Plumbing 101

Now if you are my family reading this post, I know you are very worried for several reasons. 1) It is a known fact I know nothing about plumbing, EXCEPT, shit goes downhill. 2) I should not even attempt to play with plumbing and 3) If I'm talking about plumbing, I probably had to hire a plumber recently which means my world is upside down! Seems like life just wanted to have some fun with me, on a Monday, no less. So let me start at the beginning!

My job occasionally has me up early to complete projects which is not a big deal. I can usually just work from home. So, I decided to be uber productive and throw in a load of laundry in the morning when I was up early. I had already showered, so why not. When I went to put the wash in the dryer, I walked thru some water, but didn't notice it. I decided to grab some trash out of the bathroom next to the laundry room, and then I noticed the water. Not much, but water that came out of the drain pipe in the floor is never a good sign. It didn't dawn on me until I'm on my hands and knees wiping it up that this shouldn't have happened and a pipe must be clogged. So I set forth on testing the situation. 

Luckily, I figured out that the bathroom in the basement and water from the wash sink, could cause water to come up. Not a lot, but some nonetheless. I tried to pull off the drain cap only to realize that the genius DIYer's who owned the house before me I had grouted it in place!! Mind you, it is 5ish in the am when all of this is happening! 

Before any of this occurred, I had made myself a nice cup of tea and had been drinking it. Now, I know I'm going to need a plumber and obviously I can't call at that hour of the morning. I hadn't been prepared to work all day from home, so going to the office was needed as well. And since I work in the city, commuting time was needed to be considered. So after a somewhat frantic call to the parents for pure reassurement that I could leave the house (don't ask), I got ready to leave. It was also about this time, that my body reminded me of the lovely cup of Tazo Chai tea I had enjoyed earlier. While this may be a little TMI, this wasn't a #1 reminder either! Seriously, I have never moved so quickly in the morning EVER to leave the house. Nor have I ever been so grateful for the new Sheetz less than a block away!!

Going to the office with running water and flushable toilets never looked so good on a Monday!!

I reached the plumber and was able to set up an appointment for later in the afternoon, I packed up everything I would need and went home to meet him. When he arrived, the plumber said he had worked in my house before and even showed me how to turn off the outside water faucet for winter (just a little late on that one!). When he was looking around, it wasn't that great. These previous genius owners had probably laid hardwood floor in the basement over the second drain pipe! And, it that wasn't enough the pipe he needed, the opening was possibly too small for his equipment. (Cue the panic) . As a natural worrier, I went straight for worse case. He would have to bring I an excavator and tear up my front yard, for oh say, $12,000 (cue the tears!). However, he seemed to think we had plenty of other options before we went that route. (thank God!)

The plumber arrived a little before 10 am on Wednesday. He thought he would try the drain first only to discover the pipe was too small. :-(

Onto attempting the access location in the closet. However, this required the plumber to remove the door between the laundry room and bathroom.

As I worked upstairs, I could here all kinds of loud noises. I came to the decision that I never want to be home when work is being completed here. However, after what seemed like a long time (really only 15 mins), he was done. My lovely 90 year old home has terra cota pipes so some roots had grown into pipes and he was able to drill them out and flush them down the drain. 

All of that was possible because I have never finished this bathroom closet which I procrastinated on all winter.....what luck! Not going to lie though, every time I was into the laundry room, not scratch that the basement, I expect to see water everywhere!