John O.
06/04/2019 12:00:00 SA
We are going to do a major kitchen remodel in 3-5 years, ripping out everything, but in the interim we decided to add an Instant Hot (yes, Honey Do list). Since I was doing that, figured I'd change out the old fixtures (main kitchen & island sinks) and as long as I'm doing that, replace the sinks as well. Nice little interim upgrade for functional purposes as well as appearance sake. Also, the old fixtures were beat up and leaking a bit and the old stainless steel sink was cheap and quite scratched.
The main sink is in corner cabinet, so the water supply lines are too far from where the Instant hot would be placed, so I went to yelp to find a plumber to extend the cold water supply line. Rockstar Plumbing popped up first and the reviews were excellent so gave them a call. Happy I did. Chris arrived a few days later, did a nice clean job of extending the lines and gave me some helpful advise on where to buy parts (a plumbing store, not your run of the mill home improv store that sells crappy parts). He showed me the difference in the shutoffs I bought and what he installed. Chris was efficient and helpful. So, good recommendation for that.
Now to the greater crisis. Two weeks later the island kitchen sink arrived, so started to work on that install. I noted the old shutoffs were leaking ever so slightly after uninstalling the old sink. So I decided to replace the shutoffs even though it probably would have been fine on the new fixture. Why not, right? just 15 minutes and I'd be done. Well, 3 hours later I was regretting my decision for touching those old pipes. The old shutout did not come off easily (which was expected) but the real proble was the old copper (coming out of the concrete) was so curved (and even slightly bent at various angles) that I couldn't find a straight enough segment to install the new shutoffs. After cutting the pipe down multiple times, about 3-4 at a time, trying to get a straight enough run to install the new shutoffs I found the new nut wouldn't slip down the old copper pipe (it wasn't just corrosion, it was as if the old copper was slightly too large for the nut). I had to actually work the old nut down the pipe to more or less resize it, as well as sand it quite a bit, to get the new nut to slide down, freaking out that I was going to break that fragile unsupported pipe. Never seen such crappy copper pipe install job on an island before. Anyway, 3 hours later (babying that old copper to tenderly so I wouldn't mess it up anymore than it already was) I got the new shutoffs installed, turned the water to the house back on and to my despair noted the tiniest drip from the cold water supply shutoff. The curve in the copper made it really hard to install the new shutoffs straight, so I figured that was why it had that tiny drip (making a slight wet mark on a paper towel over the course of an hour - but those small leaks lead to bigger leaks over time). I called Rockstar around 9pm at night to leave a message to get a plumber to come out ASAP to take a look at my handy work. To my surprise Matt (owner) picked up the phone and we discussed the situation, and he talked me down from the cliff I was ready to jump off (I was pretty discouraged after 3 hours of slaving away). He got me lined up with the dispatcher (Jamie) early the next day. Sal showed up at 3pm and took a look. By this time the tiny drip on the cold water was non-existent and Sal gave me two recommendations: 1) rip it out/ down to the concrete and replace those shaky pipes (and while at it, the bad looking drain pipes as well), or 2) leave it as is. After all, we are going to rip it all out in a few years anyway. He didn't push or pressure me into a bigger job that some contractors would insist upon.
I decided to leave it as is for now, why incur more costs when I'm eventually going to remove it all anyway (and if those old pipes don't hold, I'll do the job then, or just shut it all down until the major remodel - its just the small island sink after all). So I asked Sal what the cost was for the trip charge, the time he spent inspecting for the leak, for taking a look at the water pressure in the house (which had dipped since I flipped the water on) and for the main kitchen sink which had very little pressure (FYI - when I turned the house shutoff on/off bits of corrosion accumulated in that facet head, which killed the water flow on that fixture. Sal showed me where it was at, we cleaned it, and the main kitchen sink facet now has regular pressure again). He said don't worry about it. No charge.
I typed all this up for all the home improvers out there (don't touch old curved / bent pipes), and of course, for the shout out to Rockstar (Chris, Sal and Matt). I haven't had a real need for a plumber for years, but I have always been thinking about finding one for those emergency situations that crop up. Now I found the guys I'll use from here on out. Thank you Rockstar!