That's Poopy

Plumbing emergencies like to happen on weekends. I have proof: There was this time, this time, and this time! 

Add Friday night to the list. The sewage pump failed.

Nova texted Carrie when she couldn't flush and her shower wouldn't drain.

I tried to plug and unplug the pump, but it caused the fuse to blow (which shares a circuit with Shane's bedroom of all places. It reset his clock, so he woke up at 6:25 AM the next day thinking it was after 7 AM).

We told Nova she could use our bathrooms upstairs until it was fixed. I don't think she ever came up.

The sewage situation forced us to make a decision. Did we A) Prioritize fixing the toilet rapidly and pay the price, or B) Try to be more economic about it?

We went with option A. Carrie and I rely on Nova to cover for Carrie's horse habitat and anything to potentially drive away a good situation causes Carrie a lot of anxiety.

We ate the premium. We are fortunate to be in a situation where we weren't forced to make a choice. I choose to look at it as helping the local economy. It was $99 for the Saturday visit (which beat the $169 another plumber offered). I'm sure we could have paid $300 less in parts and labor if we'd ordered the pump on Amazon and waited to get bids. Hopefully, Nova feels valued.

Sewage has a certain aroma. I talked to the plumber to figure out what was going on. I'm always curious to learn more. If there were free classes for trades at the high school I'd probably even sit in on some for fun.

The old unit looked pretty shitty.

The plumber was able to get it to turn on while I manned the fuse box, but the floater didn't activate. It would have been a somewhat cheaper fix to only that, but the pump was original to the house. I expected it to die sooner rather than later.

While he was replacing everything, the plumber noticed the valve in the pipe was broken and loose. He theorized that when the pump activated, sometimes it would block the pipe so that water flow couldn't go anywhere. Then the pump would run until it started to overheat and shut down. That could have caused the fuse issues, the floater issues, and wore out the pump.

The new pump will last at least 10 years if things go my way. And that will be without the motor or something else burning out in the next 6 months.

Thought you were caught up on chores, did you?

Bad news: The air handler had a puddle of water underneath it when I went downstairs Friday night to do a load of laundry.

Good news: It was a load of dirty towels.

I threw down some towels and shut off the AC. Water poured out from a drain and made more of a mess.

I spent an hour cleaning up and checking how fast the puddle replenished. Shutting off the AC drastically slowed the flow. I'd done a load of laundry earlier in the day, so I was reasonably sure I caught the problem in it's infant stages. Our air handler is in the basement and concrete is fine to get a little wet (versus and attic unit), so I decided to research and wait until morning to avoid emergency fees. My research offered a plethora of possible causes ranging from a clog to "you need a new air handler."

There was a small puddle 7 hours later when Shane woke me up, but no flood. I called a pair of services and the earliest appointment I could get without paying through the nose was Monday.

Staying inside all day and monitoring a leak didn't work well with Shane. I took him to Barnes and Nobles for a clearance sale and teacher appreciation, but we stumbled upon a Lego activity. I recognized one of the kids from Shane's wrestling program (His older brother was even wearing the shirt).

Random: Someone used Minecraft to make a complete visual companion to the Bible.

While we were out, a technician suddenly became available. Shane and I raced home for a $126 fifteen minute fix.

A clogged pipe at the trap was the issue. The technician listened to my story, looked around, and asked for a cup of water. He poured it in, the leak started again, and viola!

To be safe, he checked the pump (which he said I should clean) and drilled a hole in the insulation to help it to drain.

I held a cup to the whole and dumped it out sporadically to go easier on the towels. The draining and drying will probably continue for at least a couple of days, but disaster was averted.

Plumb Trouble

My jury-rig worked long enough. I talked to some plumbers while Shane was at VBS. They didn't come out until after he was home, but Shane didn't mind. He got to watch TV and play Lego The Hobbit.

That left me free to talk.

I thought the fix for our loose faucets was clever. They builders failed to clamp/secure the pipe. To avoid cutting drywall, the plumbers (Will and _____) pulled the pipe forward and put a shim behind it. Then they screwed the faucet back on a little tighter to maintain tension.

It was a short (and thankfully cheap) visit. Will got sick and disappeared after he fixed the basement seal. Both men had spent all day in the heat of an attic installing an HVAC, and it hit him after walking and back out to the van. He spent the rest of the time in the van with a drink and the AC cranked.

Odd ending, but if the fixes stick I'd call again.