Plumbing the depths

So our bathroom sink drains slowly, very slowly. A quick look in the basement revealed that Wilbur had done some home improvement and thus begins our story.



Now if you're like me, you've never done any plumbing. But having spent some time on earth I'm vaguely aware of the fact that water runs downhill and not uphill. So looking at this pipe makes one scratch ones head and wonder what the hell happened. There are some pipes in the way, but as you'll see you're better off going over them instead of under them. Some other fun images to share (of Wilburs handy work) include some of the ways in which he suspended the pipes:




Hilarious. What's even funnier is that these are the only two supports for the waste pipes from the washer, tub and bathroom sink, some 15+ feet of PVC pipe. If you look closely at the left hand one you'll notice its a shoelace. I couldn't make that up if I tried. I wonder if Wilbur took it off a shoe he was wearing.

So anyway down to business. I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the lower elbow to let the water, that I knew would be sitting there, drain out.


After a while I just cut through the pipe. Here's what I found inside:



So some genius decided to pour something down the sink, I'm not sure if its sheetrocking mud, spackle, paint or what. But its clear that this build up wasn't helping matters any.

By the way, when you go to cut PVC do NOT buy the little hacksaw (bottom saw in image) you'll see next to the pipe supplies. That makes too much sense. Its junk. The tool I ended up using was a backsaw (top saw in image). Its made for wood, but the stiff make of it with the fine teeth worked wonders on the pipes.



After a certain amount of cussing, measuring, cutting, priming, gluing, more cussing, and some more gluing I got the pieces together in what seems to be an improved fashion. Make note however to dry fit everything to make sure it fits. Once you start gluing you've got only moments before things set up and you can't be messing around.




You'll notice a little something on the copper pipe below the new PVC. Its a bit of pipe insulation. The PVC is not resting on the copper pipe, but since the pipe is a heating pipe I didn't want to chance anything. I'll be insulating all the hot water and heating pipes eventually anyway.