Plumbing 911

A couple of nights ago I encounter a clogged drain in the bathtub. This is a fairly common problem in our home. We're talking about original plumbing that's over 50 years old and it's living on borrowed time. Normally, we will try to clear the drain by forcing water through the system with a hose. For the 6 years we've owned the house, it's worked every time. Make that every time but one.

After trying to clean out the clog for an hour I figured it was time to go downstairs and see what I could do with the pipes. Our plumbing was set up with an interesting twist, a drum trap. Basically, it's a large cylinder where the drains empties originally, before going out through the main waste pipe. I don't know the wisdom in this system, since it goes against gravity and common sense.

I decided that I would try to empty the trap by loosening the cap with my giant plumbing wrench. After torquing the cap for a few minutes I thought I was making headway. That is until the leak started. The pipes were so old and corroded that I caused a leak by separating the pipes. Big problem.

You know you're in trouble when you call your plumber cousin at 9 o'clock at night and ask him what he's doing tomorrow. Fortunately, Chrys was able to come over the next day and two hours later the drum trap was gone and a new drain was in place. It would have gone faster if I hadn't bugged him with a ton of questions about what I could do to fix the plumbing problems in my house. He gave me some great tips and now it's time to see to see if I can become a do-it-yourself-er.