Friday, January 22, 2016

No Time to Waste

Poop is gross. Sure we all do it, but it's really not something you want to think about. This rings even more true when it spills onto your basement floor. As we worked on moving the plumbing from one part of the kitchen to another, we heard gurgling in the nearby toilet that time forgot. It was certainly concerning, but we thought we had some time to check that everything was vented properly.

As part of the buying process, I was told to examine the waste pipes inside and outside the house. I spent the $350 and got the plumber to come in, scope the drain with the camera, and give me the all clear. He said, "This looks great, even moreso considering its age." The only portion that was unobservable, he said, was the whole house trap. It is amazing how quickly one goes from knowing nothing to knowing too much.

After someone (me) flushed the toilet (at least it was my own brand), the toilet in the bathroom that time forgot backed up and spilled onto the floor. Not too much, but just enough to be disgusting. After thinking about what to do, I made the call to Roto Rooter and had them come examine to see if something was wrong, namely a clog. I give this guy a lot of credit. For $300 put on a small little glove, the kind that the 3rd grade class I just observed used to look at owl pellets, and shoved his hand into my waste pipe.

No more then five seconds later, he says, "You're entire house trap is gone. You need some work done here. Call the plumber." Fast forward, we call the same plumber who said that all was good other than the unobservable trap (which, it turns out, is observable if you just shove your arm into the right place). I know what you're thinking. Why call the same guy? Well, I needed someone to come over and look and this was the first guy I thought of and was still recommended by a bunch of people. I told him what I thought was wrong and he said, "Yep, this needs to be done." The $64,000 question, "How much?"

$2,500. That included removing the trap and replacing with a straight run and a short-y cleanout. I told you that I learned things. Just words though, nothing more. I asked about replacing the entire run of waste pipe under the floor about 12' to the portion that runs up to the rest of the house. He said, "Don't make a mountain out of the mole hill." $2,500 in less than a day's work. Fudge.

Needless to say, Jess and I did not see this coming. We had a budget we thought we were on, and that just became a bit iffy. Not that we expected all to go without a hiccup, but this was a big nut and would eat into the kitchen/bath reno. (Still not as big as the chimney issue, but that is for another day.) After sleeping on it a bit and getting her family to come down, we spoke about it at length. Something funny happened. My brother, Matt, the semi-pro mudder and local old house historian, pissed in a water bottle because the toilet was unusable. Apparently, that was enough to set my father-in-law into motion. After they went back to CT, my wife gets a phone call from her mother. "Jess, your father and two brothers are coming to replace the pipe and do everything else that needs to be done."

I really hit the jackpot with this family. Knowing that I could not take off work, they still did not care and came down anyway. Over the course of a day, they took a shitty situation and made it whole again. They not only removed the trap, they dug the entire basement run up, replaced the run almost all the way until the second floor. All while I sat observing a teacher pound fractions into 3rd graders spongy heads.

It gets better. They came back today and cleaned up and patched the concrete. All while I sat at my desk. I've learned a lot over the past few weeks. You can either pony up and get someone to do it for you, learn to do it yourself, or marry into the right family. I did the latter.

 The old pipe is there just to give some weight to wood against the drying concrete.

 mudded nicely!

Friday, January 1, 2016

One Step Forward, Two Back?

Today was a typical old-home-owner type of day. First the good news. My brother-in-law shored up the termite damage, as seen below. He did a great job and it certainly looks much better. We did not insulate yet as this area will hold the washer and dryer, so we need plumbing and electrical. Then we will insulate everything and seal it up. We are leaning towards bead board here, so we will not plaster but throw up sheetrock instead.



















My father-in-law is pretty good with plumbing, so we moved the drain from one side of the kitchen to another (no pics, will post later). So while that saved me some good money, we move onto the not-so-good, potentially-bad-stuff from today.

I know that setbacks are guaranteed, but I was hoping not to find any BIG ones. Towards the end of the day, my father-in-law and brother-in-law said, "We heard some gurgling in the toilet that time forgot." It was happening every time someone flushed the toilet two floors up. No sooner did he say that did the water start bubbling over from the toilet onto the 115 year old floor. It looked like poop and smelled even worse. It was poop. Not good. I suspect it was doing that for a while without overflow, but with 6 people using the toilet today, it pushed it overboard.

Needless to say, something is wrong. Since I am not a plumber, I deferred to other, smarter people. They say it is likely a clog in the main. However, I just had the main scoped prior to purchase and it was clean as a whistle. So, can there be a clog from the upstairs toilet to where the scope went in? Where would the backup be? I was told that water will back up to the lowest point, which is the 50's shitter in question and seen here. There is also some water in the tub, too.


I'm sure this is somewhat common. I'd rather not spend a fortune if I can fix this ourselves but my time is also needed in 1,024 other areas so I need to be realistic if this is beyond me. Any thoughts are appreciated... Or, if you are in the area, I pay in food and booze.