Throw another shrimp on the bar-b...I just got another project. Nevermind, bbq is too expensive right now.
One day in the crawlspace while taking photos of what to do with the infamous heating/air system and water heater issues that I've been trying to solve, I hear the sound of water falling into a puddle. Far away, back under the corner near the kitchen. Nice and tight area about 1.5 ft.
I go down there with a camera and a couple of lights, and I take video and pics when I find this:
No bueno. Nastiness. Old kitchen sink drain pipe. The kitchen sink faces the front of the house. Under the sink is the typical 1" or 1 1/4" pvc drain pipe clamped onto a metal pipe that goes horizontal into the back wall behind the cabinet, then takes a vertical dive into the crawl space because the bricks of the house are on the other side of that wall. It runs all the way from the front of the house to the perpendicular back end of the house. Nearly as far away as it could have gone. Awesome. That pipe (cast iron?) is pretty enormous considering that the actual sink drain is not anywhere near that big. Towards the back end of the house, it joins a much larger sewer pipe that it shares only with the toilet and apparently one other pipe. This house apparently has more than one sewer pipe. The washing machine drain has its own special sewer pipe that I remember running PVC pipe to (changed the old metal pipe to pvc) probably 15 years ago, which comes out of the house and goes into a 90 to go underground. Not sure if the hole rusted through or if someone snaked the pipe some years long ago and punched a hole in it. That makes me want to change it for fear of a clog in it further down the pipe, as well. It looks like virtually all of the water is coming out of the hole.
Oh yeah, so there's a little long pond of sorts that the water has carved. Probably 6 inches or less deep (I hope) and varying in depth to what looks like a few inches.
So right after I made it back outside and just about screamed some incredibly loud, bad words that won't do the situation any good, I determined that I need to fix this. Fairly soon.
I conclude many things from this: I hate spiders and there are way too many right where that pipe is and all over the place down there. That water is bad to have down there in general. The pipe needs to be changed. That duct needs to be replaced and either got wet from the water running down the pipe (which has a slope, of course) and/or a field mouse or mice at some point tore the duct down. Probably both. Yet the air blows out in the kitchen vent as if the duct is fully connected, so perhaps only the insulation. Not that that makes it any better, of course. Why are there field mice in the crawlspace? Because some blanky decided to put up a homemade plywood door years ago with big cracks on all sides of it and they just waltz right in there. I'm working on changing out that door for a solid, sealed door and changing the crawlspace vents. I'm going to set off Raid Fumigators in the crawlspace.
I trace the drain pipe all the way across and it joins this pipe, which over the past month or so, has wonderfully started its own leak. It looks like it may be one of the joints that happens to be right next to the floor joist. Of all of the joints, it had to be that one. We are not amused.
I presume that this pipe is leaking probably because it has been so moist over decades in that big hole beneath it that I've been seeking a solution for lately. I've shown the photo to various people who had a bit of plumbing knowledge. A lot of people have told me that a cast iron pipe that size "wouldn't rust all the way through and probably came apart at the joints."
So I said, "Okay, that looks like a fairly simple pipe. Just a larger pipe for the sewer."
One day in the crawlspace while taking photos of what to do with the infamous heating/air system and water heater issues that I've been trying to solve, I hear the sound of water falling into a puddle. Far away, back under the corner near the kitchen. Nice and tight area about 1.5 ft.
I go down there with a camera and a couple of lights, and I take video and pics when I find this:
No bueno. Nastiness. Old kitchen sink drain pipe. The kitchen sink faces the front of the house. Under the sink is the typical 1" or 1 1/4" pvc drain pipe clamped onto a metal pipe that goes horizontal into the back wall behind the cabinet, then takes a vertical dive into the crawl space because the bricks of the house are on the other side of that wall. It runs all the way from the front of the house to the perpendicular back end of the house. Nearly as far away as it could have gone. Awesome. That pipe (cast iron?) is pretty enormous considering that the actual sink drain is not anywhere near that big. Towards the back end of the house, it joins a much larger sewer pipe that it shares only with the toilet and apparently one other pipe. This house apparently has more than one sewer pipe. The washing machine drain has its own special sewer pipe that I remember running PVC pipe to (changed the old metal pipe to pvc) probably 15 years ago, which comes out of the house and goes into a 90 to go underground. Not sure if the hole rusted through or if someone snaked the pipe some years long ago and punched a hole in it. That makes me want to change it for fear of a clog in it further down the pipe, as well. It looks like virtually all of the water is coming out of the hole.
Oh yeah, so there's a little long pond of sorts that the water has carved. Probably 6 inches or less deep (I hope) and varying in depth to what looks like a few inches.
So right after I made it back outside and just about screamed some incredibly loud, bad words that won't do the situation any good, I determined that I need to fix this. Fairly soon.
I conclude many things from this: I hate spiders and there are way too many right where that pipe is and all over the place down there. That water is bad to have down there in general. The pipe needs to be changed. That duct needs to be replaced and either got wet from the water running down the pipe (which has a slope, of course) and/or a field mouse or mice at some point tore the duct down. Probably both. Yet the air blows out in the kitchen vent as if the duct is fully connected, so perhaps only the insulation. Not that that makes it any better, of course. Why are there field mice in the crawlspace? Because some blanky decided to put up a homemade plywood door years ago with big cracks on all sides of it and they just waltz right in there. I'm working on changing out that door for a solid, sealed door and changing the crawlspace vents. I'm going to set off Raid Fumigators in the crawlspace.
I trace the drain pipe all the way across and it joins this pipe, which over the past month or so, has wonderfully started its own leak. It looks like it may be one of the joints that happens to be right next to the floor joist. Of all of the joints, it had to be that one. We are not amused.
I presume that this pipe is leaking probably because it has been so moist over decades in that big hole beneath it that I've been seeking a solution for lately. I've shown the photo to various people who had a bit of plumbing knowledge. A lot of people have told me that a cast iron pipe that size "wouldn't rust all the way through and probably came apart at the joints."
So I said, "Okay, that looks like a fairly simple pipe. Just a larger pipe for the sewer."
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