A Fine Day's Work

Dad and Uncle John, I know that you both will appreciate the pictures!

We live in a house that was built in 1900. It doesn't have a basement or a crawlspace. It has corner stones. There is no way to get under it except to dig. This has created some challenges over the years, but we have managed thus far. Last year we started getting a horrible smell in the laundry room. The laundry room used to be the back porch, but it was enclosed and the floor done with concrete when they added indoor plumbing and heat. All of the pipes go out to the laundry room and down into the concrete. The kitchen sink drains slowly, but started getting much worse. We had a plumber here. We had our septic pumped. We had an excavator here. No one knew what to do about the smell. It got worse over the spring when the rains came. You could smell the swampy aroma coming from under the house at certain times of day. It made me crazy! It didn't seem to bother the rest of my family until spring. We considered all of the possibilities, and I think Chris dreaded facing this. Realistically, we could be facing digging up the concrete and under the house to get to whatever the problem is. We had our excavator come out again and run a camera down the main pipe. Thankfully, that was fine. So we knew it had to be the pipe coming out of the sink and dishwasher. We had no idea where this pipe went after it went into the concrete, but we knew for sure that it didn't connect with the main pipe. Oh the joy of old houses!

Chris moved the water softeners this weekend in order to make one last attempt at getting the snake down the drain because at this point the sink would not drain at all. This is what we found.

There is a pipe coming up out of wherever this lead that goes to nothing. The concrete has been replaced at this point with "I love Larry" permenantly embedded in it. And there is the drain pipe, with the seal totally gone, leading into the ground. My industrious husband took off the bottom pipe and snaked that drain. He got it out past the house and pulled up some nasty black stuff. We know he got the blockage and now the sink drains beautifully and I can use the dishwasher again! Yeah Chris! And best of all, the smell has disippated! Life can now continue....