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theotherguy · 09-24-2007, 09:37 AM

First - IT WAS NOT THE SEWAGE PIPE! HOORAY!

I started out on Saturday morning digging a hole about 2.5 feet deep and about 3 ft in diameter. Apparently, my honing skills are very sharp and I was able to dig straight to the offending pipe the first time. When I got down to it, I discovered there was a 3/4" copper pipe with a very small leak. I typically would not attempt to fix that sort of thing myself, but I have been very adventurous lately when it comes to home repair. I used to say, "there are folks out there who do this for a living, and they have families to feed." Now, I am starting to enjoy trying it myself first. So, off I went to the home improvement store and purchased cooper pipe, a butane torch, solder, the whole thing. Then, I went home and proceeded to get down in the big muddy hole to give it a go. I sat and studied the situation for a while. Read the instructions on all of the items I bought. Thought about it for a little while longer, and then called a plumber. I decided that I did not want my first attempt at soldering to be the main water line going into my house.

I called the big plumbing company around here and they figured it would be around $200. Not too bad I thought. However, being the conscientious shopper, I decided to call some other plumbers to get some competitive pricing. Most were about the same. Some even wanted to charge me $50 to come out and give a quote. "The $50 would apply to your job, of course." I don't think so. I am not going to pay some bonehead $50 just for him to come out and be $100 higher than the other guy. So, I called back the first guy and set it up. The told me he had taken many calls since we last spoke and it would be about 8PM before the could get out. I said that was fine, just put me on the list. Then, I found a guy that was the same price, but could get out sooner. Since the first guy was slammed, I called him back and said I was sure he wanted to get home at some point before midnight, so not to worry about it.

Here's where the fun starts. The guy I had setup to come on out, wound up taking forever to get to my house. I was getting irritated because I was covered in mud and stunk to high heaven. I had decided not to shower since I was sure it was going to be fixed soon. (I could have turned the water back on and taken a shower since it was just a very small hole. Plenty of water going into the house.) When he did show up, he didn't have any tools with him and had to keep borrowing mine. He was a disaster. He talked too much and kept saying things like, "in the book, it says to..." Oh no. Also, he kept cutting himself on the pipe. He told me that each cut was another $10. I told him each tool he borrowed was $25 and it looked like he was going to have to pay me before he left. After 3.5 hours and the leak now being worse than when he arrived. We "agreed" that I would not be paying him and he was free to go. So, I called the original plumber back and set him up for Sunday morning. He arrived about 11 and had it fixed in about 30 minutes. The first thing he did was look in the hole and laugh. He left, I filled in the hole and replaced the sod. All in all, it could have gone better, but it certainly could have gone worse.

09-24-2007, 09:37 AM	#9
theotherguy no not that other guy, the other one Join Date: May 2007 Location: TN Posts: 640	First - IT WAS NOT THE SEWAGE PIPE! HOORAY! I started out on Saturday morning digging a hole about 2.5 feet deep and about 3 ft in diameter. Apparently, my honing skills are very sharp and I was able to dig straight to the offending pipe the first time. When I got down to it, I discovered there was a 3/4" copper pipe with a very small leak. I typically would not attempt to fix that sort of thing myself, but I have been very adventurous lately when it comes to home repair. I used to say, "there are folks out there who do this for a living, and they have families to feed." Now, I am starting to enjoy trying it myself first. So, off I went to the home improvement store and purchased cooper pipe, a butane torch, solder, the whole thing. Then, I went home and proceeded to get down in the big muddy hole to give it a go. I sat and studied the situation for a while. Read the instructions on all of the items I bought. Thought about it for a little while longer, and then called a plumber. I decided that I did not want my first attempt at soldering to be the main water line going into my house. I called the big plumbing company around here and they figured it would be around $200. Not too bad I thought. However, being the conscientious shopper, I decided to call some other plumbers to get some competitive pricing. Most were about the same. Some even wanted to charge me $50 to come out and give a quote. "The $50 would apply to your job, of course." I don't think so. I am not going to pay some bonehead $50 just for him to come out and be $100 higher than the other guy. So, I called back the first guy and set it up. The told me he had taken many calls since we last spoke and it would be about 8PM before the could get out. I said that was fine, just put me on the list. Then, I found a guy that was the same price, but could get out sooner. Since the first guy was slammed, I called him back and said I was sure he wanted to get home at some point before midnight, so not to worry about it. Here's where the fun starts. The guy I had setup to come on out, wound up taking forever to get to my house. I was getting irritated because I was covered in mud and stunk to high heaven. I had decided not to shower since I was sure it was going to be fixed soon. (I could have turned the water back on and taken a shower since it was just a very small hole. Plenty of water going into the house.) When he did show up, he didn't have any tools with him and had to keep borrowing mine. He was a disaster. He talked too much and kept saying things like, "in the book, it says to..." Oh no. Also, he kept cutting himself on the pipe. He told me that each cut was another $10. I told him each tool he borrowed was $25 and it looked like he was going to have to pay me before he left. After 3.5 hours and the leak now being worse than when he arrived. We "agreed" that I would not be paying him and he was free to go. So, I called the original plumber back and set him up for Sunday morning. He arrived about 11 and had it fixed in about 30 minutes. The first thing he did was look in the hole and laugh. He left, I filled in the hole and replaced the sod. All in all, it could have gone better, but it certainly could have gone worse. __________________ I should be working.