So I just got back from the gym.
A late night session and I'm drinking this recovery shake with water.
The water came from the same sink (clogged pipe) I fought not to long ago.
All the hours and products and trying were a 100% waste of time and I learned a lesson.
Don't bother to much with things you don't understand unless you want to learn more about it.
I have no interest in plumbing.
I should have called a plumber straight away.
This morning the guy arrived.
He looked like someone that spends a lot of time underground.
A pro, I knew it straight away. I nicknamed him 'the mole'.
I showed him the the sink and he gave a small grunt.
He wasn't impressed with my half ass repair.
I also came clean about the fake teeth cleaner, mixed with drain cleaner and coffee filter smuck.
I was afraid it might hurt him.
He couldn't care less.
He was annoyed because he had to put the thing back together because this was not the solution to the problem.
I apologised..
The mole went outside and found the kitchen sewer pipe connection.
I have no idea how he found it so quick (considering it was underground) but I wasn't going to ask this psychic plumber.
A pro is a pro and that's good enough for me.
'Just wait....I'm going to get the hose', he said.
I waited.
He came back with a huge hose he rolled out of his van.
The mole inserted the hose in the pipe and then pressed a button on a remote control.
The hose kicked into life.
'100 bars of raw water power', he said.
I nodded in awe.
It made me wonder how much bars I had manage to produce with my plunger...
He moved his black snake up and down while it slipped deeper into the hole.
At some point he must have found the blockage because he was franticly moving his hose up and down now.
It would not budge.
He then looked at me and said.
"You better go close your toilet lid, because we are going 200 bars".
This was getting serious now..
I did as I was told.
I gave the mole the thumbs up.
He pressed the button on the remote.
The noise was intense.
Again he was moving his hose up and down. And then..
PLOOP!
Big chunks of white gunk came out of the hole.
He looked at me and said, 'you need to relearn how to wash the dishes'.
His explanation how it all happened was pretty simple.
When you wash dishes and there is too much grease or fat on the plates/pans it will turn liquid because of the hot water.
But then it enters the pipe, and then it will solidify especially when it's cold
Repeat this process long enough and it will clog the pipe.
Made sense too me.
I paid him and that was that.
All my problems were solved by a pro in 15 minutes, 10 faster and better then I already spend trying to fix it myself.
I learned my lesson.
Let pro's be pro's.
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Plumbers make some good money , but we can’t be good at everything :D my dad always tries to fix everything itself until it gets fu*ked up
Years ago I was like the mole, usually for the street sewer pipes rather than the household ones.
The hose for smaller household pipes was 3/8 in hydraulic hose with a dome-shaped fitting in the end.
behind the dome, pointing backwards were 3 small holes, when the pump was running it fed high-pressure water down the inside of the hose and out the backward pointing holes.
This propelled the domed head through the blocked pipe, washing the walls of the pipe clean as it went.
When it reached the blockage the domed head would penetrate the cause and break up and wash it down the pipe.
given time, we could clear tree roots that had got into the pipe and grown well on the moisture and fertilizer that was there.
The longest job was a 6 ft dia pipe with a hand-sized gap at the top, full of sand, there was about a mile of pipe to clean, fortunately it emptied into the sea, so there were no disposal issues.
You describe the hose much better than I could! It must be a powerful device if it can eat through tree roots and all that. Thanks for the education!
When you turn on your garden hose and turn it to the jet position, have a look at the size of the hole the water is coming out of, Town supply water is usually about 100 lbs pressure.
We had the same quantity of water, pressurized to 3,000 PSI, coming out of a 1mm hole.
I have buckled the sides of steel fishing vessels while water blasting the barnacles and growth off the hull.
I haven't, but I have heard that they use high-pressure water to cut steel sheeting to patterns, cheaper and easier than Oxy/Acetylene torches.
The longest part of clearing roots was to find them 100 meters up the pipe while working by feel. you could tell how you were going by the debris that was washed down the pipe.
Hi @exyle, i can't stop laughing, i could only imagine the look on your face when the guy got done in fifteen minutes. Hope you don't try to fix your car when you really don't know the solution to the problem, you might mess things up the more for the mechanic and got billed the more. lol.
But i learnt a great lesson from this story; know when to quit and when not to.
learning to be a plumber is job and good money I think I need to get a new job and be one
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@exyle The moral for me is that you don't spend time in another man's professional world to convince yourself of competence.
To be competent is to be confident in your abilities and discharge them in your areas of strength!
Moral: do not try to do someone else job. Stick to what you know and call a pro when you don't know.
"Again he was moving his hose up and down. And then.."
🤣
;)
Oké, lessons learned but still at least you tried i think that is important too. Happy to hear that you fight is over now and can peacefully use your tap again...
Kind regards,
UPVOTED & RESTEEMED
Exyle you always do something like engaging, but still, all credits yours. just carry on and steem on
‘It made me wonder how much bars I had manage to produce with my plunger...’
That line had me laughing! I always enjoy your writing style, and you’re 100% right, some things are worth a shot by yourself but others, it’s worth getting the pros in, they know the tricks!
Thank you! and yes, can't beat a pro :)
You are very right dear friend @exyle, you always have to call the professionals, it is not because we can not do things ourselves, the professional has tools and knowledge that we do not have.
In my land we have a popular saying and very funny for this kind of thing.
You will never become a spoon, when you were born to be a fork.
I wish you a great day.
Or... save your grease to make fire starters for the BGE. 😃
So pragmatic! I'll try!
HAHAH the mole! I love it :P HMMM If I had seen this post before I decided to DIY (destroy-it yourself) as my friend put it, and do my own computer upgrade repair, maybe I wouldn't have ended up with a cracked iMac screen.
Everyone learns new things, even if you are 100 years old. If someone says he knows everything it’s just because of his stupidity.
Now you can save on plumber since you learned how to wash your dishes. Everyday is about learning a new things.
I like the way you look at things!
Moves his black snake 😂😂.... and what a power the snake has.
I hope you dont stop preparing delicious food,... but how will you get rid of the the fat/oil/butter??
Scrape as much off and put it in the bin.
Ha, I was schooled by a plumber in the same way. Except he didn't appreciate the drain cleaner.
Don't have this problem anymore since I moved to a place with bigger pipes. Still flush greasy water through the toilet rather than the sink.
I guess both learned our lesson!
Hahahahaha, @exyle it reminded me of once I was with a friend and he was tryna do some electrical work by himself. I asked why, he said he doesn't have to waste his money on things he can do by himself. He clearly didn't wanna pay an electrician but after his electric cooker got blown with the first trial, he had to pay five times the initial cost, just to get the whole mess sorted out.
So next time you got a job, let pro's be pro's
lol, that's a great story! and yes, let pro's be pro's.
Hate to say I told you so
Kitchen grease is a major hassle in sewer lines the world over, good thing there are various Snakes to clear them.
Hilarious and great story telling. Seriously. Did you not know that about fat.
Did you miss the story about London's fatberg last year? Weighing the same as 11 double decker buses and stretching the length of two football pitches it blocked a section of London’s sewer and took 3 weeks to break up. Your plumber had it easy! 😁 😁 😁
You're not supposed to put fat down the sink @exyle! 👎 😊
I read about the fatberg it was huge! And after he told me it all made sense :)
oh yes, the dreaded white fat. I remember spending hours unclogging my outside drain many years ago. The experience I have never forgotten!. It was a smelly experience and gave me a good workout ....
Let pro's be pro's
but
Men will always be men
Can' t argue with that really....lol!
Sounds like a buurman&buurman Guy. But we All need a plumber sometimes and mole or b&b he did the job😉
Well, this line is embarrassing 'you need to relearn how to wash the dishes'.
Anyway, as you said...Let pros be pros.
You are pro @exyle in other things bro :)
Haha, its really a nice experience though, there is no harm in trying, the only thing is that no man is an island, so, sometimes its best we call expert to do what they know how to do best. But when there re no option then trying to do it yourself payoff in the end. Well done and i love your post. Flowing you closely.
Damn these experts and their superior ways!
LOL!
How the hell am I not already following you. Problem solved. lol
Sometimes it's wise to save money by doing something yourself. But sometimes it's far wiser to pay someone else to do the job. The greatest wisdom in in knowing the difference :)
Yeah, I agree!
This is why I rent. :)
In the information age, where I am sure there are countless howto videos on DIY for unclogging pipes, they don't bring with them the experience to know which applies to your situation. So calling in a professional who has the experience to apply the knowledge to your situation is likely a better use of your time than trial and error.
This is why in a world full of DIY information, a services economy exists and is booming. What you may save in money, you end up paying for with your time.
Good job getting gym time @exyle ah yes the Psychic mole man is correct grease freezes quickly in cold weather and blocks yours pipes if you put it down the sink, my mom warned me of doing this sometime ago, hmm what does one do with the grease then?
Did he also give you a solution about what to do with greasy dishes?
Scrape as much of it off before washing is what he recommended :)
He didn't recommend any kind of grease destroying soap?
You need a bigger plunger next time :)))
Its great that you got your sink repaired, great too that the plumber was a real pro and knew exactly what to do. I guess he has done so many blockages of that sort, he automatically knows how to sort it out. Good night :)
This is the same lesson I learned a few months back. I tried unclogging a blocked drainage pipe too but all my efforts and about a cup of soda and vinegar went into vain so my husband and I finally clogged a plumber and he was done fixing the blockage in less than 20 minutes too. So then I learned if I am not interested in becoming a pro at something, I should stop wasting my time and effort fixing an issue and resort to a pro. Honestly this one decision has helped me save a lot of time, effort, patience and money. Thank you for reminding me of this lesson :)
For smaller jobs , I think everyone should scope out the problem. If there is no clear as daylight answer to you (without Googling first), Then try and solve it simply.
If the solution is not simple, then leave it to the experts. Hey, the truth is that division of labour is there for a reason. When each person in society has a specialisation and works toward becoming an expert in their field, we will all benefit. The pain of paying someone to do a job that you THINK you could do on your own is understandable, however the cost of making the situation much worse by doing it on your own with Googled information will hurt your pocket so much more.
Instead of running the risk of having to pay twice to fix the problem by first spending your time and then paying a person to fix your mess, get itit right the first time and skip a step. Expertise are priceless for a reason. Their invaluable knowledge can save you some real dough.
Generally, leave plumbing, construction, medical, electrical and mechanical jobs to the experts.
I was telling this a friend. I used to be like that.. try and save money by doing things I don’t know how to and end up spending way too much time for a half ass job. Now I realize that if I spend that time doing something I know how to - making money I can actually save up from paying someone else dor the jobs I don’t understand.
Yes! And the job will be done 10x better to! + no frustration and all that.
Excellent and no doubt everyone knows his business well that's why the work suits in the hands of the one skilled to do it. If someone else does it, he's sure to mess it up and that's what happens in your case but you made a wise decision in the end to call a professional and he did his job flawlessly, so no doubt Let pro's be pro's, wish you a fantastic week ahead friend, Stay blessed.
What a hilarious story! 😂
I especially liked this sentence:
You may need to add a NSFW tag here.... 😂
;)
This is what it looks like when fat collects in the sewers, imagine been the guy who's job it is to clear the blockage!
O wow!
Well moral of the story. Plumbing job is not for every one.
I agree with you and it is important that we learn to ask for help especially when it is not our field just as @exyle did by calling the plumber.
I agree
Yeah... Don't pour fat into the drains.
No modesty for those who call,
I've always told people that mistakes are learned by man, I learned a lot
Work is worship
Half ass repairs are the best kind though!
Oh yes, I am very happy, my friend, that your problem has been resolved and what this person has done has been his art, so I agree with you, to entrust this business to a professional! Thank you Mark.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure and mistakes. I always say, as long as you learn from your mistake you go forward.
sometimes it’s just a hard headed guy thing... kind of like stopping to ask for directions.
Great 👍 read... practicing my speed reading here in the steemit community. You’re one of my daily practice sources...
Exyle you continue your work as well. We'll be next to you.
hello exyle ? do you love working ?
@exyle @exyle
You cook with a lot of fat? That goes well with working out and a recovery shake. ;) lol jk I bet something like this might have worked. I blew a lot of money on my sewer line when I think this would have dissolved the tree roots. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Instant-Power-128-oz-Main-Line-Cleaner-1801/100126446
Wow...great writing...i appreciate this story...best of luck....