The Time It Rained in the Basement…And Other Plumbing Stories

Wading through waste is another possible title for this post, but I went with the less offensive of the two. Luckily, not all of the stories are so drastic. We have had some issues with water in this house. It has not been too bad, but I am glad that the previous owner left contact information for an excellent plumber when I bought the house. The first time I needed his help was the spring of 2011 when my tenant flushed paper towels down the toilet, which blocked the sewage line and caused the waste to break through the old, rusting cap and flood the basement. Never flush anything except toilet paper. I promise that you never want to experience anything so disgusting. Luckily, Douglas had not moved in yet, so there was almost nothing in the basement. The plumber came within five minutes of me calling him and had unclogged the pipe and replaced the cap within fifteen. I nearly kissed him. That was long before I started this blog, however, so I do not have any pictures of the event. Here is a picture of the scene of the disaster and the new and improved sewage cap.

In the fall of 2011, we had occasion to call the plumber back. It was always difficult to turn off the water in the shower. The knobs were old and the pipes were corroded. Douglas debated about trying to replace them himself, but luckily he decided against it. We asked the plumber to come. He told us that he would need to replace the pipes as well as the faucet handles. I was devastated. I really loved the knobs I inherited with the house. They were probably from 1952, the year the house was built, and I really liked their style. I am really sad that I do not have any pictures of the old handles. I asked Douglas to save them, but he forgot.

The plumber only had single handle faucets. I had never seen a single handled fixture that I liked, so we told him that we would look for something else and call him when we had it. If I had only seen the knob below, I might have gone with a single. But I did not know Victoria at that time, had never visited her blog, and she had not yet installed hers either. You can read her blog post here.

So, we searched and searched. Because I wanted a similar look for the bathroom sink, shower and kitchen sink, it took a long, long time. I was starting to think that I would never find ones that I was happy with, and I may have ended up in tears several times. Luckily, Douglas, who at that time was not even living in the house, realized how much it meant to me and took over the search. Finally, we found handles that we could be happy with. And by that I mean that he found handles that I could be happy with. You know how it is. Here are the shower fixtures. They came from Kingston Brass.

The original sink faucet looked like it had been installed more recently, but it was a cheap one with clear plastic knobs. I am sure you know the kind I am talking about. The sort that start to turn yellow with age. It looked something like the one below, except more aged. We got rid of ours as soon as they were removed, so I borrowed a picture this site.

These are the faucet and knobs we bought to “match” the shower handles. It is a Randolph Morris fixture, and we bought it from Vintage Tub. This picture is from their site.

Because the pipes on the sink were not as corroded as the ones in the shower, Douglas decided that he could change them himself. If you remember the title of this post, you might have warning bells going off in your head.

It all started off well enough. The shut off valves were starting to corrode, so Douglas changed them first. He turned off the water in the house and went to work. The cold water valve came off easily enough, and he replaced it quickly. When he went to take off the hot water valve, the pipe turned with the valve. Assuming (always a bad idea) that it was unscrewing in the wall, he”tightened” it back up and then held it with a wrench while taking off the valve. Then, he went into the basement to turn the water back on. No flood.

We passed on the basement stairs as he went back upstairs to finish the job, and I went down to do some laundry. Upstairs there was a small drip, so he “tightened” the pipe some more, and water exploded from above my head down in the basement. I yelled, “Doouuggllaass!” as he came sprinting down the stairs to turn the water back off. After investigation it came to light that the pipe had broken off inside the wall.

The plumber came the next morning and changed the pipe leading into the wall behind the sink, as well as the pipes in the shower. He had to cut a hole behind the stove to access the pipes in the shower. It was extremely disgusting back there.

Here is a close-up of the old pipes in the shower. The drywall around them is in terrible condition. Douglas is planning to do something to reinforce it over spring break. I plan to clean and paint the walls.

Here are the new pipes.

He installed a door in the hole, so that we can access that area easily.

The plumber also put the new fixtures in the shower.

Douglas replaced the faucet in the sink after the plumber left. That went without great incident. The holes were not aligned correctly, so he had to purchase a grinder bit to wear down the ceramic so that the new fixture would fit. However, no downpours were reported in any portion of the house.

Since then Douglas has also changed the pipes under the sink, while installing the new dishwasher. He even had to solder for that job, which you can read about here. Further deluge in the basement was avoided.

So, we now have beautiful new fixtures in the shower and sink, and we only had to withstand a few moments of rain.

Happy Homemaking!