M&M Comfort Zone

He’s installed the entire water, sewer and he’ll be installing my heating in the house. The heating hasn’t been put in yet, but all the water and sewer lines have already been put in and the heating will be put in, the boiler and all that, and he’ll be putting in the A/C as well. All that will be going in. It’s an ongoing project. It’s actually being done in stages. It’s a 230-year-old house. It was built in 1780, so roughly four years after the (??) (22:06) the house is really old. Most of the house is from the original build. There is a structure that was there before the main house was built that we think was there like 1750 just because of how the beams were cut. You can tell the way the beams were cut you tell it was a much older build, but most of the house is from the original build. There’s only a section of the house that was added on to it back in I would say the late 1800’s. Back in the late 1800’s they added an L off the back of the house and they connected that to another section, and that’s how they got the old L’s and it’s a balloon frame. They did balloon framing on it cause the main house is timber built, so it’s all big beams and they have the wooden pegs and stuff to hold it all together. Now you don’t have that. You have nails to hold everything together. They did have nails back then, but it was pretty much to hold floorboards down and stuff like that. Back then when you have something like post and beam, they used these massive wooden pegs after they cut things meticulously to fit into one another. The whole structure is pretty much really solid which is why it stood so long and is still there. We have the oldest house in the city. The house where I’m at, then about a street away from us, that whole street, there’s a whole street of nothing but historic houses and there’s a couple of older houses, but we have the oldest house. A lot of older houses that were built in 1780 in that area, in that time, didn’t survive and a lot of them were even taken down. I think ours is the oldest still standing, but then there were a lot of farmlands. A lot of houses around me, because the original person that owned our house, we own all the land behind us going all the way back to the highway, and to the sides. We have so much acreage, it was a farmstead, like a big ole homestead and then person next to us, they had a huge amount of land and a homestead. But now there’s all these houses there, and it was like that all around us. It was a lot of country and stuff. But down in the city where Holyoke is, which is not far from us, from where our house is, it’s a little bit different. They have a lot of buildings and stuff like that so it’s a lot more condensed, but there is a street that’s maybe 100 feet from or maybe 150 feet or something and that whole street, and they’re still not 1780. They’re more like 1820-1850. They’re still pretty old, but not quite as old. They do good work, but there are some issues with them actually being there on time. I’m not necessarily sure that it’s necessarily them as far as, I think it’s just me personally because I’m a plumber by trade, I want things a particular way, but I did express this to them particularly in writing. It was on the documents that I gave them what I wanted for the water line. When they installed it, Peter was not there when they installed it. He was out of the country on some kind of mission. He was in like Brazil or something, so his guys came to the house and started installing the sewer lines, and they started installing, and he didn’t tell me that they were going to install the water line they just came and started doing that all by themselves. I was not aware that they were going to start doing that. Then they came and started installing the water line. They didn’t use the right, they used polycarbonate fittings for the flextubing, instead of the metal ones that I requested, but I’m okay with that. Even though I requested it and it was in writing, I just let it go. It really irritated me. Then, they didn’t actually plumb the water lines correctly the way they should have been plumbed as far as the water lines go. Now the sewer lines were perfect for the most part. I only had a couple of little issues with the sewer lines, but that was just the washing drain line should have been 2 inches and they only plumbed it an inch and a half and I actually requested that in advance for that to be plumbed in at 2 inches and then I actually brought paper work from Whirlpool where they specified that their drain line for their highspeed washing machine needed to be 2 inches because it drains so quickly that if it’s not 2 inches it will back up and overflow. Which is why I asked for it to be 2 inches. And I was just like, Peter, and he said well code said, and I said I don’t care what the code said I asked you to install this with a 2-inch drain line and regardless of what the code says you do what the customer asks. Unless she tells you to install it, I’m asking you to make it better than what the code the code request, not less than so there was some issues with that there. Then when it came to installing the water lines they installed it with a Trunk and Branch installation, and they didn’t install it correctly to Trunk & Branch standards. So, I went around and I marked all the pipes that needed to be changed out to match the Trunk & Branch because I’ve plumbed. I know how it’s supposed to be done. They got a little perturbed because his guy didn’t plumb it correctly, and I was like it’s not my fault that you’re out of the country. You should have been here. There were several different things. Then this guy drilled through my LVL. Even though it’s on the side of my LVL, I’m still like you know if the building commissioner wants to be a pain in my butt, he can make me replace this entire LVL. Do you know how much of a headache that’s going to be for me? That’s probably going to cost me $2,000, and trust me, that will come out of your pocket. Then he drilled through another beam in my house, and I was like I told you, and I specified and I emphasized multiple times to tell your guys and make sure you do not drill through any of my beams and he’s not only drilled through my LVL but his guys drilled through 2 or 3 other beams in my house. He was oh yeah, we’re not going to do that, we’re not going to do that we won’t drill through beams. Yeah okay, apparently, they don’t get it, or they’re uptake is really slow. Maybe it’s just because you’re not here and they’re going to do what they want, but you need to watch your guys. Sorry, but I’m a little pissed. This is my house and I’m supposed be paying you this amount of money and you don’t use the right fittings, your drilling through my beams. I’m having to mark your pipes because you’re not installing it correctly, so even though they do, do good work and things like that, it’s just there’s a lot of little things adding up. I like Peter, he’s a good guy, and he’s very respectable, he’s got a great personality. It’s hard to get ahold of him. He’s very busy. He’s very giving. He’s the pastor of his church. He’s a very good guy and he has a big heart and he tries to help everyone out, sometimes he puts himself in a position where he spreads himself really, really thin and it just makes it really impossible. On top of it, he’s like I don’t know what country he’s from, but the guys he has working for him, they don’t speak any English so they don’t understand a d**n thing I’m saying. It’s like, you don’t understand anything I’m saying. This is not good. How am I supposed to do this. You’re not drilling the holes where they are supposed to be drilled. You’re not putting the pipes where they’re supposed to be put. Even though I think he’s a great guy, and yes there’s a lot of great qualities there and things like that, my thing is if I’m going to have them do work in my house, you have to be present at all times. It’s not something that you can just say yes go ahead and do this and then walk away. Especially if you’re going to be particular like I am, and I’m particular. I am a plumber. I know where things are and I know how I want them done, and if you aren’t going to do them right, which I know if you aren’t doing them right, I’m going to know because I’m a plumber. I know what to look for. A lot of general people may not because they don’t know because they’re not plumbers or they’re ignorant, not because they want to be ignorant just because people will take advantage of that. Most plumbers would. Most other people will. Most contractors will take advantage of peoples naivetness because they think they can and that’s where a lot of contractors and me sometimes have issues because I’m not stupid. I’ve built houses. I’ve done a lot of this work, so when it comes to how things are done and my house, I know what I want. I know how things are supposed to be done, how they’re supposed to be framed. How they’re supposed to be put in how electrical is supposed to be put in so that’s the issue there. If it were me, I would have said, I don’t really care about the price. I’ll pay you more if you’d have done a good job. Honestly, I could care less about the price. In some instances, it’s like the price matter’s, but it doesn’t matter if you’re not going to do a good job for that price. I’m not paying you a crappy price. I don’t want a good price and get crappy service. If you’re not going to do it the right way, then I don’t want you here. If he said he was going to be there he was there, it was just a matter of calling him and getting a time. I’m going to use them again. Peter is a good guy, and he has a big heart, it’s just you have to watch, and I think if he had been there it would have went fine, but he wasn’t there when the installation was happening. If he had been onsite, it would have been different.