Price Increase

Wowsers!

Prices of everything are going up!

Why am I whining about it?

I've got to start collecting the $40.00 service charge that's listed on the Prices page. I'm serious this time.

I lowered the multiple item discount to 10%. Still cheap at half the price.

Water Meters

Had a  phone call from a homeowner who objected to having had to call Bellingham Public Works to shut off his water at his meter. He explained to me that he should be able to shut off his water at his meter any time he wants because it's his water and his water meter.

While meters are new to Bellingham, they aren't new to the rest of the county or even the nation. Go 1" outside of City of Bellingham boundaries and everyone has a water meter. So therefore, like our beloved Traffic Guy, I'll explain the oh-so-obvious facts.

1. It ain't your water meter. The meter belongs to the company/agency/city that sells you water.

2. Since it ain't your water meter, you can't touch it. If you do and it breaks, you're in a World of Hurt. There are fines and much ridicule for breaking their meters. The reason for this seemingly fascist law is that the water meter is attached to the infrastructure that serves everyone else. Again, it ain't your meter.

3. You buy the water only after it passes through the meter. Everything after the meter, is yours: pipes, water, usage, everything.

I did install a water shut off under that caller's house for under $500.00.

Bellingham Wa water meter

Bellingham Wa water meter

If you remember these toilet models and colors...

Replaced all the toilets in this Alabama Hill home. Guess it was about time, huh. The center Kohler toilet is as low as it looks. In 1980, the Kohler fill valve for it was $70.00.

plumbers bellingham wa

Ball Watches

There are other companies called Ball like the Ball Watch Company, for example.
http://www.ballwatch.com/

This watch is about average for their offering at just under $4k. That's a lot of stoppages..lol

Happy Holidays from Ball Plumbing

I hope everyone has a safe and sane holiday relatively free of plumbing emergencies.

May all your plumbing problems be small and your plumber honest! As honest as Ball Plumbing!

More pics of water service in Alger, WA

When I first looked at this job, it was raining, so the issue of ground water wasn't. But it was, big time.  We had to build a dam and use a pump in order to reconnect to the water meter. Sounds easy, but it ate up the man hours. The ground itself was more rock than dirt, too. It took a crew of three over 20 hours (60 hours total) to get it done, but it got done.

The old water service (the pipe from the water meter to the house) was a patch work of pvc, poly, copper, galvanized steel, and brass ranging in size from 1/2" to 1-1/2"  in diameter. Now it's all one kind and size from the meter to under the house.

There are some very happy tenants in Alger, Washington.

DIY water leak in Mt. Vernon, Wa

This was in a commercial building--a vacant apartment--in a large complex in Mt. Vernon, Wa. The owner and his Maintenance Minions (just kidding) tried to take a short cut as shown in picture. Their repair leaked over a few days and destroyed the wall.

I repaired the pipe and replaced the angle stop within 45 minutes. I didn't get an after picture as the owner wanted me to go to his house to do some work.

Water Saving Toilets

Anyone older than my pipe wrench remembers when toilets usually worked with one flush. It's getting harder to find ones that flushes waste, washes the bowl, has a decent water spot (the amount of water in the bowl) and most importantly, gets the waste down the sewer.

Today's toilets offer challenges to the plumber and the consumer. We use a very basic model with no gimmicks or big price tags. It has normal, everyday parts in the tank and we get almost zero complaints.

NWPR

Ball Plumbing has been sponsoring Northwest Public Radio on KZAZ-FM 91.70/104.70 twice a day for the last six months or so and plans to do so for decades to come! This is the kind of advertising I like!

Listen to NPR for (almost) commercial-free airwaves!

Cat and the Water Heater

Saturday was a busy day ending in a strange way. I had an emergency water heater replacement in the late afternoon in the Silver Beach area and by the time I was finished with my Bandito burrito it was close to 7:30 pm. Typical day in the life, right? Nope.

At 7:35 pm, I get a call from a frantic fellow about a cat and a water heater in a apartment complex off of Sunset. I told him the cat will come out when its ready and not before, but that wasn't the problem. The gentleman finally conveyed to me that his cat was stuck and Whatcom Humane Society has been there for hours and if I didn't want to help he'd call someone else.

It was too good to pass up. I was there in 15 minutes.

What happened: the gentleman and his wife were moving into the new apartment and their cat freaked, jumped onto the water heater, saw a space behind the heater and jumped down. Problem was that the space was very narrow and there wasn't a way out except up. The cat was stuck upside down between the water heater and the corner of the water heater closet. For 4 hours.

I shut down the water, power, and cut the overflow pipe and ever-so-gently, edged this 50 gallon water heater away from the walls allowing the cat to escape.

It was a very happy cat. And I was a hero...until they got the bill.

For the record, I have 3 cats, 2 of which came from the shelter. I'll probably donate the "cat money" to the Whatcom Humane Society as I missed my annual donantion in 2008.

Quiet Day...for once!

The yellow page ad problem got resolved with a 25% reduction, which is fair considering all my proof mysteriously disappeared.

I had a water heater in Bellingham that was dripping out of the drain valve. Not too bad, if it was caught a month ago. Unfortunately, the drip rotted the wood stand and the 800 lb. water heater fell through to the garage floor. Luckily, the gas was off because the house was just sold!