Sewage under house in Mt. Vernon, WA

This was a hard one due to the conditions. The tenant complained about bugs in the hallway bathroom, so I crawled under the house to check for problems. There were lots of both. The crawl is extreme because the crawl opening is at the furthest point away from the problem, the raw sewage, and low heating ducts.

We replaced as much as we could and will do the rest when it dries out a bit.

Free Plumbing Stuff

My plumbing parts supplier in Burlington did some spring cleaning. The stuff didn't sell in 3 years, so corporate wrote them off and they gave the stuff away.

Pictured are offset closet flanges, 2" PVC P-trap with union and gal 45s.

All that stuff was used daily by all plumbers 20 years ago and now it is garbage.

Water heater rust

This is from a commercial electric 80 gallon, 480 volt water heater we replaced  in Burlington, Wa.

Ferndale Wa Sewer Stoppage

On the day of the announcement of the Ferndale building inspector resigning for being a drunk, I'll post this nightmare job we did yesterday in a 9 year old house in Ferndale, WA.

The first two pictures are blurred, yea I know. I'm trying to get used to this I-Phone 5 camera.

What you are looking at is a sewer filled with pebbles and dirt. The riser came loose enough to allow the stuff to fill the pipe over the course of years. The third picture is the riser.

What makes matters worse is the sewer makes a u-turn to go all the way across the front lawn to join a shared sewer before it goes into the city sewer.

Bellingham Copper Pipes

We are replacing a water service (pipe from the meter to the house, when I discovered this piece of art.

I call it the DIY Experience:

Forgot the pipe wrench

Look closely at the rust colored thing in the picture. That's a pipe wrench that was left when they installed the water meter 10 years ago. All that water in the hole is normal ground water.

If water can rust out a pipe wrench that badly, imagine what water does to pipes in the ground.

Sewer Roots

Ball Plumbing does drain and sewer cleaning, too.

The picture below is in a Mt. Vernon, WA basement. They had water coming up a floor drain when they ran water anywhere in the house.

I ran the sewer machine through the stack clean out  to 120 feet. In that part of Mt Vernon, the house sewers can go across alleys, down sidewalks, across neighbors' yards and tie into a storm drain. I'm not kidding.

I was able to clear the sewer stoppage for them for under $425.00 (including tax) on a Saturday afternoon. Cheap at half the price, huh.