EEEW! Old pipes are not for the squemish, neither are old houses. So, if you plan on buying an old home as our is (Born 1926), plan on every project you begin being bigger than you ever planned and costing more than you thought it would.
The only house I would trade this one for is another larger older house because I just love the character old homes have.
Please, don't tell DH, he would have a small coronary since he is the handyman and can do virtually any project he sets his mind to complete, like this one.
Today was going to be one of those simple fact finding jobs. Our drain has been running slow and since I tend to shove/squish smashed food down into the drain, he figured I had it clogged up with food. Off came the pea trap and it wasn't old food, the drains were clogged with 82 years of grease and when he attempted to take the pipe apart, (you guessed it) it was so rusted, it broke.
As you can see, here is just some of the mess it created. The towel is soaked with water, all the black flecks you see are either rust or pipe poop as the grand babies call it, tools, old pipe, new pipe a pan to catch water, what a MESS!!
So, DH bought the really nice and really cool screw in types of sink plugs since ours kept draining all the water out of them and our dishwasher quit working and we can't afford to have it fixed because it would mean ripping up the floor or tearing out the counter top and neither of which we can replace at this time. Whew! Lots of info in that one!!
The new drains get installed without any major hitches. I tightened and he held the drain still because I am told if you twist pipe putty, it won't work.
WARNING TO ALL NEAT FREAKS.....DO NOT do as I have done in several homes and wash, scrub and pull out the rubber mess around the drain, you will wind up with an upset hubby and a mess of water under the sink!
One problem solved or so we thought.
Hubby couldn't get the pipe pulled out of the old pipe and since it is a three way pipe, he was going to cap it off and open the one that was still plugged. However, with a house this old, as he twisted, the entire pipe from the wall fell off in his pipe wrench. Seems, whomever put it there initially, just puttied up a pipe to fit in the hole and it didn't even have any threads on it.
So, this very quick and simple project that was supposed to help clear the drain, has my kitchen looking like this right now. As you can see everything under the sink came out, the tamale pot was necessary to drain the sink, the huge light is so we can see what we are doing (yes, I am wrenching when asked to),There is a giant mess all over the floor, hubby is once again at the local Home Depot for the 5th time today and hopefully this will be his last trip as he is working OT tomorrow.
I'll keep you posted!
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