Another Heinous Plumbing Adventure

So, yesterday or maybe the day before (night shifts confuse my sense of days, they all just sort of mix together which can be nice and annoying at the same time) I had been talking about plumbing.

I had mentioned that there was a fiasco dealing with the plumbing in the basement washer/bath room. So here’s what it is...

One of the great things about the house I bought was the 2nd bath, you see it's a 1948 brick Colonial (Brick houses are the best!) and most (in my area at least) have only one bath and no finished basement. So needless to say a living basement and a bath to boot was a huge selling point. Yes, true the bath is oddly interspersed with a washer and dryer, the toilet is in a cubby on one side of the room while the sink and shower are in a cubby on the other side with the washer/dryer in the middle. But that was ok, it was tiled, the living area was carpeted (Berber carpet is NOT good for pets) and it is actually a very comfy TV room.

So about two months after moving in (bye bye warrantee!) the hole in the floor where the washer drains decided to start spewing water all over the place every time I washed the clothes.... not so good... good time to start drinking

Then it would just start happening any old time. Even worse.... Maybe I should drink a little more

So after about a week of this I called a plumber, who poked and prodded and snaked and plunged. After about an hour he stated that the problem was that whoever put the tile in washed all the extra grout down the drain and it hardened... Oh crap I need to buy some more wine

So now, I have to constantly run an enzyme mix down the drain to keep lint and what ever else may be going down the drain or toilet, from building up.

The fix?
Laundry sink! So easy, I can do it myself! HURRAY LETS HAVE A DRINK!
Step 1: Buy laundry sink (in other words really big sink that can hold all the H2O form the washer)
Step 2: Go to the Hell Depot and buy lots of PVC pipe in all sorts of fun shapes and sizes, and some PVC glue, and some pipe cutters, and some sandpaper, and a big wrench Have a drink, that was expensive!
Step 3: Bring it all home and get to work putting the PVC in place...
Step 4: Go back and buy more PVC after you realize that the glue dries instantly realize the glue is making you high
Step 5: Try to figure out three dimensional measurements and really screw it up again do I work tomorrow? no? have a drink
Step 6: Go back to the depot which has now started to seem fun because your high from all the glue and buy a huge amount of pipe
Step 7: Start to lay out the pipe and not remember how you got there maybe I should not be drunk plumbing?
Step 8: Go buy plumbing book and realize this should have been step 1
Step 9: Go to bed
Step 10: Take your time after 2-6 cups of coffee to read the book and do it the way they say to and have that not work either Is it too early for a drink?
Step 11: Thank god you bought a ton of pipe so you do not have to go back to that place and try ONE MORE TIME
Step 12: Let glue dry, try sink. IT WORKS!

For two weeks

Then it floods again and water shoots out the back of the toilet. Guess i should buy more wine next time I go out, maybe i should buy a lot...

What the hell....

Call plumber

The fix?

After another 2 hours of watching him do really nothing but shine a flashlight on things, I get the fix...

Oh there is no fix; did I forget to mention that? You cannot remove the grout. The pipes need to be replaced. Ask the plumber if he wants a drink too

The pipes are under the floor.

The floor is cement.

Oh crap...

Now I have two choices;
1 - Deal with it and invest in drain cleaner.
2 - Spend 8,000 -15,000$, yes that much, to have the floor removed and pipes replace and then the whole shebang put back together after. better stop drinking, too expensive

Umm, well. I guess deal for now, though that means random floods and never EVER using the shower because that floods it instantly. Saving for the next year or so and prying it gets no worse so I can afford to fix it...

All in all, it's not that bad, the toilet works (I had just loosened the seal with vigorous plunging) and the washer works like a charm... so next year I'll give the steps to removing and replacing a bathroom...


Can't wait...