From: "Lady" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: New sink nightmare
Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 18:19:27 GMT


 wrote in message >>> The way I see it the plumber 
destroyed my counter top.
>>
>>exactly --- UNLESS -- he told you it was too small and how he would "work
>>around it" and you signed something saying this was ok - then you are
>>responsible
>>
>
>
> He brought the sink took out the old sink showed me a 1mm gap and said he 
> would
> caulk it.  He's a plumber who claims to have 30 years experience and he 
> charges
> $80 per hour.   I was not even sure why he was showing it to me.  He never
> explained that it could be a problem.  I'm not a plumber.
>
> He should have know that it would not work.  Instead he hoped he could get 
> away
> with it.  Well I've not been billed yet.  The estimate for the sink and 
> some
> repairs to the bathtub faucet was over $500.00.

Well I'm not a plumber either......however, if a plumber was doing work in 
MY home and he brought something to my attention I would question him as to 
whether or not a gap is normal and also could there be any problem problems. 
Let's see -- just thinking about it -- caulking -- it's not grout so it's 
not a type of cement - it's basically rubber stuff.  Hmmm....on a kitchen 
counter -- first question that comes to mind would be "if I'm washing dishes 
and a knife accidentally fell on the cauking could the sharpness of the 
knife puncture it?  If so, what type of damage would be involved?"

Whenever a contractor points something out to a consumer there usually is a 
reason -- to get the consumer's approval in how he is doing something -- if 
the homeowner/consumer doesn't question it that's just silly.

Another thing that strikes me is that you say "He should have known but 
instead hoped he could get away with it".    Well, yeah and with many 
situations most times there are no problems.   For example -- in this case 
the swelling of the counter happened fairly quickly -- however, maybe it 
would not have happened for 2 or 3 years and then you maybe would have moved 
or would be replacing the counter anyway and never associated it with the 
sink.   But in this case it happened sooner and was associated with the 
sink -- but maybe he thought he did a better job with the cauking and it 
wouldn't have happened so quick or maybe the caulking was compromised which 
attributed to the problme.

There are many factors involved here and it's really hard to pinpoint the 
blame.

By the way -- when did you find out he purchased these sinks in bulk??  If 
you knew that up front didn't that make you wonder why???  How could he be 
so sure that 100 people would want 'that' particular sink?  Maybe you should 
contact the sink manufacturer -- maybe there was a problem with the batch of 
sinks -- maybe that's why he got a good deal - maybe they are 1mm smaller 
than they are suppose to be and it's not the plumber but the sink??

And one last thing --- why do you keep mentioning how much he charges per 
hour?   That is not relevant to anything at all -- how much one gets paid is 
not always attributed to their experience or the work they do.  Did you 
price around and hire the most expensive plumber in your area thinking he 
would do a better job?  Don't know where you live, but $80 and hour for a 
plumber in this area is on the low side!