Plumbing . . . and the "joy" of working alone . . .

[Mike67]

Hate to hear that Larry, working by yourself sux! That's when you always find out what you forgot...hope it gets better!

 

[dual fours]

I'll guess you all know to use cold water to wash off the insulation if it gets on your skin.
Rule #1, empty all pockets, it sucks to crawl back out and look in the hole and see something important and have to go back in.
Rule #2, more then two good flashlights.
Rule #3, cell phone with a fully charged battery.
Rule #4, .22cal. short bbl. revolver with those all brass bird shot shells.
Rule #5, throw as much though the hole as you can, take as much in the first time, it sucks to have to crawl out backwards.
Rule #6, when done the job, take two pain pills of your choice.
Rule #7, there may be more rules not listed at this time.

I'll tell you about the cops and the raid later.
Some of the very old city houses have secret hiding places.
Yea baby, tiny holes and tight places, one way in and one way out.

 

[Cranky]

Damn that sounds like a fun time

I can relate, I work alone a lot lately,
I hate crawling around under houses too,
I've done my share of it in the past too,
I don't mind plumbing at all, it's kind of mechanical & easy
just not under the house !!
or let alone in tight spaces !!
with someone outside/inside to relay tools & check stuff

as I get older {58 now} the less space to move freely,
kind of bugs me more & more...

Working alone, I gotta' say I don't like it much,
I like someone to talk to & the help, but it gets done my way at-least...

Yup, plumbing is kind of easy...so long as you're not in a tight hot attic by yourself or under a house (by yourself) or having to fix a floor where the 'turlet' seal has been leaking for 1/2 a million years and last but not least, having to unclogged a stopped up turdlet that's still full of......well, you get the idea. I've worked a lot of dirty jobs in my life but having to work on someone's crapped up plumbing is not one I care to do and will avoid even my own if at all possible lol

 

[mmissile]

I worked as an assistant to my friend, Tony....doing plumbing , on and off for over 20 years. We had a couple jobs that stick-out in my memory. We had a couple of sub-zero weeks, one winter. We got to this service-call to repair frozen pipes. It was in a 3ft crawl, that had lots of water[8-10 inches, which was starting to become serious ice. We had our Carhartt bibs on, and had to crawl thru a small access to get to the stuff. Tony didn't tell me exactly what was going on....but I gathered up all our supplies, and entered the abyss. We repaired the broken/split feed pipes, then we realized the drain pipe was broken. We were crawling around in a huge toilet bowl...that couldn't be flushed. We cut out the broken section, added a piece of PVC with Ferncos...and got the hell outta there. Once out, we immediately started turning into frozen bibs, with toilet matter stuck all over us. Needless to say, the home-owner paid for a couple new pair of bibs, and an idiot tax. There was a missing cover on the crawl...and no way the place wasn't gonna freeze. We just screwed a piece of 1/2" plywood over the hole/opening. With the colder weather coming, I always remember that "service-call".

 

[steve from staten island]

Wow i give you a lot of credit for that job. I worked for a few plumbers and a water main guy. He called me up one cold January day in a panic. He was in Florida and his "crew" had a problem with a broken water main inside a building. There was a 2''copper service line coming in and they could not get the copper tubing to meet up with it. It was inside a chase way under the building with a good foot of water in it, thank God it was fresh water LOL. I had to crawl walk a 100 feet to the main. His guys were not plumbers but guys who did water mains and had no clue. Months earlier a plumber connected the two lines with a dresser coupling which let go and flooded everything including the boiler room. No heat in sub freezing weather. The property manager was there and was pissed off. The guy i was helping was facing a law suite as it was his plumber who used that coupling. I told them back then want the problem was and that was it was not tubing but treadless pipe or TP. Its used on ships. I told him get a coupling or two slip on flanges and we'll silver braze them. I must have done literally hundreds of these jobs. But he took the advice of someone else and it failed. His crew found the parts we needed, i laid out the whole job and helped them silver braze the joint. I smoothed things over with the manager. I must have went through three sets of clothes that day. What hurt me was that day i was taking my wife for a medical test and she had to take medicine to sedate her. I was back and forth all day, taking her, getting her home and situated and running to this job. I did it more as a favor for everyone. I didn't ask for money but a gift certificate to a restaurant or tickets to a show would have been nice as i saved this guys *** big time. It was approaching the weekend and the building had to open that Monday. I got a thanks, your the best and that was it. I eventually cut ties with this person. Plumbers do a lot of not so nice jobs under lousy conditions, i give them a lot of credit!

 

[Richard Cranium]

I can see it now...............

 

[mmissile]

...and to this day, most people who know me, don't know that I know plumbing. Huh, wonder why?

 

[747mopar]

...and to this day, most people who know me, don't know that I know plumbing. Huh, wonder why?

Isn't that the truth, age has taught me to keep my mouth shut!

 

[steve from staten island]

...and to this day, most people who know me, don't know that I know plumbing. Huh, wonder why?

Well maybe because they will call you at 4PM on a late Sunday afternoon to fix anything from a leaky faucet to a backed up bowel and want it done for nothing. Like i said or maybe i didn't i worked with a lot of journey men plumbers. Some jobs were really nice, some were not. I worked with them in the basements of tenement apartments at midnight trying to patch up some derelict old boiler or a leaking steam pipe, many in neighborhoods we had to have guys constantly watching the trucks. Ive heard the stories about them going into apartment's were there was filth, roaches everywhere and having to pull a bowel because a auger wouldn't cut it. I at times had to work inside of the ships sewage treatment tanks so that was enough for me LOL.... Ive been told your reverend, doctor and plumber are the most important people in your lives. For some thats totally true!

 

[mmissile]

We used to do all these rental/HUD homes for a guy. Those were always the absolute worst. We removed several bowls that looked like soft-serve ice cream cones. We always left them in the house, or threw them in the front yard. I lost count of how many tub areas had stalactites hanging in them.

 

[Cranky]

I know about doing jobs for inconsiderate people. Right now I'm. waiting (waiting no more....he can go pay full price) for this guy that never calls unless he wants something and he usually wants it for little of nothing. Haven't heard from him in 7 months and after exchanging empty greetings, he starts asking me if I can make some wheel adapters for his Chevy pickup. Problem with that is last time he asked me to do machine work it WAS on a Sunday and late in the afternoon and it was for a dang go cart. So it was nothing pressing except for the fact that he wanted to go have fun with some other buddies. After saying he'd pay, he only brought (according to him) 25 bucks. Geez man, I just did a 100 dollar job for ya and even that is cheap. I do not charge my friends for doing work for them but this guy has never been a friend....just a taker.

 

[Kern Dog]

I see a few guys that seam to have crawl spaces? What is it that brings about having one? I just ask because they seam to be fairly uncommon around here unless it's a modular home, flood zones, wet lands?

A structure that has a raised floor is built for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is for a design appearance where the ground floor is concrete and serves as a garage. The step up into a living space allows for some offset in roof heights, also for a visual appearance. Out here on the West coast, freezing is not common so raised floors are built closer to the ground. In snowy climates, they often have basements that serve the same function: Access to plumbing, sewer, HVAC and electrical stuff.
My house was built on a sloping grade of rocky terrain. It looked easier for them to just build a 6 inch wide stem wall around the perimeter and build a wood frame floor over the rocks!

 

[Cncguy1]

I need to get things in order in my crawl space as well. I'm just not motivated.

 

[mopar 3 B]

Ain't nothing worse than claustrobic conditions and insulation! That's like medieval torture. Never mind the creepy crawlies.

Hopefully you wore a mask of some sorts.
To keep that nasty stuff out of your sinus and lungs

Mask? Its not halloween every day. Yea I kow I should but just something else to get in the way. The creepy critter I do not mind. Its the big brown four legged ones with long tails I don't like. When them beedy little eyes are stairing you in the face its just much.

 

[mopar 3 B]

I call bullshit on this. My shoulders and chest are far bigger than my head. Your theory applies to rodents and real skinny people.

The are very few cavers out there of brute size and defiantly none over weight. Yes the opening has to be deep enough to get the shoulders threw but if your head will not fit forget it.

 

[BeeKool]

Mask? Its not halloween every day. Yea I kow I should but just something else to get in the way. The creepy critter I do not mind. Its the big brown four legged ones with long tails I don't like. When them beedy little eyes are stairing you in the face its just much.

If there is evidence of rodents you should wear a dust mask.
Their **** gives off many diseases, my neighbor died from the Hanta Virus.
Only person ever in Iowa, caught it somewhere in the vicinity

 

[kiwigtx]

LOL....I would think the camera was the last thing on Larry's mind.

 

[conv67bdere]

Wow . . . what a tough crowd . . . you want pictures . . . I'll get you pictures ! ! ! LMAO

This is all that I've got for the entrance to the crawl space . . . as Devin mentioned, I'm not small, 6' 4" and 220 . . . This is what I have to squeeze into . . .

It's not much better when the door is opened either . . . actually it might be smaller by a 2 x 4 width . . .

And this is the "horror" of the crawl space that I so much "enjoy" . . . ugh . . .
As you can see, I've installed bulbs about every 10-15 feet so the whole area is lighted ( makes that "part" a whole lot easier - kinda )

And another view . . . the only reason that I have the clearance that you see now is that I cleared out a bunch of dirt to allow it . . .
( really wonder why I don't want to go back down there ? ? ? ? )

 

[conv67bdere]

Hate to hear that Larry, working by yourself sux! That's when you always find out what you forgot...hope it gets better!

I do most of my work on my car, and my house . . . on my own . . . gotten used to it over the years . . .

 

[Car Nut]

Wearing this!