Apex plumbing Co

Do not use Apex Plumbing unless you want to be taken
advantage of and find yourself in a legal battle. Last year, I hired Apex for
new/replacement plumbing on a whole home renovation which was approximately
$12,000. Our agreement was 50% up front, 40% after rough in and 10% after all
the finish work was completed. Due to issues with Apex, explained below, we
decided to part ways after the rough in. Now Apex has sent our final bill for
10% to collections claiming that the arrangement was- 50% up front, 40% after
rough in, and 10% at some other point. According to them, all finishing, final
hook-up and ?setting? was to be paid for out of contract and separately from
our signed agreement. It doesn?t make much sense that on a $12,000 plumbing
job, things like placing and hooking up the toilets and vanities aren?t
included in their contract?
There are additional issues that we had with Apex. They are:
1) Their contract is extremely vague and open to
interpretation. Unless you are a professional who knows what to ask and specify
in a plumbing contract, you run a high risk of being taken advantage of. The
contracts are done by hand on 5?x8? 2 or 3-ply carbonless paper.
2) It appears that Apex?s intent from the beginning might
have been to deceive. In our original walk-through and discussion, we talked
about adding a bath that didn?t previously exist. In our case, a shower was
installed instead of shower/bath combo unit. Apex was happy to take out the
shower unit and put in the unit I had wanted. However, it cost close to $1000
for the error. After removing the old unit, it just so happened that the
owner?s son had a friend wanting to buy the unused shower at a reduced cost. I
have to question if this was the ultimate goal from the beginning.
3) Some, and by no means all, aspects of their work appeared
rushed, not thought out properly and/or unprofessional. There are several
things that stick out for me. The first is the fact that no drain line was ever
hooked up to the water heater that Apex installed. Of course this wasn?t
discovered until after the drywall was installed. The next item is our Manabloc
system. Our install looks unprofessional as some of the tubes are too long and
the whole system is installed on particle board instead of finished drywall
like the rest of our laundry room. Another concern is that it appears there may
not have been any insulation installed behind the tub/shower that they installed.
Our house is insulated with the blown expanding foam insulation. It is very air
and sound tight. However, in the bathroom that we added it is possible to hear entire
conversations outside. This bathroom has no window which leads me to believe
there was no insulation placed in the wall or between the tub wall and the
exterior wall. I realize that insulation was not part of plumbing contract.
Most contractors though would give you a heads up and suggest that you add some
insulation before they install a tub and permanently seal the wall.
4) Even with the above issues, we still wanted Apex to
finish the project. After their rough in, we got a general contractor involved.
When going through what still was required and which subs we were working with,
we passed along the contact information for Apex and our HVAC contractor. My GC
tells me that he tried contacting Apex on two or three occasions with them not
returning their calls. (This was before any dispute over the final payment as
everyone was still under the impression the final 10% was due after final
setting and placement.)
I hope others can learn from our mistakes. For anyone
involved in a major construction project, I highly recommend having an attorney
or trusted GC review your contracts. If we had done that, we could have saved
$2000-$4000.