Braddock Journey

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

The story of our plumbing is the worst story with a contractor I could imagine. Unfortunately, I didn’t imagine it.

I’ve been dreading writing this. It has been so stressful to work with Lamont Panfil that if I didn’t think others needed to be warned, I would just celebrate that he is out of my life now.

We started our journey with Lamont by signing a contract and putting money down on the job. I did this because I am a contractor, in communications design, and when we start a long-term project we also ask for a percentage up front. It seemed normal to me. Unfortunately I did not realize that no one else in Braddock pays up front. It’s a bad move here. He was the second contractor we worked with, and no other contractor has asked for any money up front.

After signing the contract—which to my delight included separating the gray water (for later of course, Allegheny County)—he told us he would be back on Saturday to start, May 31. On Saturday he called us to say he couldn’t come, for some reason or other. We were fine with that at the time, it was hot and we didn’t want to be at the house all day either. He showed up Monday to tell us that the county inspector had required him to run a sewer scope. We were cool with that. We had had two sewer scopes done on houses we considered buying in Portland. They cost $99 and were really fun to watch. The guy in Portland told us the weirdest thing he ever saw when sending that video camera down through the sewer pipes was a glass eyeball. Bad ass! But this sewer scope ... either because it’s Pittsburgh or this specific plumber’s contact ... was $299 and used VHS! What the hell. Now we have to pay to convert it.

The sewer scope portended struggle ahead. There was no house trap, a J-trap on the outside of the house to keep that rank sewer smell from filling your home. It also showed a rotting, nasty pipe. For sure, this was something that needed to be addressed. But Lamont told us it would cost more to fix this than the entire initial contracted price, and without it he could not complete the work we had agreed to. This was the first instance when he yelled. I told him that if he could not complete his contracted work, then we would need to cancel the agreement and we would find another plumber to do the work. He insisted that he had already purchased the supplies and had time invested, we could not cancel the contract now. He also yelled about a number of other things, we were on the phone for quite some time.

Nick, of Nicholas Electric, had recommended Lamont to us. Lamont must have called him, because Nick called me soon after my argument with Lamont to tell me he too would be shocked by this change in pricing. He gave me contact information for three more plumbers to find out their opinions. Lamont’s plan included digging up our backyard with a back ho and putting a house trap into the ground. No other plumber was willing to take this on. Sketchy. Then Lamont called back, after hearing from Nick that his actions were questionable, and said the inspector would allow him to put the trap in our basement to avoid the excessive work of excavating the yard. This made the cost more reasonable, though still a 50% increase from the initial agreement. We signed on. At the time it seemed the thing to do ...

The next day he and his brother showed up to start work on the house trap. While working a yelling match started with the neighbor that nearly turned into a fight, with everyone threatening to call in their boys. Kevin’s experience as a bouncer paid off here, he was able to settle the dispute and calm down most parties involved.

After getting back to work and jack hammering away at our cement floor in the back room, formerly a laundry room, the window broke. Then when they were about halfway through digging down to the pipe they left for lunch. They asked Kevin to stick around to watch their tools. Kevin heads to the house early to avoid the heat, working from some time before 6am to noon and taking a siesta. He agreed to wait while they went for lunch. Two hours later, they had still not returned. We tried calling and kept getting voicemail. Finally, Fred shows up and tells us that Lamont was arrested. He says the bail should only be $600 and they will be back tomorrow.

Tomorrow they don’t show. The next day, Thursday, Lamont comes to ask Kevin for the “upon completion” portion of the contracted payment so that they can start. They again state that the work will be done in one week once they start. When Kevin brings this news to me, my response is Fuck No! Later that night Lamont calls me and talks for a very long time, while I was working and Ryan was looking at me like “is he still talking?” At this point Lamont tried to convince me that he is honest and not going to run away with my money. My first thought is that if you are honest, you don’t have to say it. The second thought is that he already did run off with my money since he didn’t buy the supplies (that he told me he bought on Monday) and has none of my down payment left. I tell him I cannot give him the rest. He tells me he cannot begin the plumbing work in the foreseeable future if I do not. I tell him I’ll call him back the next day.

We went out on the porch to talk and Mayor John showed up in the parking lot. He asked how things were going, and I told him he really didn’t want to know. It turns out he did. His solution was that he would take Lamont to the plumbing supply store and pay for the materials so that he could start. This alleviated us from giving any more money to someone who already spent half of the fee without buying any supplies, while still allowing the job to begin. Mayor John called Lamont to make this offer, and while met with some resistance at first they finally agreed to go shopping the next day.

It’s Friday and Lamont called to postpone his trip with Mayor John, he had a meeting. Then he called to cancel, he found a place that would supply the plumbing materials. We were getting Pex in our house, the supplies can’t cost that much. It’s not copper. This change in plans left us the weekend to sit around thinking that we needed to find a new plumber.

On Monday, he surprisingly showed up with piping and started to work. All seemed well for a day or two, but then they disappeared for the rest of the week. All in all, they worked two to three half days a week, dragging on the job that was supposed to take one week to over four weeks.

Then it came to a week that we were out of town, planned long before all of this mess, so we left a check with Mayor John in case the plumbing was completed. The plan was that when the inspector came to review the job Mayor John would be present to hear the review and get his credentials. Instead, Lamont had the inspector come without notifying anyone. Then he called us on the Fourth of July to tell us he was finished and wanted to be paid. At this point it was a holiday weekend, he was weeks past his finish date, and we hadn’t seen the completed work. We told him we needed to wait until Monday after we had a chance to look at the work and meet with him. This started yet another argument. Finally we agreed to meet Monday.

Kevin and I were able to go into the house on Sunday and look at the work. All was well until we reached the attic. Somehow Lamont had managed to cut a hole in our brand new roof after the roofers had finished and leave it gaping for all the rain to fall through. He was there for over a month. The roofers were there for one week, the final week he was working. We had heard them discussing the vent and how it would be fitted. Yet he cut the hole in the two days after they had finished, before his inspection. This led to another argument. I found this unacceptable. He blamed it on the roofers. I called them to give him a chance, but they said they had worked with Lamont before and although he was a master plumber who knew what he was doing, he had not been prepared. He didn’t have it ready for them before they were done with their job. Brian Whitney looked at the hole in the roof and immediately sent someone out to fix it. Within an hour of talking to him, it was repaired. However, there was an additional fee because their work had been completed a week earlier. Lamont agreed to take this fee out of his final payment.

All in all it was a terrible experience, and we are glad to be done with it. The arguments, late completion, extra charges, and personal problems were too much. The hole in the brand new roof was just the cherry on top.