# Plumbing Disasters Contest - Win a TOSCA Faucet for your Kitchen!



## ehoez (May 12, 2008)

Pic worth a 1000 words.


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## NHMaster (Dec 21, 2009)

We got a call from an apartment building owner that the tenants on the second floor were having a problem with the toilet not flushing. It was a slow day so my partner and I both decided to go on the call. We were pretty familiar with the building, having done service there for many years in the past. The house was a one over duplex in the country with a septic tank and leach field. When we got there I went upstairs to talk with the tenant and give the toilet a look see and my partner headed for the basement. After talking to the tenant I took a look at the toilet. As I expected it was full to the rim with nasty stuff and all attempts to plunge it went unrewarded. I also noticed the tub was beginning to show a puddle in the bottom of it, indicating to me that there was probably a problem with the septic tank or the piping out to it. Anyhoo, I headed back downstairs to check in with my partner Scott who for some reason only known to himself had decided to remove the clean out cap on the the sewer main at the foundation wall. He had a 2' pipe wrench on the cap and was only about a half a thread away from removing it when I rounded the basement stairs. Just as I was about to yell no stop, the cap came loose. So did about 30 gallons of crap that was in the piping. And there was Scott. Standing right in front of a fountain of poo. Covered from head to toe. Soaked to the core, Poo everywhere. I made him ride back to the shop in the bed of the truck. That was better than 20 years ago and we still do not speak of it to this day.


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## Nathan (Dec 5, 2003)

To be valid you must tell us a story of what happened and not just post a photo since photos can be from any source.

Thanks.


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## drtbk4ever (Dec 29, 2008)

Man, I can't beat the flying poo story, but here is my plumbing mishap.

Our first spring in our "new to us" home and I could hear this humming sound one morning. I traced it to the basement and discovered the sump pump was plugged (or something) and the pump was on but wasn't pumping. So I unplugged the sump pump and got out my tools. I even happened to have an old pipe wrench. 

Coming right off the pump is a glavanized Y with a back flow valve in it. So the only fitting I could undo was the one *above* the back flow valve. So I am unscrewing the valve (pump still attached to the bottom of it) and things are going really good. I get near the bottom of the threads and a little water starts to leak out, no problem I can control it with a rag. Well I get it unscrewed and the pump and backflow valve (Y piece) drop a couple of inches to the bottom of the sump pit.

Well you can imagine what happened next. All the water that was sitting in the 10 feet of pipe above the back flow valve flows out. Of course it can't just flow into the sump pit. It has to flow directly into the top of the galvanized back flow Y piece. Did you ever notice the shape of those fittings? The shape caused the water to spray up and out of the pit like one of those fountains. It had a nice cone shape with a beautiful arc and soaked me completely. I had to send my wife upstairs for laughing at me. Thankfully it was just water and the basement wasn't finished. 

After paying some pump place $75 to replace the little ball switch, it became obvious that the pump AND original switch were just fine. The little back flow valve was just rusted shut and a tap with the hammer freed it up.

Note the photo is just for illustration purposes.


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## Chucky Jesus (Jul 21, 2009)

*That pipe is not straight. I'll straighten it.*

I sent the wife and kids to Florida to visit her parents for two weeks while I gutted and remodeled our entire kitchen. I was a few planks shy of finishing the kitchen floor with 4" wide, pre-finished Bruce hardwood flooring and looked over to where the hot and cold water pipes came out of the floor where the sink base used to be. I notice the hot water pipe was a little crooked so I took this opportunity to straighten it. I sat on the floor in front of the pipe and put my boot against the pipe and pushed. At that instant the joint where the shutoff valve is "soldered" to the pipe came loose. The water pressure shot the shutoff valve to the ceiling where it came back down and caught me just above my right ear opening a nice half inch gash. Now the hot water is just gysering to the ceiling and coming down like rain all over my new floor and me. I immediately jump to my feet and fall back on my arse as my feet slip out from under me on the freshly wet, brand-new shiny floor. I smack the back of my head on the floor and I’m out like a light. I wake to a burning sensation as hot water is raining down on me and I’m like WTF? You know that feeling of complete disorientation when you wake from a deep sleep? I jump to my feet again but this time I keep my balance and take the basement stairs in two leaps. At the bottom of the stairs I smack my forehead on the first tread of the stairs leading to the second floor and open an inch wide gash above my left eye. At the same instant I came down wrong on my left foot and sprained my ankle. I’m starting to see stars and just by sheer will forced myself to remain conscious. I hobble and then finally crawl over to the main water shutoff for the house. It turns out to be one of those fricken 100-turn knobs and it seems like it takes forever to shut off the dang water. While this is going on I’m losing sight in my left eye as blood is just pouring out of my head and into my eye. Finally, with the water off, I’m able to assess the damage to me and the house. I look like I lost a fight with a cage fighter and the kitchen is just a mess. I go upstairs to get towels for my head and the kitchen floor. While up there I thought I’d clean up the blood a little. Couldn’t. I shut the water off. So I wipe as much blood off of me as I can with the dry towel. The forehead gash just wouldn’t stop bleeding so with one hand I hold a towel to my forehead and try to dry as much floor as I can with the other. It looks like I got most of it, so I get a couple of fans and direct them toward the floor. I go in the bathroom to look in the mirror and realize that I’m going to need to get this looked at. I head off to the emergency room and get about 15 total stitches in my head. About two hours later I’m back at the house where all of my new flooring is cupping, warping and shrinking. On top of that, right below the kitchen in the basement is the laundry room. I spent the next few hours wiping walls, floors and appliances. I had to rip out all of the flooring and start over. Set me back a few days and a few hundred $. The wife is afraid to leave me at home alone doing DIY projects.

2/19/10 I went through all the pics of this project and found two that show the bent pipe before I "straightened" it, and one of the floor about 10 minutes before 100% humidity:


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## spark plug (May 5, 2009)

NHMaster said:


> We got a call from an apartment building owner that the tenants on the second floor were having a problem with the toilet not flushing. It was a slow day so my partner and I both decided to go on the call. We were pretty familiar with the building, having done service there for many years in the past. The house was a one over duplex in the country with a septic tank and leach field. When we got there I went upstairs to talk with the tenant and give the toilet a look see and my partner headed for the basement. After talking to the tenant I took a look at the toilet. As I expected it was full to the rim with nasty stuff and all attempts to plunge it went unrewarded. I also noticed the tub was beginning to show a puddle in the bottom of it, indicating to me that there was probably a problem with the septic tank or the piping out to it. Anyhoo, I headed back downstairs to check in with my partner Scott who for some reason only known to himself had decided to remove the clean out cap on the the sewer main at the foundation wall. He had a 2' pipe wrench on the cap and was only about a half a thread away from removing it when I rounded the basement stairs. Just as I was about to yell no stop, the cap came loose. So did about 30 gallons of crap that was in the piping. And there was Scott. Standing right in front of a fountain of poo. Covered from head to toe. Soaked to the core, Poo everywhere. I made him ride back to the shop in the bed of the truck. That was better than 20 years ago and we still do not speak of it to this day.


If NEAR DISASTERS count.... (Let's ask Nathan.)! As I wrote in one of my early posts on this Blog, that about 36 years ago, I worked on a maintenance team at a Nursing Home in Queens, NY. One day, (Question is; If recycled scatological humor counts.) a problem developed in the sewer system on the Second floor. We were all standing there trying to figure out what the problem was and how to solve it. The Building "Engineer", Al -achrow, of Blessed Memory, stood there in the center of the artificial lake of Goo, presiding over a meeting like a General on the battlefield. Directing his soldiers in all different directions applying various "strategies". When none worked --unfortunately--, Yours truly piped up with a "Brilliant" idea. Let's open up the cleanout plug on the Horizontal waste line that ran through the Main dining room of the first floor. After getting approval from the "Engineer", I proceeded to do so. After Three turns on the cap, luckily (for everyone) I decided to stop. It was decided to call a Sewer cleaning Company, after all. that saved the day. I leave it to everyone's imagination what would have (No. Not, Could have) happened had I opened up that cap, while standing on a 10 Ft. ladder.:laughing::yes::no::laughing:!


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## EdwardC (Feb 21, 2010)

My story was a near disaster involving plumbing an ice maker to my home and the gas line. I'll start by saying that all of the lines for water and gas in my home are the same dimension of copper piping. The furnace and water heater are in the same corner of the basement and the return air ducting hides the majority of the pipes going to and from their various fixtures. The stove is gas and is located about 4 feet from the sink in the kitchen, which means the water and gas lines run directly next to each other.

That said, we went to Lowe's and got a self-tapping water line for the ice maker on our fridge. We drilled through the ceramic tile fine, and through the floor correctly. We correctly attach the water line to the fridge and go down to the basement to trace out the cold water pipe and tap it. Well, beyond the duct work near the fridge there are two pipes, on the other side there is one pipe. We traced (what we then thought) was the cold water pipe back to the water heater and incorrectly transcribed the line on to the gas pipe (!). We proceed with the tap and go upstairs to test the fridge. We turn the ice maker on and nothing.. we hear a 'hissing' sound from the solenoid, but are convinced it is air working it's way out of the water line. We proceed to other jobs in the house, installing the new master bath vanity and the Bruce hard wood floors.

The we stopped. We started to smell gas. Ran over to the freezer and opened the door to get engulfed in gas. At this point, we feared the pilot light from the stove would catch the gas on fire and blow us up. We ran outside and turned off the gas at the meter and opened all the windows in the house. We went back to Lowes and grabbed a pipe connector and connected the water line for the freezer correctly to the cold water line. Two hours later, we were all done and no longer fearing the end of our home. Let this be a lesson to all, please triple check all your connections when you are dealing with more than water lines!


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

first story; short and sweet...


well, short anyway

related to me by an electrician I know.

Local sewage treatment plant was undergoing some work; adding capacity and repairing existing equipment and such. 

I believe this was about an 8" line.

a couple of plumbers/fitters were going to add onto an existing line. The line happened to carry some really ooey gooey fecal matter slurry. Guys were told (first mistake, they did not check themselves) the valve feeding the line was closed.

So, since there was already a "T" in the line with a bolted on cap, the intention was to uncap the "T" and start adding on to the line at that point.

So, they take off most of the bolts and leave a couple in but loosen them. The cap is stuck in place (expected) so they take a sledge and whack it;

once, nothing
twice, nothing,

third time...the cap breaks loose. Right about this time, the guys realized there was a lot of residual pressure.

then they realized it was not residual. They just popped the cap on a charged poop line and boy was it spraying and apparently there just wasn't anywhere to get away from the spray.


My friend laughed, nearly hysterically, as he told me:

when they finally got the line shut down, the only white you could see on them was when they opened their eyes.

luckily nobody got hurt and even more lucky; they were driving a company work truck and not their own vehicles.


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

2nd story.


a plumber friend of mine and I were chatting and for some reason we got around to odd stories. They guy starts telling me a time when he and his dad (they worked as a team generally) went to this house along side the big river that passes through the area. It appeared the mainline running from the house was plugged somewhere so they decide to use a rotary auger (roto rooter).

To run the auger, the needed to pull a stool (best access to the outside line). (now, this next part is not the main focus of the story)

when they go to the stool, they realized somebody was not thinking and had dropped a deuce in the stool they needed to remove. I kind of laugh thinking my buddy had to perform a manual poopectomy. He says "are you kidding?" " I wasn't going to clean up somebody else's crap. I told the woman she needs to take care of that so they can get to work". The woman started to argue so the guy tells her that he does not clean up other peoples crap and if she wants the drain fixed, she needs to remove the stuff. She decided they were right so she takes care of the stuff and the guys get to work.

So, back to the story:

they start running the auger down the drain. They have nearly 100 feet in and it kind of jumps like they were hitting something. They pull it back and then feed it slowly back to the clog. 

right about then, the dad says "listen, what is that noise?". They could hear a sound like the auger was hitting something hard. Kind of a rhythmic "*****" "*****" "*****" but the dad realized it was not coming back from inside the pipe. It sounded like it was outside so he sends his son to go look for it.

As dad runs the auger, son goes looking for the sound. A minute or two later he comes back in telling dad to stop and come look at what he found.

They both go out the back door and start walking towards the river. Son walks over to a hole in the ground where you can see a broken clay tile and the end of the auger and the remains of the plug that had gotten stuck in the broken clay tile.

It seems there was no septic tank, no leachfield, and not municipal sewer hook up. The womans septic line ran directly from the house, down the bank and emptied right into the river.

I said, " That is nasty. why would somebody do something like that"

the younger plumber calmly tells me, "just about all the houses along the river were like that at one time. They just dumped their sewage right into the river"

how nasty is that???


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## spark plug (May 5, 2009)

Nap (Poster # 10) That's nasty, alright. But no dramatic ending to the story, (which we were all expecting. At least Me.:laughing!


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

spark plug said:


> Nap (Poster # 10) That's nasty, alright. But no dramatic ending to the story, (which we were all expecting. At least Me.:laughing!


well, since that river flows from that city end eventually to mine (about 30 miles away), I always recommend nobody keep any fish commonly known as brown lumpfish when fishing in the river. They taste like crap!:tooth:


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## Red Squirrel (Jun 29, 2009)

This was a disaster that could have been MUCH worse had I not noticed. 

I was doing laundry and one of the previous loads was new cheap walmart face cloths that produced TONS of lint after every wash. This load went in fine and I was on to the next load. 

I came downstairs to the smell of sewage which I thought was odd, then when I went to the sink to my horror it smelled worse, and could see it was filled quite high, and there was water leaking out of the stack's cleanout. Basically, my main sewer line was plugged somewhere, and the pressure pushed some sewage into my sump pit, and the pressure was also trying to make the water seep through the cleanout. 



I was actually surprised to find out the sump pit was even connected to the sewage line as I figured it was two separate systems. I think now they are not connected, but this is an older house. I was trying to plunge away at the sink to no avail. Ended up calling for help but this seemed to be beyond the ability of any of the plumbers I could get ahold of. A friend from church was on his way to come check it out as well meanwhile I was plunging away, and also adding javex in the sump as well as in the sink, to kill the smell, and also to try to break up whatever was in there. 

After enough effort moving water around with the plunger (all it was really doing is making it go up and down in the stack) it slowly let go. Then I filled the sink and it drained ok. The guy that came over saw it but it was pretty much good from that point. I still don't know exactly what blocked and why it blocked that bad. I got the pipe inspected and it was 100% clear. That night I did fill the bath, the bathroom sink, the laundry tub, and even the kitchen sink, and let it all go at once. That may of contributed to clearing whatever may of been left in there. 

I still get nervous when I think of what could of happened if I had not gone to do another load of laundry and decided to finish it the next day. I would have used the toilet a few times that night, and showered the next morning, and all that water would of been in my basement.

When I got it inspected they had trouble closing the cover back because of how the cement was half way on it, so it leaked quite a lot even with normal use. I ended up sealing it real good and it's been ok since.


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## Red Squirrel (Jun 29, 2009)

Actually here's another near disaster. I was drilling a hole in a wall to run electrical, I can't remember why I would be drilling right in the wall and not have already made a cut for a switch or a plug, oh yes, it was for a range top that was to be installed. So I'm drilling, just in drywall, nothing big. I felt like there was something in the way.

Turns out, I was drilling into a water line! The bit had slipped so I was just grinding it on the side of the pipe. I had no idea where the main shut off was in that house, it was an older house and it was probably buried somewhere inaccessible,or in some really weird location. 

It's scary to think what would of happened if I did in fact drill a hole in that pipe.


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

I seem to have the "opposite" Midas Touch when it comes to plumbing

My last house I went in the crawl space to look at the washing machine, bathroom & kitchen sink drain system
I barely touched them & they fell apart in my hands
I had to run & pick up supplies & put it all back together
Mostly just primer & glue needed as I recall

Now 7 years later & the new house
Again looking at the drain system, this time a full basement
Kitchen sink was getting bubbles from the washer in the basement
And once again everything falls apart 
No sign of any purple primer used

Main 2" line runs all the way across the house to the 4" stack/drain on the other side of the house
That is too small/fills up & is replaced w/3" pipe
The 2" on this side continues around the corner to old CI & vent thru old roof
I decide to take the CI out
Turns out this is a good idea as the entire run of cast is full of junk, clogged solid for maybe 4'

So I put everything back together so its working for now as Temp fix
But I will have to have a plumber come in to redo everything
Kitchen sink will be moving, DW going in, bar sink...new vent going thru addition roof

Here is a pic of the CI...it was like this for about 4'+ best I can tell









What I was able to scoop out with a spoon on a paint mixer:
Cleaning up I forgot about this & left it near the basement sink
It did stink...the wife did find it...not happy with me


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## AppleMac*Fit (Dec 26, 2007)

4 month old Delta Bellini kitchen faucet... My wife pulls the vegetable sprayer out of the holder to fill up a pot. The cheap plastic quick connect kitchen on the quick connect assembly broke, spraying water all over the base cabinet. She quickly turned the water off. We both end up mopping up a bunch of water. 

We were unable to use our faucet because the vegetable sprayer broke and is required for the faucet to work.... unless we had a plug - which mine didn't come with.

Called Delta for warranty. They DEFINITELY took their time getting it out to me: they didn't ship it for 4 days and it took an additional 5 days to get here. So for nine days we were washing dishes in the bathtub (no dishwasher). 

Here is a pic. The one on the left is the old (exploded) one. The one on the right is the new one....


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## meboatermike (Oct 29, 2009)

I would say your household is real lucky that she knows where the shut off is and how to use it :whistling2:


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## GarageDoorCente (Mar 1, 2010)

Mine is a different kind of plumbing mishap, and is one of the worst I've ever experienced, we were making a "manifold" to connect 8 new units to an existing city sewer. The city sewer was the best part of 50 years old, and the old 6ft stubs of concrete pipe. We make this manifold as per city code while the operator is digging 15' down to the sewer. We had 2 larger track-hoes both 320 series, one digging and the other moving the dirt away for the other operator to keep piling it up. We finally get to the sewer pipe about noon in July, and it's about 90 degrees. So we proceed to cut the pipe with a hot saw. As soon as the first cut makes it through, water just comes pouring out, and when the second cut is made and the old pipe is pulled out, the sewage comes pouring out next sewer rats(tampons), poops, pee, food, EVERYTHING that has gone through about 120 houses on the upside of this sewer poured into this hole, because the old city sewer main was clogged. Well, a job is a job and we still had to do ours. The cut was made to the exact length of our manifold, and the pipe was 12"pvc, connecting to 12" concrete(really about 16" thick) so the only way to connect these was a Fernco







which takes EXTREME wrestling and fighting to fit 2 of these on "underwater" when they are made to be a super tight fit, needless to say, the 3 guys in the hole really were waist deep in crap, and having to play in it, while the sun is baking it. After about 45 minutes of fighting to get these on around the concrete pipe, because they run tight, we finish up and start heading out of the hole, about 2 steps up, Larry, falls backwards into the swamp. I spent about an hour and a half in the shower that night, and I'm sure Larry spent all night in there. Days like these I don't bring a camera because it obviously would have been ruined, but you could definitely see poop, tp chunks, food chunks, and tampons floating in this hole. Bloody ones.

But once the manifold was successfully installed, we had a pump truck come out and snake out the main, to get rid of this clog.


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## spark plug (May 5, 2009)

Garage Door Cente(r); (Poster #18) Wonderful story. I used my imagination to make it 3D. I vote for you. Unless something more dramatic comes up.:laughing:!


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## GarageDoorCente (Mar 1, 2010)

haha thanks it doesn't take much imagining on that one. it was gross


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## Limit54 (Nov 6, 2009)

This isn't a major disaster but it was my second plumbing job ever. 

I have a 50 year old house and I decided to renovate my upstairs bathroom. I ripped out the old vinyl flooring and sub floor. I put new ply and cement board to get ready for tiles. Then I re-drywalled most of the walls and skim coated the ceiling to look nice and fresh and new. Got everything sanded and looking sweet. Now it was time for some plumbing. My shutoff for my toilet looked about 100 years old and needed to be changed. So I check it out and its not soldered but a threaded shutoff...sweet...so I grab a wrench and start turning, nothing? I try harder still nothing? so i take a closer look at the threaded area and just below that the pipe looks sort of mangled like it has been hammered or welded to the shutoff. I finnaly realize that the pipe is galvanized and not copper pipe....and I'm not sure what to do yet...so I decide to go deeper...so i cut into the floory to make the hole bigger so i can see more....I see copper pipe...so I call a plumber friend of mine and he says just cut the pipe and put a new copper threaded nipple...ok no problem. So I try soldering the new shutoff on and try it out...it leeks....I try soldering more..still leeks...try soldering again...still leeks. By this time I have about ten blisters from my torch and from feeling the hot pipe. So I consult my buddy again...he says make the hole in the work area bigger...ok so i do. Now 1 hour later I still can't get this thing to solder properly...my plumber buddy finaly says "hay you have an old house right? The copper pipe is probably thicker gage pipe and needs to be heated longer in order to get hot enough..try heating up longer."

I heat then solder and bam it looks like the solder took. I sit there saying to myself finally I think it worked...now mind you I can't see the soldering job all the way around its under my floor...this is why I had all the problems.

Now its time to test...I go to the basement and turn on the water....I come up the stairs to the bathroom and I hear something like a waterfall...WTF!!! I run into the room and low and behold I left the shutoff in the open position..water is shooting up to my ceiling and all over my floor. It ruined my skim coat and I had to do it all over again.


That was one rookie mistake I wont make again.

Did i mention I hate sanding drywall.:furious:


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## spark plug (May 5, 2009)

Limit 54;Poster 21! Nice. But I was expecting more drama! (Besides the empathy about the water damage and having to redo the work) But I had ONE Electrical disaster (Survived it. No major damage. The bark was worse than the bite.) And one heating system disaster??!:yes:!


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## Andiek (Mar 3, 2010)

*No good deed and Never on a holiday!*

This plumbing "disaster" wasn't even supposed to have involved any plumbing, but such are the tales of home renovation projects.:whistling2:

I owned a smalled 60+ year old home in Oakland, Ca. I was determined to do some renovations - simple stuff. One project was to be removing the tile from the kitchen backsplash area and replacing it. My first mistake was deceiding to begin this project on a long holiday weekend. Well it sounded good at the time!

My first surprise came when I removed the old tile to discover that the plaster walls came away with the tile. So far away, that I was now staring that the lath and backside of my exterior siding! But I persisted. No problem rebuilding walls with the ready mix stuff later, right? 

So on I went until I got to the faucet area of the sink. I needed to remove the faucet structure to get to the tile behind it. It was an old house, so to work on the faucet I had to turn-off the water to the entire house. The hot and cold pipes ran up through the wall vertically, emerging at 90 degree angles about 5-inches above the sink, and were joined in common by a horizontal pipe (interior to the wall) off of which came the faucet. A big "U" with the faucet in the middle. I dutifully got out my pipe wrench, and disconnected the hot and cold fittings so that I could remove the horizonal pipe and get to the tiled area behind it. But as I removed the cold water fitting, I discovered to my horror that the nipple, a very, very old nipple, that joined the piping from the wall to the horizontal pipe, disintigrated as I removed the fittings. Oh, did I mention that only half of it disintigrated? I was able to remove the nipple from the hot water side but not the cold. So now, not only was I looking at exposed siding, but the water to the entire house was shut off and I couldn't turn it back on because I could not remove the cold water nipple, nor could I plug the nipple since the exposed threads were the ones that disintegrated!!! I was stuck and it was a holiday weekend.

No choice but to call a plumber and pay the cost. I couldn't be without any water to the house for 3 days!! So I opened the yellow pages (this was way, pre-internet), and found a plumber who could come out within a few hours. And sure enough he showed on time. A big, burly man, well over 6-feet and well over 225 pounds. First he applies his pipe wrench to the frozen nipple - no movement. Then he adds a cheater bar... Still no movement. Then he gets up on my countertop, places his foot on the cheater bar and STOMPS!! Not once, not twice, but three times. The entire house shook. Sure enough though, the nipple moved and a few minutes later it was replaced and the faucet reconnected. 

Feeling relieved, we turned on the water and tried the faucet. The hot water flowed smoothly. The cold water only trickled! What gives, I asked. The big, burly plumber poked about a bit and then concluded that some of the mineral build-up in my 60+ year old pipes must have become disloged during his "pipe dance" and was now partially plugging the water line. 

I lived with this situation for a few weeks, getting cold water from the bathroom, until I could stand it no longer and the problem hadn't solved itself. So this time, on a non-holiday weekend, I scheduled a different plumber who had to run a new cold water line through half the house. Remember, all I started out to do was to replace the tile on the backsplash area?????:laughing:

So the morals of this story are: 1) Never start a diy project unless you have funds set-aside to call in the experts - and on holidays! 2) There is no such thing as an easy job - unless you're watching a TV show on home repairs, 3) NEVER start a job on a holiday weekend!!:thumbsup:


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## Limit54 (Nov 6, 2009)

AndieK....that was awesome...hahaha...last and final rule is don't start a project you are unsure of until you consult the DIY forum.

man backsplash turns into new cold water line..I love it.:thumbup:


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## Andiek (Mar 3, 2010)

Of course consult the diy forum!! Only wish this type of resource had been available in the late 80's when my adventure took place!


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## Limit54 (Nov 6, 2009)

I've been laughing about your story all day. You have my vote Andiek:thumbup:


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## coolluke01 (Mar 8, 2010)

As a plumber I deal with nasty stuff all the time, but only once did I just about drown in it!

I was called to a two story building where the drains on the 2nd floor were backing up. I soon found out there was a separate sewer service for the 2nd floor. I found this line in the basement which was only half as big as the building. The pipe came into the building on the side that didn't have the basement! The only access to the line was through a hole in the concrete wall which i could just fit through, about 5 feel up on the wall. Someone had dug this out to service this line a one time. There were several fittings that were improper and I was told that the plug had been there before. To set this up properly you should understand that this drain ran 60' along the "basement/crawl space" and then up to the second story about another 15'. I cut the drain to replace these fittings and install a cleanout. I figured it would be kinda messy so i had some rags to help with the mess. I cut the drain in the horizontal and again in the vertical where it came through the floor. After removing the piece of drain line I noticed on the up stream side that it was a solid plug! Then the plug started to move! I was mesmerized as this plug slowly came out the end of the pipe and held its shape like a playdogh in a press. It stayed intact until it was almost 2' out of the pipe! It then started to break off and move faster. I realized that I was in great danger of getting seriously gooped in this tight spot. I chucked my tools out the hole and dove through the hole scraping my shoulders on the jagged edges of the concrete and fell headfirst the 5' to the floor below. As I exiting the hole the line had let loose all 75' worth of raw sewage and filled the spot I was in and overflowed out of the hole I had made my escape through. To tell you how close I was to being engulfed the bottoms of my boots were coated with black nastiness. 

And that is the day I almost drowned in poo.


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## meboatermike (Oct 29, 2009)

This is only sort of plumbing and it did not happen to me but to a next door neighbor well over 20 - 30 years ago. In rural Maine there were /are still septic tanks that were poured in place ( you can see on mine where the boards formed the walls) his concrete cover was apparently weak. He was a good sized man and the cover broke up and in he went  There was no one around and he struggled valiantly thinking that there was no way that he wanted to die this way, and finally managed to pull himself out with a good deal of scrapes and bruises. Yuck!


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## operagost (Jan 8, 2010)

coolluke01 said:


> After removing the piece of drain line I noticed on the up stream side that it was a solid plug! Then the plug started to move! I was mesmerized as this plug slowly came out the end of the pipe and held its shape like a playdogh in a press. It stayed intact until it was almost 2' out of the pipe! It then started to break off and move faster. I realized that I was in great danger of getting seriously gooped in this tight spot. I chucked my tools out the hole and dove through the hole scraping my shoulders on the jagged edges of the concrete and fell headfirst the 5' to the floor below. As I exiting the hole the line had let loose all 75' worth of raw sewage and filled the spot I was in and overflowed out of the hole I had made my escape through. To tell you how close I was to being engulfed the bottoms of my boots were coated with black nastiness.
> 
> And that is the day I almost drowned in poo.


That story had everything. Action, adventure, poo... I'd like to buy the movie rights.


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## jamesbordonaro (Mar 28, 2010)

*New homeowner's nightmare*

No pictures to show but my story relates to a client (I'm the attorney). Client is 83 year old widow who wanted to find a home in the country for her and her son. The day after they moved in they noticed a little mud in the downstairs bathtub. No big deal right? Later, they take showers after a hard day of unpacking boxes and the water starts backing up from the floor drain. A few days after that and the toilet backs up with feces and the entire downstairs carpet is soaked. A few weeks go by before the issue is rectified and now we've got mold inspector and remediation project. Long story short, more than 25,000 to remediate, tear out old wallboard and rebuild. Who needs that kind of grief?


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## user69544 (Dec 31, 2009)

True story, just to give you a laugh.....

It was a hot DRY summer. As we were moving equipment to a job, hubby had to pee. Yes, outside.

I was standing there talking to him.

He got a funny look on his face. A humming bird had came to the"stream".

As the "stream" got shorter, the closer the bird came to the score, hubby.

The look on this face was priceless. I wish I would have had a camera.:laughing::laughing:


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## internal (Mar 29, 2010)

*shutoff misshap*

upon moving into my new house i get the water turned on the guy tells me there used to be a leak so i should shut the water off to the house while he turns it on at the road about a fifty foot difference from house to road. so im behind the house (the shutoff is under the back of the house)when he turns it on as i stand there waitin for him to turn the water on all of a sudden i hear water surging. as soon as it hit the shutoff the pressure blew the line to pieces shooting high pressure water right into the floor of the house and all under it so i take off around the house to tell him to shut it off and as i round the corner of the house im just in time to see his truck pulling away so here i am with water going everywhere under my house it took me almost ten minutes to find my tools(we were not unpacked yet) and another five to find something to remove the lid and shut off the water . after repairing the shutoff i find out i cant win for losing as the water once again is turned on the pipes inside randomly decide to give . with my new home i ended up with a 400 dollar plumbing project on top of everything else. but good news is now i have all new water lines throughout the whole house


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

Can we put this contest on hold for a few months until I finish MY plumbing? 
I'm sure I'll have many misadventures to share once I start!

DM


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## HDZ06 (Mar 23, 2010)

OK I'm game here goes. This is at my home and just happened 2 weeks ago and just now found the problem and fixed it a couple of days ago. The story goes like this I have a crawl space with my furnace located in my bedroom closet. The plentum goes thru the floor into the crawl and all flex poly vent for air ducts. I have always had problems keeping the flex on the ducts, with that said I noticed 3 of my heat vents were not putting out any air/heat, so I assumed they popped off and needed to be put back on. I went to crawl space and opened doors and this is what I found









So the next step was to drain all the water out and find out where it was coming from! My insurance man came out and said it was water run off from all the snow we had melting. Did not make sense to me cause it was an awful lot of water. So we got all the water out, installed a sump pump basin with a few drains to it to keep the water out of the crawl. We had to pull all the flex hose out as it was soaked and trash it







Just as a note do not buy a Rigid sump pump they are junk with the sensors, I went with a Zoeller.

Sump was running like crazy, non stop. Where is the water coming from? Some of it was black so I started investigating looking for perimeter drain outlet. Water was not releasing out of crawl space. I check washing machine drain and no water was coming out end of pipe. I dug up around the foundation at the washer drain area. We found that the washing machine was tied into the perimeter drain and that is was not draining but backing into crawl, both washing machine water and regular run off water.







We dug up the drain going out and found that the perimeter drain going out was a slotted corragated drain pipe without back fill of gravel, so over years dirt, etc got in pipe and clogged it up. Water could not get out. So we ran a new perimeter drain, solid corragated out, and a new drain out for washing machine of 3 inch PVC.







This would have never been a problem if original installer would have put gravel around pipe or if they would have used solid corragated.

So now I have a crawl space that is slowly drying out and will have to install all new furnace vent piping.


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

Maaaaan, dude, you'd have MY vote...if I had one! You have my sympathies.

DM


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## HDZ06 (Mar 23, 2010)

I think I might be in the running here. I would love to win this contest. Its been a battle thru out the whole process from removing the water to finding the cause and fixing it the right way.


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## HDZ06 (Mar 23, 2010)

Is there an update on the winners yet ?


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## Nathan (Dec 5, 2003)

Working on the drawling now. I'll update soon. Thanks.


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## Nathan (Dec 5, 2003)

Well, I just used Random.org to pick our 5 Winners. Thanks to everyone who joined our contest. It was a lot of fun!

Our five winners are (In no particular order):

Andiek - http://www.diychatroom.com/f7/plumb...-faucet-your-kitchen-64715/index2/#post409132
internal - http://www.diychatroom.com/f7/plumb...-faucet-your-kitchen-64715/index3/#post421057
Z062500HD - http://www.diychatroom.com/f7/plumb...-faucet-your-kitchen-64715/index3/#post421676
spark plug - http://www.diychatroom.com/f7/plumb...n-tosca-faucet-your-kitchen-64715/#post402707
Red Squirrel - http://www.diychatroom.com/f7/plumb...n-tosca-faucet-your-kitchen-64715/#post407095


If your one of the winners please PM me your Name, email address, and mailing address so I can forward it on.

Congrats guys!


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## Leah Frances (Jan 13, 2008)

This was super fun. Hope there are more!


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## spark plug (May 5, 2009)

Nathan said:


> Working on the drawling now. I'll update soon. Thanks.


Thanks for running such a wonderful (and fair) contest. But who am I to say?! The only other thing (in life) that I won is $1.00 from the back of a soft drink cap:laughing:!


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## Andiek (Mar 3, 2010)

*Great Contest!*

While it took about 20 years, at least my adventure in diy finally paid off!:laughing: Congrats to the other luck recipients and thanks to DIY and TOSCA for organizing and sponsoring respectively.:thumbsup:


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

Congrats to the 5 winners! And Thank You to TOSCA for sponsoring! 

DM


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## HDZ06 (Mar 23, 2010)

Thanks DIY. Never thought I would win a prize for the headache I went thru but Im glad I did.


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## Red Squirrel (Jun 29, 2009)

Haha nice, I did not expect to win!


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## GarageDoorCente (Mar 1, 2010)

aww dang i didn't win


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## spark plug (May 5, 2009)

GarageDoorCente said:


> aww dang i didn't win


There's always "Next Time". Even if it takes a Century!:laughing:!


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

Nice to have a Sponsor do this
Congrats to the winners


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## wombosi (Apr 22, 2008)

*semi significant plumbing disaster*

i was on a job repairing some steps at a duplex being rented by an absentee landlord.

while in the basement plugging in an extension cord, i couldn't help but notice a veritable torrent of water flowing through the floor and into the dirt floor in the basement.

i contacted the landlord. here's the crazy part. the guy new about the leak, but had been in some sort of dispute with the upstairs tenant, trying to evict her, and meanwhile she's not paying rent.

long story short: the compression fitting right on the end of the supply line to the toilet, right against the toilet tank, had been gushing water, literally spraying it out like when you have your finger over a hose, for something ridiculous like SIX MONTHS, during which everyone was aware of it, but did nothing.

i fixed the leak in about 3 minutes with a new flex line to the toilet tank, didn't even have to sweat any pipe.

the leak went through two floors and ceilings, and completely destroyed about 1/4 of the building. i would venture to guess that to repair the damage correctly would cost about $50,000.

the landlord naturally wanted a quick and dirty repair (after evicting the tenant) but apparently was scared straight after i wrote him up an estimate. i've never looked back.
thankfully this disaster was not my fault.


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