Long story short, our wallets got completely mauled trying to deal with a plumbing emergency at 4pm on a Friday night.
We absolutely knew we were being bamboozled, like there was NO question about that (not the tech's fault, he agreed and mentioned how the owner is richy-rich and doesn't GAF).
But he was here ready to work and we had already paid the "emergency fee" (which locks you firmly into a dollar and time commitment while my place is turning into a boat house and it's about to freeze outside).
Took him 20 minutes to fix the problem and I am just livid and kicking myself for letting it all happen. Final cost including emergency fee was a hair under $800.
In my mind (aka how I am trying to forgive myself):
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Severe damage (we are fairly certain) was avoided and the problem was fixed
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We are fortunate enough to have been able to afford the emergency at the time (it'll be a TIGHT month or two but it didn't put us in the red)
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This is the first time since buying this house last year we have felt truly bent over the stump with predatory pricing on services
In hindsight I wish we had just turned the water off and capped the line until we got hold of a better business to use, but live and learn, right? Being panicked absolutely influences your decision-making. We're not super confident with plumbing or electric, so we leave that stuff to the pros because it can be dangerous and/or escalate quickly.
Going forward I'm going to try to pad my list with few more emergency service folks that aren't going to exploit a bad situation for money gain, but outside of an emergency how do you even do that? No one can guarantee availability + pricing for an unknown time and problem. I guess it's just one of the possibilities when you are now your own landlord.
Anyway, thanks for listening. Story time!
*Edit: Not sure how to interpret my comment downvotes, lol, maybe I should reflect on my own thinking around this situation. I appreciate everyone's feedback! I am still making a lot of mistake and meeting a lot of mental challenges as a first-time homeowner, so your words and experience are very valuable to me while I continue to grow.
*Edit 2: Thank you so much for your kind words and gentle corrections of my perspective on everything. I appreciate it a lot. And thank you to that kind redditor who privately gave me a good LPT. I'm going to step back and let this marinate a bit while I appreciate everything the situation wasn't.
And your dumb-as-a-stump leader is the worst thing that ever happened to that nasty cartel. He will be the worst thing to ever happen to his DEVOTED followers. He is certainly the worst thing to ever happen to me. Happy to keep going ... one more click from the attic - the sounds of your surveillance.
Our team is currently designing a gearbox transmission system, therefore i have some questions:
- Do the oil drainage holes considered a gearbox vent? (mentioned in FSAE 2022 Rules V1 T.5.6.2)
- If we want to apply a floor closeout below our gearbox that does not have any vent do we need to add holes with a minimum of 25 mm diameter (considered as a belly pan on FSAE Rules 2022 V1 T.5.5.4)?
Any answer will help us so much, thanks
Say I have a sink, bathtub and toilet, and I connect the venting, I can understand it in stickbuilt home, where a pipe goes horizontal connecting them, but what about with a dome where there is a curve? I dont want to vent each appliance where there will be a bunch of pipes sticking out the top of the dome.
Started working as a site engineer involved in domestic water and wastewater recently. Hear guys talking about connecting to "AJ's" the odd time in relation to wastewater connections. What is the purpose of an AJ?
I'm not really intending to DIY this project, but we're buying a home that's 3 levels + basement... With all bedrooms being on the 2nd and 3rd floor I'm suspecting that 95% of our laundry will be generated from these 2 floors. The home currently only has basement laundry. I'm trying to add 2nd floor laundry inside a closet that backs up to a bathroom. I was contemplating a washer & ventless dryer or a washer/dryer (ventless) combo. Has anyone installed something similar? Good experience? Bad? Really involved?
Bought a new house recently. It appears that I am experiencing classic signs of blocked venting: loud draining in sinks, the toilet glugs before flushing, a flushing toilet upstairs can be heard coming from the main floor's drains. My research has indicated this is probably a blocked vent.
My roof is 3 stories up and pretty pitched, so I don't feel confident checking out the vent myself, nor do I have a ladder for that. Is that something a plumber can do? Or because of the height, do I need to find someone else?
Also, are there any checks I can do from inside the house to rule out other possibilities before resorting to calling someone to check the vent? The drains are proper p traps, not s traps.
So I learned my old house has plumbing that is technically not vented properly.
I bought this cheaper explosive gas detector and it doesn’t go off outside, but has one bar on in the house, 2-3 next to the sink when I turn on the water.
Anyone know how much of a risk this is? Would all houses have a low ambient level of various gases?
Y201 Propane and Natural Gas Leak Detector; Portable Gas Sniffer to Locate Gas Leaks of Combustible Gases like Methane, LPG, LNG, Fuel, Sewer Gas; w/ Flexible Sensor Neck, Sound & LED Alarm, eBook https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FSVCSSL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_.dZcGbGGVRR2P?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Any experiences would be helpful for me. Thanks!
What did it cost? I'm in a two-story and only have one short ladder.
Do not want rodents going down the vent pipe. Or insects. Or don't worry about it?
House is super high spec. All plumbing tied into a central vent stack (we are talking like 50-100’ of PVC) except one bathroom. That one vents into the attic. Right next to the main vent stack. It is original to the house, not an addition. And that is the one giving me fits.
I am trying it figure out if there would be some reason to vent that one differently?
