I realize that I’ve bee a bit absentee. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking of things to write, it’s just that I’ve been ridiculously busy.
Most of the activity was concentrated in two weeks; in those two weeks I had two road trips, took out a couple ceilings and walls, filled all of our garbage cans twice then filled a Bagster, and learned how to frame and build walls. Listing it all off again makes me think about a nap!
One of the things that we discovered not long after we moved into our house was that the bathroom sink on the second floor didn’t drain right, like it took minutes to drain a cup of water. I tried every trick I could think of; vinegar and hot water, baking soda and hot water, baking soda and vinegar, Draino… Nothing worked. We finally called in plumbers to take a look at a couple of the other issues in the house and they were kind enough to explain what happens to pipes sometimes when a house is left empty for years-the pipes rust on the inside, essentially choking them off. Think of it like the cholesterol that your doctor, and my doctor, freaks out about sometimes, closing off the veins. Unlike the cholesterol in your veins though, rust cannot be cleaned out! SO that marked one section of plumbing to be replaced.
Not long after that we needed to consult with a structural engineer to make sure things were all a-okay with the house structure, that is what lead me to remove the first floor bathroom ceiling in all it’s moldy nastiness. When you find damage that bad, there are so many scenarios that go running through your head, none of them are good and almost all of them require you to take apart the rest of the room and find out just HOW BAD things are.
And Oh baby, were things ever bad… Those of you with eagle eyes will notice something different about this collection of pipes. Starting with the fact that it is really a collection of pipes; materials that is! In this one little corner of the bathroom there was brass, copper, PVC, and galvanized piping. In case anyone is wondering, that’s not normal.
The first pluming picture is almost comical, not because it has a collection of materials, but if you glance at the picture you could mistake it for a game of Tetris. Especially with the three lines of electrical conduit going up the middle and being attached to the 2×4 with garden twine. I sent that particular picture to our plumber, just to let him know what we’d found behind the wall. He sent me a hilarious, one line response, “All of that has to go bye-bye.”
After discovering this interesting collection of materials, I spent some time with my flashlight in the basement and noticed some little drips on the floor. Someone at sometime decided that they’d just connect the plumbing in the house with whatever supplies they had around at the moment, in our case that became an issue because they used COPPER and GALVANIZED pipe in the same runs without taking the necessary precautions. These two materials do not play well together-when used in the same run they cause a chemical reaction in the copper pipe that causes pin holes to form in said copper pipes leading to leaks and damage!
So we need to have the plumbing in the house replaced. At least this way we won’t have to worry about the upstairs sink anymore.
Oh well!
TallpixiDIY 