Concern with contractor
We're having a new stall shower installed in our Eichler by a licensed
contractor (yes, I checked that the license was valid, and they came
highly recommended to us). Earlier this week, the contractor ripped
out the old shower, and the next step was to have the tar poured for
the "hot mop pan" (not sure if I'm getting this terminology correct).
My contractor is sub-contracting this part out to another company
(whom they've worked with before).
This part has not gone smoothly - to say the least.
Yesterday, this other company showed up and indicated they could not
do the work. The issue was that the hole, where the drain is, was too
large (i.e. where this hole exists, the original concrete slab does
not exist). The hole was the same size as it was with our old shower,
but apparently, this was too large for the way they're installing the
new shower. So our contractor came out and addressed this issue.
Today the other company showed up again, and found further problems.
I'm not clear on the details, but they said that some work needs to be
done with the water pipes before they can pour the tar. So, on
Monday, our contractor will come out to address this next issue.
The other company said that "these things go on all the time." Never
having had a shower installed before, I'm getting a bit uncomfortable
that it's going to take my contractor at least 3 tries to "get it
right" before they can even pour the tar. I'm even more concerned at
what the City of Palo Alto is going to complain about when they do
their first inspection.
Are these kind of issues within reason? Or am I dealing with a bunch
of amateurs? Or should I not judge so quickly on what is *not*
incorrect work, but rather a 3-day delay?
While you may worry about your contractor,
the things that are going "Wrong" in your home
almost always go wrong in an Eichler. And its OK!
Nothing quite fits right.
Walls are not square - It's just part of the house.
Eichler used alot of interesting parts that are tough to
be re-created.
Anyhow, we have done a ton of projects in 8 years
in our Eichler and none of them have been without challenge
but they have all turned out great.
Good Luck
I think it is better to have it done right. At least your contractors are being cautious. I have never had anything go smoothly or as expected no matter who I use! As for the 3 day delay....welcome to the world of construction. Contractors are the biggest procrastinators out there and there is always an excuse to push back work.
The contractors involved seem to be doing fine:
1. He showed up.
2. He told you what was going on.
These are two huge issues when a contractor is working on your home. When a contractor is a 'no show' and we are left uninformed, we don't need to ask if things are going well.
Please let us know why the drain opening in the slab under the shower pan was too large. My guess is that the type of pan you are going to use may need more support than the old one.
As to why the drain was too large... you'll have to ask the contractors.
I think it was simply that the new drain was a smaller diameter, and they wanted to hole to be that size. So (the best way I can describe it in layman terms) is that they built a new hole that was smaller in diameter.
