I work for a non-profit agency. We were closed yesterday and I walk in today at opening - eventually being asked if I knew anything about plumbing by Big Boss. I wisely said to her, “I am just an amateur…”
After a few donation pick-ups we unloaded, and stopped by her house. The whole drain out of her house was plugged, causing waste-water from the kitchen sink and dishwasher and other various “appliances” to back up onto the kitchen floor and also into the basement.
Down to the basement my driver and I went. Unscrewed the Y fitting to the 4 inch drain pipe that is supposed to take all this away, out of thought and out of mind.
Right.
A vile, ungodly, worse-than-Linda Blair-in-the-Exorcist-movie sludge waste cascaded out.
Black water, unholy chunks of dubious material backing out of the drain pipe. Non-relenting as it overpowered both our gloves, clothes, and sense of smell.
A Tyveck suit and respirator would have done no good.
Imagine rotting corpses mixed with dead rats and mice.
With a few hundred pounds of long-dead and decayed insects mixed in.
Add in a few hundred pounds urine and human fecal matter from the 1980’s.
Fermented in a stew of age-old sludge of unknown origin, probably from outer-space from when this planet was born.
No. you can’t imagine. You had to be there. I am glad you were not.
It would scar you life.
Luckily we positioned some trash cans beneath, but the odor was overwhelming.
And hoping this be over soon turned out to be futile.
This backwater consumed five 30 gallon trashcans, which will no longer be fit for everyday garbage pick-up ever again. They must be nuked from space if humanity is to survive.
I took a long, hot shower and left my clothes outside to be burned thoroughly at dawn, but I still can’t get that smell out my nostrils.
I am so glad I am not a plumber.
Yeppers. We eventually hooked a hose to a hot-water heater and kept shoving in down the pipe. That was pretty much the only tool we had.
After a hour it it finally broke through.
Although triumphant, we were definitely left scarred by the experience.
Scrub skin until outer layer is removed.
Heat water to rolling boil.
Boil self for ten minutes.
Reduce heat and simmer for one hour.
Set out on clean towel to dry. (Best to do this in warm sunlight, but good luck with that this time of year.)
Add ravioli.
ISTM that some, if not all, states/territories/provinces/prefectures/SAR/etc., require that certain plumbing tasks be performed by licensed professionals. ISTM that I remember dealing with “black water” is certainly one of those tasks.
I know a few plumbers as I am a carpenter. I know my way around basic plumbing pretty fair. I have a drain king that I will use for small clogs or slow drains, but if a snake or drain auger is needed I’m out of there.
My sons sewer backed up last week. We called ‘Mr Rooter’. Old sewer, tree roots, $900 to clear and we will still need to dig it up and replace ($$$$$) in the near future. It was still worth it.
A friend of mine recently went through the same sort of problem at his house. Turned out it was the trap where the sewer line from his house emptied into the main sewer at the street.