Bellingham Rental

This job....well, look at the before and after pics to see the scope of the plumbing repair work.

Ball Plumbing works closely with rental owners and sometimes even property managers. With our plumbing hourly rate of $88.00 per hour plus parts, equipment and tax, we're a favorite with customers who have problem properties.

No, we didn't wash the dishes. They're stacked to the right, but if the owner requested we wash them, no problem here!

Before:

After:

Mt Vernon Wa toilet

Ball Plumbing works in Whatcom and Skagit Counties.

This toilet was one of 14 in a large industrial building that was being sold. The realtor wanted Ball Plumbing to repair it. Ball Plumbing wanted to run away.

We comprised and replaced the toilet.

Another Bellingham Water Shut-Off

The same builder must have done the Sudden Valley house (see Blog 6/27/13) because he used a gas valve instead of a full port water valve.

Not only does it cut the flow to this duplex, but look at the second picture. See the dirty water? That's from restricted flow! It cleared up after a few minutes at full pressure, but think of the poor water quality caused by poor workmanship.

Ball Plumbing's plumbers corrected all the problems, of course, for a lot less than you'd think for the amount of quality we gave.

Bellingham tub trap

The rusted tub trap is called a "saxophone trap", at least by me. They haven't been made for 50 years.

This sax trap has a leak at the bottom where the rust ate it up. We crawled under the house and using superior plumbing skills, were able to replace the trap with a new pvc trap.

The problem good plumbers have is that we make things look really easy. On this job, not only was it hard, but I whined like a dog after candy.

It got done, though.

Sudden Valley Water Service

This gas shut-off was being used as a water shut-off on a very nice home next to the Sudden Valley golf course. We found it while replacing the water service--the pipe from the water meter to the house.

Notice the narrow opening in the valve. All these years this 3 bathroom house was suffering with an undersized water service and a gas shut-off.

We installed a proper water service and a full port ball valve.

House is happy, homeowners are happy, plumbers are happy, but a little sad some numby installed it in the first place.

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.

Bellingham sewer replacement

Here's a sewer we did last week in the Roosevelt neighborhood.