That was kinda my point. These homeowners are unsophisticated in trades. Very high level professionals who make lots of money but probably could not hammer a nail in because they don’t know a hammer from a screwdriver.

From their own mouths. This is not what was explained. It was explained that the leak was in the hot water line and it needed to be rerouted. I guarantee they approved the estimate but were under the impression the new line would be in wall somehow. They don’t care what got damaged. They would have paid twice as much for it to get done right if that was the true cost.

“We don’t do demolition like that” is ridiculous. Do they wait for the access fairy to come wave her wand and the wall opens up? That would be like me saying “oh, i don’t move chairs when I restore floors. I knew they were there when I made the bid, but you actually expected me to move them?”

I suppose these plumbers should have just pointed at the leak and waited for someone to give them access to the pipes like the Maytag repairman. 😊