Plumbing Horror: Please Help

[michael2298]

Most probable they (emergency plumbers) don't have a license. I don't see it on state/county website and they refuse to tell me. My building management company said that they "don't need a licence to do this because this is a handyman job" it looks like my management company and these emergency plumbers are all together.

Do they need to have a license to serve such emergency calls??? Can I refuse to pay theirs bills because they made a mistake (attached toilet to broken flange) and didn't have a licence?

I am happy to pay for a good job, like my next plumber did, but this looks to me like a rip-off. They didn't diagnose the problem, they spent 4 hours first time and charged me almost $2000 for two visits. While my own plumber did the job (replaced broken flange) after this.

 

[michael2298]

Today, I talked to the plumbers who came to my apartment during those emergency situations. They said 2 things:
1) The flange was not broken when they were doing their work
2) they have license for plumbers but not for the company

I am confused with this.. Could the flange got broken by itself?

 

[ahl77]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but just a quick question here. Is there a coverage that can be bought for these kind of situations?
Water damage to neighbors are pretty common in condos and I suspect that even when their own insurance may cover, I can see them going after the owner of the leaking apartment.

 

[LostDollar]

New homeowner here, just bought a house built in 1979. Few days after move in one of my sons used the bathroom and clogged it up. Thought it was just a simple plunger fix and even used my little snake to run it down the toilet. Turns out the issue wasnt fixed and after running the washer the toilet overflowed out of the bowl a couple times, until we realized the washer running was causing the overflow. Turned off the washer and toilet stopped overflowing. Called out Roto Rooter and they unclogged the sewer line but ran a camera down the line and said I had a belly in a section of the pipe which was the root cause of the toilet clogging. They are charging me $2900 to fix the section of pipe, this included them having to break 2 feet of concrete to re-route the pipe.

Any suggestions of whether or not this is something that can wait or I need to get done right away? If I absolutely have to Id put it on a credit card. Just very overwhelmed right now, help would be much appreciated.

Caveat, I am NOT an insurance agent.

In part, I think the answer to your question lies with you and your family.

How heavily do you need to use the plumbing and water draining?

If your usage is light, you can probably defer repairs for a while. If it is heavy, you probably need to make the repair. My daughter had a house for awhile that had the sewer partially blocked by tree roots. She used tree root killer every so often and just let extra water from the tub and washer back up in a depression in the basement and then drain out slowly. that worked well for her for 2-3 years, but I'm guessing your water usage requirements are probably heavier.

I don't do well on the process of getting quotes for stuff, but in my city I would expect Roto Rooter to be higher priced than some other plumbing firms, so you might consider getting competitive quotes for what you want done.

If your city has a nextdoor site, you could join that and ask for recommendations there. I see people asking for suggestions about plumbers, electricians and home repair workers on our NextDoor site on a regular basis.

Another thing you could discuss with a plumber is whether you could start one or two feet away from the edge of the concrete, have the line replaced from there to the sewer connection and then have the new line connected to the old portion running from the house to the edge of the concrete.

When I look at plumbing stuff in Lowes or Home Depot, I see all kinds of fancy tools and materials, It might be there are fancy modern connectors that would allow new sewer pipe to connect to old style pipe coming out of the house.

 

[LostDollar]

This old house, repair sewer pipe under concrete

 

[Allen Trent]

Give the bill to your wife for flushing those things. Dispute the second trip because the clog is still there. The offset didn't cause the second flood. The remaining clog did. You should be fine to not make a repair to the pipes if the real clog is removed. If this is a new condo then I'd have the builder on the phone ASAP as well.

Wow. It isn't 2021, caveman. Men can use tampons too (proof can be found in all the mandatory schools, etc required to have tampons in men's bathrooms)

 

[Allen Trent]

why did your homeowners decline it?

I thought this would fall under water back up (usually 5000 coverage with 250 deductible)

He is likely talking about the correction to redo the plumbing, not the damage caused. Home insurance doesn't pay to fix bad workmanship or faulty equipment, only damages