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Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT

wrote:
I bought an old home a few years ago in which many things were not up
to code. I had a contractor in to do some remodeling, and in the
course of the trim work, he put a finish nail into a copper plumbing
pipe. Apparently the nail sealed the hole for a while, but just in the
past 3 months it started to leak. I fixed the problem myself and there
wasn't much damage.

I called the contractor and he claimed since the copper pipe wasn't
centered in the stud, and thus not done to code, he wasn't responsible.
I feel that since it wasn't leaking before he started working on the
house, and it was his nail that caused the leak, he is ultimately
responsible regardless of whether the plumbing was to code or not. I
am hoping to settle this dispute and I haven't been able to find any
authoritative legal precedent. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Many Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin
I am an electrician by craft so I have seen such issues from both sides.
The implied warranty that is the standard of the remodeling industry
is one year unless otherwise negotiated and agreed to in writing. The
applicable codes require both plumbers and electricians to keep their
work at least one and one quarter inches from the face of the framing
for the purpose of avoiding contact with fasteners used to apply the
finishes. Were that is not possible the code require that "kick plates"
be applied to resist fastener penetration to the installed work. Let me
be clear. It is always my responsibility as an electrician to guard my
work in place in order to protect it from physical damage. It is not
the obligation of other crafts to somehow magically avoid work that is
not protected as required by the code governing the work to be
protected. You may indeed have a cause of legal action against a crafts
person but that person would be the plumber who installed the work
without proper protection. The reason that the rules are structured
that way is that the other crafts cannot avoid work that they cannot see.
--
Tom Horne, Electrician.
--
Tom Horne

Well we aren't no thin blue heroes and yet we aren't no blackguards to.
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