Melissa2007B
Member
Those of you who are experienced plumbers, prepare to have your mind blown.
We bought this UBC modular house from Schult in 2003. They recommended a couple of builders to put it on our lot for us, on a regular foundation. They said both builders had done their work for them before and were recommended.
To make a long story short ( I could write a book! ) the builder we got was a real bum. IMO he cheated us out of plenty of money, first and foremost by just not doing the work. It took him 6 months after we got the construction loan, JUST to start working on the lot. HE claimed it was because of the city regulations, but in desperation, we went to them finally and found out that he hadnt even filed for licensing with them yet! Bum!
Anyway, the guy kept asking if he could do this and that, which was against city codes, and I kept telling him "NO! Follow all city codes!".
Well the last thing he asked me that about, was the plumbing hookup. He even TOLD me that he had a plumber up in the mountains, who could sign off on it, and he would just get it done, assuring me he was an old pro at it. Again, I said "NO! Follow all city codes!". I later reported this, among other things, to the city and they pulled his license as soon as our house was FINALLY finished.
Anyway, still making a VERY long and sordid story short, he was finishing up the place one day and I arrived and found him in the crawl space doing something down there with the plumbing. I said; Oh, where's the plumber, I'd like to meet him. "He just left, 10 minutes ago." Uh, ok. ( I later reported this to the city too, telling them that I'd never met the plumber and was suspicious after what he asked me before that!
So we closed on the house and moved in around Christmas of 2004, BUT ever since then, we've been having plumbing backups in our main line from the house. One toilet would start burping, then not go down. I'd be taking a shower and bubbles would come up in the toilet. Then another toilet would go out at the other end of the house, and finally the third, and we'd be in deep...well you know. I even posted about this here before, out of frustration, it was why I joined this forum originally.
So we'd call a rooter service and they'd come over, but they always had funky problems and had to try various things from both ends of the house, to finally clear the whole place. It drove some of them nuts. This has been happening every 3-9 months since we got the house!
This past Tuesday it started happening again, and we are SO sick of this.
So I go on Craig's List to try to find someone to clear it out again and this time, HOPEFULLY figure out what's REALLY wrong here.
I was LUCKY enough to come across [deleted] at this company:
[deleted]
We'd had some success before, with having a rooter company snake or jet out the main line from the cleanout in the driveway, but he tried that late yesterday afternoon and it didn't do a thing this time. And he seemed to be running into some kind of blockage partially down the house, that just wouldnt move. So he went to the far end of the house today ( see top end of diagram below ) and removed the toilet and started his electric snake from there, and again he ran into some kind of blockage that just stopped it dead and wouldnt move.
So out of frustration, he takes a journey down the crawl space and starts removing some of the plastic covering that's still on the bottom of the house, and looking at what the heck is going on under there. He said he's never seen anything like this ever before! I've done some AutoCAD drafting and already had a diagram of the house, so I saved it as a plumbing mess diagram and detailed out everything that he told me he'd found. ( below )
Now this is gonna cost some money to fix, and again, I'm glad I found Ethan, because he's very reasonable.
This ( IMO ) crooked builder even mentioned to me, while all that was going on before, that he kept everything in his wife's name, but now I REALLY know why. But the city was supposed to inspect all this, right?
I'm just wondering if there's anyone we can actually go after, to compensate us for all the trouble and mess we've had since getting this house. Now part of it appears to be done by Schult before it was shipped, and part of it no doubt was done by ( IMO ) "Mr. Crooked Builder". But jeez, it's gonna seriously cost us to fix this messed up plumbing now, and it's just WRONG.
We bought this UBC modular house from Schult in 2003. They recommended a couple of builders to put it on our lot for us, on a regular foundation. They said both builders had done their work for them before and were recommended.
To make a long story short ( I could write a book! ) the builder we got was a real bum. IMO he cheated us out of plenty of money, first and foremost by just not doing the work. It took him 6 months after we got the construction loan, JUST to start working on the lot. HE claimed it was because of the city regulations, but in desperation, we went to them finally and found out that he hadnt even filed for licensing with them yet! Bum!
Anyway, the guy kept asking if he could do this and that, which was against city codes, and I kept telling him "NO! Follow all city codes!".
Well the last thing he asked me that about, was the plumbing hookup. He even TOLD me that he had a plumber up in the mountains, who could sign off on it, and he would just get it done, assuring me he was an old pro at it. Again, I said "NO! Follow all city codes!". I later reported this, among other things, to the city and they pulled his license as soon as our house was FINALLY finished.
Anyway, still making a VERY long and sordid story short, he was finishing up the place one day and I arrived and found him in the crawl space doing something down there with the plumbing. I said; Oh, where's the plumber, I'd like to meet him. "He just left, 10 minutes ago." Uh, ok. ( I later reported this to the city too, telling them that I'd never met the plumber and was suspicious after what he asked me before that!
So we closed on the house and moved in around Christmas of 2004, BUT ever since then, we've been having plumbing backups in our main line from the house. One toilet would start burping, then not go down. I'd be taking a shower and bubbles would come up in the toilet. Then another toilet would go out at the other end of the house, and finally the third, and we'd be in deep...well you know. I even posted about this here before, out of frustration, it was why I joined this forum originally.
So we'd call a rooter service and they'd come over, but they always had funky problems and had to try various things from both ends of the house, to finally clear the whole place. It drove some of them nuts. This has been happening every 3-9 months since we got the house!
This past Tuesday it started happening again, and we are SO sick of this.
So I go on Craig's List to try to find someone to clear it out again and this time, HOPEFULLY figure out what's REALLY wrong here.
I was LUCKY enough to come across [deleted] at this company:
[deleted]
We'd had some success before, with having a rooter company snake or jet out the main line from the cleanout in the driveway, but he tried that late yesterday afternoon and it didn't do a thing this time. And he seemed to be running into some kind of blockage partially down the house, that just wouldnt move. So he went to the far end of the house today ( see top end of diagram below ) and removed the toilet and started his electric snake from there, and again he ran into some kind of blockage that just stopped it dead and wouldnt move.
So out of frustration, he takes a journey down the crawl space and starts removing some of the plastic covering that's still on the bottom of the house, and looking at what the heck is going on under there. He said he's never seen anything like this ever before! I've done some AutoCAD drafting and already had a diagram of the house, so I saved it as a plumbing mess diagram and detailed out everything that he told me he'd found. ( below )
Now this is gonna cost some money to fix, and again, I'm glad I found Ethan, because he's very reasonable.
This ( IMO ) crooked builder even mentioned to me, while all that was going on before, that he kept everything in his wife's name, but now I REALLY know why. But the city was supposed to inspect all this, right?
I'm just wondering if there's anyone we can actually go after, to compensate us for all the trouble and mess we've had since getting this house. Now part of it appears to be done by Schult before it was shipped, and part of it no doubt was done by ( IMO ) "Mr. Crooked Builder". But jeez, it's gonna seriously cost us to fix this messed up plumbing now, and it's just WRONG.
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