Good plumbing and bad plumbing. Lots of plumbing concerns lately.
By writersedge
@writersedge (22563)
United States
April 12, 2012 10:08am CST
Last Friday, my husband restored the plumbing to the kitchen. It freezes every winter so I just had him shut if off. That turned out well the first time. No leeks. I was able to wash dishes and prepare the Easter meal without problems and wash dishes and well as clean up the table afterward without having to carry buckets. Little things mean so much.
Yesterday, the toilet bowl seal broke. So my husband stayed home and fixed it. AFter a day of missing work and fighting with it. the seal is not right and it is leaking almost as much as before he tried to fix it. He said the seal was probably not the right one. So I have towels all around it and I'm only turning the water on to flush when I abslutley have to. He's getting a better seal tonight and trying again.
So one plumbing job went well and one not so well. At least I have my sink back for spring, summer and fall.
It's still better than when I do plumbing. I remember turning on water one time and the waterline was squirting all over the place, it was wild! Then I learned about plumbing tape. Great stuff, better to learn about before you do plumbing than afterward.
So what great plumbing stories do you have? Successful and not so successful ones? Aren't point of use turn off valves great? I remember life before those, what a nightmare.
8 responses
@ecaron (678)
• Canada
12 Apr 12
We have plumbing problems too. My kitchen is far from being built all I have is a stove and fridge and I have to wash dishes upstairs at our friends. The pipes that are there waiting for the sink are leaking because when you drain water from the sink upstairs it sometimes leaks out the pipes down in our kitchen area. It stinks too, like sewer smell. I can't wait for my husband and his partner to finally finish my kitchen with sink , cupboards, counter and painting and finish flooring too. that will be very nice.
1 person likes this
@stringer321 (5643)
• Kiryat Ata, Israel
12 Apr 12
Sometimes , it is better to make the pipes to not pass through the walls , if you have a leak , you can fix it without breaking the wall.
If you do have a leak inside the wall , it's a problem because of the water that make some bacteria grow on the wall , fungus...It can cost like 70$ (in israeli shekels , it is about 250 israeli shekels).
Fixing the sewer is a problem in our house.
We have a sewer system with our neighbours and everytime they have a problem like a blockage in their toilet , they have to come to our garden , open the sewer and push a special flexible and strong string to push away the blockage.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
12 Apr 12
Those situations should have been taken care of a long time ago since they present a health problem. I know, if you don't have the $ to fix them, easier said than done.
@babystar1 (4233)
• United States
13 Apr 12
If I have any plumbing problems my husband fixes them all. I am lucky because my husband is a plumber.He also does heating and air. People call him every day for plumbing and heating and air problems. So I really dont have any plumbing stories that I had to try to fix myself.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
13 Apr 12
Maybe he has some interesting stories.
I didn't get married until 42 yrs of age, so I have lots of stories.
@GardenGerty (157452)
• United States
12 Apr 12
You sound very adaptable. This would be the time that you might wish for an old fashioned out house on the property. I have plumbing that needs done and a husband who is ignoring it. My first husband could do most anything except plumbing, so when I say how much it upset him to try to get it right we chose to pay for plumbing. I do remember my daughter during potty training taking off her little cotton shorts and underwear and flushing it. I poured about a gallon of bleach down the toilet and it seemed to fix it. After that she also seemed to be completely potty trained as well.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
12 Apr 12
Bleach would kill our septic system if we did that. Country people have to be careful what we put in our toilets. Our ground water could become poluted.
My husband normally fixes things well the first time. He said he thought that seal wasn't a very good one. I've been ordering milk, water, or juice at the corner diner and using their toilet, for now.
Years ago, I had ordered and we still have a compost toilet. I wanted that to have for when you work outdoors and you don't want to come in and as a backup since we don't have another toilet, just one in the house. But I had put it in the workshop and as a guy, he wanted the workshop to be a workshop and not an outhouse.
The barn has fallen in, but when we get that fixed (if we ever get enough money) that's where I want my compost toilet,so yes, one step up from an outhouse would be nice, esp. for emergencies.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (158614)
• Boise, Idaho
13 Apr 12
I hate plumbing. We have had some leaks in the tub area upstairs and it runs down into the bathroom downstairs. We called manintenance and it took them two or three tries to actually fix the problem. Then we started hearing the weirdest noise coming from the apartment on our right. Sounding like pounding late at night after 9 or 10 or some times even later. It would last for several hours. THen it started at our apartment. Weird. Called maintenance. Haven't seen them. Something in the pipes. My ex and I had this same thing happen and that is why I know. We thought we were haunted at first. It was the weirdest noise. Certainly DOES NOT sound like anything pertaining to the plumbing.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
14 Apr 12
This Old House and some other TV shows on DIY and on educational PBS have had shows where they taught now to stop the racket in plumbing. Maybe the people who fix things need to watch one of those shows.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (158614)
• Boise, Idaho
15 Apr 12
Or we might find it on one of the household helps sites.
@savypat (20216)
• United States
12 Apr 12
I think anyone who lives in an old house or in a rural house has plumbing problems
We sure do, our well water clogs the lines, it fills up the hot water tank with
calsum carbinate and we have to open the tank at least once a year and spoon out the stuff. I have no cold water in half my sinks and hot water that burst out
because it's full of air. I try very hard to keep the septic tank clean, pour ridX down it once a month and make sure no bleach or other contanmints get into it and destribe the algie balance. It's just part of country living around here.
@GardenGerty (157452)
• United States
24 Jul 12
There are very few things that do not improve with vinegar and soda. I have learned quite a bit just in this part of the discussion.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
29 Jul 12
Baking soda is awesome at getting rust off dishes and sinks when the faucet drips and the minerals settle.
Glad we both are learning a lot. Take care.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
12 Apr 12
We have potsdam soil which is fine iron ore in our area. We have to take that out of our hot water tanks once a year. The air problem should be able to be taken care of. Every time my husband fixes something he gets the air out of the lines. We run the water for a little while and it takes any extra air that is left in the lines out. I don't understand why you still have air in your lines.
Ridx is good stuff as long as you don't put it in too close to the time someone will be emptying the septic tank because there is flesh-eating stuff in it. If you don't think so, accidentally spill some on you.
I make sure everything says "safe for septic tanks" if I use it and I prefer vinegar and baking soda to chemical cleaners. My lungs handle vinegar well, but not chemical cleaners.
So yes, we all have problems in old houses living in the country. The worst is whatever that rotten egg smell is in some waters near our lakes and that some aquafers have. Aweful!
Thanks and take care.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
14 Apr 12
Yes, he worked hard after working hard all day building subway cars. So yeah, he went above and beyond.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
14 Apr 12
The first day the new seal wasn't the right size, so he had to try again the next day.
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
12 Apr 12
I do most of the minor plumbing jobs at home, we only call the plumber when it's a major repair or when I think it's already too dirty work for me. The original plumbing of our house use to be underground, we have since condemned that and placed the piping run outside so it's easier to trouble shoot and no more need for chiseling very hard solid concrete.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
12 Apr 12
Our outside plumbing has to be underground, the winter freezes things here to a foot down, so our pipes would freeze and burst. But we cover our pipes with dirt, not concrete.
@stringer321 (5643)
• Kiryat Ata, Israel
12 Apr 12
We had a small blockage under the sink in the kitchen.
I tried to fix it by removing the filter under the sink and all of the water from the sink just flowed down on the kitchen's floor. My brother didn't like the noise so he came to turn off the tap , he thought the tap was open , but suddenly , he sliped so hard on his back because of the water that were on the floor. He sure got a hard and a surprising hit. Ha ha ha ha. That was in the years when he annoyed me a lot.
Anyway , I took out all of the thing that was accumulated in the filter , put it back in its place and it was ok.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
12 Apr 12
Good for you! That turned out well. The kitchen sink seems to be less of a challenge than the toilet. Glas the accumulation in the filter was all you had to clean up and out.