I guess they don't like to read the directions. The final icing on the cake was when the owner argued with me about the final amount due. I have no idea what sort of math he was using, but we did agree on the final, correct amount.

I could call First Call back to come back and correct their mistakes, but I'm tired of dealing with them. It will probably take me a day or so to re-solder the shower valve and re-route the vent line from the tub. If you want something done right, I suppose you really do have to do it yourself.

I suppose that this touches on an e-mail I saw go across the list in the last week or two. It really does seem that practices that would be *intolerable* in any other industry are common practice in the construction industry. The one that really bugs me the most is a lack of communication. If you're going to be late or not show up, fine, just tell me about it. Also, please tell me when you will be there so I can plan for it.

I remember one time everyone in customer support in the company I work for (a small, but mostly well known computer company) attended a class called "Exceeding Customer Expectations." I recall regretting not bring my palm pilot so I could play Tetris and look like I was taking notes. Actually, the class ended up being pretty useful. The one thing that's stuck with me the most was that a study found (and don't ask me the name of it or how they determined this) that it takes an average of seven postive interactions to offset one negative interaction. My personal experience indicates that this seems about right.

I don't mean to say First Call is entirely bad. But I would recommend that you double check their work if you do hire them. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend them to other people at this time.

To offset my one negative interaction (hey, only six left to make the week even, there's six beers in a pack of Schlafly, coincidence?), I did find a great plumbing supply store. Soulard Plumbing, oddly enough located in Webster Groves, is absolutely great. Wonderful service, great guys behind the counter and very, very competitive prices. Yes, it's not in the city, but I've been to Henry and I think that my lack of a union card contributed to my negative interaction. Soulard Plumbing is at 40 N. Gore, 961-8626. I'm not affilated with them, I've just had a great experience.

And I would like to add, that Soulard Plumbing really saved my bacon for having Corian shower walls and a Corian vanity top for a reasonable (well, resonable for Corian) price.

Other updates with the second floor bathroom:

It's got a floor again. I had to take everything down to the floor joists and sister some as they had some nasty looking cuts taken out of them. Now, that said, it looks like they had been there for a long time and no ill had come of it. You can get away with a whole lot with this old growth wood. Unfortunately, I also realized why our bathroom floor was raised. There's a slope of about 1.25" in the 32" from the outside wall to the apron of the tub. Ugh. I think that what I'll end up doing is just building up the floor with more plywood so it's level with the apron of the tub. Unfortunately, the slope will still be there, but I can't think of a good way to eliminate it and make it look right without re-doing all of the second floor. I know that cutting 2x4 wedges to make the floor level sure didn't look right. Well, it's an old house. It's got personality, right?

Hopefully more updates soon. I didn't get too much done today on the house since I helped my friend Tim install some kitchen cabinets (he'll help me fix the plumbers' mistakes as he's better at plumbing stuff than I am) and Jon Wenzel was here this afteroon. Tomorrow, though, I plan to make a day of it. My goal is to get enough done so that the drywall can go up the week after Turkey day.
That means electrical, any additional framing type stuff (furring walls, one or two more 2x4s I have to run to drop the ceiling), the exhaust vent, and insualation. Oh, and probably the floor, too.

Posted by dlloyd at November 19, 2005 10:05 PM