One more time
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by
Clifford Many moons ago, I suffered a major set-back when the plumbing on my first investment property went haywire. A lemon tree, the size of Mount Rushmore, was thirsty was decided my plumbing was a good source of water. Tree roots extended almost the entire length of the pipe, from the house to the street. Roughly 45 feet.
Once again my plumbing went haywire.
About a month ago, my cell phone rang with news from my tenants; their water wasn't draining. The plumber snaked the line and sent a camera down to inspect what might have been the cause. Nearly 30 feet of cast iron pipe looked good. Four feet of clay pipe after that was broken. When I asked the plumber how much to fix, he threw out $1750 without batting an eye. Quotes thrown out with reckless abandon don't appeal to me. For the moment, my tenants had running water so I wasn't pressed to have a repair job done right away. I dismissed him and started negotiating with My Plumber.
The first plumber marked the spot of the breakage, which made it easier for My Plumber to find the busted pipe. Within a few hours of work, a new pipe replaced it. To test all the connections, we turned on the water in our house and in the tenants house.
Have you ever seen an underground waterfall? I have now.
It appears whomever did the original plumbing on my new property was something of a Picasso when it came to laying down pipe. Nothing artistic but definitely creative in a weird, sort of manic insane way. Pipes cut into other pipes with no seal. Rather than connecting, the pipes were shoved up against drains and literally buried in place. When the My Plumber started to remove the dirt, the pipes started falling out. I didn't know that cockroaches could live underground. That was creepy.
At the end of the day, the extended repair work was only a few hundred dollars thanks to the generosity of my plumber. I'm sure at some point he could have spanked me senseless, knowing that we needed to shower and use the toilet. But he was cool, cut us a break, and was on his way.
This is now the second time I've had to pump money into a property where the plumbing was absolutely shot. Next time I purchase something, I will have a plumber run a camera down the sewer line so I can inspect it personally. It seems rather odd that both of my properties had major plumbing problems within the first two years of me being the owner.
Next time, I'll know better.


