ChrisConnor

About two years ago I went to a repeat customers house to rod their sewer, this time it was stopped up back under the house.

I rodded the line and all was good. While I was getting the paperwork signed, I noticed the customer had a shaky floor in their hallway right by the bathroom and right next to the air conditioner. The floor was ceramic tiles with cracks in the grout.

I asked the customer if they had any leaks and she said, "Yeah, but it was fixed a while ago". I tried to ask some questions, but she reiterated that "there was a leak that was fixed , not by you, but fixed before".
I left that day thinking about her floor.

Several months go by and the customer calls to say that "I evidently broke a pipe rodding their sewer line and the hallway floor had fallen in from the pipe leaking". She said there was a large hole in the sewer pipe that they just "patched with tape".

I tell the customer that "Remember, we talked about that shaky floor last time I was there, and there are notes about it on the paper work"

The next morning I went by (with my flip video camera) to investigate.

The tile and sub floor was removed and I could look under the house.

There was a three inch wye turned on it's side that had new duct tape wrapped around it.

You could feel through the duct tape that there was a large hole on the topside of it.

Now here's the funny part. There was no sewage or water under the house and all the wood was dry, damaged,but dry. Damaged from the top down.

There is a plastic vapor barrier under the house and there was NO water at all. NONE. No toilet paper, not anything. No evidence of a sewer leak.

So I made a video that shows the evidence of water damage coming from the top of the surrounding sub floor and how the floor beams was blackened from the top down, not from the bottom up.

The "damaged" fitting wasn't even under the damaged floor.

I traced the damage all the way back up to the air conditioner cabinet that is adjacent to the bathroom. The bottom of the cabinet/closet is about two feet above the floor. The wood was still damaged and had trails of damage down to the sub floor. Apparently from the A/C pan had overflowed for a long time and when it got to the floor it just leaked under the tiles and rotted the subfloor. Obviously, this was the "other" leak she had fixed.

I talked to her later and told her that it wasn't from any plumbing leak, but from the A/C unit.

She kinda muttered some thing about "hearing a loud noise" while I was rodding, but I explained that no matter what she "may have heard, there is no evidence of ANY moisture and there is no way that it could have been bone dry in twenty four hours, the damage was done long ago, evidently by the A/C".

She didn't call back, but I did see her in public several months later and she mentioned it again. I told her about the video I made and she changed the subject.

I am glad that I noted the shaky floor to her the first time.

3KP

That is one thing that always scares me being in business. It's very important to document everything.. Exspecially if you get them to sign it..

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smellslike$tome

No confusion. She's just looking at repairs she doesn't or can't pay for and was trying to take a shot and see if you would pay for it instead.

ChrisConnor

She has money.Possibly her insurance denied the claim and she was trying to pass the buck to my insurance co.

dankman

This is the kind of thing that really makes me hate some people, after a situation like that I don't know if I'd return to that home to do work.

LAP

Well at least you covered yourself very well, very smart. Like 3KP said document everything I had to learn this the hard way some years ago.

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Daniel Patterson
910-269-9363
Plumbing Leland Wilmington North Carolina