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Well today didn't quite turn out as planned

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JPSmit

JPSmit

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Because the plan was to go to church - have a snooze and work on the Vauxhall.

Sadly, two days ago I noticed there was water on the floor around the washing machine. SWMBO was secretly pleased as she is hoping for a new washer and dryer. At any rate, a little research and I realized it wasn't coming from the machine but, from a drain line half mortered into the floor. (at some point in history about an inch and a half was added to the original basement floor. A little more research and I - fortunately - realized it was part of a drain for the washing machine that has been closed up at some point years ago but never removed. A quick Lowes run, $8 dollars later and we are good to go. Not often that I get away with a cheap and relatively easy repair when expensive and complicated is an option.

Oh and, while today is milder than usual and before it gets cold tomorrow I had to replace the headlight bulb on the Kia Soul. One had burnt out but I decided to replace both. A quick 30 second youtube video to figure out how to undo a clip and both bulbs replaced in about 4 minutes. Funny that, both "Clever German Cars" are a multi hour PITA to replace the bulbs - but the econo Korean Kia is a piece of cake.
 
Basil said:
Glad it turned out to be a minor issue.
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You and me both - otherwise, it was literally breaking open the floor
 
JPSmit said:
You and me both - otherwise, it was literally breaking open the floor
Click to expand...

I had a similar scare with our washing machine drain. It kept backing up and flooding the utility room floor. I'd have it "roto-rooted" and that would fix it temporarily, but then a few weeks later the problem would return. This was becoming a pattern and I was convinced that there was some "object" in the line that was collecting junk and thought I'd have to jack hammer the kitchen floor to repair. Well, on one of the root-rooter excursions, I had the guy run a camera through the line to see exactly what was going on. It turns out the issue was (is) a low spot in the line where "stuff" can accumulate.

The guy told us that it was likely caused from putting too much stuff down the garbage disposal and not running enough water afterwards to ensure that it all flushed out to the main line. Since then we don't put anything too large in the disposal, and when we do put small amounts of food, etc in the disposal, we make sure too run hot water for an extra 30 seconds or so. So far, since we've been putting the larger scraps in the trash and running a little extra water, we've not had any problems.
 
heheee. At some point last year, Herself peeled a half-dozen spuds and tried to feed the peelings down the "pig" all at once. Sink had standing water in it for a few days after that until I could take the time to "undo" the wad of paste blocking the drain. No amount of "plunging", chemistry or boiling water did a thing. She's a LOT more careful now about how she feeds th' pig. ;-)
 
And German cars are the worst to change light bulbs in. VW, Audi, BMW and Mercedes. All of them. (Never had the pleasure of changing a Porsche bulb, maybe they are the odd man out? Don't think so...) Mercedes is the worst b/c noone works on them, so there are not many u-tube videos, forums, and the like. And no Bentley manuals.
 
Funny how we name things in the house, for years my mom and dad called the garbage disposal George! Don't ask me why, I never asked, the dish washer is Hazel and ever since we were married my wife calls them the same thing, probably because my sisters picked it up and she and my sisters are like 3 peas in a pod. :highly_amused:
 
What I call some of my appliances I can't repeat here without breaking my own rules :angel2:
 
Basil said:
Glad it turned out to be a minor issue.
Click to expand...

Well, maybe I spoke a little too soon. Woke up this morning and, there was water in the tub - not draining. (humidifier run off) so, apparently I did hook it up to the wrong drain. Sooo, pulled the washer away, the utility tub - which involved cutting the feed lines to the utility tub. Pulled it all back, and started chiselling the remains of the line in the concrete. Well, there were two pipes going into the ground - one copper and one ABS - started removing debris around it, only to have the pipes move easily. Long story short, I found a 4 inch clay drain pipe with two pipes stuffed down them and packed in with dirt and concrete. Well then, that is up to code. :rolleyes:

The only way then to properly hook up the drain is to break through the floor - which ain't happening, so, the rest of the day was spent disconnecting the washer, cutting and capping the lines, capping the lines to the utility sink and preparing to move everything. Now the really good news is that we had already planned to move the washer to the other side of the basement - so, the drain is already roughed in. I will now need to plumb in the feed which fortunately won't be difficult. The reason for the move was so that we don't crack our head on the duct work every time we change the laundry. (the celler is only about 6' 3" high - and the ducts lower than that.)

Oh, and what I thought was the drain - and hooked the sink up to was the drain from the sump pump - which ran along two walls before going down the aforementioned drain pipe.

I will say that while this is all a PITA, at least the house is almost entirely up to code by now, and we had a huge rainstorm a few years ago where almost everyone ended up with flooded basements. We didn't, now I know this was more luck than preparation. Now we have a proper drain and, put one of those valves in that prevent backflow.

In other news the headlights still work :grin:
 
Sorry fer yer troubles feller, yep... that's jes the way it is... and iffn you think differnt, somebody musta done learnt you wrong!... I knowed there was gonna be more in this here story. I jes knewt! Dint I. Yep! :thirsty:
 
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"Because the plan was to go to church - have a snooze and work on the Vauxhall."

I often take a snooze at church too when I have things to do afterward.
 
That guy cracks me up! :highly_amused:
 
waltesefalcon said:
"Because the plan was to go to church - have a snooze and work on the Vauxhall."

I often take a snooze at church too when I have things to do afterward.
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:lol:

After Katrina we went on a Mission Trip to help clean up - we were staying in a church in Diamond Head MI - they had lovely air matresses in the hall but I slept the whole week on a back pew - It was finally my turn! :grin:
 
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