Friends don't let friends choose the Gentleman Plumbers
If you like being given the most extreme options for the most amount of cost, please, choose this company. Being a single person, I have never felt so bullied and swindled in my life. I was made to sign an agreement to pay for a package before they even did any work and could give me a realistic expectation on what it was they would have to do. I was left with the feeling of utter doom and my sewer line would soon collapse (their words) and they needed to be ripped out immediately. Second and third opinions sang a completely different tune - one of much cheaper melodies. After sending a professional angry Email to the company, the owner calls me to finish off the bully tactics and question the other companies on their services and make me feel unwise to choose my other options. GET A SECOND OPINION!!! Don't let them bully you just because we're not plumbing experts. Get a minimum of three opinions and use your better judgement. But be wary, to get an opinion from these guys will not be cheap.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $900.00
- Company Response
Hi Amanda. I know that nobody likes to hear they need to have pipes replaced. It’s not cheap and certainly not the kind of news we like to notify our customers of. There are other companies which may assess the situation differently, but we have a strict policy of only offering solutions which we believe fall within the Plumbing Code of Canada. The pipes in question here are 4 inch pipes and the issue with them is that they have been flattened over time to an oval shape because they were made of an inferior material. The Plumbing Code of Canada requires that a drain connected to the public sewer system downstream of the main cleanout must be no less than 4 inches in size (Plumbing Code of Canada 2015 Edition Section 2.4.9.4). In this case, we do not believe this meets that particular plumbing standard as the pipe is no longer 4 inches in diameter due to it being flattened.
We offered a permanent solution which was to replace the pipes. We believe the best solution is a trench-less pipe replacement to get that pipe into the cylindrical shape that it is intended to be in. It sounds like you have had other companies quote you on lining the pipe; However, the pipe will still be in an oval shape after that, and should you need it augured in the future, it most likely wouldn’t work as an auger is designed to work in round pipes and will get caught up in oval pipes. Once again, we’re very sorry this happened, but we stand by our standards and only offer solutions that we feel meet the Plumbing Code of Canada.
Something that may also help you out in this situation is to ask the city for the camera inspection that was done a few years ago. If it shows that the pipes were like that during the last inspection, then you have evidence that both the previous owners and the city knew about these issues and did not disclose the information to you. When purchasing a home, this is something that would be required by law to disclose before you made the purchase. Regardless of how you feel about our company, I really do hope you get this worked out with the best solution and the best price possible. If you ever need to talk about this, I’m available to speak anytime. Brham.