Random plumbing pics

[Hamberg]

You wanna hear the story ?

Bring it on big boy - this should be good! HAHAHAHAHA

 

[Hamberg]

Can I do one???

Here is what happens when a foreclosed homeowner decides to "get even"

 

[breplum]

You wanna hear the story ?

Yes, I want to hear the story. Thinking: somebody is renting at this property and blowing a little air through the actual meter, which is a electronic meter, so, the utility doesn't ever come by to read it?

 

[Twowaxhack]

The owners of the house built a fence and the meter was behind the fence.

So the utility company moved the meter. They moved it closer to the street about 20’.

So instead of making the customer extend their piping to the new location, they left their original meter stub up.....

They relocated a meter 20’ upstream and used their old service feeder line underground to convey gas from the new meter location to the customers pipes.

The gas company broke protocol. They’re not suppose to do that.....

But there it is......

I literally told the utility supervisor that he runs a clown show......I laughed and walked off.

This work was done before self reporting meters where being used here. But they’re still not used most of the time. I assume it’s still like it was in the pic.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Can I do one???

Here is what happens when a foreclosed homeowner decides to "get even"

I worked on one where the girl living there was a stripper..,...she got mad that they were evicting her.

She urinated in jars and filled the cabinets with them....

Then drive her car through the garage door, through the living room wall and into the kitchen. Took out the kitchen sink and all the plumbing.

I was there two weeks later replacing all the plumbing and the cray cray girl drives up.....

She gets out yelling......I’m in the side door of my truck.
I pull out a Glock 10mm and she jumps back in the car squeals tires down the street and runs over a fire hydrant. She keeps going.......

 

[Twowaxhack]

Struck by lightening copper pipe.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Who puts a chandelier in their garage ?


Until I went here.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Kohler cast iron free standing tub with oak base.

This was hard to get up the steps.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Here’s a heater over 20yrs in service.

I replaced the stop valve so when it pops the old lady will have a nice ballvalve to turn off.

asbestos vent pipe.

It’s in an outside shed, we’re going to let it pop before we replace it. She’s 80 yrs old. She says the heater might outlast her.

 

[Twowaxhack]

I had an old lady that had lived without a water heater for 4 yrs.

80+ black elderly living alone without anyone to help her.
I always try to help the truly helpless.

I went to her house to do a service call. Kitchen sink stopped up. I put a cable down the stack from the roof and cleared the line. Went in the house to turn on the hot water and nothing comes out.

I ask her why her sink hot water is off snd she tells me that she doesn’t have a water heater.

I went out to my van and thought about things for a few minutes. How grateful full I am that I can provide for myself and I have people that love and care for me.

I was about 20 yrs old.

I went to the store to the pay phone (before cell phones) and called my boss who was a family member. I told him I was willing to do this job for free and he could dock my pay if he would allow that. Told him why.

So that’s what we did. I also found a used water heater that wasn’t leaking snd was in good condition. A man converted from electric to gas and I took the heater. That was big during that time period around here.

Technically we weren’t suppose to take a heater from one house and install into another but .......too bad, we did.

She’s dead now, has to be, this was 30yrs ago or more. Funny how some things stick with you......

 

[Twowaxhack]

Another job I had was a drain at a funeral home.

The person that called in wasn’t sure what drain was giving them trouble and the person that told them to call wasn’t available. But they wanted someone to come out, NOW.

I heard the secretary taking the job on the phone, I was eating lunch. I remember thinking, “ I hope they don’t send me “.

So she comes into the kitchen and says I have a job for you after you eat, it’s probably a stopped up toilet, they want you there quick.

Crap ! So ok, I load up and drive over there. I walk in and this cute girl is at the desk.......I introduce myself ( I was about 19) and try to be real mature and professional.

So so tell her that if she will lead me to the problem I would follow. She says “ well the mortician is back from lunch now and I’ll call him to come get you “ “ I don’t go into the embalming room “

WHAT ......Buy I kept telling myself “ be cool she’s so cute.....be cool “

So they guy comes up from the back to get me. Brings me a gown and a mask.

I ask him......” there’s no one back there, right ?” He says , “ no just us “

So he flings open these swinging doors and there are two dead bodies covered up from the neck down. I’ll never forget one of their faces.

So he walks me over to this embalming table. It’s a large shallow tray top table with a wheel on one end that you turn to incline the table to dump into a huge service sink with foot valves to operate the faucet.

This drain was clogged up. Oh No no no no no.,,, .

He says , “ ok let me know when your done “ and starts to walk off......
I was like “ what what where you going don’t leave me back here with them “

He laughs and said “ these people won’t hurt you, it’s the ones outside these doors that you have to worry about “



So I go out to my van and get the plunger. I’m like, I hope I can hit this and GO. So I start to plunge and all kinds of stuff starts boiling up.......

It gets worse now, the sinks not even draining at all now, I made it worse. I still have two dead bodies within 5 feet of me.

So I break down and decide to get my hand powered spinner cable and try to get it flowing.

So I go back in there with my cable, and thankfully it had drained down all the way . So I run a little more water and plunge it again, then a few blood test tubes came out and I grabbed them.......(empty)

No rubber gloves by the way.

Still wouldn’t drain. So I put the cable down it and hit something about 6’ in from the trap. Pulled my cable back and I swear it looked like blood veins.

The formaldehyde stayed in my nose until the next day. I threw my shirt away.

That’s one of the only places I will refuse to work in now. I had a touch of PTSD after that job.

 

[Twowaxhack]

I went to give an estimate one morning and forgot to take the samples of marble I said I would bring.

I thought, well I’ll go in there anyway and look things over and I’ll tell him that I forgot to bring the samples.

So I knocked on the door and this 70 yr old guy answers the door. He invites me in and I immediately know somethings not right here.

He had all kinds of animals from floor to ceiling in cages. Birds, snakes, fish, you almost name it. The stink was bad but not as bad as you’d expect.

So he takes me to the bathroom and I take some measurements. Talk about faucets and toilets, etc.

Then he asks me about the marble samples., I explain that I simply forgot them this Morning but I can drop them off Tomorrow and he can KEEP them.,

This guys whole attitude changed in the blink of an eye. He was a short guy and old.....fat. He gets aggressive gets right up on me.......

I step back but we’re in a bathroom and it’s small. I’m 6’0 and 225 30 yrs old so this guy doesn’t want this smoke..,,,,

I tell him that he has about 2 seconds to step out of my way or I’m going to come through you to get out of here......

He jumps back and takes off out of the bathroom. I think “ this guys going to get a gun “

So I run out behind him and now he’s blocking the door out of the house. I don’t think on purpose.......

Then it gets even weirder.....

An Asian man about 5’ tall comes running from the kitchen in his underwear and they start yelling at each other in Chinese.

I take off out the door and call the police to explain what just happened. Cops said that they Know the guy and he’s cray cray

I should write a book about all the crap I’ve been through plumbing.

 

[Twowaxhack]

This is a 1” pvc pipe that’s butted up to a 2” pipe.

No saddling, no contours just straight cut pipe.

I used a specially formulated epoxy for PVC.

I had used it for something else and had some left over so I decided to test it’s holding power.

I used duct tape to hold it tight until it dried.

What do you think ? How strong to you think this would be ?

 

[Twowaxhack]

From customer who I installed a circ pump under his pedestal.

4 plumbers said it was impossible to pipe it and keep everything hidden.

That just wasn’t true......and I just made a customer for LIFE. How many of his friends has he told......????

I’m blessed......

 

[Twowaxhack]

Customer called and said their friends ice maker valve doesn’t work and is leaking.

I just got back from the job. Here’s what I saw when I walked in.


The shelving is not removable.

 

[Twowaxhack]

They offered to let me use their flashlight.

So cute.......

Not much room. Im big

 

[Zanne]

Plumbing under my house on the east side- sink drain is no longer connected. Plus plumbing for my well system.

Last pic is the temporary P-trap in my friend's new bathroom vanity.

 

[Twowaxhack]

I’d definitely be turning off the power before I crawled under that one.

 

[havasu]

Probably frickin snakes and spiders down there that could kill a dozen men!

 

[Twowaxhack]

Probably frickin snakes and spiders down there that could kill a dozen men!

I’ve been under many many houses. I cut off a small limb or branch of a bush. I take this and wave it in front of me as I crawl. This tells the spiders to run up snd hide on the floor joists.

I’ve seen a lot of snake skins. Only one snake.,

I pulled into a vacant house driveway and I saw a pond near the house. Way out in the country., I looked at my helper snd said “ welcome to snake world” and I was kinda just kidding.

So there’s a natural gas leak at this house and I’m trying to locate. I have a gas sniffer so I’m going all around the house inside trying to locate.

I don’t want to go under this house. Its low and its wet.

No dice, I check every fitting I could get to and no leak detected.

I suit up and go under the house. What’s the first thing I see ?? Frogs. Frogs snd more frogs.

What eats frogs ? Uh huh...... .

I start following the gas line and letting my sniffer get samples at each fitting.

So I’m laying on my side and being still.....I hear something rustle the plastic vapor barrier.

I turn my light in that direction and there’s a snake about 6’ long and the size of a 1.5” pvc pipe with its head sticking up about 2’ in the air hauling butt 10’ from me.

I screamed and hit my head on the joists trying to get out from under there......I don’t remember anything else until I was coming out and my helper was pulling me by the wrists.

This was a big snake......I have no idea what flavor. We have some bad ones around here.