Friday, April 21, 2006
You take the good, you take the bad...
...you take them both, and there you have the facts of life. The facts of life...
Our current house is old. Over 75 years old. We're on the city sewer system, but the plumbing was retrofitted to do that. For instance: We have a brand new washer in the basement. When the washer drains, it goes into a utility sink, then flows down a pipe into an underground tank, then a sump pump turns on and pumps the water up and out of the house.
In theory, a fine solution.
Unless the filter of the sump pump gets clogged.
Which is what happened yesterday.
I got home from work, dropped a load of laundry in the washer, and started to read the style section of the paper. [Did you know Tom Cruise's wife and Brooke Shields had their babies in the same hospital on the same day? How weird is that, considering the feud they have going (Psychaitry versus Psychotic fake religion)?]
The washer beeped that it was ready, and I went downstairs to put the laundry in the dryer. I immediately noticed water. A LOT OF WATER. This is your basic utilitarian basement, so there's no carpet or furniture to worry about, but seeing water pooled around the washer is upsetting just the same.
I went over to the sump pump and pried the lid open. The water was even with the floor, meaning the tank was completely full, which is never supposed to happen. I unplugged the still running sump pump and pondered for a moment. A sump pump is a very simple device, really. A sealed motor runs under water. Attached to the motor is a float, like in a toilet tank. In this case, the system works in reverse from a toilet. In a toilet, when the water level in the tank rises enough to raise the float, the water stops running. With the sump pump, when the water level rises enough to raise the float, the pump kicks on and flushes the water up a pipe, emptying the storage tank (FASCINATING, RIGHT?!?).
I followed the trails of the various pipes entering and leaving the tank, confirming that there was no chance the water could have anything... biological in it. The tank only held soapy water from the washer. Okay. Good. I couldn't see the bottom of the tank, but that's only because the water was soapy (milky). I got a broom stick and determined the depth of the tank. My arm could almost, but not quite, touch the bottom when the tank was full, as it was now.
Wet/dry vac to the rescue! I wheeled it over and began emptying the tank, 20 gallons at a time. Each time the vac was full, I had to carry the 20 gallons of water upstairs and pour it out outside. It took four trips, so the tank held about 80 gallons of water. Since the motor had been running, I assumed the pump was in good working order, and that left a very limited number of reasons why it wasn't draining. Holding a flashlight with one hand and plunging the other hand into the remaining gray, lukewarm water, I soon discovered the problem. After nearly 20 years, the filter (where the water enters the pump to be driven into the outlet pipe) was clogged with something nasty. It was a combination of lint, hair, and a million other elements. Grabbing handfuls of this sludge, I filled up three ziploc sandwich bags with the stuff.
I gave the motor and the filter one last check with my hand, confirming no more sludge, and ran clean water from the utility sink for a few minutes, allowing the tank to get some water in it. The float rose, the motor turned on, and the water drained completely in a few moments. All right.
I vacuumed up the remaining water on the floor and was done. Smacky handyman!
Of course, the two hour event wasn't without it's glitches. Since the lid had pipes running through it, I couldn't remove it all the way. I could only lift it and slide it over enough to get my arms inside. As a result, one side of my right forearm is completely covered with an abrasion from scraping it against the lid. I also have a giant bruise on my right bicep from rotating my extended arm to grab more sludge from the bottom of the tank and mashing the muscle against the lid.
But I fixed it, and didn't call a professional to do it, so I'm proud. This was a "2 beer" celebration after the job.
Our current house is old. Over 75 years old. We're on the city sewer system, but the plumbing was retrofitted to do that. For instance: We have a brand new washer in the basement. When the washer drains, it goes into a utility sink, then flows down a pipe into an underground tank, then a sump pump turns on and pumps the water up and out of the house.
In theory, a fine solution.
Unless the filter of the sump pump gets clogged.
Which is what happened yesterday.
I got home from work, dropped a load of laundry in the washer, and started to read the style section of the paper. [Did you know Tom Cruise's wife and Brooke Shields had their babies in the same hospital on the same day? How weird is that, considering the feud they have going (Psychaitry versus Psychotic fake religion)?]
The washer beeped that it was ready, and I went downstairs to put the laundry in the dryer. I immediately noticed water. A LOT OF WATER. This is your basic utilitarian basement, so there's no carpet or furniture to worry about, but seeing water pooled around the washer is upsetting just the same.
I went over to the sump pump and pried the lid open. The water was even with the floor, meaning the tank was completely full, which is never supposed to happen. I unplugged the still running sump pump and pondered for a moment. A sump pump is a very simple device, really. A sealed motor runs under water. Attached to the motor is a float, like in a toilet tank. In this case, the system works in reverse from a toilet. In a toilet, when the water level in the tank rises enough to raise the float, the water stops running. With the sump pump, when the water level rises enough to raise the float, the pump kicks on and flushes the water up a pipe, emptying the storage tank (FASCINATING, RIGHT?!?).
I followed the trails of the various pipes entering and leaving the tank, confirming that there was no chance the water could have anything... biological in it. The tank only held soapy water from the washer. Okay. Good. I couldn't see the bottom of the tank, but that's only because the water was soapy (milky). I got a broom stick and determined the depth of the tank. My arm could almost, but not quite, touch the bottom when the tank was full, as it was now.
Wet/dry vac to the rescue! I wheeled it over and began emptying the tank, 20 gallons at a time. Each time the vac was full, I had to carry the 20 gallons of water upstairs and pour it out outside. It took four trips, so the tank held about 80 gallons of water. Since the motor had been running, I assumed the pump was in good working order, and that left a very limited number of reasons why it wasn't draining. Holding a flashlight with one hand and plunging the other hand into the remaining gray, lukewarm water, I soon discovered the problem. After nearly 20 years, the filter (where the water enters the pump to be driven into the outlet pipe) was clogged with something nasty. It was a combination of lint, hair, and a million other elements. Grabbing handfuls of this sludge, I filled up three ziploc sandwich bags with the stuff.
I gave the motor and the filter one last check with my hand, confirming no more sludge, and ran clean water from the utility sink for a few minutes, allowing the tank to get some water in it. The float rose, the motor turned on, and the water drained completely in a few moments. All right.
I vacuumed up the remaining water on the floor and was done. Smacky handyman!
Of course, the two hour event wasn't without it's glitches. Since the lid had pipes running through it, I couldn't remove it all the way. I could only lift it and slide it over enough to get my arms inside. As a result, one side of my right forearm is completely covered with an abrasion from scraping it against the lid. I also have a giant bruise on my right bicep from rotating my extended arm to grab more sludge from the bottom of the tank and mashing the muscle against the lid.
But I fixed it, and didn't call a professional to do it, so I'm proud. This was a "2 beer" celebration after the job.
# posted by smacky @ 7:11 AM 
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There's nothing quite like the two-beer celebration. Except maybe the two-hooker celebration, and then I woke up.
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