PLUMBING NIGHTMARES!!!!

[Mrplow123]

Well, where do I start. First off, let me just say, I need to vent. I'm not sure eveyone on this forum can relate to my horrible day. But you will all understand when I get to the punch line. It started off last night with all the toilets in the house stopping up. It has happened before, just get out the super plunger and fix it. Well as I was plunging away, I hear from the other room, "Honey, there is water coming up out of the shower". So I realised my plunger was no match for this one. So this morning I call the plumber, never a call a home owner wants to make. They show up and tell me they will have to get on the roof to fix it, no problem. He says 500 for everything, no problem. Well 2 guys, 2 hours later, they get tired of trying to chip away at the concrete in the pipes and decide to send the camera down. Let me tell you home owners something, when a plumber says "ummmmm, you have to see this". You might as well call the bank for a loan. He shows me the image on the screen, and the first thing out of my mouth, what the hell is that? ROOTS, LOTS OF ROOTS. Compacted will all the wonderfull stuff we have been flushing down the toilets for the past 50 years. This is a 4 inch main, with less than 1 inch of open space left in it. And the one inch space is from them picking away at it with the snake for 2 hours.

So now to the fun part of my day. He told me before they even started that if the clog was any further down then my existing clean out, that a new clean out would need to be installed. I knew this day would come sooner or later. When I moved in to this house the inspector told me that the previos owner put too small of a clean out in. The clean out is only 2 inch, and conected to a 4 inch main. They can't get the head of the snake that is needed to fix it into the pipe.

Now to the BEST part of my day, the BILL. ALL of my Christmas light money is gone. $3200 bucks is the bill for everything. That includes new concrete for the patio. I called a few other places, and the lowest quote I got was 2800, but that didn't include concrete. So first thing tomorrow, they will be busting up the concrete on the side of my house, and diging a 6 foot pit to install the proper size clean out in the proper place. They are also going to presure wash the pipes.

So if anyone has any solid red light strings they want to donate, let me know. LOL

Ok, rant done.

Back to sequencing, the only thing that keeps me sane.

[xmus]

HOLY COW dude.
That is a lot of money.
But I see you are in CA, so your home value has gone up 400% in 4.3 years?
:)

[Mrplow123]

HOLY COW dude.
That is a lot of money.
But I see you are in CA, so your home value has gone up 400% in 4.3 years?
:)

That is a good calculation of the inflation of the price of my house. But it is coming down now. But not much. Everything else around here seems to keep going though, like the cost of profesional services such as the plumber. When will it stop?

[xmus]

I am only 35 years old, and every year i gain more responsiblity (ie KIDS) and the cost of everything I do doubles.... drive a nicer car, $chu-ching$, buy a bigger house and try to maintain it, $chu-ching$, it is crazy, all the little things (like a nicer cell phone) just cost you like crazy later for batteries, etc.... life is getting so expensive it is NUTS.

So you are seriously out of the game? The 3K expense has basically shut down your Christmas project? How far along were you? Selling anything (hawks circling) to raise money for your new plumbing hobby? (hee hee)

[Mrplow123]

So you are seriously out of the game? The 3K expense has basically shut down your Christmas project? How far along were you? Selling anything (hawks circling) to raise money for your new plumbing hobby? (hee hee)

Damn, the vultures are circling allready, better get the shot gun out. LOL. I am not completely shut down. And the house will have to burn, before I will sell my Christmas goodies. I just had a few hundred more in lights I need to buy. And that is going to have to wait for now. I have everything else I need. I just need about 30 more boxes of red lights, and 10 boxes of purple. I wanted to add some stobes this year(maybe 10), and had 100 bucks set aside for that. But that was really all I needed. it is 300 bucks at most, but compared to 3200, well flushing the toilet is more important at this moment. Atleast the future wife thinks so. She didn't think it was funny when I told to to be sure to go to the bathroom before leaving work.

I wonder how she will take to the suggestion of bathing at work????

Wish me luck.

[xmus]

speaking of strobes, i need a couple for my mega tree, but i have no idea where to start or how they work.
I saw strobe bulbs at radio shack tonight for $5 each, but i was wondering how they work (just apply power? and they flash only once?) and i was wondering if they should be in an enclosure..... lots of questions.... not sure how to protect things/people from getting shocked with those leads...
I haven't even begun to research this... but i have 30 days to get a couple finished.

Flushing is more important than blinky flashy? I dunno.... I've devoted so many hundreds of hours to Christmas.... I don't know what I'm going to do after I take all the stuff down Jan 5th.... I'm going to have 1000 extra hours next year compared to this year. I'm going to do another co-op for the xmus board if there is interest, but the documentation is so good, and the community is so strong, (wiki rocks), I think it will be a much more mellow year next year.

[Mrplow123]

I am getting my strobes from here.

http://www.christmaslightshow.com/xcart/product.php?productid=54&cat=11&page=1

They are pre modified for 4 flashes per second, they are water proofed, and they screw into a C9 light string. So you just take a C9 light string, pull all the bulbs, and screw a few of these into the sockets. And at $7.50 each, you can't find a better price, you can't even build them your self for cheaper.

They are out of stock as of this moment, but they say they will have some available on the 25th.

[xmus]

I am getting my strobes from here.

http://www.christmaslightshow.com/xcart/product.php?productid=54&cat=11&page=1

They are pre modified for 4 flashes per second, they are water proofed, and they screw into a C9 light string. So you just take a C9 light string, pull all the bulbs, and screw a few of these into the sockets. And at $7.50 each, you can't find a better price, you can't even build them your self for cheaper.

They are out of stock as of this moment, but they say they will have some available on the 25th.


thanks for the tip, unfortunately everything I have is C7 based, i'll need to buy a bag of C9 sockets, which is no big deal.... but now I'll have BOTH :)

[xmus]

Hey David, what say you:
http://actionlighting.com/item-detail.asp?ID=1908&MainCategory=&Sub=

[XmasInGalt]

Does anybody have the strobe from Action Lighting? At $5.34, it's not a bad price but at $2.87 each for 100+, it's a great price. I'd like to get 20 of these for my display this year assuming that someone here gives them the thumbs up.

[Mrplow123]

Hey David, what say you:
http://actionlighting.com/item-detail.asp?ID=1908&MainCategory=&Sub=

It looks cool. I'm not sure about it though. They do not give enough info about it. Like if it is water proof, how many flashes per second. I would call their customer service and ask them for some specifics. I have called them before, and they are very helpfull. At that price, if they are atleast 2 flashes per second, I might pick up a few. But you still have to wire them, and make the conection water proof.

[Jeff Millard]

Guys, This is the Strobe I use in my display. (http://www.christmaslightshow.com/xcart/product.php?productid=54&cat=11&page=1) The bad news is they're so popular with the PlanetChristmas crowd that they're sold out of them. I have no idea if they will get more by showtime. Email them, they will let you know.

I have 35 of them hanging on an AllAmericanChristmas C9 stringer. This is some of the higher quality C9 stringer, and was chosen due to the fact that cheaper strings were causing the strobes to fail. It seems there was some arching from the "Hot" tab that eventually damages the strobe. Not a problem with my AAC wire. They were up on my Megatree for 6 weeks in bad rainy weather and they all still work like new.

The flash rate on these things is awesome, several per second and it starts to fire almost immediately. The thing that has me sold on them is the effect that occurs when they are set up on a stringer though. When you first trigger them, they seem to chase down the stringer like an arc line strobe. It's really cool looking.

I just wanted you to know about them. Darryl Brown is the seller. He had them made just for the flash rate and water resistance we need for our displays. I will eventually get more of them to put somewhere...

BTW, if you don't mind waiting 'till next year, he usually sells them for $5.50 ea. to the PC crowd sometime in the summer. One more reason for the popularity thing...

Jeff

[hutchijw]

[quote="Mrplow123"]Well, where do I start. First off, let me just say, I need to vent. I'm not sure eveyone on this forum can relate to my horrible day. But you will all understand when I get to the punch line. It started off last night with all the toilets in the house stopping up. It has happened before, just get out the super plunger and fix it. Well as I was plunging away, I hear from the other room, "Honey, there is water coming up out of the shower". So I realised my plunger was no match for this one. So this morning I call the plumber, never a call a home owner wants to make. They show up and tell me they will have to get on the roof to fix it, no problem. He says 500 for everything, no problem. Well 2 guys, 2 hours later, they get tired of trying to chip away at the concrete in the pipes and decide to send the camera down. Let me tell you home owners something, when a plumber says "ummmmm, you have to see this". You might as well call the bank for a loan. He shows me the image on the screen, and the first thing out of my mouth, what the hell is that? ROOTS, LOTS OF ROOTS. Compacted will all the wonderfull stuff we have been flushing down the toilets for the past 50 years. This is a 4 inch main, with less than 1 inch of open space left in it. And the one inch space is from them picking away at it with the snake for 2 hours...."

Oh man.... that sucks. When we moved in, we had the same problem... ROOTS. Then it happened again 2 years later. The first time it costs us 500 bucks. This second time on 40 bucks. The plumbing guys use a tool like this http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=46769 to open the drain. Works great. If you have any good size trees near the part of your yard where your drain runs to the street, you will get this problem again in a few years. Might be worth investing in a machine or someone who does it on the side.

[Michael]

We have this exact same problem with roots, and the first time the plumber came, we did not have access to the large access hole because it was covered by large machines, I have moved them now since they had to come back 3 times. One thing that has helped is two times a year we flush copper sulfate(?) that we get at ACE Hardware and let it set overnight. That is supose to kill the roots and so far seems to be working. It costs $10 vs $200-400 for roto-rooter. That reminds me, I need to do my next treatment tomorrow.

- Michael

[Mudsculpter]

Yea, my brother-n-law has to deal with those roots too. The plumber that came to clean them up used a rooter tool with a cutter head and afterward mixed up some foaming poison and flushed it through the system. (RootX?) He has to repat this every six months to ensure the pine roots are clear.

[hutchijw]

Yea, my brother-n-law has to deal with those roots too. The plumber that came to clean them up used a rooter tool with a cutter head and afterward mixed up some foaming poison and flushed it through the system. (RootX?) He has to repat this every six months to ensure the pine roots are clear.

Rotter Rooter is who we used and they did the same thing and used the RootX stuff. That kept out line open for about 2 years. About 2 months we had the same problem. I just called a local company who did and when the guy got to my place, I asked him if he did this on the side. He was quick to say yes and I paid him 45 bucks. He told his company that I was not home... lol The company wanted $150.

[tconley]

i just bought my own rooter machine for $300 and do it my self easy fix

[FireGod]

So if anyone has any solid red light strings they want to donate, let me know. LOL

I happen to have 100 extra boxes of multi color strands if you need some. Nobody seems to be interested in them.

[fcky529]

Yep, I remember when i was a wee one(still believed santa was real)(not thought)(I've been called santa for my work on the house) my mother was in the shower and "mud" came back into the tub. Well we had an outside cleanout and the root they pulled out was bigger than the pipe and SMASHED their rooter bit, so basically we bought them a new bit, instead of actually paying for them to do a "short 45 min. job"