paul is not sure he could of dealt with a dumber plumber

Calling a tradie ‘dumb’ is not nice, I get that, but geez I had a tough time getting what I designed, approved, and paid for built. There were a hundred pain points in the building of my house, I’ll spare you the details and just highlight a couple.

Autumn 2005

I had been planning my house for several years before construction finally began. I had purchased the 700m2 vacant block of land in 2002, and spent intervening years thinking, planning, and then designing my environmentally friendly home. I had carried this passion (see related post) to design and build most of my life and now my vision and, more importantly, my home were coming out of the ground.

I had to contend with a few building and planning issues initially. When I finally submitted plans for my house, the Council suggested there was no sewerage connected to the property so I would not be permitted to build. I saw red. When I purchased the block I inspected the capped sewerage pipe in the south western corner of the block. Council refused to accept it was there, even though my conveyancer and the land sale both confirmed it. Council would not send anyone out to inspect, and it was not resolved until I demanded they come out on site and inspect the infrastructure. They eventually accepted my conclusion, but directed me to ensure my storm water was not directed to the sewerage or down into the neighbouring paddock as all the other houses were on that side of the street. You see, my vacant block was the old orchard for the original homestead in that area. Eventually subdivided under the old St Leonards Council, all the houses on that side of the street were more than 50 years old. They either combined their storm water and sewerage or simply let storm water run across the neighbouring paddocks. I was building under a new Council and new rules in a new century. I accepted the challenge. I learned that water can run up hill, and a wet line was designed to move stormwater off my property.

I also explored with Council the idea of recycling grey water, from my washing machine, to use in the garden. It was an emphatic “no”. I also explored rain water harvesting. I had room at the shaded south western end of the house for two 15,000 litre water tanks. I planned to use this water to service my toilets and garden. Council were less than enthusiastic. Their officer argued that I was in the same suburb as the rubbish tip and birds would fly over my house and shit on the roof and that would then contaminate the water. I suggested birds fly across everyone’s roof and that logic would prevent anyone from having a rainwater tank. I received permission to install the tanks but was not permitted to connect them to the household toilets.  I couldn’t, and still don’t understand why I would use town drinking water to flush toilets when I had plenty of captured rain water.

So with plans approved and permits in hand the the building work commenced. I was delayed six months because my original builder pulled out the day he agreed to start, and it took me a few months to find another builder and get going. All was progressing well, albeit slower than expected. As with most builders his firm was running multiple jobs and mine wasn’t always the priority. It was the sub-trade of plumbing that gave me the shits – excuse the pun. My builder had his favoured plumber and he was a goose. He wouldn’t listen, he wouldn’t follow directions nor plans, and he became a law unto himself on my property.

The first issue was the installation of the wet line to get stormwater overflow from my rain water tanks from the lowest point on the block, up the hill to the road. The physics were fine, water – under pressure – will push up hill provided the entry height is higher than the exit. The problem was the plumber wouldn’t dig the trench beside the fence where the plans, and I, required it. After work one evening I inspected the plumber’s work and he had dug the trench straight up the centre of the back yard and drive way. My temporary drive way, consisting of compacted road base, was now a mess of disturbed gravel and lots of clay. I rang the builder and expressed my concern at the failure to follow the plans and the mess. He said he noticed the issue too, after not being on site during the day, and he had spoken with his plumber who explained that it was “easier” to go direct from point to point. I told my builder it wasn’t good enough, that I had plans to use the drive and yard and did not want pipes in the way. It was fixed, at their expense, but that is where the goodwill ended.

The final straw was near the end of the project when the plumber returned to finish off some down pipes. Given I had water tanks I had asked for “first flush kits” to be installed. You see, after the Council officer alerted me to the mountain of bird droppings that would appear on my roof, I researched how this is addressed in other parts of the world. I learned they use a simple device to capture any contaminated water and divert it away from the tanks. Simple. The theory being, that the first volume of rain rinses the roof and removes any debris (or bird shit) and then permits the balance of the water to go to the tanks (see photo above left). The plumber understood this concept, or so I thought, but when I inspected the installation after work, the kit had been installed under the house and horizontally. The kit only works when it is installed vertically, as it relies on a small volume of water floating a ball to the top of a chamber. I called the builder, and he was fed up with my constant negative feedback, so he told me to ring the plumber directly. I did. The plumber was dumber than I thought. He said, “it looked better this way, you know, it’s out of the way and all”. I hit the roof. I explained that it doesn’t work, and he needs to fix it tomorrow because all it is doing is causing water to pour and pool under my house. He removed it, but refused to install it where I asked. I got a different plumber to install the first flush kit when he connected my toilets to the rain water tanks several months after I moved in.

Postscript

I readily acknowledge that to be in a financial position to build a house was a privilege and the stories above were somewhat of an insignificant nuisance on the path to home ownership. I realise not everyone in the community has a home and this really talks to my ‘middleclass-ness’. Significantly however, is the issue of the standard with which we are building the homes that will serve our community for the next 100 years. I believe the building code in Tasmania needs to be revised with significant improvement in energy efficiency, thermal efficiency, condensation control, rain water and grey water use, and universal access considerations (see separate post on Passivhaus Building Standard). The introduction of a building energy rating scheme like in the United Kingdom would go some way to demonstrating the need in established homes for improvements, and that tax concessions for investment properties should be directed to rewarding owners for improvements achieved in the functioning of the home (see separate post on Energy Performance Certification).