New construction plumbing

The cost of a plumbing subcontractor is rarely the quoted price. It is the clash that got buried, the rough-in that landed an inch and a half off, the inspection called before it was ready, and the week the tile setter lost waiting.

We work with General Contractors on new builds and major renovations across Miami-Dade, from the underground through to handover. Nineteen years in the London trade before Miami in 2020, and the habits that transfer most directly to a site are the boring ones.

The stages

Underground and below slab. Sleeves, stub-ups and below-slab waste set out from the drawings and fixed before the pour. This is the stage with the least tolerance for error and the highest cost of getting it wrong — a stub-up in the wrong place after a pour is a concrete saw and a bad week.

Rough-in. Supply, waste and vent, stacks and risers. Set out so trim-out lands where the tile and the cabinetry expect it, supported properly, and protected from the trades that follow.

Top-out. Stacks and vents completed through the roof, the system made ready for test.

Testing and inspection stages. Pressure and air tests held, work presented the way an inspector wants to see it, and the stage called only when it is genuinely ready.

Trim-out. Fixtures, valves, trim and appliance connections set, connected and tested.

Handover. Final test, notes on anything that moved from the drawings, isolation points identified, and the area left clean.

What a GC actually gets

The set read before the crew arrives. Clashes flagged while they are still cheap. A duct through a vent run costs an afternoon before the pour and a week after it.

Stages that are ready when they are called. We check before calling. An inspector who finds a stage not ready remembers, and the next one gets a closer look.

Early warning. If something threatens your program, you hear it on the Tuesday, not on the Friday it slips. A trade that goes quiet and then misses a date costs more than one that says so.

Changes in writing, before the work. Agreed when they come up, not discovered on the final invoice.

A site the next trade can work in. Swept, offcuts removed, anything non-obvious labelled. The British habit that transfers most directly: you leave the job clean, you label what is not obvious, and the person who comes after you does not lose a day working out what you did.

Coordination

We work to your program rather than around it. That means sequencing with the framers, the electricians, the HVAC crew and the tile setters, and being honest about our own float rather than protecting it quietly.

Where a drawing and a site condition disagree, we raise it rather than choosing one. That decision belongs to you.

Code and inspection

All work is completed to the Florida Building Code and presented for inspection where inspection applies, by a licensed Florida contractor, Lic. #CFC1433820. Venting, stack sizing, support spacing, cleanout placement and slope are not areas where approximately right is right.

Scale

From a single-bathroom renovation to the full plumbing package on a multi-million-dollar rebuild. The scope changes; the procedure does not. Both ends of that range are real work and both get the same stages, the same tests and the same handover.

What we need from you

A plumbing sub is only as good as what it is given, and the things that slow a package down are almost never technical.

A drawing set that is current. Including the revisions. Pricing and setting out against a superseded sheet is how a clash gets built rather than avoided.

Fixture selections, early. Rough-in dimensions depend on them. A fixture chosen after rough-in is a change order, and everybody would rather it was not.

Finished dimensions, not framing dimensions. Tile thickness, backer board, cabinet depth and countertop overhang all move where trim has to land.

A decision when a drawing and the site disagree. We will raise it the day we see it, with what we think and why, but the call is yours.

Access and sequence. When the slab pours, when the framers finish, when drywall goes on. We work to your program; we just need to know what it is.

Give us those and the stages hold. Withhold them and the float disappears into waiting, which is what a delayed package usually turns out to have been.

What affects the cost

• Fixture count and the number of wet walls. Every fixture is a termination.
• Slab or suspended construction, and how much is below grade.
• The set. A complete, coordinated drawing set prices tighter than a partial one, because less of the price is contingency.
• Program. Compressed sequences and out-of-hours work cost more, and we will say so rather than agreeing and then slipping.
• Site conditions. Access, storage, lift availability and how many trades are working the same space.

Priced in writing against the scope, with exclusions stated plainly.