New toilet/plumbing having issues

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kittywings

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Hi, I'm new to the forum so please forgive me if I ask something that's been gone over before. I told my husband that I would take to the internets to see if we could find a solution for our problem.

We moved into our current house (a foreclosure) April 2013. It had/has a million small issues . The previous owners had done a lot of very poorly executed DIY (a combination of poor workmanship and horrible taste). After we discovered that the master bathroom's shower was leaking we called a plumber through our home warranty. He found a bunch of code violations, etc., so we decided with him that we would maximize our time with him by doing the demo ourselves and he would come in and do the plumbing. He told us what was missing (vents, etc.) and came up with a layout with my husband. When we had finished the demo, we called him back to say that we were ready for him to come do the work (as he had not actually DONE anything previously) and he said that the warranty company had already paid him, etc. and we'd have to open another claim to have him come out again - we decided that we wanted nothing to do with him anymore and decided to do the plumbing ourselves.
Using the plumber's ideas for vent placement, and info from plumber friends of my husband he put everything in.
The toilet and sinks were ready to go (or so we thought), my husband had flushed the toilet many, many times for liquid only with no issues. He decided to "break it in" with some "solids" and the toilet was blocked. He snaked it, etc. and the water will go down, but now it seems very strange. There will be air bubbles (I've noticed one big bubble and gurgling sounds) which leads us to believe it may be a venting issue. My husband worries that our 3 year-old may have out something down the waste pipe during construction.
Currently, when you flush the toilet, it fills up overly full (like it might overflow) and then slowly drains out (without the typical swirling of water).
Does anyone have any thoughts as to the possible cause? I'm going to post some "artist's renderings" to help clear things up.

IMG_2561.jpg

IMG_2560.jpg
 
From what I can make out from the drawing, venting is not the issue.

Did you pull a permit and get the work inspected? The inspector should have caught any major deficiencies with the work.

Why would you feel that the plumber was wrong for wanting to get paid for both the trip he had already made and the second trip he would have had to make?
 
Thanks for responding. We opened the floor back up and it turns out that our son DID, in fact put some stuff down there.

As for the plumber:
We had arranged with the plumber that in order to maximize the amount of time we had with him, per the home warranty company, that we would do the demo ourselves and have him come back and make any necessary connections. He even said that with all of the code violations that I should call the warranty company and tell them that and he would confirm so that they'd grant us more time. I did this and the warranty company said "no problem". When we called him to come back he said that he had already been paid and the claim had been closed (He hadn't done anything except stand in our driveway and smoke). He said that he would come back to actually do the work if we opened another claim with the warranty company and told them that we had gone to remove our bathtub and found the code violations and he wouldn't charge us the deductible. He was just trying to scam the system. I told the warranty company about it, requesting another plumber and they said that we'd have to pay another deductible even though we got nothing from paying the first one.
I am more than happy to pay people for work that they do, in fact, I usually give them a bit more if they do a great job.
 
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I am sorry, but he DID do something the first time. Since he found multiple code violations, he obviously looked at your plumbing system. He also spent some of his time and shared with you some of his hard earned knowledge by helping you layout the proposed new piping.

From the numbers I have heard of home warranty companies paying for various repairs, they are the real scam. While I won't condone unethical behavior, I can understand why some people might try to find every way possible to charge the warranty company.

Anyhow, I am glad that you found the source of your problem.
 
I don't want you to feel like you are being ganged up on, kittywings, but I agree with phish. I know it's a frustrating situation and we plumbers usually receive the misdirected anger created by the situation. With experience we can shrug it off and focus on the job. While I'm not a fan of home warranty companies, I also think that, by your statements, he did something worth payment. "He found a bunch of code violations, etc.,"
"He told us what was missing (vents, etc.) and came up with a layout with my husband."
"Using the plumber's ideas for vent placement..."
The most valuable tool of any tradesman is his mind.
If you feel that you're being scammed, don't make any quick decisions and stop by the forum again with some details and we'll be happy to do our best to point you in the right direction.
We don't get paid for this, so you can trust us.:D
 
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I guess you had to be there to know that he was just lazy.
We paid him $75 for him to stand in our driveway/garage and smoke while we showed him the stack (bathroom is directly above the garage) and where the shower was leaking. He told us that the warranty company had allotted about 5 hours to fix the leak, he told us what we should do before he came back so he could spend all of his time on actual plumbing and for me to call the warranty company back and tell them about the code violations (and he would call too) to get even more time from them (which they told me they would ok).
When we called him to come back and do the actual work, he refused acting as if we had never had the discussion said he knew nothing of the code violations and he had already been paid. He never touched ANYTHING, he did NOTHING and got paid $75 plus what the warranty company gave him. I'm sorry, but that's B.S. The fact that he was trying to do a semi-side deal with us by having us get the warranty company to send him back out saying that we found the code violations after he came and he wouldn't charge us the deductible should tell you the kind of guy we're dealing with.
My mom runs the customer service dept. at a (reputable) home warranty company, so I know what's usual and what's not. I don't expect someone to not get paid for their time, but this was ridiculous.
 
I have filed complaints with Home Warranty companies for two separate horrible plumbers. The company called me back to thank me for the information because they usually never meet the people they hire to do the warranty work inside the homes.
 

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