When we first moved into this flat, the water drained really slow from the bathtub. One day I stuck a wire down the drain, swished it around a bit and pulled out a wad of 'stuff' the size and appearance of a drowned baby muskrat. I was grossed out. Totally grossed out. Hair, dust, lint and who knows what else, all wadded up in a gray mass that stank like all get out.
Yuck. Double yuck.
Well, that was 9 years ago. Immediately after that I ordered one of those drain cleaner wire things to come in our next box from the States - it looks like a long wire with a hook on one end and a circle on the other. The circle is for hanging it on a nail some place, I would guess. The hook is for cleaning the gook out of drains.
I use it every time I take a shower. Because I have long hair and seem to be losing more than my fair share right now, I have been extra careful to make sure there is always a plastic 'hair catcher' in the drain hole and that I clean out the drain with the wire after I shower and sometimes before as well.
For awhile, after the removal of 'dead baby muskrat,' the water drained fairly quickly. However, it slowly but surely plugged back up. Mel bought packets of powerful chemical drain cleaners and we used them once or twice a year. Sometimes the water would even drain a bit better after that, but sometimes it seemed to make no difference. Mel would use the toilet plunger on the drain, pumping it up and down, leaving a semi-permanent black ring around the drain hole in the tub, a ring made out of decomposing toilet bowl plunger rubber bonded to the corroded surface of the tub by the force of his actions. :(
When we got back to Kherson in March this year, the tub was almost 100% plugged up again and took a long time to drain after a shower (leaving us standing in deep water by the time the shower was finished). I said to the gal who stayed here, "Why didn't you buy some of that chemical pipe cleaner-outer stuff and use it?" And she responded, "Because we were afraid that if we used that, the rest of the rust in the pipe would wear through and the pipe would have a huge hole in it."
Huh?
Then she showed me the pipe. Sure enough, behind the cat box there in the corner under the sink, the drain pipe was beginning to drip rusty drops of water. This pipe runs from the kitchen sink, through the wall into the bathroom where the tub connects to it, then the bathroom sink connects to it, and then it goes through the bathroom wall into the toilet room where it finally connects to the toilet pipe that goes down into the sewer. It was developing a hole right at the floor level where it went through the wall into the toilet room. Then she told me that when they'd called the landlord to come fix the running toilet (another story for another time), they showed him the beginning-to-leak pipe. He promptly blamed it on Cheyenne.
Huh?
Well, Cheyenne's litter box sets right beside that pipe, so obviously she had been peeing on the pipe and that is why it was now beginning to leak.
Grrrrr. My Cheyenne has NEVER peed on anything or in anything in this flat, other than in her litter box on the litter. Grrrrr. I have had cats who pee all over the place and believe me, she is NOT one of them! But we cannot blame the pipe or the age of the pipe because then the landlord would have to fix it, you see.
When we first moved in here, Mel and I decided that rather than calling the landlord every time there is a problem with something (like a running toilet, light switch that doesn't work anymore or plugged up drain) we would just get it fixed ourselves. Sure, everyone else makes the landlord do it, but then the landlord is in your flat/house all the time, complaining about this or that that you are or are not doing. So, over the years Mel has just fixed the running toilet over and over again and we've called in 'masters' to do electrical fixes or plumbing fixes. It's a lot simpler for us and much less stressful.
Now if they had not shown our landlord this leaking pipe, he would never have blamed our cat for something that happened due to lousy plumbing practices, lousy pipe construction, and simple age causing problems. Sigh.
We tried to contact the plumber that had been recommended to us by Melinda. Had one of our friends call him, but he never showed up. Finally, Melinda called him to come and fix something in her flat (again, something that was broken due to lousy plumbing in the first place, plumbing that had been done as cheaply as possible with not very good supplies). She had him talk to us while he was at her flat and Mel set up a time for him to come over and check out our problem.
He came over, took a look at everything, wrote down a bunch of stuff in his little notebook, did some calculations and then gave us an estimate of what it was going to cost. Labor and parts - all for 625 griven, or $137. We agreed and he told us when a guy would come over - next Monday (today) or Tuesday (tomorrow). The guy came today.
I was very impressed. He was very professional and when all is done and said, it appears that they did a really good job. Of course, time will tell on that, but it sure seems that way now.
Dima, the man who did the actual work, replaced the whole pipe, from the kitchen sink to the toilet pipe. He had to chop out some concrete in the floor and concrete in the wall. He replaced the metal food/hair catchers in both sinks and in the tub (I'll still use the plastic ones as well). It took him about 5 hours to get it all done. Stasic, the guy in charge, came with supplies, went after other supplies, and basically made sure the guy was doing a good job. Wow! In the past, the owner of the flat or the renter would be given a list of supplies and then would have to go and buy the supplies from the market. This makes much better sense, since the guy who is doing the repair work knows exactly what he wants and needs. Wow! So much easier for us, so much easier for them. If it costs a bit more, big deal - it saves us time and the frustration of looking for whatever is needed and they already know where to go and which is the better product. Wow!
Dima gave the old pipes to Mel and Mel took them out to the garbage. Sure enough, when Mel checked that main pipe where it was beginning to leak, it was so plugged up that maybe less than 10% was still open. No wonder everything drained so slowly! And the water just sat in there for so long every day that the pipe was rusting faster than it normally would have. Of course, the more it rusted, the more build-up there was and the more plugged up the pipe became.
The new pipes are all plastic and were sealed with a silicon sealer. We are waiting just a few more minutes for it all to set up and be totally dry before we can run water through the pipes again.
I tried to get some photos of everything, but my camera is acting up again and refuses to work properly, so I missed out on some good pictures.
Oh well. You will just have to imagine it all in your mind.
I am just so glad the pipe is fixed and I'm also glad Mel is so willing to get down on his hands and knees to clean up some of the mess. I just can't do that right now due to my knees. The guys did a very good job cleaning up after themselves - also a new thing here, which is wonderful. But Mel is using water now to clean, which they couldn't do.
I am happy. :):):)
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