Some areas require discharge to a drain. Locally I recently did one into a crawlspace to discharge into a "french drain" which was nothing but a pile of gravel. For most water heaters I pipe it to within 4" of the floor. Last week a customer insisted I come back, raise it up higher, and offset it further from the tank - so she could get a bucket under it if it dripped

The condensate line is the one that puts out a steady stream of water. Where does that one go?

I was just in Montana with truck and tools, visiting my plumber buddy Peter Burr Folks of Gardiner. He was a hell-raising stomper in his day. His friend Dave Holland owned a house at the top of the Yellowstone River bank. Dave also owned to water's edge, where the century-old pump house was located (which supplied Mammoth, I think). The way Dave told me, a deed came up which followed his property lines all the way into the middle of the river. It was originally for the pump house. So Dave bought it. When I wanted to try some fishing, back in '86, Dave told me to go ahead. Without a permit or license. Claimed he owned that part of the river and F&G could go pound sand.

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Originally posted by Icabod:

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Originally posted by Gustofer:

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Originally posted by Woodman:
Do you mean the drain from the relief valve? Do you want the discharge piped somewhere?

As I recall, it needs to be drained a certain way in order to be code and I'm not there now.

Think this means you need to have an inspection to close out the permit. He did get a permit, yes?

You need to pull a permit to replace a water heater in Montana? What's the world coming to?

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Originally posted by Blackmore:

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Originally posted by Icabod:

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Originally posted by Gustofer:

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Originally posted by Woodman:
Do you mean the drain from the relief valve? Do you want the discharge piped somewhere?

As I recall, it needs to be drained a certain way in order to be code and I'm not there now.

Think this means you need to have an inspection to close out the permit. He did get a permit, yes?

You need to pull a permit to replace a water heater in Montana? What's the world coming to?

No, no permit. As far as I know it's not required and I wouldn't bend over backwards to jump through that hoop if it was. It just needs to be safe and not flood the garage if it decides to blow off as far as I'm concerned.

It sounds like you truly want to just pay this guy and go find someone else to finish the work he should have finished. Okay, fine. Do that. It's your money, and your sense of what's right and wrong. If you're good with it, you don't need validation from any of us.

As I see it:
Plumber agreed to do a complete job, home owner agreed to pay complete fee as agreed upon when the job is completed.

When the plumber is done, pay him.

if it's buy the hour pay him for what he has done, hire a new plumber and be done with it.

Unless there was another agreement beforehand, as someone else said I pay when they finish the job and situations like this are precisely why. As I see it, when he'll get paid is entirely up to him and there's nothing wrong with telling him that.

Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzDsJqkmnSk

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Originally posted by Woodman:

The relief valve would have to be there for safe operation. Do you mean the drain from the relief valve? Do you want the discharge piped somewhere? Here we pipe them to the floor. A ¾" pvc male adaptor, an elle maybe, and a few feet of ¾" pvc and it is done. $8 in material. Although I do them in copper because I do not carry pvc.

You posted that you use copper, ok.

But, CPVC should be used instead of PVC for a safety relief.

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Originally posted by Woodman:
Some areas require discharge to a drain. Locally I recently did one into a crawlspace to discharge into a "french drain" which was nothing but a pile of gravel. For most water heaters I pipe it to within 4" of the floor. Last week a customer insisted I come back, raise it up higher, and offset it further from the tank - so she could get a bucket under it if it dripped

I wouldn't have changed it, 4" is a good height. Within 6" is code, so I wouldn't have raised it above that... and told her the way you piped it was to code.