CUSTOMER SERVICE WARRANTY POLICY
The following information will explain the plumbing components and warranty coverage for the plumbing systems and fixtures in your new house.
Our Service Departments:
(800) 822-4727 / (951) 371-5000
When requesting service, please give your name, street address phone number and Close of Escrow Date. Our service department hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If you need emergency service after hours or on weekends, call the above number (you may be referred to a different emergency number). Only true emergencies will be repaired after normal business hours. (We cannot accept Collect Calls.)
Non-Warranty Customer Service
We can continue to service your home after the one-year-warranty period for a nominal hourly fee. Our plumbers do not work on commission so you will not get any over-sell or scare tactics. We know the products used in your house and are most qualified to perform their maintenance.
Keep in mind that every product with moving parts requires maintenance occasionally. The primary enemy of working plumbing parts is dirt or other foreign material in the water system. We cannot control the quality of purity of your water, nor can the builder of your home.
Your Warranty Coverage
Systems and Fixtures (Water/Waste and Gas)
All the water/waste and gas systems and fixtures are warranted to be free of defect for ONE YEAR from your CLOSE OF ESCROW Date (COE). Damaged or normal homeowner maintenance items are excluded from this warranty.
All faucets, tubs, sinks, lavs, toilets, and toilet seats need to be inspected by the homeowner within the first FOUR WEEKS of occupancy, and damaged or defective items must be called in to our Customer Service Department within that FOUR WEEKS. After that period, damaged or scratched items will be available for replacement through RCR Companies at a reasonable charge for material and labor.
Dripping Faucets, Running Toilets
Dripping faucets or running toilets after the first TWELVE WEEKS of COE will be considered homeowner maintenance. The most common reason faucets drip or toilets run is dirt or other foreign particles in the water getting into the faucet cartridges or valve assemblies and not allowing the faucets to close completely. We cannot control the purity of the water in your area. If the faucet has a factory defect, it will show up right away and not suddenly appear after several months of working properly. We will be happy to perform the homeowner maintenance for you at a reasonable price.
Drainage or Waste Line Stoppages
Drainage or waste line stoppages (such as toilets, sinks, tubs, showers, disposals, etc.) will be covered for TWELVE WEEKS after COE. This allows ample time for a stoppage due to construction debris to occur. Stoppages are usually a result of what is put down a drain. We cannot control what you might put down the drain. Any toilet stoppage that is in the bowl of the toilet and not in the waste line is called a soft stoppage. Too much paper or other material being flushed down toilets causes soft stoppages. Soft stoppages are chargeable for us to clear. See the waste system section for more information.
Bowl Cleaners
Bowl cleaners that are placed in the toilet tanks may cause the rubber or neoprene flappers and washers to break down, warp or fall apart. If chemicals have been added to the toilet tank, it will void the warranty on these parts and a charge to repair or replace will result.
Emergencies
In the event of a water leak under pressure in a wall or ceiling, turn off the valve (directly below your water pressure regulator) where the water line enters your house or garage.
Individual fixtures (such as toilets, sinks, lavs, etc.) have separate water shut-off valves for hot or cold below them.
Call our Customer Service number (800 -822-4727 or 951-371-5000). After hours or on weekends, there may be an additional emergency number on our recording. You will be called back, and a plumber will respond to actual emergencies. If the call is not a true emergency, the homeowner will be given instructions over the phone that will isolate the problem until the next business day.
Fixtures
Your builder has selected the fixtures installed in your house. The type, size, finishes and features were carefully researched by the builder and precisely specified to us by contract for our installation. Based on the specifications we have received from your builder, RCR Companies has installed only new and first quality products.
Finishes
Occasionally, a product may have a factory blemish or unseen defect. We ask that you inspect each faucet, sink, lav, tub, shower, toilet, toilet seat, etc. closely WITHIN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF YOUR OCCUPANCY for possible visual flaws. After the first FOUR WEEKS, we will continue to respond on factory defects but will have to charge for scratched or abused fixtures or toilet seats.
The manufactures recommend that nothing stronger than soap and water be used on faucets. Abrasives should never be used on tubs, sinks, and lavs. Remember, that the more abrasive the cleaner, the shorter time the gloss on the fixture will last.
Faucets and Toilets
Dripping faucets and toilets will be serviced for THE FIRST TWELVE WEEKS AFTER COE. Products with moving parts have homeowner maintenance responsibility. A defective product will show up as a drip immediately. Washers and faucet cartridges are very susceptible to sand, dirt or other foreign particles that may cause them to leak. Be especially careful if you or one of your subcontractors cut into your PVC water service line for landscape or other reasons. Whenever that line is cut into, particles of PVC burr and dirt are introduced into your water system. These may cause your water pressure regulator to malfunction, your faucets to leak, or your toilets to run due to dirt in the ballcock. After the first twelve weeks, we must charge these repairs as homeowner maintenance items.
If your house has pressure balancing shower or tub/shower valves, it is important that those valves be used at least once a month. There are moving parts called balancing spools that may corrode if they sit in water without moving, for months at a time, and your valve will not work properly. See the water system section for more information about pressure balancing valves.
Your house has water conservation toilets, showerheads and lav aerators. Your toilets flush with 1.6 gallons of water as opposed to the 5-gallon flush type that were available many years ago. You will notice that there is not as much water sitting in the bowl as there may have been in the toilets of your previous house. That is characteristic of the water saver toilet and not a defect. You may also notice that the flush is not as complete or as positive as you have been accustomed to in the past. That again is not a defect. You may have an adjustment period getting used to the water saving toilets which WE ARE BOUND BY CODE TO INSTALL. Your showerheads have a two and one half gallon per minute restrictor in them. That may be why you might feel your pressure at the shower is not as good as you might have expected. We can inform you there is a restrictor in your showerheads, but we cannot remove them for you. Your lav aerators are also restricted. With the water flow reduced to two and one half gallons per minute, it will take longer for the hot water to reach many fixtures because the cooled water stored in the hot water lines must be purged. This, again, is a side effect of code requirements.
The manufactures recommend that nothing stronger than soap and water be used on faucets. Abrasives should never be used on tubs, sinks, and lavs. Remember, that the more abrasive the cleaner, the shorter time the gloss on the fixture will last.
Disposals
Your garbage disposal probably has a wrench attached to the side or bottom of it. This wrench is to be used if the disposal becomes jammed. Insert it into the slot in the bottom of the disposal, and turn it in both directions. Whatever jammed the disposal should dislodge and may be removed through the mouth of the disposal. The disposal is not designed to be batch fed. By that we mean do not load the disposal with all it will hold, and then turn it on. This will clog your drainpipes and will not be covered by your warranty. Feed the material to be disposed of slowly with the cold water running.
Automatic Clothes Washer
Use only new water supply hoses when connecting clothes washer, be sure to secure the drain hose so it will not flip out of drain hole.
Kitchen Faucets
Your house may have a pullout spray type of kitchen faucet. Be careful not to spray back at the faucet. This allows water to go down the hole the hose is coming out of. This will look like a leak but will actually be a user error.
Icemakers
Your home is piped with water to the icemaker location in a recessed box with a
1/4 inch angle stop. There is also a valve under the kitchen sink that is outside the drywall. It has copper pipe coming through the drywall, turning down to the valve and then returning to the wall. This valve controls the water to the recess box. The reason for the piping and the valve under the kitchen sink is so you may have the water to the refrigerator connected to a reverse osmosis system or water filtration system that may be installed at a later date. It will allow you to change filters for the refrigerator water without pulling the refrigerator away from the wall and possibly damaging the flooring. If you choose not to add an after market water filter/reverse osmosis unit, it is important to be sure the valve is in the open position, otherwise the water to the recessed box will be turned off.
Water Heater
Your water heater instructions are on the water heater itself.
They should be self-explanatory.
If you will be away from home for an extended period (more than two days), turn your water heater to the pilot setting. If you do not have a pilot setting, turn water heater to lowest available setting. Failure to do this will result in pressure buildup known as thermal expansion and may cause leaks, or damage to your water system, faucets, toilets, or washing machine hose.
Bathtubs
Your bathtubs will need to be re-caulked between the tub and tile periodically. If you notice the grout cracking or falling out, it is time to re-caulk. Failure to do so will result in a leak that is not covered by warranty. Re-caulking may always be necessary after an earthquake, which shakes the grout loose from the tub in most instances.
Do not overfill your bathtub. The overflow plate located a few inches below the top of your tub will not handle all of the water that your faucet can put out, nor will it handle overflow water displaced by your body. We do not make the tubs or overflow plates. That is just the way we buy them. The overflow hole was designed years ago when linkage went from a trip lever to the stopper through a pipe connecting the overflow and stopper. Tub wastes have changed.
Deck Mounted Tub Spouts
Do not stand on or lean hard against the tub spouts or use the tub spouts as grab bars. They may be a quick connect type held only with an Allen screw. They may come off in your hand or move sideways eventually causing a non-warranty leak.
Water Heater Vent Noise
You may notice a ticking noise as your water heater goes through a heating cycle. The piping used to vent your water heater through the roof is called Type B gas vent pipe. This piping is double walled. The exterior wall is sheet metal and the interior wall is aluminum. The two different metals expand and contract at different rates and temperatures. When this expansion occurs it will cause a ticking noise. The architect determines the location of your water heater. There is usually only one wall that will accommodate the venting of the water heater. Unfortunately the vent, which will make noise by design, may end up in a bedroom wall and cause some distraction. We apologize for this but the only approved venting material is this double wall pipe and the only place we can place it is in a wall adjacent to the top of the water heater. There is nothing wrong with your water heater or the vent pipe. It will make noise. Your previous house may not have had the water heater located where the vent went through the bedroom wall or the old transit (asbestos) vent piping (which is no longer approved) could have been used.
We hope this helps explain the reason for the noise even though there is little that can be done to eliminate it.
The Gas System
The gas system in your house is made out of steel pipe and fittings. The gas system meter is usually located on the side of the garage on a single family home, or at a banked location on attached housing. The gas system operates at a very low pressure. It is approximately one-half pound per square inch.
The plumbing contractor connects the gas connectors to the water heater and your gas cooking appliances. If the forced air unit is in the attic, your heating/cooling contractor makes that connection. Your clothes dryer, fireplace log lighter stub out and BBQ stub out all have threaded caps on them. When removing the caps, it is very important to use two wrenches; one to hold the pipe and one to remove the cap. If you use only one wrench on the cap, you will most likely unscrew the pipe from the wall. Be sure to use pipe joint compound on the threads when connecting gas flex connectors or other pipes.
There is an optional valve that can be installed at your gas meter outlet that is called an earthquake valve. This valve is activated by a major earthquake and shuts off your gas automatically. We are not necessarily suggesting the installation of these valves. We are merely pointing out that they are available. There obviously is an advantage during an earthquake that does damage to a house in having the gas system off. The disadvantage of the automatic valve is if there is a quake strong enough to trip the valve, but not strong enough to do damage to the house, you will have to re-light the pilot lights for those appliances not having self lighting devices. That is usually just the water heater in a new house.
The Waste System
Your house waste system is most likely made of ABS plastic waste and vent piping. Cast iron waste and vent material may be used if you have a three-story condo, or if the builder of your house has directed the installation of cast iron for parts of your waste system for sound control. The sound control issue is a decision that is made by the builder and not by the plumber.
ABS plastic piping may occasionally develop a ticking noise. This is not a defect. Plastic piping is subject to expansion and contraction with heat or cold. Your waste system is strapped to the framing securely during construction to prohibit movement and maintain fall. All houses go through a compression process when the heavy roofing materials are applied, and the lumber dries and shrinks. This can sometimes tighten the strapping and a tick can be heard, usually when hot water is ran from a shower or tub upstairs. This is not a defect or anything to be alarmed about, and it is not a drip. ABS plastic is very strong and almost impossible to break.
Your house may have a sewer backwater valve on it. The valve would be located in a vault and usually in the garage slab. The vault will look like a water meter box. The backwater valve is required by code on unleveled projects where the sewer manhole in the street upstream from your house is higher than your lowest plumbing fixture. The backwater valve is a form of check valve that only allows waste to flow towards the street. If there is a stoppage in the sewer main in the street and if the backup reached your house, the backwater valve would automatically close to prevent sewage from entering your house. This would be an extremely rare situation. The valve requires little maintenance. This is a flapper that occasionally may have paper or other waste material attach itself and may be a source of flow restriction. To service the backwater valve, the lid must be removed and the flapper must also be removed. Never attempt to run a drain snake from the rear or side cleanout to the street without removing the flapper first. The snake will be able to pass through the backwater valve, but the flapper will not allow retrieval of the snake. The lid of the backwater valve twists off, and the flapper lifts straight up. If the code requires your backwater valve to be cast iron instead of ABS plastic, then you will need a socket wrench to remove the top.
Drainage stoppages will be covered by your warranty for a period of TWELVE WEEKS AFTER YOUR COE. This allows ample time for a stoppage due to construction debris to occur. The following items should not be put down your drains:
Stoppages are usually a result of what is put down a drain. They are usually not a result of drain failure, but of human failure to use good judgment of what or how much to put down a drain.
Condensate Drains from Air Conditioners
We install the drains that go from your forced air unit to the nearest drain outlet or to the outside. Forced air units located in the attic will have two
drains. All others will have one. The attic units have one drain to a plumbing fixture or outside, and the other comes out over a door or window. The drain over a door or window is an overflow drain. If you notice water coming from this drain, it means the primary drain is clogged and service is required. We connect the drain line to the plumbing fixture. The heating contractor connects the drain line at the forced air unit. Be sure to check before pouring outside walks or patios. If you see a pipe sticking out of your wall with an elbow on it, this is a condensate drain. Do not cover it or you will have an overflow at your forced air unit.
Balcony Drains
If you have any balconies on your house, please check to see if there is a drain in the floor of the balcony. Some are designed so that they do not need drains. If there is a drain, please pour some water down it, and locate the point of discharge at ground level. These drains do not go into the sewer system. They go to the landscape area. They sometimes get clogged with construction debris or leaves.
Lead Content
Most sources of drinking water, including those in California, contain some amount of lead in addition to other impurities, which are regulated under Federal law. Brass plumbing fixtures, such as faucets, connectors and pipes, and lead solder joints can also contribute certain amounts of lead to water if the water is allowed to stand in the fixture for a period of time.
Although the amount of lead contributed by brass faucets is minimal compared to other sources of lead in drinking water, we suggest that you take the following precaution:
Always run the water for several seconds in order to clear the faucets and pipes of any standing water before use.
Due to the fact that there is some lead, however minimal, in all brass faucets, California law requires that consumers purchasing this product be provided with the following warning pursuant to the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, also known as Proposition 65.
Warning: All brass faucets and other brass plumbing fixtures contain detectable amounts of lead, a chemical know to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm.
THE SOLDER USED IN THE COPPER WATER PIPING SYSTEM OF YOUR HOME IS LEAD FREE.
The Water System
Your water system is made of pure copper tubing. The solder we use to join the fittings to the tubing is made without any lead content at all. The piping going from the meter to the house is made of PVC plastic. If you intend to cut into the pipe for sprinkling systems or if you shut off your main water valve either at the curb or at the house, be sure you unplug your re-circulating hot water pump if you have one. Failure to do so will burn out your pump, and it will not be covered by warranty.
Water pressure regulators are most likely installed on your water system. They will be located just above the main water shut off valve at your house. DO NOT ADJUST YOUR WATER PRESSURE REGULATOR TO OVER 70 PSI. Dirt or PVC pipe shavings could cause your regulator to lose calibration. The strainer on the regulator needs to be cleaned yearly.
Your hose bibs may be soldered on. In that case, do not try to remove them with a wrench. The only way to remove them is with a torch. You will also notice a device that is screwed on to the end of your hose bibs. This is a vacuum breaker to prevent back siphoning from irrigation water to the house potable water. This is a code requirement and must not be removed. This device is the source of a moaning noise you will hear when using your hose bib. There will also be some water spillage from this device when your hose is shut off with a nozzle attached. The moaning and spillage are not a defect. They are part of the normal operation of this device.
Your builder may have specified pressure balancing tub and shower valves. These valves are always single handle. They have a special balancing spool that compensates for changes in water pressure after you have set your shower to the desired temperature. The volume may decrease, but the temperature stays within 3 degrees of your previous setting. If you have these valves, it is important that you use them. If you have a bathroom that is only used when guests come, it will be necessary for you to turn the valves on once a month and run them from hot to cold for a short time. If these valves sit for several months without use, the balancing spools may corrode and stick. Only cold water or only hot water will come out and the temperature will not be adjustable. Although most tubs and showers will be used on a regular basis, it is important to know that not using a pressure-balancing valve may require premature maintenance that is not covered under warranty.
Your house may have a recirculating hot water system. This is a system that has a pump located either at your hot water heater or under a lav in your master bath. If your system has a pump at the water heater, you will also have a timer with that pump. It is important that you use that timer, and set it for the most convenient setting for your household schedule. If your pump is located under your master lav, no timer will be needed. This is called a demand system. All you need to do is turn on the hot water faucet above the pump and turn it back off. This will start the pump and everything will be automatic. The purpose of the recirculating hot water system is to have hot water available instantly when you need it. It eliminates the two or three-minute wait that sometimes occur when you turn on your faucet. This is a system that must be specified before your slab is poured.
If you do not have a recirculating hot water system and you want one, it may be possible to install it. It all depends on your house layout, and the availability of electrical outlets.
IMPORTANT: If you have a hot water recirculating system with the pump at the water heater, never turn off the main water valve to your house when the pump is running. It will burn out the pump and will not be covered by your warranty. This usually happens when sprinklers are installed.
