Hickman Plumbing, Hickman's Plumbing Hickman Plumbing Heating Cooling Tempe, Arizona

On 16 Jan 2011 my fiancee called 'Hickman Plumbing', to repair a water leak I had noticed a few days before.  

The water leak was coming from behind a water valve in the shower; it was easy to hear and only required a small piece of tile be removed to repair the fitting. My fiance was concerned because she'd heard that leaks cause mold, and as we have a 16 month old in the house she was adamant that the it be repaired as quickly as possible. 

I was out when the plumber came over. My fiancee signed to begin the work.

He first cut a hole over the toilet, four feet from where the leak was. This hole is about 18 inches square, more than two square feet in size.   When this hole did not reveal the leak, he cut a hole two feet above the shower stall, again about 18 inches square, more than two square feet total. This hole did reveal the source of the leak, and as heard it was directly behind a water valve on the shower controls.  

Next he cut a large hole to the side of the shower controls and opened it up still larger until he had opened a very large hole over the shower control assembly, this time the hole was about 12 inches high by 30 inches wide. This revealed the copper piece that was leaking and he was then able to begin the repair process.  

While repairing the pipes (only a small elbow joint needed to be replaced) he overfilled the joint with solder and it ran down the pipe and into the wall. This also means there is now a partial blockage of solder inside the copper tubing.  

He had worked for four hours, the final bill was $1588.  

My fiancee had already paid him by check before I'd arrived. She had no idea of the proper cost of such a repair and didn't blink when he gave her the bill.  

Since that day I have had other plumbers, insurance agents, and contractors look at the work as completed. Most mentioned it was terribly shoddy and terribly overpriced.

The general consensus was that that the complete repair should not have cost more than $600.00 and the wall should not have been utterly ripped up like it was.   

Caveat Emptor