Update: Before you read the post, I should indicate that Martin’s called me to clarify the situation.
- Their workmanship warranty is only on parts they provide. Since I provided the fixtures myself, I won’t not receive their guarantee. Basically, in simpler terms, by paying their markup on things they’d sell me, I’m saving money on the back-end for repairs. Looking at this in retrospective, I’m glad to have saved $3,000 up front on fixtures than pay the markup and repairs later. If you’re doing a renovation, find out the terms of a warranty any sub-contractor will provide.
- Also, they agreed with some of my transgressions on billing and they’ve offered a ‘settlement’ of me paying for one service call at $89 in exchange for both service calls so instead of $250, they’d accept $89 but they were clear that future calls would be billed in full.
- I still think the post below is worth a read. Note, It was written upon receiving their first bill but I held off publishing until I had spoken to them with my challenges.
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In March of this year (2017), Martin’s Mechanical in Enfield NH finished an entire plumbing job on my home remodeling. I spent $9894 on one kitchen and one bath and they made a nice margin on my hot water heater that was far cheaper from other places. I had to use them because my contractor only works with people who “stand by their work”. They’re also quite pricey among competing plumbers but why we stayed with them is a multi-layer reason I won’t go into at this time.
Two weeks after I moved into the house, Heather ran a bath and the overflow drain in the tub wasn’t hooked up properly and the basement started flooding. Luckily, I was doing laundry and caught it as soon as it began. They came out and fixed this and didn’t charge us which was our expectation.
In October, the chalk / putty holding my bath faucet to the wall came loose and started hanging. Remember, this is a child free household so no one put any pressure on this or touched it. They also came out and fixed it and claimed it’d fall again because the faucet was too heavy for the caulk that they could use so this was a temporary fix and they recommended I get a new faucet if it happens again. Everything in the house is brand new, walls, plumbing, fixtures, etc. The pricey Kohler faucet was supposedly not going to work for us long term.
In December, under my sink began to flood. The threads on my undermount sink gave way and the drain pipe was just hanging down. I called them, again within the time frame I was told by my contractor “one year from install they’d take care of any issues you have” and I said I was going to fix it but I’d like it if they took a look at it and gave me advice. The call I got the next morning from my house indicated they issued a temporary fix but I should replace my sink drain and pipe. Okay fine, I got home, it was ‘fixed’ at least for now and I ordered the parts needed to fix it permanently from the sink manufacturer
Two days later, I get a bill for $174.50.
- $3 for PVC Tee
- $6.71 for PVC P-Trap
- $1.89 for a PVC tailpiece
- 23 cents for a washer
- Labor 1.25 hours for 2 people
Looking at my motion logs in the house, they were here for 30 minutes. That and I didn’t initially authorize any work. They did work then called me and finally, I didn’t expect a bill. I said I don’t know if this is billable and the on-site technician didn’t respond. I won’t be hiring them anymore and I do plan on keeping a log on this blog of instances where “my home” costs more money than what is normal especially when it comes to the practices of contractors who fix things and what things cost.
Lesson learned: I should have confirmed they’d fix it before asking them to come out and roughly what it would cost. I should have been there while they were working and that way I could have indicated I’d take this up myself w/o their time needed. If they had told me on the phone that this would be a billable call, I would have done it myself. $174 for a temporary fix and the 3rd instance of them having to come out as follow up is absurd.
How two men could work under my sink simultaneously is beyond me. Just because two men were at my house and one was watching doesn’t mean I should pay for 2 people.
PS: I wrote this post December 14th. At the time, I had only received a single bill at that time. A week later, I received a 2nd bill for their October work on the bathtub so now I have two bills. $174.50 and $100+ for the bathtub fix. Remember, both of these were “temporary” fixes. I’m still confused why I was billed twice for what I consider to be workmanship issues. (see update at top on resolution).