3/11/2023 Question of the day

[petrea_mitchell]

World Plumbing Day: We take indoor plumbing for granted – until there's a problem with it. Have you ever suffered a major plumbing emergency? Have you ever tried to fix a plumbing issue on your own? Did you succeed?

2018 and 2019, IIRC, we managed to have the two most expensive plumbing repairs possible. One was replacing the water heater and the other was replacing the pipe that connects to the main.

As for fixing plumbing issues ourselves, I've never done that but the SO is able to handle minor toilet issues.

Comments

[delosharriman]

Slab-on-grade construction is AWFUL for plumbing problems. Last year the washing machine and one of the three bathrooms were out of commission for about six weeks because the sewer line needed replacing, and this required tunneling under the house. Other work has required jackhammering holes in the slab. Et cetera.

[kevin_standlee]

Indoor plumbing is one of the greatest innovations of humanity. We've been fortunate here to never have a total failure, and we have some bits of redundancy in what we do have. For example, if necessary, we can retreat to the "lifeboat" (Lisa's travel trailer) while repairs are under way in the main house, although that's only good for a few days before we would have to possibly try to tow the trailer to dump the waste tanks and refill the fresh water tanks. If the problem is only in the house but doesn't affect the main sewer or main water feeds, we could live out the trailer indefinitely, as we had a connection to the sewer and water main installed when we moved here. In effect, our driveway is a one-space RV park, allowing the trailer to be in "warm storage" with water, sewer, electricity, and even internet.