Water Works

Today is day three in waiting around all day for a plumber to arrive.  This time I paid the big bucks to find my water leak and diagnose my sewer problem.  American Leak Detection sent their best guy out with a camera, air compressor, and fancy listening equipment.  American Leak Detection (hereafter known as Paul), listened carefully at every sink, washer, water heater, and water connection in and out of my house, saying "that's weird" after every one.  He couldn't hear a leak anywhere, but knew there was one, because the meter was spinning.


So he hooked up an air compressor to the line and could tell that there was a leak somehow.  Then...there wasn't anymore.  It just suddenly, magically stopped.  Not unheard of, Paul said, but "weird".  I crossed my fingers and hoped it stayed that way.

Now that the water leak was no longer an issue, Paul moved on to the sewer.  First he had to find the elusive 'clean out' that generations of plumbers before him had never found.  He found it alright - right where it should have been, in front of the house next to the main water valve.  It had been slightly buried, it's true, and there was an irrigation tube connected to it. 

"Weird", Paul said.

I said "what is it?"

"I don't know" said Paul.  "It looks like tubing used by a sprinkler system, but there's no reason to hook it up to the sewer.  That's just...weird".

It was then that I remembered that I had a water softener, installed in 1996 and not in use for the last 10 years or so.  Sure enough, that was the source of the tubing.  And, it turns out, the source of the leak.  All I had to do was push a knob on the softener in to bypass the machine and my leak problem was solved. 

So now on to my sewer woes.  Now that I had a clean out, Paul put his camera in to see if he could find the source of my problem.  Before he got more than 3 feet, he found a huge clog of toilet paper that couldn't even dislodge with his camera. 

 "Weird", he said.

Then he moved the camera around and found the real source of my problem.  The sewer pipe in the house is cast iron, and it connects outside of the house to a clay pipe, which then carries my waste to the city sewer.  I should say that it should connect to the pipe outside.  The camera plainly showed a 2-inch gap between the two pipes, which is where everything lodges and causes my clogs.  Paul couldn't move the camera any further, so I might also have a tree root problem, but this gap is definitely the problem of the moment.

Paul collected $381.00 from me today, and is coming back on Tuesday to jack-hammer the sidewalk, fix the pipes, and collect another $1600.00. 

Although this truly sucks, the plumber yesterday had me prepared to pay between $5k and $6k.  $1600.00 seems like a bargain.  Of course, once he fixes that he'll be able to move his camera down the pipe to see if there's more bad news...

Now if I can make it 5 days without clogging up the toilet again, I'll be good. 

Better go call the credit card company to see if they can increase my limit...