News from Koets

Mar 24, 2014

Sometimes I Feel Like Mike Holmes!


Mike Holmes is not the only one to see poor quality workmanship.  We see it on a regular basis.  In the fall we received a phone call from a couple who had just moved down from Toronto and had bought a new home in the country.  They wanted us to install a water softener for them and asked us to investigate a "sewer smell" that they had in their house.  It turns out whoever did the plumbing had not vented one of the bathrooms so sewer gas was escaping into the house...not good to be breathing in.  So we went in and vented the bathroom.

Then a couple of weeks we get a late night phone call from the same people saying that they have no water.  Of course, we were in the middle of a deep freeze but they were living in a brand new home so weather should not have been an issue.  Chris Koets went out at 11 o'clock at night to see what was going on.  He discovered pipes in a wall with no insulation and when he opened the wall up more, he found enough snow to build a snowman.  No wonder the pipes were frozen! 

And what did the builder do for these fine folks?  Nothing!  He said that he had everything inspected by the building and plumbing inspector.  And, of course, he is right.  The plumbing work was done by a "plumbing company" and the framing and insulation were also done by companies that the builder had hired and paid to do the work.  Permits were taken out and the work was inspected and given a pass.   Like to know what Mike Holmes would have to say about this.