I was sick last Thursday, and I upchucked on myself.
So I threw my shirt in the wash and then laid in the bathroom next to the toilet.
Which was bad enough.
But then the washer went to the spin cycle, and water came gushing up out of our drain and filling the shower and sink.
I got the washing machine stopped and went downstairs.
There’s a bottleneck in our plumbing where the previous owner had routed everything but the toilet through smaller and smaller pipes until it reached a two inch metal pipe with two 90 degree turns. We’re assuming it was done this way because he couldn’t access the metal sewer drain.
No joke.
We’d had a plumber out once already to fix it, but he only fixed the piping from the kitchen sink, including replacing all of the metal piping there. Used up his time, and he was done.
Not what we wanted exactly, but we went with it.
So, this time, I know exactly what happened.
I called the plumbing company nearest us, and the receptionist said someone could come out tomorrow morning. I thanked her and said we would definitely want them to stop by.
Then I called my husband and wailed because I was sick, there was water everywhere including on me since I’d been lying by the shower, and it was Too Much.
The call got cut off because the plumbing company called back and said someone was on the way to a nearby fix and could drop in.
I got dressed.
He arrived, looked things over, and came to the same conclusion I had. So he’s talking about rotor rooting the system, and I pointed out that he could just route everything to the sewer like it was supposed to be in the first place.
Sure, he says. No parts, back tomorrow. Which was fine. For the duration, I suggested he just disconnect the tubes and let it drain on the floor in the basement to the floor drain.
He wasn’t sure it would drain. I pointed out that we had had 8 inches or more of standing water in our basement that drained out just fine.
So he disconnected it, I finished the washer, and the floor was just fine.
Called my husband to wail, and my mom pointed out that there was a fair chance I was sick because my gut stopped gutting. Felt pretty stupid, took the med that wakes my gut up, and started feeling better about an hour later. D’oh! What’s dumb is this isn’t the first time I’d been sick from this.
Plumber came back the next day bright and early and fixed it right up. $300 total, which isn’t half bad. The house REEKED because he had to saw through the pipe, but that faded after a day or so.
So, our plumbing is fixed.
Again.
Have
