Installing a clean out at home

Eric&Lisa wrote:

WTP-GC wrote:
OP, as a contractor, I would not like that you hired me to do a job and then went onto a random Internet forum to verify the quality of my work or choice of materials. If you came to me (the professional) and told me that a faceless, nameless internet somebody said that I was doing it wrong and suggested a better way of doing it, I'd walk off the job. The nature of questions you're asking suggests that you don't know anything about the work taking place, so be mindful of that when you offer advice to your contractor. There's an old saying...if you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, then baffle them with your BS. It would in your best interest to let the contractor do their job without telling them how it should be done...in this case.

Nicely written, and a good point made. However....

Within the ranks of any demographic, 10% of the people are simply jerks. Contractors are no exception. It is wise for anyone engaging any services to educate themselves. This is not to throw it back and say "The Internet says do it this way". This is to be able to validate that they got the good contractor in the 90% ranks, and not the 1 in 10 that are jerks. A jerk, in any profession, will straighten up when they learn that the mark (errr, the customer) knows a thing or two about the situation.

In my opinion, part of the contractor's job is to explain they 'why' behind what they did. The contractor should be able to say something like "Yes, the Internet says to use black PVC, but in XYZ county we are approved to use white PVC, and here is the specific code regulation." I know I am working with someone who knows their stuff and is willing to stand behind the decisions they made.

More communication with the contractor and more education by the customer avoids distrust and dissatisfaction later. I would avoid a contractor who is afraid to take my questions and unwilling to defend their decisions. You wouldn't need to walk off the job as you would have already been thrown out for taking such an arrogant and condescending approach towards the customer.

Oh goodness, I got derailed and didn't address the OP's topic! I put in a RV dump in. I matched the pipe I already had for size, color, etc. I gave it a gentle slope. Some hacksaw here, some glue there, and it works just fine. Don't overthink it. Make it look like everything else and remember that gravity will move the 'stuff' where it needs to go.

And pulling a permit?? Are you kidding me? To put in a Y-fitting, a few feet of pipe, some couplers, and a screw down plug? Just do it and be done. The 'poop gods' (as they are known in my county) only care about adding capacity (more toilets) to an existing system. An RV has temporary capacity that is typically only used when the home systems are not being used. Therefore it is a zero sum game. No additional materials are going in the system that wouldn't be provided should you have stayed at home instead.

-Eric

Some of the best contractors I know are jerks! I've worked around jerk contractors that I trusted far more than those that please me with their "nice-ness"...sometimes. Don't confuse confidence with arrogance.

The reason why you walk off the job when the customer suddenly knows more than you is because you will never be right in that customer's eyes. You might get the job done, but the punch list will never end. Such a customer cannot be pleased and will hold your money until the bitter end, making you come back day after day with a new list of problems.

And you live in a dream world if you expect that a quality contractor should be able to easily spout off the code and/or statutory number for each part of their work. We all know certain parts of the code and regulations, as we've seen fit to learn them out of necessity. But a document that comes in a 4" thick binder, pages front and back in 10 pt font is not something I've committed fully to memory. But what I do know is that "the inspector has passed this material/method for the last 5 years at every place I've worked", so it must be right. And, "I've been doing it this way for the last 30 years" has a lot more value than "I read an interesting thread on an RV forum that says..."