Broken Spigot

[window cleaner]

I am a window cleaner in Florida. Today as I was cleaning a customers windows i banged into the outside spigot with the window screen. No big deal, that kind of thing happens all of the time. By the time I secured the screen in place and moved to the next window the spigot was on the ground and a stream of water was shooting out of the wall. I turned the water off at the curb and alerted the homeowner of what happened. They think I should be responsible for it and even accused me of standing on it! Right. Well, I think it was previously compromised and when the screen hit it was the final straw. The PVC broke flush with the wall so a plumber was called to chip away enough wall to cap it off to the tune of $900. Does PVC, at the thread, have any tendencies to crack and weaken to the point of bumping it will break it?

 

[Smooky]

Yea, that is the main reason it is not approved for water pipes under presure inside a house. It gets brittle from exposure to heat or sunlight. $900.00 sounds excessive. Did they replace it with gold pipes?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Terry]

$900 ?
And no, it shouldn't break that easily. I don't think what you did would be enough to hurt it. Heck, people connect hoses and pull on the hose.
I would have never installed an outside bib with plastic pipe unless it was secured tight to the wall with screws and couldn't move.
The ones we do in Washington are copper through the wall.

 

[Dj2]

You got nailed, and you can't prove that they had an existing problem...S--t happens.

You may try to lower the bill, talk to the plumber about it.

However, if he refuses: 1. If he is licensed, tell him that you will complain to the state contractors board. I'm sure that he will be willing to lower the bill after hearing that. 2. If he is not licensed, you're stuck. In my state, an unlicensed contractor can't charge more than $500 for any job (labor and material). Check your local law.

We don't know what the plumber did for $900. We don't know when he did the work (a holiday? Christmas day?)
Just to fix a broken PVC pipe and broken stucco around it? it's too much.

 

[WorthFlorida]

I live in Florida, that maybe a NYC price but not in Florida. With a permanent fix with a spigot maybe a few hundred dollars. Did you pay cash and where did you find this plumber?