Fun with plumbing

Now, if you know me, you know that the only thing I hate more than plumbing is gas, which is essentially plumbing that if you mess up can explode and kill you instead of just making you wet...

So I'm at work and Jenn calls, the dishwasher is leaking all over the kitchen floor. This mind you, is the day after the electrical snafu so I'm wondering if maybe something got shook loose when the guys were working on it... When I get home I find that the dishwasher is full of water (Jenn stopped it mid-cycle to stop the flow of water) and the p trap under the sink is as well.

Now my contrator is the plumber in his family and he installed the sink for us... He used these accordion fixtures because they are easy, but they are not to code... They are now full of water, fully expanded and leaking everywhere...after Tightening up The joints the leaking stops but the water won't leave, so I grab the trusty plunger and have at it. Since the kitchen sink has two vessels I plug the other one (otherwise you just suck air in from the other sink btw) and have at it. Eventually the sink is full of water and I am once again sucking air. Good news it, the sink is properly vented, bad news is the plug is somewhere past the vent.

So off to hd for some drain cleaner and supplies. I buy a plumbers snake, and some PVC to fix the drain properly. Ironically while easier those accordion things are about 5 times as expensive as doing it right...

Back home, take apart the sink and drain out the remaining water, then since it's a double sink I reconnect just one sink to the main plumbing and pour down some of the drain cleaner, it recommends half a cup, I poured in the whole bottle, I figure this is a special case.. Did I mentioned this stuff is guaranteed to work? By this time it's 11:30 at night, so I call it quits needing to work early in the morning.

While I am waiting or our tech team to install what they need to, I am standing in the kitchen looking at the sink and notice the water is gone Woot!! Turn on the tap and sure enough the water drains...for a little while, then the sink fills up again. Looks like I have no choice but to use the snake. Work is finally finished and I take the sink apart again, if you are going to use a plumbers snake the best thing to do is get it as close to the wall as you can. If you can take the sink assembly out it will make your life easier because you can see if the snake is going up that awesome vent stack, or down where you want it...

I bought a 25' plumbers snake instead of the cheap 8' one, and thank god I did... The "issue" is about 20' down the drain. After several attempts at drilling through the gunk I finalls hit something and am able to pull the snake out with a giant glob of mystery crap in it. Next (I bought more of the guaranteed to work stuff btw, since I have had good experiences with it in the past) I pour another half a gallon of the drain cleaner down the sink and take a break. Like anything, the longer this stuff has to work, the better.

With no shortage of projects while I waited for that I installed doorknobs on all the new doors downstairs. Who designed these things? The doorknob doesn't come off, so when you are screwing the screws in they are constantly in the way... I think of the 4 I installed I only managed to get one in without completely ruining the screws... Best of luck to the poor bastard who has to take them off...

Back to the sink, I boil up a kettle full of water and pour it down the sink, repeat that three times then run the water as hot as it will get and wait with my fingers crossed... 3 minutes later it's still leaving as fast as it comes in! I've won! And I saved myself at least a couple of hundred dollars (yes after taking into consideration the cost of tools) by not calling a plumber! I call Jenn over to show off my success, since she knows I hate plumbing I'm expecting some kudos, all I get is, does that mean the dishwasher works? Well no, since I haven't fixed the sink just yet, I just fixed the drainage issue... Love you too honey, now go away...

Once I correctly install the sink (I'll put some photos up later of the before and after to show you how messed up it was) the dishwasher drains like a champ and we're all set until next time. Oh yes, there will be a next time, that kind of drain clog doesn't just go away, it's hiding in there waiting until I am out of town so that it can make the dishwasher puke all over the floor again, mark my words...