Lemme tell you, our bathroom’s wallpaper wasn’t its only problem-to-be-remedied recently. So brace yourself while we weave a little plumbing tale that spanned over the last few weeks (in fact it just wrapped up a few days ago). You know how we solemnly swear to share the good, the bad, and the ugly? Well, this one can be filed under “the bad” and “the ugly” with a side of “the gross.” So for everyone’s sake, we’ll leave out the graphic pictures.
During the process of buying this house we noticed a very small, dried out water stain on the ceiling in the living room, right below where the bathroom was. We and the inspector concluded it was likely from a toilet overflow from long ago, since the stain was only about 3″ wide and long dried up. So we weren’t too alarmed and just figured it was solved decades ago, so a little primer and ceiling paint were all that it needed. We never even photographed it, but here’s a hint as to where it was.
Then this fall, the toilet started to act up. Namely in that it would occasionally clog (this is your first hint to put down your breakfast) and when we attempted to plunge it, well, it would back-up into the shower. If that first hint didn’t work, something tells me you’re putting your breakfast down right about now.
Yeah, it was gross. And since a certain half of this relationship was already queasy from growing a tiny human, I was the only one on duty (a little pun to lighten the mood). Usually a bit more plunging and maybe a bit of snaking would fix the issue. I say “usually” because this happened more than once. And before you start judging our gastrointestinal prowess, I should note that this sort of back-up sometimes happened when the toilet wasn’t even involved – maybe after a shower or after I shaved in the sink. We googled for answers and contemplated calling in a pro, but the “incidents” were few and far enough between that we figured we could hold out ’til we remodeled the room.
But last month came the back-up that plunging could not conquer.
***PHOTO OMITTED TO PROTECT YOUR DELICATE RETINAS***
And in all of my furious plunging, I managed to create a new water stain in the ceiling below. I’d later learn that all the pressure of such vigorous plunging had compromised the wax ring and water started leaking again. That was our cue to call in a pro. He removed the toilet, ran an 150 foot snake and dislodged what he concluded was “years worth of paper build-up” way down in our pipes somewhere. Phew! Problem solved.
Except it wasn’t. Fast forward another week and the shower starts to back-up again. In fact, it happens as I’m using the tub to fill up the steamer during may latest wallpaper removal spree. So not only was that process miserable on its own, I was doing it with a less than fresh-looking (and smelling) shower nearby. Not to mention that we’re both beyond frustrated that our first call to the plumber didn’t solve the problem. So yeah, clearly the picture below was taken before the back-up happened. Just look at me all footloose and fancy free.
Remember when I called this post-wallpapered look: “gas station bathroom.” I was really thinking it was more reminiscent of that scene in Trainspotting. Yeah, you know the one. And if you don’t, well, I highly suggest that you NOT google it right now. Okay, maybe our bathroom wasn’t that bad. But it was bad enough that I was embarrassed that this was the state the plumbers would see it in.
Then again, things didn’t get much prettier once they arrived. Now that I think about it, I guess they’ve pretty much seen it all.
The plumbing company sent a different guy this time and, after explaining the series of events, he had a pretty solid theory. But it meant cutting into our ceiling to confirm it. Welcome to our crash course in two-story home issues. Kinda made us miss the days where virtually everything was visible from a crawl space or attic.
His hunch was correct. All of the bathroom plumbing was configured wrong. And it had been for 30+ years since they built this house. A key element – the slope of the main drain pipe – was incorrect. So rather than having gravity to help water leave the vicinity, it was actually sloped uphill – so water and sewage that should have been flushed down and out of the house would collect and pool and eventually back-up into the lowest opening in that bathroom (i.e. the shower). In the words of Clara: yuckaroo.
The only solution was to cut a bigger hole in the ceiling and have the experts replace all the plumbing. It even meant cutting out one of the load-bearing joists and reinforcing it with a new one so the new pipes could be configured at the right angle, so it was nothing that we dared to attempt ourselves.
Did we like having our house torn apart? No. But we were pretty relieved that the root of the problem was finally getting fixed. And I’ll admit that we were pretty entertained by the view through the floor.
It only took them a day to complete the task (they came back a few days after their initial diagnosis to get it done) along with a somewhat painful $650 check, but we were relieved that this hidden-behind-the-walls issue that had plagued this house for over three decades was finally solved. Which meant we could finally get back to our little bathroom update. And hey, while the toilet was removed, we were able to strip that small swatch of wallpaper that had been hiding behind the bowl, so that was kind of funny (very marginally at the time, but more so now).
But we were still left with that gaping hole in the living room ceiling well after the bathroom was trimmed out and painted.
We went back and forth about drywalling it ourselves – which basically involves mudding, taping, sanding, re-mudding, and re-sanding. Smooth ceilings are especially tricky (imperfections are a lot more visible up there) and we knew any remaining dents or seams would have bugged us forever, so we finally just pulled the trigger and called a highly recommended local drywall guy.
He fixed it flawlessly in a few hours for around $100, and was also very nice (he said Sherry looked like Topanga from Boy Meets World, which pretty much made our day). So now all we’ve got to do is prime and paint it.
Update: A few folks have asked if our home warranty would have covered this issue (that actually ran out before this fiasco) but it most likely would not, since this was an “existing condition” (the plumbing didn’t break after we moved in, it was configured this way for 30 years, so that’s not something typically covered by a home warranty).
These unplanned homeowner curveballs never feel good (especially when we’d rather be spending that money on fun updates that we can actually see and enjoy) but it’s nice to have things all put back together again. The irony is that we have another “oh the joys of home ownership” story unfolding (it’s still halfway-solved, so we’ll wait for the full resolution before crying on your shoulder). Please tell us we’re not the only ones. Regale us with some of your tales of woe in the plumbing/heating/other house systems arenas. We’re all in this together. Right?
Psst- The “Volume Two” part of this post’s title is thanks to this original leak lesson that we dealt with a few years ago at our last house. Best thing about that one is that it was something we could solve ourselves (read: zero benjamins).
Allison says
I feel you so hard. We bought a weird old house (that we love and plan on living in forever!) back in October. It passed inspection like a dream. Turns out the inspector was a ding dong. A mere 5 days after moving in the septic system backed up and exploded through the master bedroom ceiling, destroying the drywall, floor, our bed, everything. The readily visible pipes were deemed “illegal” in about 5 seconds by the plumbers. 3 full days of plumbing later we were good to go, but the floors and ceiling are just now being reinstalled. The inspector? Only bonded for $500 bucks and lawyered up immediately after hearing from us. I would love to sue him but don’t really have the time/money to make it happen. I’ve settled for a BBB report and a scathing Angie’s List review. A month later the roof that was also said to be perfect poured water onto the furnace, killing that too… A word of caution to readers from New Mexico – there is no accredited licensing agency for home inspectors in this state. Ahh!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, that’s such a bummer Allison! So sorry you had to go through that!
xo
s
Kim says
I’m so happy that you posted this… well, not happy that it happened, but happy to know that my husband and I aren’t the only ones out there running into homeownership “fun” shortly after moving in. In reference to your next post, my husband and I just replaced our washer and dryer too after the washer had too many problems worth fixing and the dryer took 3 hours to dry one load. By the end of the W/D life, it took me an entire day to do one load of laundry. Then our kitchen sink backed up to no end. I got scared to run the dishwasher because I was afraid the dishwasher water would back up into the sink and overflow. I watched it like a hawk. My husband attempted to clean out the drain from the inside, but no dice. He went to the clean out valve, only to find that the cover had been rusted on and he couldn’t get the thing unscrewed for the life of him. I ended up calling a professional and they had to cut the cover off. The drain had about 60 years worth of grease in it. yuck. But our plumbing fun doesn’t end there. We are using the hall bathroom as our primary bathroom since the master shower has a leak in the pan and we figured we’d do a whole bathroom overhaul when we go in to repair that problem. Anyway, the hall shower head had extremely low water pressure, while the tub faucet was fine. My husband decided to investigate. Perhaps there was some kind of low-flow cap on the shower head. Long story, short, several trips to various hardware stores, and quite a few phases of “improvements” later, we found out that when the house was built, back in the 50’s, they used two different metals that shouldn’t go together for the plumbing (copper and galvanized steel, I think). This caused a bunch of black gunk to build up in the pipe leading up to the shower head and the two metals corroded together, so my husband and father-in-law spent a weekend (after a month of fiddling and “improving”) to correctly fix the problem. Now that our plumbing issues seem to be resolved, our garage doors quit working this week. It’s always something, right?! Good luck and hopefully you’ll have smooth sailing for a while! (Sorry for the extra long comment!)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no about the garage doors! Hope it’s something easy like a fuse or the battery. Good luck Kim!
xo
s
Kathryn Woodfin says
Unfortunately, our heating/cooling “incident” was even more expensive. Our air conditioning unit sat in our back yard near the house. Our MALE dog often had the run of the backyard. We didn’t realize it but one of his favorite pee spots was the corner of our air conditioning unit!!! We also didn’t realize that the acidic content of a dog’s urine is enough to completely disintegrate our air conditioner coil ( I “think” that was the part). Long story short – the unit had to be replaced! Lucky for that sweet dog – he (likeBurger) was a furry member of our family. Our household budget definitely took a hit that month!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, that’s so frustrating Kathryn!
xo
s
Jessica says
Oh, man. I totally feel your pain. My husband and I bought our first house just over a year ago, and shortly after we made the place livable (*major* repairs were in order), we discovered that water would erupt out of the laundry drain pipe whenever the washing machine drained. Many months and failed attempts later (Drain-O, pipe snake, etc., etc.), we determined there was a break in the sewer pipe under the kitchen cooktop cabinet.
Unfortunately, our house is on a slab, so fixing it meant jackhammering the floor/foundation to remove and replace the damaged pipe. Luckily, we were able to pinpoint its location pretty well, so we decided to fast-forward our kitchen renovation plans and do it all in one fell swoop. So expensive and so painful… Turns out the drain pipe had rotted through–the plumber had to replace about 6 feet of it. Ugh. But now one of our favorite sounds is that of the washing machine draining without covering the floor with water, and I got a new kitchen out of the deal, so I guess it was all worth it in the end. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh, Jessica. So glad it had a happy ending!
xo
s
designdreamer says
Yeah,
I’m I AZ. Guess when one of our AC units decided to die? Yup, mid-June or was it July. At any rate, it was 110 degree plus temps. Of course we couldn’t get anyone to come fix it for a couple of days, then they had to get the new unit in, and then take the old one out, and then install it. As I recall, the whole deal took about a week. And If I’m not mistaken, we also had record temps that summer. Knock on wood . . . . . . Nope, not even going to go there, or I’ll jinx it.
YoungHouseLove says
Woah, that sounds intense!
xo
s
Megan says
Thanks for sharing your house-ventures. Makes me not so scared to tackle some of my own. I’m actually in need of a good local plumber. Mind sharing who you used?
YoungHouseLove says
We actually wouldn’t recommend the company we used (they fixed things in the end, but it was a little rough during the process) – although we loved the drywall guy and would totally share his info. So sorry! Anyone have a plumbing rec. for Megan?
xo
s
Rita says
Well, I sympathize. I read this yesterday evening and, this morning, the first email I read was from a repairman regarding some squirrel damage in my house. The bill will be close to $1000. Mind you that we bought the house almost two years ago and nothing showed up on the inspection–well, either the inspector did not do a very good job, or pest damage is not covered in the inspection, or the damage is recent. Not too happy right now…
YoungHouseLove says
I’m so sorry, Rita! Dang squirrels!
xo
s
mary w says
We had our own leaky toilet issue about a month ago. One night we heard a trickling noise in our bathroom (we didn’t hear it until our daughter woke up crying a bit at midnight). I was sure that with the Polar Vortex and -30F temps that a pipe had burst. We were shocked to find our toilet overflowing (leaky flap!) and were frantically trying to wipe the floor up with towels. My husband suggested that I run downstairs to get a mop, when I discovered water coming out of the ceiling and through our light fixture on to our kitchen table. :-(
We are left with some pretty bad brown spots on our ceiling. Do you have any tips on how to paint popcorn ceiling? Luckily we caught the leak in time and it didn’t do any damage, but it sure is one ugly ceiling right now. Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
OH NO! Anyone have tips for painting popcorn ceiling? We’ve never had it but I’d imagine you could just prime and paint it with a nappy for-rough-surfaces roller. Good luck!
xo
s
Felicity @ our little beehive says
We had to do repairs in a previous house. They have super thick rollers for that kind of surface. But the big bummer is you have to do the whole ceiling since paint changes color over time. It’s a chance to use a cool color though!
Felicity @ our little beehive says
So we had the same issue this summer, but since we were remodeling the bath anyway, we jack hammered up the floor, took up the subfloor, and replaced the plumbing from the top down. With ours, however, the water was flowing “uphill” (and across the room in the opposite direction), but it wasn’t an “always been there” issue. Drain pipes were super sturdy back in the day, which means heavy. So over time gravity just took over and the original slope disappeared as they settled. It may be the same case for yours, which is comforting if you’re starting to spin the “what else was built wrong” scenarios in your head!
YoungHouseLove says
So interesting! Our plumbing guys said the hole that they cut to feed the plumbing through one of the joists was at the wrong location, so instead of recut it to get thing at the right angle they just shoved them through, trapping it there for the long haul so that water had to fight gravity from the day the house was built. He even said that it wouldn’t have passed inspection (even back then) so he thought the floor must have been closed up before any inspections since no one who saw that would have allowed it to be left that way. It does make us worry what other shortcuts were taken, but there’s comfort in the whole this-house-is-30+-years-old, so anything truly catastrophic has hopefully been found/corrected by this point. Here’s hoping!
xo
s
Elizabeth F says
Oh no, guys! I’m glad it was easy enough to solve, and that you were able to finish your update- looks great! When we bought our first home almost two years ago, we knew that there was a *minor* issue with water in the door threshold from our kitchen out to the deck. We had an estimate done on fixing it and replacing the door, asked the sellers to pay that to us, and went along on our merry way. Turns out, the contractor who gave us the estimate bailed, and when we did have it taken care of, it was a MUCH bigger issue than anticipated. Your photo of Burger checking you out downstairs reminded me of the moment I stood on our deck, with a giant, door-sized hole in our house, and a big chunk taken out of the (rotted out) kitchen floor where we could see into our basement. Not good times! We ended up needing a ton of work done to replace floor boards, house sill, and door framing. We had to re-tile the chunk of kitchen floor with different tile because of course, they don’t sell the original tile anymore, and finally it’s over and done! We definitely weren’t expecting that only 3 months after moving in! We knew there were “joys of home ownership”, but we weren’t expecting the joys to reveal themselves that quickly! Hopefully your next issue isn’t huge, and you’ll have a break soon enough!
Stacie says
Our house is 89 years old and the previous owners used a lawyer by day/handyman by night for almost all of their “improvements.” soon after we moved in the first floor and basement had to be re-wired b/c the existing setup was apparently a big fire hazard. A few weeks later a backed up kitchen sink ended with a broken pipe in the ceiling of the finished half of the basement. The problem? The pipes were pretty much horizontal until the one sudden drop at the end. They were so heavy with sludge that one just sort of gave up. Not toilet bad, but gross enough. My husband and I take turns having homeowner meltdowns over stuff like this :)
megan says
Earlier this evening my fiancé decided to fix our leaky tub. All was well, he drained the tub, no more water was leaking out of the pipe! Yay! He went downstairs to grab a well deserved beer. “Babe…. come here!” As I rushed downstairs I saw water everywhere, all over the kitchen countertops bubbled under the paint. It had poured out of the light fixture… Long story short, in my attempt to destress I googled “funny leaky bathroom stories” and came across your blog. Thank you for sharing your horrible, stressful, bathroom nightmare in such a light hearted tone. I immediately felt my stress level drop, and it has given me hope that my bathroom nightmare won’t bankrupt me. Knock on wood!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, I hope it all works out!
xo
s