swimming pool messed up, should guy take responsibility?

This is kind of long but I really need a quick answer please.
Moved into home with old pool and equipment. We filled in the very bottom of the attatched spa with sand, gravel and cement so now it is a little wading area for the kids. Plastering guys said we did a great job and then they got to work. To save money on labor, husband labeled and cut the equipment pipes (at about 1.5 feet off the ground) so everything was clean for the pool plumbing guy (diff. from plastering co.) to put in our new equipment. After being asked once by me and once by plaster guy to pressure test our pipes, he says no, not needed. After re-plastering and filling up our pool Saturday night, turned on pump and filter and within 1 minute a big underwater pop and the middle of our spa cracked where we filled it in. Come to find out the guy plumbed the filter and pump backwards so the skimmer is pushing out water, not bringing it in...therefore, forcing air/water through the drain in the spa causing it to crack the cement at top. Called the guy, he is going to come fix the plumbing but no apology cause he says my husband had labeled the pipes and that is what he went by...so basically it's our fault. Shouldn't he have pressure tested the pipes or dumped water down them to make sure where the pipes led to? I told him about our spa and he just said, "oh that is no good."
Do I have all rights to say it was his fault the spa cracked and he needs to take responsibility?
Thank you!

Comments

scubabob says:

August 2, 2009 at 8:36 pm

Pressure testing while always a good idea on an unknown pool, isn’t an absolute must. If the guy had reason to believe the lines were properly winterized and worked prior to the work you had done, he may have looked at a pressure test as an un needed expense to you. Coin toss here. It could go either way. Pressure testing isn’t required to identify lines. You can do it easily with 2 people and yell down the line or tap it.
If the lines were wrongly labeled by your Hubby, the plumbing guy isn’t really at fault there. If there were no labels and it happened, yes…the guy is liable. It’s his responsibility to figure out which is which in an unknown situation like that. If either your Hubby or the guy had doubts as to the labeling, someone should have said something. If I were the guy and noticed your Hubby didn’t know what end of a screw driver to use, I’d be double checking your Hubby’s labeling. If your Hubby came off as a fairly handy man, I may not. Same can be said of that plumbing guy.
The actual reversal in the lines shouldn’t have caused any damage, except perhaps a pump shaft seal, just inconvenience only. If a line wasn’t hooked up to a fitting, it may cause wash out but that’s not an easy thing to miss. It ought to have been obvious.
I do have to wonder how your Hubby tied in the new bottom to the old one and what type of concrete he used as well as what reinforcing, if any he used and the degree he compacted the substrate. No reinforcing or even a poor compaction job WITH reinforcing will drop out a pool shell. I’ve seen it happen.
As for responsibility for damage, it lies with both he and yourselves. He can argue that he was going by the labeling. Hard call here. Like I said earlier, any doubt as to the line’s purpose should have been mentioned. If the guy is reputable, he’ll take half the responsibility as a good will gesture.