Charge plumber for ruined carpet?

Question

We have a house that has 2 'parts': the original & a full addition (bath, rms, laundry, kit, etc). The entire main drain runs from the back (the addition) to the front (the original) out to the city line. There are 2 access points to it, in the front and back. Last weekend, the entire main drain backed up. First the front bath / toilet, then the front kitchen & finally the back bath / toilet (addition). The plumber came, snaked the only front access point out to the street, flushed all the toilets (note: no portion ofthe main drain underneath the house was snaked). Everything worked again, he was happy & left. 4 days later...the back bathroom backed up completely when the washer (also in the back) drained. As a result of the amount of water, my entire bedroom, linked to the back bath, is soaked. i've been told the company should be held responsible, since i informed the plumber of the back drain access & a previous prof. snake through both access points to be complete. T/F?

Answer 1

When you put new pipe in on the addition was it inspected? I'm wondering if it has the correct slope on it, cause if it doesn't that might be the problem why it keeps backing up ............

Answer 2

I say no you cannot charge him. The reason is because he had everything working the first time he came. He cleared out the blockage without the need to snake the other access point. Your system happened to get clogged and back up again which is too bad for you, but the plumber did not cause it to back up. The only thing you can do is have a plumber come out and check for the correct slope and also to run their camera snake through the main to see if some tree roots or something has caused any blockage. A regular snake may never even touch a root.

Answer 3

Sounds like something you need to talk with an attorney about. There's a couple possibilities there. It'd depend, of course, if you asked for a complete clean-out, or if you simply wanted the minimum to get the system working again. He SHOULD, of course, have utilized the clean-out you told him was there, to get into the pipes under the house as well as those going from the house to the mains. But whether he was legally obilged to is something a lawyer would have to answer. He can always argue that everything was working fine when he left the place, and there's no guarantee that something won't go wrong in the future. So really it depends on what work was agreed on, what could reasonably he could have been expected to do, and what you were led to believe he'd accomplish. Take whatever paperwork you have, such as a work order or invoice, as well as pictures of the water damage, along when you visit a lawyer. You may also have to show the opinion of another plumber as to what exactly caused this later flooding, and whether snaking under the house would have prevented it. Good luck on this one. Things like this you can't simply charge the plumber for. Your only recourse may be through the courts.

Answer 4

You apparently had two different blockages on two different occasions. The first blockage was between the front cleanout and the street, which the plumber cleared out. You said that everything worked again after the plumber was done. Then you got another blockage between the front of the house and the back of the house, which caused the damage. This is clearly a separate event, because the drains were working when the plumber left. You could try suing the plumber, but I doubt that any court would uphold your claim.

Answer 5

yeh u can charge him