Anything Else Forum

Anything Else Forum

Offtopicland. Remember: no politics, religion, or hot-button social issues.

Plumbing Update to Satisfy the Masses

+3 HS
dubjayfootball90's picture
May 22, 2016 at 5:57pm
34 Comments

Update:  I had about 30-40 hardwood floor boards ripped up just outside the bathroom. My house is on a concrete slab, and the hardwood is glued right to concrete, so no need replacing a subfloor. Also, many of the boards came up very easy, suggesting there was a good bit of moisture underneath the boards. They took out boards until it became hard to pull up, suggesting no moisture damage underneath. Also, The lawn care people are coming shortly to fix my lawn after the plumbing company dug up the front yard, so that will be getting fixed soon.

 

Still waiting on the work order and notes from the plumber to know exactly what they did. Will update as more info comes to pass.

=========================================================

 

Before I begin, I apologize for not writing this up before, but more stuff happened, and I went on Vacation to Ecuador from May 12 to May 17 (keep those dates in mind).

Soooo, without further ado...

So the last I left you all, my toilet overflowed once after running the washer, the toilet and sink gurgled and bubbled whenever the washer was run and drained, and whenever the tub on the second floor was drained. And I think the Plumber was coming, but had not arrived yet. So I will pick up the story right when the plumber comes:

Plumber came, ended up looking in the cleanout valve, and it was backed up. Deduced it was coming from the mainline heading into the street and city pipes (thank god not in the house). So he snaked the hell out of it, and cleaned up the clog. HOWEVER, he asked me to look down the cleanout to make sure the snake was passing through. He must have put 50-60 of snake down there, I could hear it, but I saw no snake down the cleanout. Fastforward some head scratches and some digging, and we found two (2) more cleanout valves underneath about 4 inches of dirt and clay (my guess is I have a cleanout valve for each floor (3 floors). So now I know I have three cleanout valves, one visible, and the toilets are working.

Everything works fine for a week. Reall Happy. About to go on vacation in about 7 days. Then, uhoh, bubbling starts up again. Bubbling is BAD. My wife took a bath at night, and I had to stand by the first floor bath, yell up to her to drain the bath, then yell again when the toilet started increasing the water level (the toilet was backing up after a week.) My wife started getting pissed, so I had to run up, drain the tub, run down, see if the toilet backs up, when it did, run back up and plug the tub, run back down, wait for the toilet to go back down, then repeat the process four times to drain the tub. Same thing with the washer. When the water drained, I had to turn the washer off 2-3 times or else the toilet would have overflowed. This happened on Friday and Saturday (i believe may 8-10). I called on Sunday night, I wanted to wait until Monday, but I had enough and I left a message with the warranty home department.

The voicemail said that they would get back to me no later than 1 business day. So i left a message saying the same thing happened, I need the plumber again, I want a camera down my pipes, etc etc, call me at this number, good bye. Monday comes and goes, no call. Tuesday comes and goes, no call. So, I am pissed and call again. Say I need someone to come out, please call, etc etc. Toilet issues, not fixed, etc etc. Goodbye. Supposedly they called once on Wednesday, (the 11th), but I was away from my desk. My voicemail was not set up yet, i do not know why, and they did not leave a message because they could not, and they never called again. So I was pissed.

Now, it is wednesday night, I leave for Ecuador in the afternoon on thursday, my wife and I are staying up late getting everything ready to pack. Fast forward 12:30 in the morning on Thursday, the washer is draining and I FORGOT TO WATCH THE BATHROOM BECAUSE I WAS PACKING. Around one oclock, I got hit with a major pit in my stomach remembering the downstairs bathroom. So I walk downstairs. Take two steps down my 16 step stairs and start smelling sewage. I run downstairs, yell to my wife to grab towels, and start cleaning up shit water (it was someones shit, not sure if mine or neighbors, but there was shit water). So I got on my hands and knees and started soaking up the water quickly in towels, my wife is in the background gagging her ass off, and I just say "Go upstairs, I got this". I then clean the bathroom, clorox the hell out if it, and realized "There is shit water underneath the hardwood floor"

SOOO, I was pissed, it is 2 in the morning the day I am leaving for vacation for 5 days, and no one called me or got in touch with me yet. I left a 5 minute voicemail, extremely mad, but not swearing. I left my number 10-15 times so I KNEW they had it. I also said that I expect someone to call me at 8:05 in the morning because that gave them enough time to get in the office, listen to my message and call me. At 8:06, I would be calling every minute until I reached someone. SOOO, at 8:06, no one called me, so I started calling. Funny thing is, right when I called, someone was calling me on the other line. PROMPT SERVICE 4 DAYS LATE. I said I wanted the plumber out TODAY. I want the flooring people out here TODAY. And I want piece of mind before I head out of town. Plumber came two hours later, florring people came one hour after that. 

Plumber snaked the drains again, pipes were fixed, but we all knew that it was temporary. So he said they would get a camera the next day, see what the issue is, and then probably have to dig up the yard because there is definitely an issue where the house pipes meet the main line. He said they would be back when I was out of town. So they left and at least I could pee and flush and still be good. FLooring people came, they found moisture underneath the boards, and I have them coming out Tuesday to tear up ome boards and replace them after cleaning underneath them. I am also going to have them replace the subfloor since shit water was drying underneath them for two weeks. Thank God it does not smell, but I know it is infested with bacteria. 

Fast forward to May 17th. My front yard is dug up, I found a label in the front yard that belongs to a 4" pipe connector, so I know they replaced something, but I have no documentation. So I called the warranty department and asked them to get in touch with the plumber so I can have everything that they did. If they tell me they did not replace anything, then I have the label for a 4" connector to prove them otherwise. The flooring people are coming Tuesday to rip up the floor. Then they will wait a few days, and come back to replace them.

That is where I am at. I am checking the clean out valve every few days, everything good so far. Drained the tub and the washer several times so far, and no bubbling, nothing. I think everything is now fixed and all I have to worry about is the floor. But I threw away 12 towels because they smelled like shit. I was on my hands and knees in shit water, had my wife gagging in the background. WHAT A FREAKING SIGHT. I laugh about that now, but I am still pissed. Will be until it is all fixed.

Hope you all enjoy my misery. Go Bucks, haha!

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

View 34 Comments