Lassen Forge
Well-known member
Another fun adventure in the land of pasta. And 
...
A few years ago, our renters had a bad sewer clog in the line running from the bathroom to the septic system. Someone (I suspect the "boyfriend") opened up the floor in the laundry room, and found the mainline from the bath to the junction box, and broke open the pipe to get to the "root of the problem". Instead of repairing where he broke into it, he left it a half pipe and out a steel trap door in the floor.
Last year (about this time), not realizing what waited for us, we pulled the steel plate (that we didn't out there... ) and found not only the damaged pipe but a cesspit (literally) filled with, um, er, "mud" and about a jillion little flies (I believe the technical term is outhouse insects). Our awesome neighbor figured out the mess, cleared the lines from the septic tank ("Imhoff System") to the new "cesspit", removing a root ball that looked like a poop-covered porcupine (poopupine?) from 2 places and blowing the lines afterwards. Problen temporarily solved...
Until yesterday night, when the commode stopped, putting water (and other liquids) into the floor once again. Damn. The her of the story (Bruno), who is now imminently familiar with this thing, showed up this afternoon, pulled the cover of the J-box, and made sure the line from the box to the Imhoff was clear and free (which it was.) He then pulled the "Steel Plate of Doom" and sure as shittin', the cesspit is now full of, well, I'll call it "smelly mud" (AKA "Humanure") 40-50 cm deep. Fortunately, no hoardes of s#!thouse flies... but yeah. Ugh. Urp.
(pausing for a momentary
)
Grabbed his trusty one size does all flue brush and pipe cleaner, Brought the garden hose inside, and cleared enough to find the broken open pipe. (STILL pisses me off...) Ran the pole for the brush (which is like 4 sections of 3 meter long fiberglass flex pole) down the line to the J box, got it to flow water, and swabbed it out with the brush. Then went the other way (which was fortunately clear) and ran about 50 liters of water down from the bathroom to the cesspit, thence to the sewer line and boom. Flows. Yay.
Next steps are to put an actual access portal (another J box) in the floor where the broken pipe lives, to eliminate the broken mess we were left with. Shouldn't be hard, other than opening up the hole to fit the box (and hosing out the cesspit again) and breaking out the disasterous halfpipe we were left with. Also took notes on HOW he did it this time, so if it happens again, I can actually fix the problem...
... bringing us to the close of an otherwise ****** afternoon!
...A few years ago, our renters had a bad sewer clog in the line running from the bathroom to the septic system. Someone (I suspect the "boyfriend") opened up the floor in the laundry room, and found the mainline from the bath to the junction box, and broke open the pipe to get to the "root of the problem". Instead of repairing where he broke into it, he left it a half pipe and out a steel trap door in the floor.
Last year (about this time), not realizing what waited for us, we pulled the steel plate (that we didn't out there...
) and found not only the damaged pipe but a cesspit (literally) filled with, um, er, "mud" and about a jillion little flies (I believe the technical term is outhouse insects). Our awesome neighbor figured out the mess, cleared the lines from the septic tank ("Imhoff System") to the new "cesspit", removing a root ball that looked like a poop-covered porcupine (poopupine?) from 2 places and blowing the lines afterwards. Problen temporarily solved...Until yesterday night, when the commode stopped, putting water (and other liquids) into the floor once again. Damn. The her of the story (Bruno), who is now imminently familiar with this thing, showed up this afternoon, pulled the cover of the J-box, and made sure the line from the box to the Imhoff was clear and free (which it was.) He then pulled the "Steel Plate of Doom" and sure as shittin', the cesspit is now full of, well, I'll call it "smelly mud" (AKA "Humanure") 40-50 cm deep. Fortunately, no hoardes of s#!thouse flies... but yeah. Ugh. Urp.
(pausing for a momentary
)Grabbed his trusty one size does all flue brush and pipe cleaner, Brought the garden hose inside, and cleared enough to find the broken open pipe. (STILL pisses me off...) Ran the pole for the brush (which is like 4 sections of 3 meter long fiberglass flex pole) down the line to the J box, got it to flow water, and swabbed it out with the brush. Then went the other way (which was fortunately clear) and ran about 50 liters of water down from the bathroom to the cesspit, thence to the sewer line and boom. Flows. Yay.
Next steps are to put an actual access portal (another J box) in the floor where the broken pipe lives, to eliminate the broken mess we were left with. Shouldn't be hard, other than opening up the hole to fit the box (and hosing out the cesspit again) and breaking out the disasterous halfpipe we were left with. Also took notes on HOW he did it this time, so if it happens again, I can actually fix the problem...
... bringing us to the close of an otherwise ****** afternoon!