So mad I can spit!

I've heard and seen a lot of horror stories about people who have been taken advantage of by unlicensed contractors who dont know what they are doing. This is one of the worst I have personally worked on and they weren't even unlicensed!

I got a call recently to help an older couple with a problem in their backyard. It seems that they had contracted with a local licensed contractor to re-place their lawn and irrigation system in their back yard. That was in the spring.

The homeowner called me because my ad says "We Fix Others Mistakes!" Boy did he have a mess. The work done by the original contractor (contractor #1) was poorly done. The trenches had sunk several inches. They did not bother to compact the trenches before laying sod on top!

In addition, the lawn was extremely wet! I was puzzled by this and the fact that the second valve for the lawn did not work as if it was full on, sorta like there was a leak somewhere..... hmmm. The homeowner insisted there was no leak. He had hired another guy (contractor #2) to come in and do some sprinkler repairs in the summer because the original contractor had deleted some of the sprinkler heads that watered some of the plants and they were dying.


While running the sprinklers it was obvious to me that the lawn was getting spongy, like a water bed in certain places. I called the homeowner over and showed him. He now could see how the water pooled in certain places and let me dig them up,


I found no less than 3 (count em, three!) broken lines. These lines were spewing water into the soil every time the sprinklers ran! Keep in mind that this is November now and two 3/4inch pipes and one 1/2 inch pipe running for 5 minutes twice a day for 7 days a week is a LOT of water.

As you can see by this picture, the pipes were ragged and broken. I surmised that the contractor trenched for the new system, the trencher chewing up the old system and they "forgot" to cap off the old pipes!! Apparently they didn't bother to check their work.

The homeowner was really disgusted with the original contractor and realized that even when someone has a contractor's license, doesn't mean you will get a good job! They ended up spending as much to fix the job as they did originally. Some bargan!