Plumber says he'll have to make another crawl space opening to get to leak

[sophiemarie]

Just FYI, my house is a 1950's house. I've had two bad frustrating plumbers in a row. Both of them I called WAY in advance to make an appointment and told them there were multiple issues. In other words, it won't be an hour job. Both of them forgot the appointment until I called them. To skip to the relevant issue, I told the second plumber in the first call about the issues that weren't resolved with the other plumber because he forgot about my appointment and also that now my water bill was really high suddenly and I think I have a leak.

I had to call the second plumber the day of the appointment -- because he had forgotten as well. He gets here 3 hours late and starts pumping water from under the house but has to drive to the suburbs to take care of some other client and come back. He comes back and fixes things that aren't urgent, like new bathroom sink cartridges, bad shut-off valves, new shower fixture, etc. for a couple of hours and WAITS to deal with the leak (the water was all pumped out).

At 6:00pm, he tells me that I'm going to have to be without water this weekend, that he can't get to the leak through my crawl space opening and that he's going to have to make a new big crawl space opening closer to the leak. He said he can turn the water back on and pump it out again or leave it off. I don't want to damage something that hasn't already been damaged by leaving the water on and I don't want to charge up more on my bill, so I'm without water, toilet, shower this weekend.

My question is: Does that sound normal that a plumber would have to make a new crawl space opening by removing my brick and putting a wooden door on it to fix a leak? With all the bad judgements he's made, I just want to make sure.

Also, I wondered if I could turn on the water myself this weekend for short periods of time just to be quickly functional and then turn it off or could that mess something up -- or is that something I need to ask him?

Thanks in advance.

 

[justin_dewan90]

You will have low water pressure, pending how big the leak is. We can not answer that question reasonably, because it is your house. I have been in many crawl spaces I wish I had never been in. Some way tighter than others. It really does depend on the opening to the crawl space and accessibility to the leak. We aren't there, we don't see what the obstacles are. Hard to judge with nothing to back it up. If anything, pertaining to the water being on and off. Can you turn it on long enough to fill some buckets up? That way you can have a way to flush?

 

[justin_dewan90]

But, leaving the water on, could cause foundation issues and a much higher bill from this guy.

 

[sophiemarie]

Justin, you answered my main question. I just wondered if this is something that happens occasionally, that a new crawl space opening has to be created to fix a leak.
Thanks.

 

[justin_dewan90]

Have you checked out the reviews of the plumber you called? That's a good place to tell you alot of what your dealing with.

 

[sophiemarie]

Yes, he has good reviews, but so did the last guy -- the best on Google reviews. My parents used this second plumber. I don't know that he's a bad plumber, maybe just not very responsible, and so I wanted to check if this new crawl space opening sounds kosher before he did it.

 

[Matt30]

I have been in a lot of older homes where the plumbing was installed in a tiny crawl space before the floor boards went down. Now years later when leaks occur or renovations take place there’s physically no room for anyone to work between the floor joists and the dirt floor. In those cases, yes some extreme measures need to take place sometimes.

 

[sophiemarie]

Happy to hear it's not out of the norm, Matt. Thanks for responding.

 

[PlumbGate]

Remember you have 1-2 flushes in each of your toilettes before they run out of water. Use it wisely! You can also fill the toilette tank up with store bought water.

 

[Matt30]

Happy to hear it's not out of the norm, Matt. Thanks for responding.

I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you. If there’s no room, you gotta make room, ya know?

And trust me, it’s no cake walk being the plumber that has to tell a homeowner that we gotta remove so much drywall to make a repair, or we gotta excavate to access a pipe or whatever the situation. I always wanna be the least invasive as I can because nobody appreciates having their house tore up but they are happy in the end when they can flush their toilets.

I would be interested in seeing pictures of your situation to see if there’s a better way of handling it.

 

[Rickyman]

Sounds like the plumber needs to call the office and request the “small guy” to make the repair instead of making another access.
Funny how we never have to call the office and request the “fat guy” come out.

 

[Jamesplumbing06]

Really still with the fat plumbers jokes. ? How did we fat plumbers build houses in the 50’s 6” off ground? We didn’t. Back then they put plumbing on grass and built house around it. That ***** home builder everyone use to love in this small town. Yeah he ain’t gotta mess with from his grave. I have had to go into the living room and set the owner down. Now that floor you just spent 10k on 2 months ago. We need that cut out to get to the leak.

 

[sophiemarie]

Matt, I'd take some photos if I could, but I'd have to get under the house to get pics of the problem. That's what I pay the professionals for. haha
I really wouldn't mind him making another crawl space and having to pay for that if I had trust in him that it's the only way and that he'd do it and leave it looking nice. But after how he handled everything else and left me without water for what will be over three days, I'm worried how competent and responsible he is.

 

[Mr_David]

cutting a new access hole is questionable but I have cut through floors before.
Could be he just does want to crawl through mud to get to the leak. I've rolled out plastic visquen sheeting.
I've had to dig a trench to get back to a tight corner. Some guys just don't like to crawl. I hate it but I get 'r done.

Unless you can find someone competent to fix it with out cutting a new hole then it's just a matter of getting what you can get.

 

[Mr_David]

P.S. It's hard these days trying to find competent help.

 

[sophiemarie]

I wrote this earlier and it didn't post:
He's not overweight, but he is older and he has some physical problems because he's in physical therapy.
As far as calling the office to get someone else, I've decided after these last two plumbers, I'll never go to an independent plumber again, regardless of how good their ratings are on Goolge or the local neighborhood forum. I'll pay more to go to a professional business with an office and a receptionist so they will remember my appointment, be more organized and so that if something goes wrong, I have a larger professional business to complain to and deal with. It's ridiculous that his first order of business wasn't the leak (instead of a bunch of non-urgent installations), especially after getting there late, leaving during my appointment and it being Friday and knowing it if he doesn't fix it, I'm out of luck until Monday. And if it was my stupid mistake, I would have come and finished it on Saturday. I know actual businesses with an office are also bad news sometimes, but I'll take my chances and enjoy that at least they actually show up for the appointment.

 

[sophiemarie]

Mr_David, do you think it's worth having him hold off and asking another company to come by and look?

 

[jn1945]

Home owner not a plumber. As an option to creating a new entry to the crawl space, would it be possible cut an opening in your floor to access the plumbing. If the crawl space opening is very tight, this may work if you have a closet or an area to make the entry.

 

[sophiemarie]

jn1945: I think the leak is near the kitchen and every floor in my house is hardwood flooring except the bathrooms. I'm just worried about him making a new crawl space opening and possible foundation problems and how it's going to look. I called three other plumbing companies, but unfortunately because it's the weekend, they can't come before at least Monday. The original plumber contacted me and said he'd be here Monday morning after his physical therapy.

I'm really between a rock and a hard place. I think I'm just going to let him go ahead and do it and deal with whatever issues later. I'm so tired of being a homeowner and have to deal with people for repairs.

 

[CT18]

Creating a new access is generally not that big of a deal. They actually do it more than you think. It is easier than dragging tools and material from one end of the space to the other. I have a family member that has a lake house and we made a new access to change the furnace. I did some plumbing work while we were all down there and would not have wanted to do it from the original access.