Checking a password with a salt and sha1 hash.

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]

Code:

function login($user, $password)
{
   $this -> db -> select('*');
   $this -> db -> from('tableName');
   $this -> db -> where('user', $user);
   $this -> db -> where('password', sha1($this->salt.$password));
   $this -> db -> limit(1);

   $query = $this -> db -> get();

   if($query -> num_rows() == 1)
   {
     return $query->result();
   }
   else
   {
     return false;
   }
}

This doesn't work. The password returns as invalid the entire time, or it just doesn't log me in. What am i doing wrong? The salt is stored in the database and i need to retrieve it, add it to the user provided password and then hash it. Please dont lecture on the hashing types, i am fully aware and unfortunately changing from sha to md5 is not an option.