All Forum Posts by: Dan Graney

Just found this issue last night. Will be anxious to take all the tips and see which one would be the best fix.

Thanks for the compliment on the rental. This is my first venture into landlording. I am living in the smaller upper unit was hoping to get $750 for the lower. It is a 2 bed 1 bath 1300 sq ft lower with a laundry room, private separate fenced yard and a screen porch. Oh and once installed all new SS appliances.

Thanks for the comments so far.

Recently bought a duplex and bought all new stainless appliances for the half I am going to rent out.

Went to pull out the old dishwasher and realized that they installed the tile floor after the dishwasher was in place. Now the tile floor (1inch thick) prevents me from pulling out the old dishwasher and of course from putting the new one in.

Even if I could find a way to pick up the dishwasher I cannot pick it up high enough because it will run into the counter top.

The existing DW is too nasty to leave in place, plus the new one matches the fridge and stove so I really want to put it in to make things more appealing to the tenants.

As I see it I have two options, remove and replace tile but then I would be trapping the DW again. Or removing the countertop which is all Formica with a matching Formica backsplash. And the counter top is huge, the DW is about in the middle of a roughly 18 foot span.

I thought about removing a section of the counter top and replacing it with perhaps a butcher block feature but I am not sure how that would look and it is right next to the sink.

Should would appreciate any solutions that the BP family might have to offer.

Thanks in advance, Dan

Update

The guy came out and did the job for the quoted price. However he managed to spill water that ended up going down next to the toilet drain and it ended up on top of the drywall of the first floor ceiling. Went downstairs to make sure all was alright and saw a stream of water running out of one of my light fixtures.

There was about 3 cups worth of water total but I was concerned that the moisture would cause mold so I drill several holes in the ceiling to let air get into the cavities. Called my friend the drywall guy and he said that should be sufficient.

Several lessons learned. First I can easily do what the technician did now that I have seen it done once. Second be more careful than he was. Third it pays off to do a good amount of research before diving into a fix. Shopped around for plumbers and got advice from a lot of people, mostly on BP, and felt good about my fix. Have updates to do in the near future but I have things working and know how to keep them that way.

Update

Called the Angie's list company and they said that they were too far for it to be cost effective but they recommended American Sewer out of Flint. They are going to clean out the drain for $95 and only charge me $25 if they remove and replace the toilet. The first plumber I called before the Angie's list guys wanted to charge me $550 for the cleaning and another $150 to do the toilet. Fairly shocked at the price difference.

Want to thank @Scott McMahan from BP for the recommendation.

This plus the Bio-Clean will be my fix for now. Keeping my thoughts of replacing the drains on hold till the weather gets better.

Hope to have renters in there by then so I will be needing to somehow let them know this might happen and make it a line item in my lease so that they acknowledge that there may be an upcoming inconvenience. Would appreciate advice on how to do that.

Update:

Still unclear what to do but taking the advice to find out exactly what was wrong.

Thought about renting a drain inspection camera but that would be dangerous because I would most likely have to go on a snow covered roof to do it right. plus they are expensive.

Looked for plumbers who would do an inspection then was reminded of Angie's list. Found a company with to "A" rated reviews, they are coming out to do a free estimate. Feels like a good first step.

Thank you all for the great advice. (BTW I have also noticed that the lower unit shower and sinks seem to drain fine but the toilet needs to be flushed twice so needs improvement also.)

So if I am reading all of these right in summary I should:

1. Look towards replacing rather than just clearing a temporary hole which will come back. The money saved by not doing the temporary fix can go towards the permanent fix.

2. Try to inspect the vertical runs with a camera because they may be OK and they will be quieter if I can keep them cast iron.

3. Replace everything leading up to the vertical runs and replace the vertical runs if need be.

I did have an inspection done but apparently he didn't run the water long enough to do an adequate drain check. He also missed a hot water heater, that was not on at the time, that will not fire up.

I actually have 3 stacks on the house. The third is to an add on laundry that I cannot see where it ever connects tot he rest of the drain system. I am thinking that they did an additional tap into the city line, if that is a thing that you can do. I crawled all the way into the crawl space to the main "Y" that goes into the ground. Can't see the laundry tapping in any where.  

Good point brought up about having to support all the weight of the cast pipe, didn't think about that.

Thanks for all of the advice. I would really like to replace the old pipes but I imagine it would cost thousands of dollars. I do not have a large cash reserve at the moment but I can comfortably afford the mortgage even if I never get a renter. I sure would love the peace of mind that would come with new drains but I have never done this before and concerned that I would mess something up that would cost me big time.

Question, would I have to replace the vent pipes that go thru the roof?