Plumbing

flexible pipe coupler

I have the utmost respect for plumbers. Plumbing is a difficult job, ... a fact which is confirmed to me every time I have a plumbing issue.

On Sunday afternoon, my wife was preparing food for a church dinner and using the sink / garbage disposal to discard the food scraps. After a little while, she began hearing the sound of water splashing in the basement. She ran downstairs to discover unhealthy amounts of water pouring from the ceiling in the back corner. At that point, she called for me and I came down to investigate.

At first, I couldn't figure out where the water was coming from. All the copper pipes seemed to be intact and the flow of water seemed to be gradually decreasing. Once it slowed to just a trickle, I asked Andrea to slowly turn the kitchen sink on so I could observe what happened. Within seconds of the sink turning on, the water began flowing again. I correctly surmised that there was some sort of problem with the drain.

I won't bore you with every last detail from this point, but I will highlight a few things.

Because I realized (from past experience) that it would cost at least $300 if we called a plumber to fix this problem, I decided that I would do the best I could to try to fix it myself. I started by taking apart the drain pipes under the sink / garbage disposal. After doing that, I looked down into the drain in the floor to see if I could see anything. From what I could tell, the pipes seemed clogged with food.

I tried to use a drain snake to clear the lines, but that didn't work. It was then that I realized that this wasn't going to be an easy fix.

In the end, I ended up cutting all the clogged drain pipes out of the section of the basement that was right under the kitchen sink. Then I installed new pipes, along with a removable section of flexible pipe. That way, if this ever happens again (which I'm sure it will), all I will need to do is remove that section of pipe with a flat head screw driver, and clear the line of any food.

My total expenses for this project were:

• $59 (reciprocating saw)
• $40 (flexible pipes, pvc pipes, fittings, pipe glue)

The total cost was less than $100 and I ended up with a new saw. I think I can live with that.