Plumbing "fun"

At least, this appears to be the case. In addition to screwy scheduling this week, we got to play with plumbing! And not in a fun way.

These past few weeks, Mom and I have been hearing a dripping sound (as in, leaking water) coming from the drain in the kitchen sink, but haven't seen anything. There's no leak that we can see, so we didn't know what to make of it.

We know now.

Monday night, Mom goes to get a pot out to make a hot dish, and finds a puddle of water on the bottom shelf of the cabinet. Next to the sink, where no water should logically be. So, after dinner, I take all the pots and pans out of the cabinet, and we take a look. At the puddle of water coming from soaked plaster at the back of the cabinet, and plaster dissolved in puddles of goo. We obviously have a leak somewhere, but in the wall?? Come on, now!

So, we try to take the shelf out so we can break up the wall and get at the plumbing. These cabinets are original to the house, which was built around about the 1920's. At least, that was the date on the news papers we took out of my bedroom walls when we re-did the sheet rock and insulation back when I was a kid. Regardless, these cabinets were well built. Enough so that Mom had to take a reciprocating saw to the shelf and cut it in half in order to get it out, complete with using a rubber mallet to get the pieces out. There were three-inch nails holding that shelf on, spaced every four or five inches apart. Brick shit-house? Verily.

Mom gets the shelf out, then takes the saw to the back of the cabinet - puddle of water, food particles, mold, the works. The drain pipe leading from the sink to the main assembly to take water out the house from the kitchen sink had not just one, but three holes and a major crack in it. You know the smell you get when your garbage disposal stops working and/or the sink otherwise backs up? That's what it smelled like. Instant. Migraine. Mom took the drain assembly apart, and I got to take the broken pipe out. Did you know, if you need to turn a pipe counter-clockwise, you need to have the pipe-wrench upside-down? I put it on right-side up and it wouldn't grip the pipe in the direction I was turning it. Talk about annoying!

But,m we got the drain out, and I had to stop Mom from throwing it away - we'd need it for the length. Went in to work and talked to one of the guys in plumbing. He got us the parts we needed, and told us how to make a cheap pipe tap - to get the old, broken pipe bits off the T-section of pipe it connects to. Take a pipe of the appropriate diameter, cut four strait cuts all the way through the threads and down to the solid pipe. Next, make four more cuts about 1/4-3/8" away from the first one, angled to meet the first cut at the bottom. You now have a tool to get the old flashing out, and make sure the threads of the old pipe will take the new piece. Woo.

I got to make that. Wasn't terribly difficult, since Dad has hacksaws in his workshop. It's in with the real pipe taps now, so we have it for later.

Anyway, the whole job cost us maybe $15.50, which certainly isn't bad, considering it's a plumbing job. We did have trouble getting the PVC to go in, though - we forgot, in the course of getting supplies, that the exterior 2x4 the pipe went through was just big enough to fit the pipe; with the extra part on it, it wouldn't go in, so we had to cut at the 2x4 to make it fit. We tried the reciprocating saw, and chisels, then I finally dropped out of the battle. I had gotten a migraine from the smell, and it was just getting worse and worse, until I was to the point of tears. Mom excused me to take my shower and go to bed. She and Dad finished it up, and Mom got the idea to get the 2x4 widened by using a spade-bit in the drill. This apparently worked great! She was done by the time I was done with my shower.

Luckily for me, the drain for the bath tub and the drain for the kitchen sink are not connected. I know the one for the washing machine downstairs and the kitchen sink are, as the washing machine has a water capacity greater than what our pipes can handle, and makes the kitchen sink make gurgling noises.

And believe me, once I allowed myself to acknowledge what I'd been sitting, kneeling, and lying in (gotta get the right angle for those pipes!), I really, REALLY wanted to shower. Mold, mildew, old food particles, dissolved concrete, and (most likely, given the source) e-coli bateria. Along with who-knows-what other bacteria. Apparently, if I don't pay that kind of thing any attention, and therefore don't think about it, it doesn't bother me.

The kitchen floor has since been scrubbed three times, and Mom bleached the cabinet. I hope to never have to deal with this kind of plumbing situation again, and if I ever look at a house to buy (I hope!), I shall need to ask how old the plumbing is.

Yuck.