Hello.
I am a small business doing tiling work. I was asked by home owner to tile floor and walls as well as patch walls and cut concrete in shower area to create a wall in shower.
Home owner did the demolition and had the plumbing done.
When preparing the floor there were areas of old concrete needing to be chipped away to make the floor as level as possible (standard procedure). There was a rusty metal sticking out of the floor where the old toilet sat. I looked like an old bolt from the old toilet. We cut this metal off, once again standard procedure.
Here is the issue, the rusty metal was an old metal gas pipe! We shut off the gas and notified owner. He contacted plumber and it turns out it will cost $5000 to repair. He is saying it’s our fault and wants us to pay half.
We were told everything was ready for us when we commenced work, no mention of a live gas main sticking out of the floor. He had no idea, neither did the plumber.
We are insured however feel that we are not at fault. The job was quoted at $5500 and we have done $3500 worth of the job till now. He asked us to stop work while he got some legal advice.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
I am a small business doing tiling work. I was asked by home owner to tile floor and walls as well as patch walls and cut concrete in shower area to create a wall in shower.
Home owner did the demolition and had the plumbing done.
When preparing the floor there were areas of old concrete needing to be chipped away to make the floor as level as possible (standard procedure). There was a rusty metal sticking out of the floor where the old toilet sat. I looked like an old bolt from the old toilet. We cut this metal off, once again standard procedure.
Here is the issue, the rusty metal was an old metal gas pipe! We shut off the gas and notified owner. He contacted plumber and it turns out it will cost $5000 to repair. He is saying it’s our fault and wants us to pay half.
We were told everything was ready for us when we commenced work, no mention of a live gas main sticking out of the floor. He had no idea, neither did the plumber.
We are insured however feel that we are not at fault. The job was quoted at $5500 and we have done $3500 worth of the job till now. He asked us to stop work while he got some legal advice.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
