The very first day, Charlie told me it wasn't his job to explain anything about plumbing to homeowners. He does not like to communicate. He told me that a mechanic is not going to explain things to customers. Either the customer wants the part fixed or replaced or not. I informed Charlie that the lead Technician at the dealership had, just the previous week, spent over 30 minutes answering all of my questions. He specifically ignored many of my instructions. 1. I told him I wanted the sewer line buried at a certain depth so I would have enough drop to tie in another line in the future. Charlie buried the line as shallow as possible. 2. I told him I wanted the sewer line slab penetrations core drilled (no penetrations would have even been needed if he had buried the line at the proper depth). Good ole Charlie chiseled my brick and then did absolutely nothing to repair the gaping holes he made. His helper just covered them over with dirt and made
me an amazing termite superhighway. 3. I told him I wanted "code plus best practices". Charlie gave me neither.
Not a single vertical pipe was plumb. Charlie explained his "guy" (Tony) had a hard time getting the fittings straight before the glue dried. Neither Tony or Charlie should be "plumbers" if they can't make things "plumb." The vent lines above the ceiling were sloped backwards and the roof penetration was nowhere near straight - and I had to pay someone else to fix these deficiencies. Had I not caught the improperly sloped vent lines, rain water would have accumulated in the pipes instead of draining and eventually leaked; and sewer gases could have escaped into my home. Then, my new plumber discovered that Charlie had run the cold water line to the hot water side of BOTH shower valves and vice versa. That explains why the shower would not get hot. I waited six weeks to use the shower I had already paid Charlie to fix. Had to have that fixed by a real plumber as well. They also used a galvanized cap next to a brass fitting without a dielectric break. This will cause the galvanized to corrode faster. Water lines were not secured inside walls or above the ceiling. Even though I told him where the washer and dryer were going, Charlie placed the water service for the clothes washer behind the dryer. if he couldn't remember, he could have called me. But Charlie doesn't like to communicate. Oh yeah, and he failed to level my $1,500 bath tub in the bed of concrete when he placed it. One corner was 1/4" low. Had to shim up the lip which could lead to premature failure. Then, after promising me multiple times that he would be on site to finish the job before spray foam went in, he dropped the ball. Didn't show up. No phone call. No text. Crickets. Project was delayed by a week while I found someone else to finish the job. But I'm glad I did because otherwise I would not have discovered all the other mistakes he had made.
Charlie Kelson is the biggest regret of my project. He needs to inspect his employee's work and make them fix things. Charlie is either incompetent or doesn't care about the quality of the work he provides. Ultimately the boss is responsible for the work and Charlie does not know how to take responsibility. read more