On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 15:50:43 GMT, Wayne Whitney
wrote:

:BTW, the Berkeley permit office is closed until Tuesday, January 2nd.

I just called the bidder/foreman of the plumbing company and he said
they did pull the permit. That's a relief.

So, Berkeley's inspector will come after they are done with the work and
inspect. Funny, because at that point what the devil will the man see?

Anyway, he acknowledges that they MAY have broken it. Well, he didn't
deny it when I said that... instead he said that they may have worsened
an already existing leak. I'd conceded that the existing water main was
undoubtedly in a quite fragile state. He said they are sending over one
of their plumbers today to check out the situation and I will get a bid
then to replace the water main line. The current one runs under one of
the driveway slabs, so I think the replacement line would be just
outside that slab and therefore 1' closer to the house itself. That
seemed to be the thinking of the workers yesterday. Hopefully, that's
acceptable in terms of code requirements. I'll ask the guy this morning.

If they quote me anything over $2000 (or even $1500) I'll have to at
least consider getting competing bids.

Dan