Shower stall drain replacement
We had a stand up shower drain that was leaking and needed to be installed. First plumber (foreshadowing) from Rooter-Man came by and gave a quote and returned later to do the install. We tested the shower and no leaking, at that time. Only minor issue - we have an old house and the access to the drain pipe is in a very difficult location under the second floor bathroom, so he had to "cut" a hole in the ceiling on the 1st floor. He ended up hammering and left a pretty ugly hole that would be hard to patch up. After a few days the drain began to leak. We asked the first plumber to come back and check. He didn't find any leaking until we ran the water for a few minutes. We questioned him on why it was leaking and basically he said we shouldn't be pouring such a large amount of water down the drain and that this type of drain was not correct. We disagreed with him and he left on unamicable terms. He had done some repairs but it was leaking again immediately after - probably even worse. We called Rooter-Man for another plumber to come back and check the leak. The dispatch lady was polite and sent another plumber. The second plumber was very courteous and checked on the drain. He added some missing caulking and asked that we let it dry for 4 hours. We let it dry for over a day and started to use the shower but again it started to leak. We called back and the 2nd plumber came back and dried the drain again and applied more caulking. We let it dry for over 3 days before we used the shower but no change, it started to leak after a few showers. Now I called to speak to the manager but the dispatch lady asked if we'd be willing to have one of their more senior plumbers come out and have a look. The third plumber arrived and he seemed quite knowledgeable. He took a thorough look at the drain and the plumbing underneath it. He said that it would require 2 people to have it done properly but they would remove the drain and put in another one. It took a few cancelled appointments from Rooter-Man but eventually another plumber - new plumber #4 and the 2nd plumber arrived and re-did the installation. That was a few weeks ago and it hasn't leaked since. Rooter-man didn't charge us extra to make it right but there are a few lessons learned here. 1. A stand-up shower drain is a tricky job that needs to be done by an experienced plumber, otherwise it will leak. 2. Be prepared to work alot from home - Rooter-man isn't very good with times - they missed alot of appointments and sometimes without giving us notification. 3. If the job isn't done properly, Rooter-man will honor their warranty and get it fixed. Would we use them again? Well...This took about a month's time and 4 plumbers to be resolved. Probably not, but if we had to though, we would ask for a more experienced senior plumber.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $500.00
- Company Response
This customer was bathing her children in the base of the shower, and, as a result, the water was splashing out and collecting around the outside of the shower base. We explained to the customer that a shower is not intended to function as a bathtub. We repaired the job correctly the first time, but the customer’s constant bathing of her children in the base of the shower is what caused the leak. The facts are straightforward 1) Rooter-Man arrived on-site and fixed the problem; 2) Rooter-Man returned on four different occasions to rectify the situation that was caused by the customer ignoring our instructions regarding the bathing of her children. At the end of the day, Rooter-Man went above and beyond to honor our service agreement with this particular customer. ROOTER-MAN MANAGEMENT