twobjshelbys Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 So to make a long story short, our youngest daughter's rent was jacked by 100 last year, and another 100 increase this year. I told her that she could buy a condo for the same price and be free of rent increases forever. She got all stressed. Finally found a unit she liked and started the process. My wife and I are brokers but our licenses are on standby mode and I am really busy at work, so our old managing broker and one of his other guys familiar with condos were really great (Prudential Boulder, Tom Tyrrell - if you're looking in the area he's great, but I could go active if I had the time). So this weekend was moving time. We got a couple of young guys that really helped a lot (Thanks Karen for helping to find them on short notice!) I was unpacking some light things and had to go take a whiz. Toilet is stopped up. Water goes to the top of the inside of the bowl and slowly trickles down. Good things no solids were deposited there. So now the toilet is sort of off limits. Time passes from Saturday evening to Sunday Morning. I go down to help put some things together, get the fireplace working (she tried it and it didn't turn on, and while looking underneath to turn the gas on found some kind of battery backup unit that had leaky D-cells). Got the table together. Finally I concede to going to get a snake to try to clean the toilet. I know it's construction debris. Wife and daughter think its' not enough water and go and get a new float valve. It's a low-flow toilet so the limit is the standpipe but they'd sort of butchered the old one trying to get it out so I put the new one in. No change - bowl fills up, and 10 minutes later the water seeps down and the trap gurgles and nothing happens... It really has the symptom of a missing or clogged vent, but the sink (which usually shares a vent) drains great. So I finally cave and go get a snake at Home Depot. Pull the toilet. But it's been caulked with GE silicone sealer so have to break that. Finally get it loose, put the toilet in the tub and there is standing water in the pipe. So I know it's not in the toilet trap. Try to clear the clog with the snake and the water goes down. The side of the pipe looks like it's got grey cement (probably floor grout) on it, and the water down a ways looks grey. Great, full of cement and the snake finally breaks a seal and the water releases. I look down with my flashlight and see it filled up and it does look like grout. But it was really just clogged up TP. I poured some water down and it breaks loose and I see something down in the bottom of a bend. More water and it comes clearer. It is something down there, but not grout.... A little more water and some pressure clears out the clog and reveals something in the bottom that won't make the bend. I get my "fallen part grabber - great for retrieving dropped parts from the belly pan of the GT - and after a little coercing and aligning things, pull this up (see attachment) It's a roughly 4" long piece of 2" PVC pipe that some freaking asshole plumber dropped into the toilet floor drain. So (1) why didn't the builder cover the pipe during construction? (2) why did the asshole throw that down there thinking it would go away? (3) why didn't the guy setting the stool look to see that the line was clear? I have built houses for a long time, and this is one of the goofiest things I've ever seen. I just want the list of subs so I can know never to hire one of them. And the General will never get any of my business since she said "all I agreed to do was fix the mailbox key". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiloGT Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 I feel for you Brother! That was hell of a move in! My guess is that the next time your daughter looks at another place to purchase; she'll check the flushing of all toilets! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blown Away Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Simple Tony, most workers today don't give a crap. Slap it together and move on to the next unit. You'd be amazed at some of the the builder did and got away with in my housing track (until the class action suit that is). If the county inspectors did the inspections, there is no way some of the stuff that was done could have passed. One example, OSB on the eaves and NO drip edge. How could that pass??? Hopefully your daughter won't have any more problems and will enjoy her new home!!!! Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_GT350 Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Simple Tony, most workers today don't give a crap. Slap it together and move on to the next unit. You'd be amazed at some of the the builder did and got away with in my housing track (until the class action suit that is). If the county inspectors did the inspections, there is no way some of the stuff that was done could have passed. One example, OSB on the eaves and NO drip edge. How could that pass??? Hopefully your daughter won't have any more problems and will enjoy her new home!!!! Dan That about sums it up, nobody takes pride in their work anymore. Good thing you were there for her Tony... you'll be on her speed dial for the next couple of weeks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Dennis Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 I think some of us still care about the quality of our work. But the number seems to be in inverse proportion to the amount of underwear young men expose in society. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_GT350 Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 I think some of us still care about the quality of our work. But the number seems to be in inverse proportion to the amount of underwear young men expose in society. yeah you're right there Dennis... I used a pretty broad brush when I said "nobody"... some of us do still care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelTownStang Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 UNREAL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RACERX009 Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 So to make a long story short, our youngest daughter's rent was jacked by 100 last year, and another 100 increase this year. I told her that she could buy a condo for the same price and be free of rent increases forever. She got all stressed. Finally found a unit she liked and started the process. My wife and I are brokers but our licenses are on standby mode and I am really busy at work, so our old managing broker and one of his other guys familiar with condos were really great (Prudential Boulder, Tom Tyrrell - if you're looking in the area he's great, but I could go active if I had the time). So this weekend was moving time. We got a couple of young guys that really helped a lot (Thanks Karen for helping to find them on short notice!) I was unpacking some light things and had to go take a whiz. Toilet is stopped up. Water goes to the top of the inside of the bowl and slowly trickles down. Good things no solids were deposited there. So now the toilet is sort of off limits. Time passes from Saturday evening to Sunday Morning. I go down to help put some things together, get the fireplace working (she tried it and it didn't turn on, and while looking underneath to turn the gas on found some kind of battery backup unit that had leaky D-cells). Got the table together. Finally I concede to going to get a snake to try to clean the toilet. I know it's construction debris. Wife and daughter think its' not enough water and go and get a new float valve. It's a low-flow toilet so the limit is the standpipe but they'd sort of butchered the old one trying to get it out so I put the new one in. No change - bowl fills up, and 10 minutes later the water seeps down and the trap gurgles and nothing happens... It really has the symptom of a missing or clogged vent, but the sink (which usually shares a vent) drains great. So I finally cave and go get a snake at Home Depot. Pull the toilet. But it's been caulked with GE silicone sealer so have to break that. Finally get it loose, put the toilet in the tub and there is standing water in the pipe. So I know it's not in the toilet trap. Try to clear the clog with the snake and the water goes down. The side of the pipe looks like it's got grey cement (probably floor grout) on it, and the water down a ways looks grey. Great, full of cement and the snake finally breaks a seal and the water releases. I look down with my flashlight and see it filled up and it does look like grout. But it was really just clogged up TP. I poured some water down and it breaks loose and I see something down in the bottom of a bend. More water and it comes clearer. It is something down there, but not grout.... A little more water and some pressure clears out the clog and reveals something in the bottom that won't make the bend. I get my "fallen part grabber - great for retrieving dropped parts from the belly pan of the GT - and after a little coercing and aligning things, pull this up (see attachment) It's a roughly 4" long piece of 2" PVC pipe that some freaking asshole plumber dropped into the toilet floor drain. So (1) why didn't the builder cover the pipe during construction? (2) why did the asshole throw that down there thinking it would go away? (3) why didn't the guy setting the stool look to see that the line was clear? I have built houses for a long time, and this is one of the goofiest things I've ever seen. I just want the list of subs so I can know never to hire one of them. And the General will never get any of my business since she said "all I agreed to do was fix the mailbox key". I would help you out but my home improvement skills are quite horrored . It would make Mike Holmes cry !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2010KonaBlueGT Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 It is something down there, but not grout.... (see attachment) It's a roughly 4" long piece of 2" PVC pipe that some freaking asshole plumber dropped into the toilet floor drain. I bought a new home in a brand new development on the SE corner of Co. Springs (Soaring Eagles). It's a 536 single family home development consisting primarily of Classic Homes built houses (with some Richmond homes scattered about). Classic has a very good reputation for new homes. The house just across the street from me had the very same, identical problem that you had. They only found out about it after using the toilets in the house for quite awhile and the sewer backed up into their basement via the toilet down there. And their basement was unfinished at the time so it's not like they went down there frequently. The blockage (a piece of pvc pipe) was in the main sewer line leading from the house to the City sewer line in the street....10 feet below grade level. They had to dig up their (newly lanscaped) front yard and tear out the sewer line to get to the blockage and get the pipe out. But the real mess was all of the raw sewage that flooded their basement! It must be a common "plumbers revenge" tactic because it's just TOO similar. Phill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted September 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 I bought a new home in a brand new development on the SE corner of Co. Springs (Soaring Eagles). It's a 536 single family home development consisting primarily of Classic Homes built houses (with some Richmond homes scattered about). Classic has a very good reputation for new homes. The house just across the street from me had the very same, identical problem that you had. They only found out about it after using the toilets in the house for quite awhile and the sewer backed up into their basement via the toilet down there. And their basement was unfinished at the time so it's not like they went down there frequently. The blockage (a piece of pvc pipe) was in the main sewer line leading from the house to the City sewer line in the street....10 feet below grade level. They had to dig up their (newly lanscaped) front yard and tear out the sewer line to get to the blockage and get the pipe out. But the real mess was all of the raw sewage that flooded their basement! It must be a common "plumbers revenge" tactic because it's just TOO similar. Phill We had a similar problem with our house in Colorado Springs. We lived east of the incorporated city on Palmer Park east of Powers. It is a sewer/water district but not Colorado Springs proper. We had lived in the house for 3 or 4 years (maybe longer, but more than a little while) and we had a sewer backup. We had little kids so suspected they had flushed something down. Had the roto rooter guy out and he didn't find anything. Some months later it happened again so we had them out. They put out over 100' of snake with a big cutter and finally hit something. Pulled it back and concluded they were in sand. It was a straight run out so we put tape measure and it was in the middle of the street where they hit an obstruction. We had to have the street dug up. Essentially our waste water was going into a "septic tank" in the middle of the street. We found that there was a missing piece of pipe. Apparently this was the last one on the line, they were short material to make the connection from the service stub from the main to the lot, and then someone just covered it up before they could finish. We had to pay for it all. The developer should have, and we even took him to small claims court and lost because they turned it to a lawyer and we just explained it. When we bought our next house we made sure (via an inspection at the man-hole connection point) that the lines were properly connected. Since then I've built my own and know exactly where everything is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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