Condo owner dumps two flower pots down kitchen drain

[Terry]

I just got a call today from a client living in a six story condo in Redmond.
Somebody on the sixth floor took and dumped all the dirt from their planters down the kitchen sink. Are some people so detached from reality that they don't know better than that? Mud and dirt came up in the fourth floor kitchen sink as tar looking goo.

That's almost as bad as the time I was working downtown Seattle and the tile setter poured his grout down the tub drain on a 26 story building. Needless to say, the tub didn't drain right after that. It was perfect when I first installed it. Not so good after the tile guy dumped his grout down the drain.

I went to one home on Lake Sammamish, the toilet was draining slow. We pulled the bowl and found that the tile setter had placed his left over bits of tile inside the drain line. Not outside in in the garbage bin, but down the toilet drain.

Anyone else have some bad stories like this?

 

[JohnfrWhipple]

Four years ago I rescued Super Man from my clients West Vancouver Home. It was not really Super Man but a Super Man tooth paste tube. Got flushed and almost made it out of the toilet. Was wedged solid. Had to pull the toilet and pull it out by hand.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jerome2877]

Had a park bathroom where both the mens and womens toilets were clogged. It ended up being a plastic hockey stick someone decided to throw down the vent stack and it jammed where both waste lines were tied into the T.

 

[hj]

In one house the tilers dumped their excess grout down the toilet, but only flushed it enough to get the stuff into the pipe. I had to cut the floor all the way out of the building and replace the half filled pipe.

 

[MichaelBukay]

Too many stories... clogged lav drain turned out to be aquarium gravel that they thought they could just pour down the drain. A clogged kitchen drain turned out to be about 7 sweet potatoes worth of peels in the disposal/continuous waste/trap, a toilet sweep was clogged with cement the last plumber poured down there learning that he was fired from the job, and my 2 favorites include someone defecating in a tub we had installed the day before and a homeless man breaking into an apartment laundry room to defecate in the washing machine. I refused to clean the washing machine.

People just don't understand, and it's surprising how many don't think before they put things down the drain.

On the same subject: I had calls about once a month for a rental unit where 2 girls lived. Their tub drains kept clogging with hair. ATLEAST once a month. After a couple of trips there, I saw a hairbrush in their shower caddy. They had been brushing their hair in the shower and it was going down the drain. Anyone else have this activity lead to problems?

 

[Craigpump]

I don't know....I always say thank god for people who don't think and those who know how to make serious money. They keep us in business.

I just got in from a no water. The well, tank and controls are in a well house tucked into the hillside along a lake. The lady didn't believe this "little hole" could let in enough cold air to freeze the system. That is until I warmed everything up.

 

[Asktom]

My father used to tell of a sewer stoppage that plumber after plumber failed to clear. It turned out the renters had rustled and butchered the neighbor's calf and to get rid of the evidence they stuffed the entrails and hide down the main cleanout. The hide swelled and caused a hell of a stoppage. This was within the city limits of Los Angeles, so you know it was a while back.

 

[FullySprinklered]

I went to replace a sewage ejector pump. The housekeeper had been flushing her used Clorox wipes down the drain. For years. They were still there.

Did the plumbing on a new pretzel place at the mall. Halfway through the set-out, bossman sent me back for some drain issue. I got there and the whole carpenter crew were standing in ankle-deep water looking at me like I'm something unsavory in the punch bowl. I splashed around in there and finally figured out that the tile setter had dumped his buckets into my new three compartment sink, totally filled the grease trap with grout, and also filled the safewaste trap with grout. Water came out the floor drain and hubs and flooded the place. Forgiveness can be a challenge.

 

[Terry]

I went to replace a sewage ejector pump. The housekeeper had been flushing her used Clorox wipes down the drain. For years. They were still there.

Did the plumbing on a new pretzel place at the mall. Halfway through the set-out, bossman sent me back for some drain issue. I got there and the whole carpenter crew were standing in ankle-deep water looking at me like I'm something unsavory in the punch bowl. I splashed around in there and finally figured out that the tile setter had dumped his buckets into my new three compartment sink, totally filled the grease trap with grout, and also filled the safewaste trap with grout. Water came out the floor drain and hubs and flooded the place. Forgiveness can be a challenge.

I hope someone make the tile setter pay for the repairs on that.

I had one job for a lake front home on Lake Washington, and one of the subs wanted "my' extension cord. I explained that I expect to work with "my" tools, and perhaps he should take "his" tools out of his truck and use them. He told me I would be sorry. He filled the water heater with sawdust chips. What a clown! But he's right, because he knew I would figure it out, but not knowing who he was, there wasn't much I could do. Sort of like a hit and run.

 

[FullySprinklered]

Yeah, I got victimized by the Ditch-Witch junkie one time. He trenched the waterline and I started gluing pipe and dropping it in the trench. I had to pull off and go get some fittings. Came back and finished the water line and he buried it and went on his way. I turned the water on and everything immediately clogged up with dirt and gravel. Took me all afternoon to flush all the debris out of the lines. Guess who?
He got pissed because I made him wait. Truth be known, he didn't have to be anyplace. Wasn't his methadone day.
Boss hired him cause he worked cheap.

 

[just_some_guy]

Same idea, different trade, phone company

First call of the day, 'No dial tone.' The address was in a nice older middle class community, buried utilities in the back yard, warm day, and a nice drive. Everything said easy, 1 hour, max.

I drive up to the address, and see a co-workers van a few houses down, odd, but not impossible, maybe he finished his first job already, had seen the assignment list and brought coffee, easy day just got a little better.

I walk up to him, turns out he is there for a no dial tone call a few houses up. Ok, still a bit odd, but it happens sometimes.

We decide to start with his house, check the box outside, no dial tone, up to the post behind the house, wiring to the house seems fine, but still not dial tone.

We go to the sidewalk, walk toward my house, and notice a truck for the local, window/door/fence/deck company. They use all subcontractor.

Start around the house, see the bright orange Miss Utility marks on the lawn. Amazing, their office had called ahead, marks in place for a fence, all good.

Check the side of my house, no dial tone. A guy with a telephone hard hat comes walking up from toward the road, he is with the small cable group, responding to a couple of no dial tone service calls in the area, and stopped when he saw our vans.

We all go around back of the house, the fear starts growing , small piles of dirt, every 12 feet, 2 man auger machine lying on the ground in the back corner. Fence crew is on break somewhere.

We peer inside of the first hole and see 2 ends of what should be a single 25 pair cable. This would explain no dial tone for about 15 or so houses. Orange marks leading directly in and out of the hole. 12 feet along the utility line, look in the hole, same thing.

And again, and again, and again.

The fence hole diggers had used the utility ID line as the center line for the fence, at least 10 holes, each with a cable, the same cable, cut completely.

Assignments are by cable size, mine went from inside the house, to the first post in the ground, I only had 2 repairs of 10 wires each.

My buddy and I left the other in the first of the 25 cut pair holes, as he went in with the first splice kit, telephone ditch witch crew on the way.

We would have to come back at the end of the day, after the bigger wire was fixed, to make sure the right number when to the right house, and no other damage had been done. Sucked for us, evil for the guy splicing in the first hole, 12 houses without telephone service for the day, and the fence building team were off work early on a warm sunny Friday. Having done all ( the damage ) they could do.