There I was, yet again, drinking brown acid with a little milk and honey mixed into it, watching the old portfolio rise, rather appreciate, in value–disrupted! when I started to hear something odd in my dining room.
What the hell could it be, god damn it!
Remember, I just finished renovating my house, after buying it in July. I’m a big advocate of moulding, always interested in making things look better, become more attractive to any prospective buyers. After all, there’s a reason why my house sold in one week.
I called a plumber. He stepped into the guest bathroom and declared “it’s a gasket, all is well.” He fixed it, then collected his $125–like the savage that he is, then wheeled off.
At the same time VHC started to collapse, the sound in my dining room grew louder. I said to myself “Fly, what could this be? Could I be hexed again by the Gods, testing me through arduous home renovations?”
I summoned the plumber back for a second time.
I complained of the sound and he chalked it up to “it’s the wind from the attic, traveling down the pipes, into here.” Then, like a gorilla with a wrench, he said, “no, it’s the heat. The heat is making that noise.” I dismissed his excuses with as much scorn as a fanatical muslim in bible class, asking him to “please refrain from partaking in ridiculous commentary.”
I said to him “the sound, my good sir, is pervasive and means there is a leak in the ceiling, chap.”
He took out his blade and sliced through the ceiling. Like cutting through a juicy grapefruit at a wrong angle, the water squirted in his face, drenching his worker blouse with cold water. Apparently there was a pinhole leak in the ceiling, caused by acidic water (yummy), of the municipal variety.
After further inspection, we found 6 pinhole leaks, which probably means the entirety of the cold water, horizontal, copper piping in my money pit needs to be replaced.
Let me reiterate: I’ve been informed that my water is laden with acid and will eat my pipes like pacman eats ghosts.
No, I shall NOT replace it with plastic crap. I will install a higher grade copper and have the water treated at the main.
So don’t feel bad, sad faced shareholders of VHC, “The Fly” got his comeuppance today too, with a direct hit upon his treasured coffered ceilings, which will lead to a complete and utter disruption of his way of life for the foreseeable future.
Back to my cup of brown acid. It’s rather delicious, actually.
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter
It costs $25 to bang the pipes…$100 to know where to bang the pipes.
Forget copper, forget plastic (PVC), get the good stuff: PEX.
Copper is the only way to go
Oh, and I like the moulding.
You do like your moulding and yes copper is the way..
The only advantage of PEX or PVC is price.
Copper, grade L, will be installed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmxACZd36jA
Nice molding
The water should have been treated from the getgo. The home inspecting should have noted this. Pipe don’t dissolve overnight. Incompetent fools.
A few years ago, I sold a 100+ yr old house that shared a sewer line with the neighbor’s house. This was not disclosed in the report I paid for when I purchased it. I later discovered it, but didn’t care that much because it worked ok. Of course it was not code. When I sold, I clearly disclosed this fact.
The home inspector for the new buyer, apparently did not read my disclosure very carefully.
When the new buyer arrived, my former neighbor, as a welcome to the ‘hood gift notified the new owner that they must correct the situation. She called me and I said it was all disclosed and had not caused any problems.
Cut to the chase:
The inspection company had to pay for the 25’ deep hole in the street. The beauty of it all, was that the inspection company was the same pack of rubber-stampers I had paid for nothing. Ha ha ha! Justice.
That’s why we’re where we are.
Rotting from the core.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX3namamDxk
Sounds like an event straight outta a Carnival Cruise.
TRANSLATION OF IBC
http://www.gizoogle.net/xfer.php?link=http://ibankcoin.com/&sa=U&ei=NktCUbbqN_Kr0AXRoYDwCQ&ved=0CBgQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNF1I4toHfdSrttRXKCcCmF0PATZVA
Lead is the only superior substitute dear boy…
_____
I’m still crying over that beautiful coffered ceiling being debased.
One of the reasons I passed on buying a cottage here is the “back yard” is maybe 30X30 feet, and this means the septic system drain field extends onto the neighbor’s property. Still, I should have bought it, considering the market. This would be over thinking a trade, so to speak.
sre those 9ft ceilings?
I respect you for the very reason you just wrote this blog! I just had a contractor quit a job for me after he “over-promised, under-delivered” on a flip house we working on. This was the husband of a trusted friend and co-worker, so I was taken off-guard by his dishonesty and shoddy workmanship. However, I am not one to falter in the face of adversity; indeed I think I react better when I am challenged. In the end, although it will cost me more money, I think I have found better people to finish the job and I have learned an incredible amount as I take on the next flip house.
Flip house recipe:
1. Rip out carpets
2. Rip out kitchen
3. Sand floors (or install wood floors if they’re not there)
4. Sand and paint window frames
5. Install “neutral” IKEA kitchen
6. Install new heat/AC
7. Paint everything flat white
Works well on quality homes built a while ago – where prospective owners would normally stand around wondering what it might look like after being tailored to suit their tastes while worrying about the old heating/AC stuff.
Fly, thanks for your post – the home “cashtration” stage of life sucks.
If your water is that low of pH, go with PEX; the Joneses won’t hold it against you, unless of course you also have a problem with gamma rays shooting through your home too.
Sir Fly, I appreciate posts like this tremendously. You are one of only two persons in all the vast Internet that actually make me laugh out loud at my monitor.
Had the exact same problems in my last home. Easily remedied by the municipality, but they’re always too cheap to add the chemical. Don’t forget your run to the street. They tend to fail spectacularly.
You are looking at a very expensive and difficult repair, it doesn’t matter what type of pipe you use, hell use stainless steel. Your main cost is labor on this job. Yea by the way all that moulding has to come down and replaced. You really do need to think long and hard about this repair methodology. Also, there is one other thing that will cause this type of problem “Chinese Drywall”, very remote and highly unlikely, but should be eliminated as a cause of your problem.
lol
The moulding does not have to come down and be replaced. What in the world are you talking about?
If that is a 20′ horizontal run of pipe, and you plan to replace all horizontal runs. How is your plumber going to replace that entire length of pipe through a two foot hole, not all but some of the moulding that intersects the pipe path must be removed. Hopefully the moulding can be reused. All I’m suggesting is that you ask whoever does the repair, to present a plan to you, this is not an easy repair.
Oh come on folks, it’s about time Le Fly contributed to the economy in a real way.
he will cut holes in all the boxes, not take down the wood attached to the beams.
“Shopped”
Was that actual video of you and Mrs Fly?
The dude looked at his wife and made a decision on the spot kind of Fly-like!
It is my understanding that all municipal water in the USA has sufficient calcium content, by design, to coat the interior of any old lead pipes still in use. Acidic water? Did you check the pH at the tap? I find it unlikely that municipal water in your area is defective.
More likely, your pipe has an electrical issue. That is what causes rapid corrosion in residential copper piping. The typical plumber is gorilla-stupid and neither understands nor installs the necessary fittings to eliminate dissimilar metal corrosion in residential copper piping installations.
PEX is not suitable for your residence due to the mechanical connections but CPVC is worth considering.
As for the Moonstruck video, there hasn’t been a bronze pipe run installed in this country since the time of the Romans.
So what type of electrical problem can it be?
Maybe you runnin’ 220V?
As water moves through metal pipes, it picks up a charge. Copper pipe must be isolated through the use of dielectric couplings when connecting to any other metal pipe and it must be fastened to (wood or steel) beams with copper-plated hangers. No ground wires should be attached to the pipe. This prevents galvanic corrosion.
Not only does this process cause holes in the pipe, but it can create marble-sized deposits prior to the appearance of the hole. That can greatly restrict flow.
There is no way in hell you should have pinholes in your copper piping in a newer house. It ain’t the water, because Municipal water is a paid service and no matter how dumb the people answering the phone are at the water company, there is usually somebody with intelligence behind the treatment of it.
If your house was constructed during the McMansion building boom, then the plumbing was probably installed by Mexican laborers and the government building inspector did a drive-by.