Thankfully heat/gas service was restored 3-4 weeks ago, it’s a nice change having hot water come out of the shower.

However, appliances and piping that hadn’t been tested by the previous owner’s plumber should’ve been.

• Heating system sprung three leaks (had to be drained and refilled each time);
• Water regulation valves that were used on the new boilers had been salvaged from a job 10-12 years ago and no longer worked.
• Learned that typically hot water pipes (under sinks etc..) should always be on the left side (or was that the right) — either way, the previous plumber ended up switching the two and hooking a dishwasher up to the cold water pipe (meaning nothing was going to get very clean).

Needless to say Mr. Rooter has been over just about every week to correct the work that had been done by the previous owner’s plumber.

On a related note, the plumber that was responsible for the crap job that had been done showed up on the day ConEd and my plumber were restoring the gas service. Why wouldn’t he, you might ask. It had been three months since I closed on the house and my phone calls to him were never returned, no additional work was done and I was left out in the cold… or in this case, in in the cold.
 
Fortunatly, I closed with an escrow account that had been funded with some of the seller’s money at closing. After a certain date, I could basically fire everyone that had worked on the building and bring in my own crew to finish the job.

I filed notorized paperwork with NYC to have the previous plumber taken off the permits (and the job) and have Mr. Rooter take over. Did it cost cash to have a new plumber brought in? Heck yeah. Did he get the job done the way it should have been done in the first place — absolutely. Did the previous plumber ever hear the voicemail I left telling him that he’d been replaced? Who knows (I could understand his english as well as he could mine).