Mt Vernon, Wa Apartment Complex

Sometimes, being a plumber entails hard work, long hours, and nerve wracking complications. These pics are from a job at an old customer who removed some big trees between his big apartment buildings. Evidently, the stump removal shook loose all sorts of nasty handyman repairs that we were able to fix. Until.....

the final leak. We had a backhoe gently digging back to the next leak (4 all told) when yours truly ripped a tee out of the ground. The kicker was that this section was 2" copper pipe in the middle of 2" pvc. The copper tee broke off in the worst possible spot in an already bizarre angle. We had to use the end of a shower curtain rod to temporarily plug the leak.

I came back the next day and used propress technology to install a 2" shut-off (yea!) and tee and hook everything back up. The pvc was coming out at a weird angle so we right-angled it together. There will be a vault there, so if the pvc gives, it won't be an issue.

Tough job for everyone, but it got did.

Broken 2" copper pipe Mt. Vernon, Wa

Fixed 2" copper pipe with shut-off

Why caulking around a toilet is a bad idea

In Washington state, caulking around a toilet isn't code. The picture is the best explanation for the code because the caulk prevented the water from seeping out onto the bathroom floor.

Isn't that a good thing, you won't dare ask.

No, noob, it isn't a good thing.

The water was leaking for a long time, but where was it going? Not on the floor, for sure. But, it was seeping very slowly under the tile floor causing the tiles to settle and crack. Even worse is that this bathroom has twenty toilets and most of them have caulking smeared around the base.

Ball Plumbing reset this toilet with new wax rings (took 3 wax rings because the original plumbers screwed up) and removed the old caulk.

No, we didn't recaulk because it is not code for very good reasons.

Got electric water heater?

This is in a commercial client's business in Burlington, WA. Note the 9 elements.