Sunday, November 30, 2008

A Disaster Waiting to Happen?

So Saturday afternoon, after working for several hours on a school assignment, I finally started stripping paint off of one of the bathroom doors (1 of 3 - yes, that's right, our crazy house has a bathroom with 3 doors... well, we took the door to the back closet room off years ago - but still the house is definitely crazy)

Here's the door dragged down to the basement, with the hardware taken off, getting ready for some therapeutic stripping...



And then here's me, a few hours later, after Jim had come home, working away with the Silent Paint Remover...



Now, let's take a closer look at that picture... as Jim continued to walk around the basement taking pictures, he found something... Notice now the giant cast iron pipe behind me, circled in yellow. This is the pipe coming down from the 1/2 bath.

And here is a closer look at it:



Is that a little bit frightening? Well, here's another view:



Yikes! That's right - there is a HOLE in our sewage waste pipe (according to Jim, also known as a "stink pipe")

The amazing thing is that so far, there is no sign of ... um... spills. We're not entirely sure what to do yet...

5 comments:

Ranty said...

Eeeeeeeeks! Hilarious! That's something that would totally happen in my house.

I'm glad to hear that you discovered it before it caused any issue.

Unknown said...

Urgh! Fortunately the hole is on the top, or you would have discovered it much sooner. But they need replacing sooner rather than later.

Gabriella said...

Yikes! Stink pipe is my new favorite term of derision. Next time someone cuts me off in traffic: "Hey! Watch where yer goin' ya stinkpipe!!"

klundtacular said...

I'm going to start calling the dog Stinkpipe now!

Niely Morgan said...

Don't be scared. This isn't a tough fix. If you haven't replaced pipe before, get a book. Those old metal pipes are annoying to cut through, but it can be done. Put down a plastic tarp and plan to make a little mess. OR you can pay a plumber. It will cost a bit, but once you see how they do it, you will fell safe about doing it yourself the next time it happens. You are paying for the education as well as the repair.