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| - Being an adult is super awesome. You can buy cars and houses! And then, when your cars get hail damage and your sink backs up, you get to pay to have them both fixed!
After living in my house for about four months, my sink decided to kick the bucket. We'd run water and it would come straight back up and fill the sink, carrying with it the bittersweet memories of bits of food we'd hoped to never see again in our lives.
Enter: The DIY plumbing adventure. I like to try and solve problems before forking out cash to have someone fix it for me. First, we hired LIQUID PLUMBER! We eagerly anticipated the concoction flying through my pipes like a psychotic Italian Mario, bashing grime on the head and clearing any leaks. That's not what happened. Things didn't improve in the slightest. Score one: old plumbing.
My roommate and I disassembled the pipes under the sink, only to find they were completely clear. Curious. We then took off one of the pipes a little further back - to find it full of gray goo. We cleaned this one too and decided to run the crappy $4.00 snake we bought at Canadian Tire through it. The snake broke immediately and wouldn't go around any corners. Score two: old plumbing.
When that failed, it was time for a bigger snake. But first, I read on the internet that maybe a bird had come to live in my plumbing vent. After cleaning out the horrific bird's nest in my STOVE vent (which has NOTHING to do with plumbing), my plumbing problem stayed the exact same (and I felt a bit foolish for not knowing how to tell the difference between the two vents). Score three: old plumbing.
Finally, the snake. We ran it 15 feet into my house before realizing it was coming out of my roof. Yup, it had gone UP the pipes instead of down and was now stuck sticking out of the top of my house. We freed it from its confines, hanging our heads in shame. Score four: old plumbing.
We snaked it just one more time, but hit a tiny little u-bend that it couldn't go around. No clogs we could feel, and no grime coming back. Score 5: old plumbing.
Discouraged, we reassembled the pipes, only to have them leak like the eyes of a single girl watching the notebook. Score... screw it, I'm done counting. We went and bought Teflon tape and new O-rings. Reconfigured everything. Reassembled. Only one small leak now. Well, two - I was also crying a bit. Stupid, STUPID plumbing.
So we called Pete The Plumber and waited two days (they're a busy little shop!).
They showed up 7 minutes early (I frantically ran to the door from my shower, a sight which I'm sure none of us enjoyed), snaked my pipes to 40 feet, took all of 30 minutes and left me with a functioning sink. HOORAY PETE!
Now - why two of them had to show up, I'm not entirely sure. They were pleasant guys, but I don't know why it takes two of you to shove a snake down my pipes. Still, they got the job done and left me with a $161 bill, which isn't cheap, but isn't absurd.
Long story short: Don't waste 5+ hours of your own time. Call someone with a mechanical snake who can enable you to wash dishes again. Pete was good; I might try someone else next time just to see if I can save a bit of cash, but their service was prompt, plumbers friendly and results speak for themselves.
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