Everything Great is *Nixbased

The other day was a day like any other…. so I thought. I put a load of laundry in like usual and was doing some other chores around the house while waiting for it to finish. I enter the bathroom and now notice that the water from the wash is entering the bathtub. Now I’m no plumber but I do tend to do as much of the home maintenance and repair as I can. Immediately I know that because the bathtub is the lowest fixture the water will follow the laws of gravity when there is a blockage somewhere further up the pipe and come out in the tub. In the case of the washer and pretty much any other fixture, further up the pipe means the main sewer line.

Since this was the case and I don’t have access to a powerful auger I had to call a plumber. As a DIYer I absolutely hate calling plumbers. Plumbing is simple and in most cases I can figure it out myself. So the plumber arrives and tries to auger the line from the toilet even though I advised him that the issue would probably be best dealt with by auguring the clean out which is out back about 10ft from the house. His attempt failed so he took my advice and proceeded to auger the clean out. As suspected their were roots in the line and auguring it out did the trick.

So what did I learn? I learned that my logic is often better then the professional even when the professional is in a business sector I do not deal with on a daily basis. I learned that I won’t be calling that company again as the “professional” cost more time and therefore more $ then needed by not doing things the logical way. I also on a positive note learned where the pipes run to get to the city lines. Whoever designed it was less then intelligent and ran them the long way around.

So now that I know roots have penetrated the pipes I will be putting rock salt in the cleanout every few months to kill any penetrating roots. This trick I learned a long while ago, the plumber didn’t mention it. I hate to sound so cocky and negative but with any business the professional should give the customer as much info as needed to help the customer in the long run. It is what produces the repeat customer. Speaking of plumbing I need to send some bicarbonate of soda and vinegar down a few drains before they become clogged as well. I’ve heard nail removal products work for hair filled drains but I wouldn’t think they would be very environmentally friendly.

I may some day do a plumbing and electrical tips post, I don’t know. I just enjoy sharing what I know with other people (and sometimes bitching about things). Marketing may suggest that targeted content does better for traffic but I’m a jack-of-all-trades, making a site for each topic I know things about just won’t work well.