Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Drain Is Done

It only took 2 months 3 plumbers and 2 project managers, but the drain is now actually installed! All that remains is work that I can mostly do on my own and then... Beer time.

Here's the story of my drain:




I first contacted 2 actual plumbing companies for quotes on installing a new drain about 10 feet from an existing drain in the basement. Both companies came back with estimates around $800 which seemed a bit steep (but in hindsight may have been worth the money). I looked online to Kijiji and Craigslist to see if there were any plumbers who did side jobs after work, and there were a few. I contacted one, he showed up that night to give me an estimate of $500 and said he could do the work the following Saturday. $500 is better than $800 so I agreed, Saturday came and went and I never heard from plumber #1 again.

I contacted a second plumber about 2 weeks later, he too said $500 and that it would take him 10hrs to do the job. I said come by Saturday. Saturday came and went, no call, no email... then about a week later he called and said that his truck had broken down on Saturday and he could come by this Sunday at 8:00. At 1:00 Sunday afternoon he called and said he was hungover from a party the night before, but might be able to come by around 3:00 if I could go rent him a jack hammer. Needless to say Allison and I declined the offer.

I discussed our plumbing woes with my friend Paul who promptly offered assistance as he's done a couple drains in the past. So I went to Home Depot, rented a jack hammer and Paul and spent 4 hours breaking the concrete and 48 hours recovering from the ordeal. When we opened up the floor, we found a main drain in our way and the plumbing stores were closed for the rest of the weekend, so we put the gravel back in and it was time to hire a real plumber again.




Back to Kijiji I went and found a third plumber who was willing to do the job, this time for $150 as most of the tough labor was already complete. He said he'd be at my house Sunday morning at 10:30. Guess who didn't show up or bother to call?

Wednesday I get a call from plumber #3 stating he was sick, but could come by Sunday at 9:00, and he did! The job is to code, so not quite the 10 feet I wanted but good enough.




Cheers,

JR