ASK THE PLUMBER

Our brand new custom home- The prints showed a tankless hot water heater. Plumber said he quoted based on a 50 gal tank. I explained we want a tankless and that’s why it’s on the prints. With the area I live in and his 45 years of experience he said I wouldn’t want a tankless. The water will eat through the insides. I said I understand they have to be flushed annually and maintained. That’s not up to the plumber and this is what we wanted. I also explained we want a tankless with a recirc line for instant hot water. I said you have to run a hot water line from the furthest hot water device back to the unit to recirculate. He said he knows what to do. Fast forward to when we’re about to sheetrock and I look at the hot water heater and there’s no recirc line hooked up. When I questioned it he said all the lines in the house were less than the requirement for a recirc line… with his 45 years of experience. I again stated this wasn't up to him. He said it will only take a few seconds more for the water to get hot. I told him I wanted the recirc line installed. He asked which bathroom do I want to have the instant hot. I said all of them. He said it’s either the master bathroom or the kids bathroom because he didn’t connect all of the devices continuously and it would be $300 extra. He ran one line down into the basement from the furthest bathroom in case it was necessary and we were getting hot water quick enough. Once the faucets were installed it took 1 min 52 secs for hot water. Now that we moved in it takes over a minute for hot water… We have superior walls as the basement foundation. The pex tubes in the basement were installed on the outside face of the studs (where the sheetrock goes). This had to be redone. When it came time for the septic pipes to exit the foundation they asked where the grade would be. I said just under the basement window. I have 9’ basement walls and they put the pipes exiting the foundation half way up the wall. When the septic tank was installed we realized the pipes exiting the building were too low and both had to be raised about 10”. They had to redrill 2 new holes above the old holes. They attempted to seal the holes with hydraulic cement. 3 out of the 4 holes were leaking every time it rained. They came back out to “fix”. When I checked out the repair I was surprised to see white spray Flexseal! This had to be redone. Workers complained throughout the job that the house wasn’t made for plumbing. All the outside faucets have non-stainless screws. They all rusted already. I was surprised to see all these good reviews. Most of them are older. Maybe things have changed. Would not recommend for a new home. Don’t Ask the Plumber