plumbing hell

we're in plumbing hell.

we have a leak under the house... just below our bedroom floor

We discovered it late last night as its whooshing sound (which we THOUGHT was the neighbor's hose watering the back yard) was keeping us up. So we turned off the water and went to bed and called our plumber at 7. His guy arrived at 8:15. I walk him through the situation, starting in the bedroom and then outside to the subfloor access (thank goodness we're on a raised foundation). He grabs a flashlight and goes under. Five minutes later he's back.

"I know where the problem is. The problem is I can't get to it."

Huh?

There's a sewage line that makes a c-shaped snaking turn that is in front of the problem... he needs to take out the sewage line to get to the problem... but that way he can straighten out the C and make it all good. But he can't figure out why it's the way it is... I tell him we had the entire house reconstructed around two years ago... maybe they had to do it to make it work. He smiles and shakes his head. ANYWAY, How much? $550 and will take three or so hours. OK, do it.

I hear sawing under the house and fifteen minutes later he's back saying he needs to go and buy some stuff, but first a question:

"So do you have any problems in the back bathroom?"

Well, occasionally we hear a glub-blubl-glub sound in the toilet. You mean other than that?

"Nope, pretty much what I expected."

Why?

"Well, let me show you..."

And he takes me around back where he has the sewage line he's removed laying out on the grass (nicely avoiding the neighbor's dog-dookie... we really need to address this issue, but later). It looks like some Rube Goldberg thing. The plumber has no clue as to why that curve was necessary. But that's not the issue at hand. The issue with our glub-blub-glub problem is that the sewage line from the back of the house going to the main line tilts UP rather than DOWN and so the flow isn't as good.

Great.

And then he asks the question:

"So did you and your contractor end on good terms?"

No, but that was at the end, and by the time we finished the plumbing we were still good. Why?

"Because this (points to the C) and the slope seems to me to be there just to piss someone off."

Fucking Fred and his worthless piece-of-shit outfit.

So it's going to cost another $150 fix the slope... that will solve the glub-blub-glub issue... 150 for peace of mind... I'm cool with that.

Fred's a dick.

But I'm ok... really, I am.

--------------------------------------------

UPDATE (11am):

so, maybe I'm not all right.

Plumber's done. quick and relatively painless: $675. Only his news was more painful.

When I asked if all was good, his reply was "for now."

What?

Seems the contractor used thin-walled type M copper, instead of the standard medium-walled type L. The plumber says only a handyman or a contractor trying to cut costs would use type M.

I asked if the leak was where I thought it was and he said yes. I said that was kinda funny as that bathroom was pre-existing and was already copper-piped. He said that all that pipe from front to back was new M stuff.

WTF. So did they remove the existing pipe and replace it with this shit?

So I asked the plumber if we needed to replace everything. He said we would at some point? When?

"When you start to see leaks in the type M stuff... I can't tell you when it's going to fail, but I wouldn't be surprised if you got another leak somewhere in the next four to six months."

FUCK.

So how much would it cost to replace? We went over the needs: 3 baths (one upstairs), plus kitchen and laundry room. He said it would be around 7K... and that doesn't include the finish work repair to any walls, floors, and tiling that has to be busted out.

FUCK.

Talked about it with Pa. We should do nothing until there's a leak... if the upstairs bath leaks, then we attack that immediately and tear through the ceiling of the first floor instead of through the floor (we'll know where the leak will be because of the water damage in the ceiling). And attack the first floor stuff, piecemeal.

Talked about it with Lisa. She's finally considering lawsuit.

I've got a call into the city to find out what their specs are for minimum requirements in regards to type of copper piping. If it's L, then the City has some explaining to do.

This is fucked.