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).
Alison says
Oh we are experts in plumbing problems!! We noticed a very green and marshy area by the corner of our house and so we started digging and found a broken sewer line! Yuck!! So we dug all around and my handy husband fixed it. Then we noticed a month later that it was marshy again. So we dug it up and there was so much water but the pipe looked fine. So I finally called a plumber and they found out the the pipe just below our kitchen window was completely disconnected and so we dug that up and fixed that too. Well the water didn’t go away! So we called the plumber back and said we must have a slab fresh water leak somewhere so we found a great slab leak repair company and they stayed till midnight to find the leak. They were back in two days and had it all fixed and tested all the lines and they looked good. Now our water valve out front is leaking into the street. It never ends with old homes.
Hayley says
Here’s a nail gun question for you – I own the same pancake compressor/nail gun that you that you linked to – it calls for 2″ brad nails, but in your “Bathroom Blues” post – you put in 1.25″ nails. I’m looking to install some trim on my cabinet doors and would love to use the nail gun, but I’m afraid of the length of nail being too long. How short of nails can be used in this gun?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, I’m not sure I know that offhand, I would check the nail gun to see if the booklet/packaging/website includes that? Sorry, wish I knew that off the top of my head!
xo
s
Sara says
We have the same nail gun/compressor as well and we have used 5/8″ nails in it. I would double-check the user manual though.
karen l says
So – we were newlyweds – I came home from teaching and splashed into a puddle on the carpet in the middle of the living room. No rain, look up – no leak from pipe in ceiling – where did it come from?
We walked across and across the carpet till we figured it came from the shared wall with the kitchen – basically behind the refrigerator. So – pull out the refrigerator – ?? – nothing.
This was worth a call to the home warranty people. They were out early the next morning and discovered the leak in the foundation! When the house was framed, a nail had gone through a pipe in the foundation and had finally rusted through (house was year and a half old).
To repair: jackhammer a hole in the foundation (!!), repair pipe, pour more concrete, repair vinyl in kitchen.
Thank heavens for the home warranty on that one!!
JBM says
I don’t know if you’ve seen this on Pinterest yet or not, but I had to do a double-take as it looks eerily similar to another foyer I’ve virtually seen before…
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/221450506650783139/
Funny thing it seems to have been transformed before yours!
YoungHouseLove says
Isn’t that funny?! There’s another one on Pinterest with the same blue-ish door and star fixture that was literally shared like a day after ours! I think we were all on the same secret foyer wavelength! Although admittedly things like turquoise and star pendants are pretty universally loved, but it’s funny to see them combined like that! We’re triplets ;)
xo
s
katie s. says
If this makes you feel better, we did a major kitchen renovation/move in our 80 year old home about a year ago. Our house had variously been split into 2 and 3 apartments over the years, not well maintained, but then renovated back into a single family home before my husband bought it about four years ago. We were left with a tiny tiny tiny galley kitchen for our big 5+ bedroom house. Upon demoing the tiny dining room and office on our 1st floor to make that a single large kitchen space, our contractor found our ductwork rusted through – and guessing from the amount of feces up in there too, he was pretty sure that it rusted through from years of rat urine in there. That made me want to rip every bit of ductwork in our house out – or just burn the whole place down. Shudder.
Margaret says
$650 for a day’s work? I would hire your plumber in a flash!! We had to have our laundry faucet and sink replaced (with something very cheap and utilitarian) and it cost $900 for a couple hours’ work. All the plumbers in our area are incredibly expensive. I can’t wait to get out of Philly.
Janice says
w-w-w-wait a minute……the bathroom looks AHHHHHHmazing! did I miss the rest of the fix? Paint? pictures hung? It looks so light and airy and the tile even looks good now!!! Job well done! (and sorry about the leak but glad it worked out, I mean, hey – you got that last snatch of wallpaper down!!)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Janice! We revealed that last week (I think it’s linked in this post for ya). Wahoo!
xo
s
Steffanie says
We just purchased our first house on October 29th. It was a build that was way behind schedule. In the process the wrong cabinets were install in the kitchen and things were just not turning out the way we hoped. The night of November 4th is one we will ALWAYS remember.
We had had a small leak in the upstairs bathroom (right above our foyer)and a plumber had been out first thing that morning to reseal it. He told us to wait several hours before turning the water back on so it will dry. We waited until 8pm. And then, swoosh!
I looked at my husband and realized the water was coming through the foyer ceiling. It was collecting in the pendant light. Down another set of stairs we quickly learned where the water valves were for the entire house.
Lots of arguing with the builder & 3 more plumbers later, our ceiling and bathroom are mostly replaced. Two months later.
katie says
We have the exact same problem!! The problem for us is that we live in a condo. We are the end unit so we are the first to back up. We also have to wait on the board to fix it. We have nightmares of hearing the tub backing up. Once while my husband was gone on a trip the tub and toilet overflowed with poop water. It was the most disgusting thing that has ever happened to me.
Katelyn @ evanandkatelyn.com says
Ay ay ay. That just sounds terrible! Within our first week or so of homeownership we had to deal with a pretty crappy (pun intended) situation as well where some guys working on our house clogged our toilet, locked the door, and we didn’t discover it until days later!!! (we were using that bathroom for extra storage in the meantime so we just never used it). Ack!
I won’t go into the graphic details, but it involved me, a cup, somebody else’s poopy water, and a new low in the things I’d put myself through to save money by not hiring a professional (which I ended up having to do anyway haha)
http://evanandkatelyn.com/2013/03/poopy-water-poopy-water-poopy-water/
Pre says
This is very off-topic from your post, but have you seen the in-progress foyer of the house the girls are working on over at A Beautiful Mess? They just posted photos a couple of days ago. It is very reminiscent of your foyer updates this year with door color, light fixture and light wall color. Not the same, but very similar – it’s like they are using your space as their inspirational mood board!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so much fun! Off to check it out!
xo
s
Ely says
Man, that’s not a fun problem to have. I’m glad you were able to get it taken care of! It’s always amazing to me how you can start out with one little task and end up redoing the whole house.
We just wanted heat. We bought our 100+ year-old house in October and the only heater was a big, propane space heater in the family room. So we decided to have a furnace installed, but realized our crawl space was too narrow for any vents. So we agreed they would have to go along the ceiling and we’d put the drop-ceiling back up to cover them. Then we decided the drop ceiling wasn’t a look we really cared for, so we agreed to put up drywall ceilings instead, ourselves.
THEN we found out that the floor does not run level with the existing ceiling. The existing ceiling dips in one corner. Leveling out that problem was a fun adventure. But it’s always a learning experience, and we are tired of living with a giant, silver octopus (ventilation running everywhere). First time for doing all of these things and we are soaking it all in and hopefully will get the hang of it as we go! :)
So now we have a new furnace … and ended up getting new ceilings everywhere downstairs too!
Torey says
A note about home warranties. Ours is renewable and actually covers just about everything (appliances, plumbing, furnace, water softener, air conditioner). It actually doesn’t matter how old the appliance or plumbing is and the house doesn’t have to pass some kind of inspection each year. Some companies won’t let you make a claim in the first month (b/c they don’t want you to just sign up for a major repair), but we have had our water heater fixed numerous times, the seal on our fridge replaced, our furnace replaced, a new garbage disposal, new faucet in our kitchen and new faucet in our bathroom, as well as numerous plumbing stoppages all covered. I think it is pretty likely your issue would have been covered if you had a warranty.
YoungHouseLove says
So interesting! Ours didn’t cover some issues that occurred in our house due to the “existing condition clause” that was clearly stated in the warranty agreement (things had to previously work and then break to be covered, so old things that were broken and noted on the inspection would never be covered for example) – but perhaps in other cases they’re more lax? That’s awesome!
xo
s
Torey says
You can definitely buy a new warranty with a different company and get things covered. While mine even says “excludes pre-existing conditions”, it is likely you could have had some/all of the plumbing work covered. Because the repairmen/plumbers are independent contractors with the home warranty service they usually are on the homeowner’s side. So they will say whatever is necessary to get the warranty company to cover the repair (since it means business for the repair company). :)
YoungHouseLove says
Interesting! Thanks for the info Torey!
xo
s
lisa says
I had never read a blog before May 2012 when I Googled “staining brick” and House and Home’s forums referred me over here with a warning that your blog is addictive. I have read every day since (and I will continue to). I commented about insulation in your sunroom ceiling burning your shingles out with inadequate ventilation and laughed when John started pulling it all out a few posts later. I had been researching the same issue for my mom’s sunroom.
I rarely read the comments section but happened to one day when there was a lot of vitriolic posting about your possible pregnancy and your privacy, etc. That day was an eyeopener. I was just shocked. I’m a newbie and naive obviously. It’s happening over on KB’s blog today.
I saw “Blogroll” on your blog and clicked over to KB’s a few months ago. I didn’t even know what a Blogroll was – seems like a way that you refer your readers to other blogs?
Anyway, I thought she was quite quirky and I periodically click over to her blog from yours. That’s why I thought of you today after reading her post and getting sucked into her comments section for the 1st time ever. I read her comments section because I was just so shocked by her post and offended – I thought it was a joke and I was missing something.
Ummmm I’m not sure where to go from here. I just don’t see her the same way any longer. And I realize she is a friend of yours. But I guess I wanted you to know that I feel like you “referred” me to her. With your Blogroll. I always really admire your principle-centred approach. You seem like you have so much integrity. I appreciate that you don’t take money to recommend product. That you refused to put your name on a rug collection that was inconsistent with your values.
That’s why I wanted to let you know that whether you consider your Blogroll a reflection of you and what you value, or not, I think it is basically you making referrals. Your Blogroll is a reflection of you.
I just don’t see you “referring” people to KB’s Jan 30th post.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the info Lisa! Our blogroll isn’t links to posts that we get to vet or approve or anything – they’re just dozens of blogs that we’ve generally read and enjoyed over the years, but that being said, we certainly don’t ever intent to refer anyone to something offensive and truly apologize if that occurs. We love to keep it light and fun on our little corner of the internet, and will have to edit/revisit those links if we’re getting feedback that they’re not helpful or inspiring. That’s our whole motivation behind having a blogroll – to give you guys more places to find ideas, projects, and other good stuff :)
xo
s
Kristina says
I don’t mean to pile on, but I agree with this comment. I also found her blog through this site and haven’t been fond of her in the past, but that post was one of the worst things I’ve read in a long time. Her whole blog reeks of white privilege and racism. I love this site and read every post, and I love that you guys keep it honest and real. And I know that a blogroll isn’t a major thing, and that you have so many other important things on your plate, but it does really sadden me that a blog like that could still me inspiring. Anyways, just leaving my feedback!
Amanda B. says
Without taking the time to read all the comments, I hope I’m not the only one to notice the parallel photos in this post and the “Leak, volume one” post that’s linked to at the end. Here you have John looking up through the toilet hole, and there you have John looking down through the skylight! Okay, so I’m weird, but it was fun to notice. :-P
YoungHouseLove says
So funny! Didn’t even notice that!
xo
s
Tracy says
We have had our fair share of problems in our house as well. Our first renovation in our house was our bathroom and after taking down a few walls we realized that there was really bad electrical work (yikes) and the roof was falling in one spot. What we thought would be a quick and cheaper bathroom renovation, quickly doubled in price. Fortunately my dad is a trained electrician and super skilled at this stuff so we had a good team.
Paula says
At first we thought the water in the basement was from the washing machine, which was still under warranty–YAY! But, the washer wasn’t the culprit–BOO–it was the sewer line. A whole wall had to come down, linoleum was ripped up, a lawn was excavated and a floor jack hammered. Of course, whenever a wall comes down you just know there are going to be surprises. I was hoping for a stash of banknotes or gold, but all we discovered were bare wires resting on the decaying iron sewer pipe. Enter the electrician. Sigh.
Aimee says
You are not the only ones. 2 days after we moved into our 60 year old home the water pressure in master bathroom shower gave out. The next day it quit working all together. As we were just moving in and had a million other things going on we didn’t get right on to fixing it and just used the other bathroom. 2 weeks later the water pressure in the kitchen started going. We called a plumber. Our 60 year old galvanized pipes were corroding from the inside out and all the taps were filling with junk. It took us a couple months because our plumber was going back to school, but we have all new plumbing from street to every tap. To fix our shower it was either rip out the shower or take down the mirror on the other side of the wall and cut a hole. We chose the latter. Now we are dealing with paint peeling and falling off in the bathrooms because the last owner didn’t prep the walls, doors, and trim when they painted prior to selling. Once someone started actually using the bathroom after painting (steam from showers) the pain started falling off. Grr. Better than other problems though; I’d take this over snake dens showing up after I bought a house.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh, two days in?! That’s rough! Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories. It’s oddly comforting to read them – and it seems like they’re helpful to others with similar issues (getting them diagnosed through comments, haha!) so that’s a nice bonus!
xo
s
Allison says
At first look, the thumbnail that appeared on FB looked as if Burger eats from a food bowl that has John’s face at the bottom.
YoungHouseLove says
Hahaha!
xo
s
Stacy says
Less than $1000 – I think you made off pretty good. That could have been a much bigger issue than just reconfiguring some pipes! I really happy for you guys that it didn’t end up being a much more expensive job. My husband and I just had our microwave handle break a few weeks back. Thought it would be an easy replacement issue – so wrong. Not only are we going to have to buy a new microwave but because the previous owners decided to hardwire the microwave into the wall instead of just putting in an outlet and drilling a hole large enough to get the plug through – now we have to pay an electrician to come in and rewire the entire thing and I’m really hopeful I won’t have to pull out any of the wall or cabinets since the kitchen was literally just redone a few years ago before we moved in. The kitchen is part of the reason we bought the house. It’s so frustrating. Hopefully your plumbing issues are dealt with for the long haul :)
Mary says
We had a similar, but more expensive issue. Apparently, when the sellers renovated our house, they did not replace the main so it was still the old (original from the 1900’s) terra cotta pipe. This, of course, broke at some point and resulted in multiple back ups that never quite got fixed. We finally got a video inspection done and found out the bad news. $4,000 later it was fixed. I still feel the loss of that cash…Imagine all the shoes I could’ve bought instead!!
Sarah @ House Made of Marital Glue says
No fun! It really sucks to have to pay so much for something that should have been done right when the house was built (or fixed within the last thirty years), but it will definitely save you some frustration down the line.
I commend you for hiring someone to tape and mud the drywall. During our huge renovation, my parents who helped (my dad is a contractor and amazing) had differing opinions on what we should do about taping and mudding our walls (the new sheetrock was replaced right next to the sixty year old plaster). My dad hates mudding and taping because it is very hard to do flawlessly and my mom wanted to do it ourselves to save money. We went with my mom’s suggestion and are still kicking ourselves. It was the most horrendous part of the whole renovation. We had to do it about five times to get it to a “pretty good” point. The worst part was the ceiling and the corner between the walls and the ceiling. Nearly impossible to get smooth on both sides! The ceiling has a slight seam but it is very hard to notice. We will definitely be hiring it out when we finish the basement!
Jenny says
Our first house was a slab ranch, meaning there was no basement, no crawlspace, all plumbing like drains, etc were installed within the slab, so you couldn’t see them or access them without jack-hammering the floor. The house was L shaped and one half had the bedrooms and a full bath, the other “wing” had the kitchen and a half bath with laundry room. One day I was doing laundry and I heard a louder than normal sound of pouring water. It took a few moments to register the incongruity of the sound and then I rushed to check what was happening. When I opened the door to the laundry/bathroom, all I saw was water (mercifully clean) pouring up and out of the toilet bowl in an unending flow. My first thought was that the toilet was running and overflowing so I ran to turn off the water supply, but it just kept coming and coming. That’s when I noticed the blue, sudsy quality of the water and realized the washer was going through a drain portion of the cycle. When I turned that off it all stopped, but not before gallons of water had spilled all over the floor and out into the wall to wall carpeted family room. We called roto-rooter and they came out to snake the pipe and the guy’s snake got stuck and I think he was sweating bullets for a few minutes until he got it loosened and could pull it back out. He had a camera on a snake, but it didn’t go far enough to find the block, so another guy had to come back a day or two later with another, longer camera. Meanwhile, this is on the half of the house that had the kitchen, so that meant the kitchen drain was out of commission too while we waited. The second guy comes and has a snake with a camera and a locator system, so they could pinpoint the exact location of the blockage, whether it was inside the house or out. Mercifully, the site of the problem was about ten feet beyond the edge of the foundation, but before it tied in with the main waste line coming out the other half the house on it’s way to the street. We marked the spot with a stake and were handed a $3000 estimate that would cover any and all expenses that roto rooter would incur in fixing the problem, fix guaranteed. $3K? No thanks! We called our neighbor who worked for the water department in town and got some other names to call and got a quote from a local excavator for $140 and hour, minimum 4 hour charge to dig it out and replace the pipes. We went with them, and it took them about half a day to dig out the problem section and replace it. It turns out that when the neighborhood had to go from septic to town sewer, the original contractor had put in a main drainline from the house to the street, out of PVC, but the short run from the other wing’s drain line to the main line had never been replaced. The fifty year old clay pipes that had been used had finally bit the dust and collapsed. Since it was January in Massachusetts, the exit route for all that water had frozen over and was impassable. In the end it was only about $500 to have everything fixed. There was no permit fee was required by the town since the original work had never been done correctly, so yay for that? All’s well that ends well, but for a while we were pretty tense, worrying about whether we’d have to rip through our floor/foundation to get to the site.
Karinny says
Do you have the information of the drywall guy?
YoungHouseLove says
His name is Vaughn and his number is 804-814-0477. We loved him!
xo
s
Mary Ann says
Oh the joys of homeownership. Just yesterday I heard a loud ‘pop’ coming from our fireplace (has an electric blower). The fireplace wasn’t on…we had a problem. Called the electrician who wired the house just 8 years ago, who came over right-away. The pop that I heard was water that had gotten inside the fireplace cover had conducted electricity and short circuited the blower causing the entire breaker to ‘trip’ (right term?). So now, there’s a call into the fireplace company to fix the water coming into the fireplace. Good golly.
Jess Nielsen says
Long story short… plumbing fiasco. We had an old 1897 Craftsman home, complete with a 2″ kitchen drain pipe with nearly zero slope + years of crud inside of it. I had a half a bag of old spinach that I thought I would let the garbage disposal have for dinner. It backed up beyond belief, so much so, that after a few attempts to unclog it, soggy spinach was spraying out of the back of our WASHING MACHINE! It was horrendous… but we laugh so hard about that moment. Mind you, we were three months into marriage :) Gotta love stories like that!
Minna says
You’re definitely not alone.
We bought a 40-year old house around the same time as you, and when things like this happen, I always wonder about the previous homeowners. How did this not bother them enough to get it fixed?!
Kim says
10 months after we bought & moved into our current home, one section of the basement wall would be wet in the morning after an evening or overnight rain. (I do childcare inthe basement or we may never have noticed) so I would use the shampooer, suck it up, block it off until dry then put everything back in the afternoon. for a couple of weeks this went on until my plumber husband & friend put in a sump pump in that corner of the basement, it stayed dry for about a week & then they decided to dig up the old drainage tile on that section & found the reason. they had poured the extra mixed concrete from the basement floor over a good sized chunk of the tile on this side so it had finally collapsed not letting any water pass through. Luckily it was a minimal costing fix for us.
Shadlyn Wolfe says
We live in a mobile home, and a couple of months ago a dog managed to get past the siding. At first nothing seemed wrong…but about two weeks later our furnace started acting up. Long story short, pup had pulled one of the wires clean out.
It wasn’t a long saga to get fixed, but the electrician assured us that we’d gotten pretty lucky not to have either a fire or a shorted out furnace that had to be completely replaced.
Janice says
Sometimes home ownership can be so frustrating! We made the silly choice to purchase our first home and it’s 114 years old! Yes, that was not smart! We both grew up in old houses and fell for the original woodwork and the charm of the huge covered front porch and were definitely seduced by the playground literally in our backyard! But, every time we start a new project we get some “awesome” surprise! For instance we had some leftover tenants in our attic that were super aggressive and made their way down to our main living area. Let me tell you getting rid of bats is not fun or easy and those things are terrifying! Luckily, they’ve been evicted and have stayed out.
Spencer says
This reminds me of the issue we discovered a week after moving into our new house. I flushed on the 2nd floor and the wife happened to be in the basement near the septic pipe doing laundry and caught a drip out of the corner of her eye, followed by a trickle. Over $1000 later the drain pipe from the 2nd floor bathroom to the basement was replaced, which involved ripping apart the house from the outside. The pipe was inaccessible from the inside due to the kitchen cabinets/fridge/countertop and back splash. The cause of the leak? The previous owner replaced the cedar shingles and sheathing just before we bought it. Shingle staples are long and it peppered the pipe all the way up and down. If that wasn’t enough the circular saw he used to cut off the rotted sections of sheathing cut a nice 2 inch by 1/8 inch line in it. The previous owner wasn’t living in the house while work was being done, so I’m sure he had no idea of the problems he caused.
Kathryn says
We also purchased an older 2-story home 2 years ago. We made it through 1 winter with no problems, but this winter, thanks to the freak polar voretxes, we have had to cut open our basement ceiling not once, but twice because a pipe froze between the bottom story and the foundation. I guess if there’s a bright side, it’s that we hadn’t repainted the edging on the walls from the first time around yet, so we made a smaller mess this time? UGH. Is it summer yet?
suzanne says
Hi Guys!! Not sure if you know this but you can extend a home warranty past the initial year of purchase. We bought our house (15 years old) 3 years ago and just renewed for a monthly fee. It has saved us thousands! New pool pump, new heating unit, 3 vent fans in the bathrooms, and multiple fixes on the ac unit before its’ death. Be sure to read the fine print and look over the reviews for service though. Some are really good and some stink!!
YoungHouseLove says
So smart! We were on the fence about extending it and didn’t but now we’re like ‘ahhh, was that a mistake?!’
xo
s
Lauren S. says
Ugh, this kind of story scares the crap out of me (uh-oh, bad pun!).
If it makes you feel any better, when things started going wrong with the downstairs toilet in my parents’ two story, they couldn’t go in through the crawl space either. In fact, the entire water to the house had to be shut off and my parents kept running down to the local 7-11. When the emergency plumber people finally came out in the middle of the night, they had two options – snake whatever the block was out by going in through the toilet bowl, which could possibly cause a huge release of pressure that would shoot up and “redecorate” the ceiling, or dig a hole the size of a coffin in the front yard and try to go in that way, though it would be a bit more expensive.
Luckily they went with option two, because even though the neighbors were probably creeped out that they were digging a huge hole in the middle of their yard after dark, they said that upon fixing the blockage they could say for sure that the whole bathroom would have to have been sanitized and redecorated. Yuckaroo indeed.
Sherri says
So… remember that one post about diapers that blew up in your face without warning? Well, regardless of opinions & without intent to hijack this post/forum/comments, your friend Katie just had a diaper post blow up. Crap hit the ceiling (pun intended) & she’s prego & surely emotional (speaking from experience) & y’all should call your friends & let them cry or shout or whatever… b/c that’s what friends do. :)
And… I’m glad your toilet is fixed :-)
Emmy A says
I can’t remember what transpired that we had to replace all our duct work shortly after moving in, but we did. And the guy told us that in his 20 years of dealing with ducts, he had never seen what we had (which was essentially insulation wrapped into a tube and duct taped). No wonder our house was inefficient! To make matters worse, one year later, I was convinced someone was squatting in our attic because of the noise, only to discover that squirrels were living up there and had been for decades (our house was built in 1954). We knew we needed to add insulation (per the duct guy) as our project that year, but no one seemed to notice the vermin problem. So, several thousands (yes, you read that correctly) of dollars later, we are squirrel free. And we have efficient ducts and all new insulation. I feel your pain! It feels good to have those things fixed, but it’s so painful knowing that no one even notices what you just shelled out so much money for.
katalina says
I did not read through all the emails but even in a new house 13 years ago do not expect electrical or plumbing to be done correctly.
I had weird things happen– fill up one sink in the bathroom and the other sink would fill up–finally fixed it after pulling out vanity and redoing the plumbing.
major diverter problems in shower too and leaks and finally had to get rid of showere curtain and get glass door.
everytime the dishwasher would run– water all over the counters. turns out that was all wrong through disposal etc. also should get a new disposal when the dishwasher dies.
now I am having weird things like a light will stay on even turning it off from both switches and magically turn on and none of the plugs work now in the kitchen. I am scaaaaaaared that an electrical guy in no va will look at a single woman and say– you need all new electrical.
so anyone that knows of a trustworthy electrical company in northern va???
YoungHouseLove says
Anyone have a tip on that for Katalina?
xo
s
Kristin says
I just wanted to say that I’m glad you guys got it fixed, but this post literally made me laugh out loud. Namely, the term ” gastrointestinal prowess”, (as we call them here when people clog a toilet even if its nothing that they did, “Dino doos”) and saving our retinas from the omitted photo. Oh, and the “duty” pun. I guess you can tell I’m a five year old with potty jokes.
YoungHouseLove says
I totally laughed out loud at the duty pun. High fives for fifth grade humor!
xo
s
Leslie says
That is the ONLY thing I remember from Trainspotting. Thanks, John, for the visual. Yuk!
Melissa Thorpe says
We were living in a 100 year old farmhouse last year and the entire outside draining system (I have no idea what it’s called) was slanted at the wrong angle. And on top of that we had a LOT of rain last summer which also clogged the runoff outside. So it backed up and EVERY time we showered, ran the dishwasher, or did laundry, the entire house smelled like sewer. At first it wasn’t too bad, but once I started almost puking in our kitchen from the smell we knew something had to be done. It took a while to find the runoff, but luckily a neighbor with a tractor was able to dig out the runoff so it would drain properly. But if it gets clogged again (we don’t live there anymore, but it’s still owned my by in-laws), they’ll have to dig it out again.
Plus in addition to all that, when we first moved in, there wasn’t a shower and my husband had to install one. Two words: galvanized plumbing. I have never heard so much foul language come out of one’s mouth before! lol
Sally says
I feel your pain! My husband and I are renovating our 1960s ranch style home. Oh, newlywed adventures! While his roommates lived there with him, there were a few backup issues with the showers, but always something that snaking and clorox could fix. Until.
The night I moved in,I was standing in the kitchen pleased as could be, dreaming of keeping our little nest cozy, clean and welcoming to guests. Then, our first guest looked in the bathtub to find the backup of all backups. Sister: “What’s that” Husband: “Crap. Literally. Crap.” #welcometohomeownership
An emergency plumber visit, several hundred dollars and a few tears later, we were told that the snake wouldnt work anymore. We had pipes that had completely collapsed on themselves and would have to be replaced. Now. Our options were this: 1) to dig from the back of the house all the way under the house, cross the front yard and kill the beautiful flowering trees we loved so much in the process (three zeros, many tears). 2) Dig around the house, cutting through the concrete driveway, tearing down a concrete patio divider and hopefully avoid the trees. (yep, three zeros, tears).
We went for option one, and my sweet husband worked with the plumber to find a route that was functional and left our beautiful flowering trees in tact! Our plumber was fantastic, we learned a lot about working together in “crisis” from the very beginning, God provided and we tightened up big time on the finances, but we now live without fear of backup! We do, however, have a nice sandy trench in the font yard. #yarddutytrumpsbackupduty
Elise @ Expeditions of Elise says
Funny thing…I read this while watching Boy Meets World on ABC Family. Ha!
YoungHouseLove says
NO WAY! What are the odds?!
xo
s
Sheila F says
This reminds me of our first home. A real fixer upper. We were so excited to be in our own home and we hosted Easter dinner for our whole family. My MIL went in to use the bathroom and the toilet FELL THROUGH THE FLOOR with her on it! The house was built on a slab so she didn’t go far and was not hurt thankfully (I love my MIL). I was fortunate in that my Dad,brothers and husband were all able to pull up the toilet and replace the broken cast iron pipe and put in a new subfloor all on Easter Sunday. My Mom and I worked on making dinner. Funny none of the guys lost their appetites! LOL
MB says
Ugh. It takes at least two years to learn all the “special” quirks of a new house. We knew our main bath on the second floor was not in great shape and our solution was not to use it until we could renovate. Once, my daughter gave her barbies a bath and turned everything off and then during xmas dinner a paint balloon (about 10″ in diameter) appeared above our kitchen sink (and below the tub). Apparently, when she finished the barbie bath the washers in the tub faucet didn’t seal and a very small drip siphoned back up the tub spout and dripped over our kitchen sink. Once we saved up the coin to renovate, the contractors found a 30 year old tupperware bowl jammed under the tub in the rafters and just one rotting 2×4 supporting a 500lb cast iron tub. Yikes!
Angie says
Ugh, plumbing. We bought our house in June and within a couple of weeks, we had three separate plumbing issues in our master bath, two of which caused some serious leakage through our foyer ceiling. First, we somehow cracked the shower within our first few days. Granted, I use Aussie shampoo/conditioner which comes in hefty bottles (that I may or may not drop a lot), but still. Then our seal gave out on our toilet, and then something went wrong with the pump in the toilet.
Now we with this polar vortex, we’ve discovered that the shower was never properly insulated so we have exposed pipes right up against the outside wall of our house. My husband is trying to fix what he can himself since we had to call the warranty guy twice in a row and he told us that we might lose our insurance if we didn’t stop calling. Didn’t know that was a thing. Personally, I’m hoping to get a new, beautifully tiled shower out of this whole debacle, but we shall see!
Sally says
Years ago, my husband was trying to fix a broken pipe and decided to heat it (or weld it – something) and caught the bathroom on fire.
Yeah….he doesn’t do plumbing anymore.
YoungHouseLove says
Eeeeks! That’s a doozie. Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories. This needs to be a book or something. I love reading them all!
xo
s
Sally says
My sister bought an old farmhouse which had bats – they found one near the baby’s crib and the experts recommended that the whole family get rabies shots. Which they did. My sis says that her kids would burst into tears for years when ever they drove by the hospital where the shots were administered…
Celynd says
My husband bought our house before we were married. When he moved in, he found that the toilet in the master bathroom was connected to the hot water line, not the cold. The seals on the toilet had to be replaced every few months because of the high temp water. The house was about 4 years old when he bought it, meaning the previous owners had lived with a hot water toilet for that long without ever getting it fixed. It’s not surprising that that wasn’t the only plumbing problem we’ve run into with the house, but it’s by far the most amusing.
Theresa says
Just wondering if you head out of town for a number of days… do you shut your main water off?
YoungHouseLove says
We don’t. Maybe because we’re in such a temperate (for the most part) climate. I don’t even remember doing that when we lived in NY/NJ though. Do you guys?
xo
s
Brittany D says
We dealt with this EXACT situation a year ago. It baffles me how a reverse sloped pipe could take 20+ years to rear its ugly head and cause major issues. I guess we’re just the lucky ones ;) I’m glad you got the issue resolved quickly!