Water Works

We recently installed a beautiful quartz tub surround and a couple of bathroom vanities for a prior kitchen customer.

The upstairs tub surround, being the largest and most complex portion of the job, was to be installed first. Our customer’s contractor already had the jetted-tub wooden support structure, decking, and plumbing installed. There were three capped stubs above the wooden deck upon which the quartz would rest.

This would have worked wonderfully for a tile tub surround but not for any type of slab material because the caps on the stubs were slightly larger than the diameter of the holes in our quartz and we couldn’t lower the surround down over them.

No shut-off valves were apparent. The plumber had erred in his installation and we couldn’t do our work. So there we sat with no plumber or contractor in sight, an anxious customer, and tight schedule.

Our supervisor made the unfortunate decision to remove a cap and that was when the trouble began. Water flowed and he couldn’t get the cap back on the stub. With help from our customer, he began trying to control water with towels and buckets while our other employees searched for the master water shutoff downstairs.

They successfully shut the water off to the whole house but not before we had managed to let enough water escape to run down through the downstairs ceiling and light fixtures . . . right into the kitchen in which we had installed countertops years before.

Stepping back from our embarrassment and our customer’s angst, it surely must have looked like an old slapstick comedy while it was happening. Not funny then, and while we’re not quite over it we are just beginning to think it might have been funny to watch on television happening to someone else.

So what did we do?

We called a top flight water damage restoration company who had a crew onsite within an hour. We had the plumber onsite in less time and he was already working on the problem when the restoration company began their work. We also bit the bullet and filed a claim with our insurance company without quibbling with the plumber or contractor over whose fault it was.

 It didn’t matter because we take care of our own problems. We put our customer up in a hotel while their house was being dried and made sure all the damage was repaired to their satisfaction. The following week we went back and installed the tub surround and vanities.

Problems occasionally crop up in construction projects and our customers can count on our taking care of them without excuses or hesitation. We do it correctly or we fix it quickly.

Once in a very great while, we do so with red faces but we always get it done because that is how we operate our business. No excuses; no quibbling; no equivocating. Nine straight Angie’s List Super Service awards while we’re earning our tenth.