the Way of the Turtle

PLUMBING TURTLE... Or Should That Be DRAINAGE TURTLE?
Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A couple of days ago I heard water running in the basement and went down to check it out - turned out a good part of the basement floor was under water and water was running out of an open pipe meant for attaching the outflow of a washing machine. Gah!

So I capped off the pipe after pouring a gallon of industrial strength drain cleaner and crossed my fingers that it wouldn't back up somewhere else (like my tub) instead.

Checked the next day - the cap seemed to be doing the trick bu the water level hadn't gone down. Not reassuring...

Checked this morning and it was evident that the water level had actually gone up. And the hot water heater had shut down. Really not good. Fortunately we didn't have classes today, so I was able to run around to Lowes, first for a shop vac that could pump water - after which I spent two hours filling the canister and then pumping the water outside, which got rid of the worst of the flooding near the water heaters and furnaces - and then for a pump that I could leave unattended, because using the shop vac was time consuming and tedious.

Unfortunately, even after much of the water was pumped away, it became clear that water is coming in via a large hole containing the pipe that carries waste water out to the street - I suspect a big problem somewhere with that pipe, since there was clearly some sewage in the water.

So I guess Drainage Turtle is more appropriate, since at this point that's all I'm capable to doing - trying to keep the water level down until my landlady can get someone here with better equipment and more knowledge to actually fix the problem.

So much for going for a run today after things wrapped up at work... but at least I have hot water again...

JMH