[squintin]

A licensed plumber installed a drain vent pipe for a garage bathroom and simply capped it off in the wall - solid cap. He did not take it up into the attic or through the roof. He says it meets code - I think he's being lazy because he'd have to through a joist to get it above the interior wall.

Does this meet code?

[smoothy]

If its caped its not vented... if its not vented its not completed. If its not completed it can't be used. If it can't be used he ripped you off if you paid him to do the work to install it.

[squintin]

That's what I thought Smoothy and that's why I haven't paid him. He's now threatening to file a lien. Thinking I should file a report against him to the licensing board.

[smoothy]

Take a lot of pictures... prove the vent goes noplace.

[joypulv]

Did you check with zoning and get a building permit? A garage bathroom might not even be allowed where you are, and will certainly raise your property tax.
Or- Is it possible that where you live, a roof vent isn't required if it's not living space (never heard that, not saying it is).
I can't believe you are withholding payment without asking your building inspector. In fact it sounds like you don't have a permit, which means that if they find out, they can order you to rip it all out and start over.
So you are taking a risk letting him file a lien.

[squintin]

Did you check with zoning and get a building permit? A garage bathroom might not even be allowed where you are, and will certainly raise your property tax.
Or- Is it possible that a roof vent isn't required if it's not living space, where you live?
I can't believe you are withholding payment without asking your building inspector.

The garage was built around 15 years ago and had the drain and supply lines stubbed but never connected to anything. Someone along the way started sheetrocking a room and had erected walls for this bathroom but never went any further with it.

The plumbing contractor I used to do the top out was also supposed to run a supply line from the meter to the garage 200 feet away and also connect the drain line to the house septic system 40 ft away. When he realized (because I pointed it out to him) that the garage drain was lower than the septic tank, he suggested a "redneck" spetic tank for the garage of a 55 gallon drum with perforations and lateral lines. I later discovered that in Oklahoma you cannot put a septic in smaller than 1000 gallons let alone doing something not to code. He didn't know about the septic size requirement either.

When I realized the plumber was going to backhoe the whole thing for the supply line and drain line and risk destroying all the landscaping, driveway, and parking pad, as well as not having the utilities marked before digging I stopped him and told him we were done. He was trying to cut so many corners and shrugged off doing work to code telling me "it's your property, you can do whatever you want with it."

So he only performed the top out. Actually, his helper did the work while he got his excavator off the trailer, drove it 200 ft down my driveway to the garage and spent three hours performing maintenance on the excavator. So for about 4 hours of labor and very minimal amount of materials (all the lines were less than 3 feet long) he presented an invoice for $910. Actually, I don't have an actual invoice, it was simply a couple of sentences in an email.

I've got an attorney involved and am contacting a couple other plumbing contractors to come out to review the work done and provide pricing to correct this problem.

Lastly, I never, ever indicated to him that I needed cheap pricing, or value engineering - I told him what I needed done and asked for an estimate for the work. I've known the guy for a couple years and have performed graphics work for him. He's been down on his luck and I wanted to help him and give him some work. I never imagined he'd pull something like this though.

[joypulv]

Does put a different slant on it for sure.

[massplumber2008]

Squintin

Be sure that the "cap" isn't a mechanical vent (called an air admittance valve or AAV). If you have an AAV there, it MUST remain accessible for future swap out should it fail down the road.

Otherwise, another thing that stood out was the 200 FT distance the supply line needed to be run. Is this supply line to feed a hot water unit at the garage? If so, what are you proposing to heat the hot water and what is the proposed distance from the hot water appliance to the future bathroom?

Finally, a quick call over to your local plumbing inspector will answer any questions you may have on the plumbing requirements/design/engineering AND as far as this plumbing contractor you mention, if he doesn't have a written contract he has little to stand on in court, so let him file his mechanic's lien and proceed to see him in court. In my opinion, consult the lawyer and then dump him as soon as costs exceed $200.00. I bet you won this before it even started! As Smoothy said, take lots of pictures!!

Good luck!

Mark

[hkstroud]

He's been down on his luck

Now you know why.