Sometimes in the plumbing profession, things
go smoothly, and according to plan.
Other times, or rather, MOST of the time, things always seem to go a
little sideways. We recently got an
email from one of our most frequent and best customers explaining a Plumbing
Services that needed to be done on a
newly purchased property. On these older
homes, it is always a good idea to take a look at them to see what we would be
getting in to. The list seemed simple
enough- new toilet seat, disconnect gas line to stove and add a shutoff valve,
replace kitchen sink and faucet, and replace the bathtub faucet. All of these
items were pretty simple on their own, and I had explained that it should be
possible to stay within his budget. The
next day I started the work and it wasn't until I headed downstairs that things
got interesting. I noticed a few
additional problems pretty quickly, such as a rusted-away tub drain and a few
water lines that had been split.
Even these few problems that were visible
where not enough to cause too much concern.
I promptly made my way through all of the problems that were
noticeable. All of these issues are pretty
common with older homes, especially with the old galvanized steel water lines
and cast iron drains. When everything
APPEARED ok, I slowly started to turn the water on, and this is when the fun
began. Within seconds, a slow drip
developed, right next to my head. The
galvanized pipe was split on the seam on the top of the pipe. Water off, repair made-
1.
When that was fixed, it was now time to try again. I slowly turned the water on, and a little
bit further down the line, I see water pouring onto the floor. This time there was a crack in the threaded
portion of the pipe. Water off, repair
made-
2.
This pattern continued for no less than 6 repairs before I eventually
had to call it a day and plan on a round 2 the next day. By the time I was able to get the water on,
75% of the house had been replaced with pex water lines. On day number two I eventually decided to cut
my (his) losses and simply start cutting most of the old water lines out. There were a few lines that remained in the
walls that were copper, so those remained intact, even though a few of the
fittings had blown apart. What appears
to have happened in this house is that it never got properly winterized and
literally EVERYTHING froze, EVERYWHERE.
Now that the water was on, I had a slight bit of optimism that I was
almost going to be able to get out of there.
Of course this was not the case because we are dealing with old
plumbing. The toilet would not fill at
all due to a completely corroded galvanized line serving it. I had to turn the water back off, and run a
new line with a new shutoff valve to the toilet. After the toilet was working, I turned the
water on at the dual lavatories and the faucets both worked great, to my
surprise! What I was not surprised by
though was the fact that the water did not go down the drain AT ALL. After pulling the p traps off both lavs and
snaking the main drain serving them, I got all of the water to go where it was
supposed to. I was even lucky enough to
find a handful of hair ties, straws, toothbrushes, and toys along the way. If you are ever considering purchasing an
older home for yourself, to flip or to rent out, keep your plumbing budget
plenty high in case of unforeseen problems, which are almost always going to be
there.
Allow a professional
plumber to take care of it for you, and
save yourself days, weeks or even a lifetime of plumbing headaches.
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