Plumbing stinks!
So I've spent the night chatting with my plumber, who basically willed my new water heater into working. The old one made some not-good smoke and caused the circuit breaker to make a pretty impressive spark this morning, and with church and a prayer service tomorrow, and a funeral on Monday, getting that taken care of was pretty high on my priority list today.
The problem, as it turns out, is that the plumbing in my house isn't exactly great. It's been cobbled together by generations of well-intentioned church handymen. The job got done, the problems got fixed, but it's a hodgepodge down there, and the quality isn't consistant from one stretch to the next.
Example - it's pretty much impossible to close either of the first two valves coming into the house (the ones on either side of the meter) because the cheap knob-style valves have long since broken. Which means, of course, that to replace those valves will require shutting the water off before it gets to the house. Fun. One key joint right next to the meter (and therefore on the main line) is so corroded that my plumber only half-jokingly told me not to touch it! If (more like when) it begins to leak, the pressure at that point will be enough to produce a spray rather than a dribble... not a comforting thing, considering its location right next to the breaker box!
The reality is that a lot of the plumbing in the house probably needs to be replaced, and probably by a professional, but there's no money in the budget for anything of the sort. Since I couldn't get ahold of any council members, I had to buy the new heater myself; now I get to wait until there's money in the church account to reimburse me. (Wish they could have billed the church - not as though I can do without hot water here.)
It's a fine house, but it's 100 years old and some bits of it show their age more than others.
Anyhow, I should have hot water in the morning, and therefore won't be rank when church time rolls around tomorrow. I'm not sure who's going to be more grateful for that...
The problem, as it turns out, is that the plumbing in my house isn't exactly great. It's been cobbled together by generations of well-intentioned church handymen. The job got done, the problems got fixed, but it's a hodgepodge down there, and the quality isn't consistant from one stretch to the next.
Example - it's pretty much impossible to close either of the first two valves coming into the house (the ones on either side of the meter) because the cheap knob-style valves have long since broken. Which means, of course, that to replace those valves will require shutting the water off before it gets to the house. Fun. One key joint right next to the meter (and therefore on the main line) is so corroded that my plumber only half-jokingly told me not to touch it! If (more like when) it begins to leak, the pressure at that point will be enough to produce a spray rather than a dribble... not a comforting thing, considering its location right next to the breaker box!
The reality is that a lot of the plumbing in the house probably needs to be replaced, and probably by a professional, but there's no money in the budget for anything of the sort. Since I couldn't get ahold of any council members, I had to buy the new heater myself; now I get to wait until there's money in the church account to reimburse me. (Wish they could have billed the church - not as though I can do without hot water here.)
It's a fine house, but it's 100 years old and some bits of it show their age more than others.
Anyhow, I should have hot water in the morning, and therefore won't be rank when church time rolls around tomorrow. I'm not sure who's going to be more grateful for that...
posted by Bob at
10:20 PM
1 Comments:
I agree with you Bob. Iam a plumber and understand just were you are coming from.About a year ago i had to re-plumb a victorian house. I was fortunate that the other man they had hired removed all the cast iron. However that left me with the task of rebuild.Lot of work. It was almost impossible to get the old stuff working.
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Anonymous, at 8:26 PM
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