Plumbing Woes

abqtj said:

Is the seller and/or inspector liable in any way for something like this?

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Nope, I've already talked to an attorney. And the seller, and the home inspector.

Attorney explained that VA is pretty much caveat emptor unless you can PROVE that the seller knew of the defect at the time of sale. It's a very high bar. Same with the sellers agent.

The seller claims that he did not know of the issue and also that he snaked the lines twice in the 10 months he owned it.

I called the home inspector and he offered to refund the cost of the inspection ($450). Not that I expect that he should have caught it either. The only way to find this thing would have been to run lots and lots of water and/or scope it.

I suspect the seller may have been suspicious that something was up since he snaked it twice, but there's definitely no way to prove that (even though I have it in writing).

Jays89YJ said:

Do you know of any disgruntled neighbors not liking the previous owners?

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No, since he only owned it for 10 months and didn't occupy it while it was renovated it could have even been a disgruntled contractor type, or the previous owners wanting to leave grandma behind in the house (assuming that it is an urn). Either way, it had to have been put through the clean-out.

miwico said:

Thank you Mr. helper guy. All things were considered in my previous statement, no plan is perfect.

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SORRY I WAS A CHEMISTRY MAJOR BRUH

BrandonM7 said:

SORRY I WAS A CHEMISTRY MAJOR BRUH

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THAT HCl WILL DISSOLVE THAT URN BRUH, YOU CAN'T DISPUTE THAT.

miwico said:

THAT HCl WILL DISSOLVE THAT URN BRUH, YOU CAN'T DISPUTE THAT.

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What if it's pure pewter bruh?

abqtj said:

I assume it's metal? Get a big ass junk yard magnet and drag that shit to the clean out!

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only iron and cobalt are magnetic. it'd be a gamble.

sure would suck to find out g-pa's final resting place is pot metal.

Schnervel said:

What if it's pure pewter bruh?

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no brob HCl can fix that.


in the proper concentrations.

Use the snake to slide a stick down with an electrical detonator. You can make it water tight. Once you reach the obstruction, set it off.

Can't one of those roto rooter places bore the thing out?

abqtj said:

Not in it, on top of the grass and slide it within the pipe. BIG magnet!

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Even if the magnet was somehow strong enough to get through the 10 feet of soil, if I remember my physics the metal pipe will shield its contents from any external field so it wouldn't move anyway.

mojokat said:

only iron and cobalt are magnetic. it'd be a gamble.

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Did you forget nickel?

BirdOPrey5 said:

Even if the magnet was somehow strong enough to get through the 10 feet of soil, if I remember my physics the metal pipe will shield its contents from any external field so it wouldn't move anyway.

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Physics is dumb

abqtj said:

Physics is dumb

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Flush a gernade

Rent compact excavator and dig it up yourself....

grigsby said:

Rent compact excavator and dig it up yourself....

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I love playing with a mini excavator. It's not work if you're having fun.

Other than the smelly shit from your pipes.

grigsby said:

Rent compact excavator and dig it up yourself....

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Remember, we are supposed to have awful weather this week? Yeah, they might not be able to come out on Friday now due to fear of collapse of hole. *&^%%$#%$#@#@(&)(*

They're coming out tomorrow with yet another style snake. I'm not holding my breath. If they had an electromagnet on a snake/camera, they could get it right on the object and flip the switch and drag that fawker out. I don't think something like that is too common...

Schnervel said:

Remember, we are supposed to have awful weather this week? Yeah, they might not be able to come out on Friday now due to fear of collapse of hole. *&^%%$#%$#@#@(&)(*

They're coming out tomorrow with yet another style snake. I'm not holding my breath. If they had an electromagnet on a snake/camera, they could get it right on the object and flip the switch and drag that fawker out. I don't think something like that is too common...

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Just wrap a nail with some wire like we did in the 4th grade!

miwico said:

Just wrap a nail with some wire like we did in the 4th grade!

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That made me lol. I needed that.

Tell the ****ers to follow OSHA's trenching details for Type B soil to determined depth, to GTFO to your place and you expect to see assholes and elbows pronto.

Get them to put flags in the yard where the blockage is, rent a mini excavator and two hombres from Home Depot. Go ahead into Home Depot and buy a short chunk of shit pipe and a bag of shop towels to use as visual aids. Show them the toilet, hold up the pipe, stuff the rags in it, then point at the excavator and the flags. They'll have that shit dug up in no time. You'll have to run back to the store to get the shit to fix the pipe once you see the size, but that's when you need to be buying them a case of Modelo and a couple of sandwiches from Subway anyway. Graciously take them home and pay them.

Boom - problem solved and I just saved you $5k.

Regarding how it got there - I'll bet someone was replacing the flange and/or wax ring under one of the toilets and tried to sit that decorative item over the hole so it wouldn't stink up the room only to find that it was small enough to fall in. It was sitting on the toilet or somewhere nearby and looked like it would do the job. I expect that level of dipshittery is much more common than mal-intent -- you have to ask yourself if the odds of someone taking a pot/vase/urn somewhere to try to ruin their plumbing is more likely than someone ****ing up while working on something (probably after several beers and his wife bitching in his ear.)

I'll bet the wife in this story still wonders where the **** that went, and that dude still swears he doesn't know what she's talking about.