Clean As A Whistle

We're in the time of year when business should be picking up and it isn't. I have been trying to talk Hub into slowing down and maybe think about retiring, but he's used to having something to do so he's not listening to me. People aren't taking care of things the way they used to and money is still tight for everyone.

Every time we have an off month and are sweating making enough money to pay the bills, we get weird calls. They're from people in other states asking for prices, or they're from people who don't understand what is necessary and get mad at you for trying to help them. Ever try to explain to someone that you can't insert a 4" hose into a 3" pipe that most likely doesn't go into the tank to start out with? Yeah, they really do think you can pump out an underground septic tank and do it without making a hole in the lawn. However, just when you think you've heard it all, you find out you really haven't.

Got a call from George. English is not his first language, but he is understandable and sounds as if he might be Greek. What he wants is to have his septic tank pumped out and the insides of it pressure washed. This is, thus far, a fairly common request. Some folks want an inspection done of the condition of the concrete and that can't be accurately assessed unless the sides are really clean. Where it gets a little strange is when he says he also wants his drain pipes pressure washed throughout the entire house. When we do that, he wants us to run the camera down to prove that the pipes are clean.

He has 3 bathrooms. In order to do that we'd have to remove the toilet in every bathroom and re-install it afterwards. He has a high end, newer, home recently built, which means the drain pipes are most likely PVC. Our pressure washer would blow them apart at the joints. We have a commercial jetter. We could borrow the electric pressure washer from Hub's brother but there's no guarantee that won't create problems.

Tried to explain the situation over the phone, but he wasn't having any of that and requested Hub come look at the job. Hub didn't have anything else to do, and if he could persuade him not to do the pipes, we had a shot at the tank cleaning so he went. This is where it gets a whole lot stranger and it's pretty strange up to this point.

Hub arrives and finds there are 2 other contractors there. One is for the driveway, which George is not happy with. He hired a contractor to build him a nice driveway according to his specifications. The concrete is supposed to have some kind of color added that when poured and worked would create somewhat of a granite looking finish. There is a sort of granite effect, however it isn't shiny like in the picture. Said picture is from a magazine page which is a high gloss paper. Attempts by contractor number 1 to explain why the problem is the picture not the concrete, are being ignored. George wants the entire driveway torn out and done again in shiny granite looking concrete. Which doesn't exist, and he's having none of that.

Contractor number 2 is there to continue work on the deck that is never right. He told Hub that what should have taken a week has now gone to 6 and the problem is neither the weather nor the contractors work. George now wants the deck torn down and the one he ordered built in it's stead. Hub decided he didn't need the money enough to actually do any work for this man. He explained what needed doing and just told him he wasn't comfortable with the pressure washing of PVC pipes when they could blow apart from it. George is adamant about desiring pipes that are "clean as a whistle" so Hub suggested he call someone else.

He didn't recommend anyone because we don't dislike our competitors that much. Needless to say we won't be getting any recommendations from George either.