My water utility success story

[Joshua Gordon]

So my wife and I bought a condo for a personal residence (we have since become landlords on it). The water pressure was so bad when we bought it that it took 20 minutes to fill the tub to wash the kids. We were getting quotes to replace the plumbing around $4,500 to $6,000. One day, our utility company knocked on our door to let us know that they broke our meter. They were replacing it with one that sends the meter to their computers. They broke their side of the piping and needed to fix it. The technician did not plug our side of the piping. Hours later, the piping team showed up and replaced the broken piping and turned on the water. Nothing came out of our faucets. They tried blowing out the lines, nothing. The head guy for the maintenance team comes out to take over and get things working. He calls out an Emergency Plumber (mentioned something like $125 an hour). Another hour or so of trying and the plumber finally takes our pipes apart. The plumber hands me the shutoff valve he cut out. You couldn't even see light through it. Turns out our condo still had cast iron pipes, and were nearly completely clogged. Because the technician did not plug our side of the pipes, some debris likely got into the lines and clogged the pipes. The head of maintenance team made the call. Since the were the direct cause of our water issue, they were going to replace our bad pipes. All of them. They sent us to a hotel for a week (on their dime) and also reimbursed us for all food purchases all week. They ripped out all the piping and installed new, proper piping. They patched the walls they cut open and even installed a panel behind the shower to allow access to piping. Now our water pressure is amazing! Kids bath is run in a few minutes. Now that we are renting it out we don't have customers complaining about poor water pressure. All of this done using other people's money and raising the value of our condo! Definitely a success in my book!