Bellingham Plumbers

I hope everyone had a relaxing Bellingham Labor Day and many thanks to all who worked through the holiday.

In honor of local Bellingham plumbers and the labor we do, here's a few pictures:

Bellingham plumber apprentice

Hand Dug Pit Bellingham

Sudden Valley Toilets

Another 1970s-era dies in Bellingham's Sudden Valley neighborhood! Black toilets never really caught on.

Black Toilet

New toilet

Here's another water service replacement--the pipe that brings your water from the street to your house--in Bellingham, Washington.

We tried to find the leak on this one because that tree is 250' tall and its roots are just as big. The problem was the tree roots were within inches of the meter and spread out pretty much the whole yard.

We ended up replacing the line. Tough job, this one.

Bellingham Wildlife

Plumbers encounter some dangerous critters in our travels around Whatcom County. These two are ferocious hunters that were stalking me in Sudden Valley and Fairhaven. Luckily, they gave me a pass.

In memory of Dianna Hanson 

Another Bellingham Water Shut-Off

The same builder must have done the Sudden Valley house (see Blog 6/27/13) because he used a gas valve instead of a full port water valve.

Not only does it cut the flow to this duplex, but look at the second picture. See the dirty water? That's from restricted flow! It cleared up after a few minutes at full pressure, but think of the poor water quality caused by poor workmanship.

Ball Plumbing's plumbers corrected all the problems, of course, for a lot less than you'd think for the amount of quality we gave.

Free Plumbing Stuff

My plumbing parts supplier in Burlington did some spring cleaning. The stuff didn't sell in 3 years, so corporate wrote them off and they gave the stuff away.

Pictured are offset closet flanges, 2" PVC P-trap with union and gal 45s.

All that stuff was used daily by all plumbers 20 years ago and now it is garbage.

Water Main in Alger

This is the current project. More on it later.

Bellingham Water Line

The pipe between that brings your water from the meter (or shut-off near the street) to your house is called the water service. Frequently, this pipe leaks and if you pay by the drip, the leak can be very costly.

This job was for a small office in Bellingham. Their water bill was $250.00 a month, easily triple the normal amount. The customer got a few quotes that were....creative. I quoted then a fair price for a hard job and solved the problem quickly.

Sorry for the poor quality photos. I'm saving up (yea, right) for a new camera or phone. The new service was 80' long.

DIY Garage Apartment in Bellingham, WA

Sometimes, people really amaze me. Without getting into the who, where, or why of this job, the customer hired not-a-plumber to bootleg a kitchen and washing machine into a garage. Money and time was spent before it all went bad due to old, open permits on the legal unfinished bathroom in the garage.

My camera committed suicide while taking these photos, so the camera phone will have to do.

This photo has two different plastics glued together using primer and ABS glue, the washing machine hose tied into the sewer (they used long w.m. hoses behind walls and through studs, no p-trap):

This is some of what I cut out. If a plumber ever had a bad acid trip, this is what he would see:

The people who framed the legal bathroom got into the act and put a nail through the pipe app 6" below finished floor:

Ryan Stiles Celebrity Golf Classic

We're sponsoring 8 golf carts for Stiles' July 18th, 2010 charity golf tourney. It's for the Burned Children Fund, which I fully support.

http://www.ryanstilesgolfclassic.com/content/partners/our_2010_sponso.asp

Price Complaints

Whenever I leave a job, you'll hear "If there are any problems, call me." My warranty is honest...as long as the problem is my workmanship.

Lately, I've had a complaint about the price. Most of the time, the price is out of the price book (that's 4 years old) and a written work order has been approved and signed.

Okay, standard stuff for repair work. You get a price for it that includes parts and labor (excludes the Gov's Fee). If it takes me twice as long, the price is the same, right? My regulars know this to be true and as a consumer, I personaly prefer it this way.

But what if everything goes quick and my 30 years (yikes) of repair experience finally pays off and I gain an hour on ya? Should I discount the price? If I discount it, should I increase it if it takes me twice as long?

This all stems from a complaint on Angies List about a 250.00 bill. I left a response similar to this post, but more direct. I did NOT refund any money for the same reasons I posted here.

Dog Days of Summer

Man, it's quiet out there and I'm lovin' it! I'm on summer schedule which means Saturday and Sunday is closed...plumber gone fishin'-type of deal. Problem is, come Monday everybody calls and I'm busier tha all git.

Yesterday I had two more disposers and today was disposer-free. I did have a whirlpool tub repair, a stoppage, a sink drain repair, and a toilet rebuild. I feel like a truck driver sometimes because of all the miles I can log.

Off for the weekend!

Quiet Day...for once!

The yellow page ad problem got resolved with a 25% reduction, which is fair considering all my proof mysteriously disappeared.

I had a water heater in Bellingham that was dripping out of the drain valve. Not too bad, if it was caught a month ago. Unfortunately, the drip rotted the wood stand and the 800 lb. water heater fell through to the garage floor. Luckily, the gas was off because the house was just sold!

Wrong phone number on yellow page ad

I have a full page and a big column ad in the Yellowbook/MacGregor phone book, okay? Since this Whatcom County/Bellingham coverage is only 160,000 souls including kids, mother-in-laws, and Canadians-who-own-here, the cost isn't as high as Manhattan which has that many people per building.

This year I had the ad done by the same person who did my website. She was convenient, available, and cheap. Those of you who have made a decision based on "convenient, available, and cheap" know what the outcome is going to be....what can I say? I was busy and don't have the patience for ad work, anyway.

The header of the full page ad has the two correct numbers in 25 pt. font, but on the footer one of the numbers is off by one. It reads, in 10 pt. font, 360-733-1293 instead of 1292. At least 5 people a day call that number and they usually get an answering machine. The ones they do get through get either Mr. or Mrs. "We've had this number for 40 years and we aren't giving it up." I offered to buy the number and pay for all the costs, but they insist that this number is what has kept them alive for the last 40 years.

I may or may not survive this year....

Anyway, I did a Bellingham garbage disposer for a lady whose husband is deployed. 12 more months and he'll be home. She got the special price.

From there, it was on to Birch Bay and a Canadian toilet or is that a toilet owned by a Canadian? She was a trip---knew more about US politics than most citizens. I rebuilt her toilet and she's a happy Canuck.

That sewer's history!

Another full day on that 50' sewer in Bellingham, but it's done. The work-at-home dad/customer doesn't like my gruff attitude, but after 16 hours in a sewage-soaked ditch, I did the best I could.

The backhoe saved some time, being it was more mud than dirt.

I did have to jetter (high pressure water) the remaining section under the alley because it was clogged with some packed in sewage.

What a mess, but I'm glad I stuck it out.

Bellingham type of day

Wow---I'm doing the hardest sewer replacement yet. It's not deep, rocky, or hilly, but it is wet!

The top of the ground was wet and puddling in some places, but I thought that there was another leak; that it couldn't be the sewer that's 4 feet under. I was wrong. After 5 hours of digging around, I found a cesspool-not an intentional one-where a sewer should have been.

I tried to rooter it through the open sewer, but the line is so bad, I think the snake was going through mud...or not. I'm having the City of Bellingham check their line, too.

I'm getting a backhoe in tomorrow and having it done. What a mess.

www.ballplumbing.net

Good Plumber here

Another day driving from one end of Whatcom county to the other. At least the weather is nice.

I did a quick water heater repair in Glacier, WA. The connectors corroded right through so I unsoldered and then soldered on new connectors.

From there I went to Fairhaven, WA. to clear a washing machine drain line stoppage. Easy enough, but the drain didn't have a trap! I added one easily enough (for me), but there should have been one there. DIYers cause a lot of damage and usually spend more in the short run.

Not that I can blame 'em. This homeowner had called another plumber out of the phone book, (small ad, big promises) and the plumber quoted him some outlandish fix for a weird price. Luckily, the homeowner had the sense to call us.

I think my motto "Honest, Reliable, Local" will get painted on the truck.