if the pipe leaks... you must be in Asia!

Seriously, leaky pipes are the name of the game, par for the course.... you pick the idiom, I'll guarantee that your pipes will leak! Ours do.

Here's another important piece of the puzzle: local plumbers are worth exactly what you pay them. And I've never been charged more than about 5 bucks (for labor and materials). [Of course, I hope you know me well enough by now to realize that I am not in any way referring to the intrinsic human value of the plumber, but rather his value within his profession.]

Years ago we realized that Matt (with his training as an engineer) was infinitely more qualified than the local guys to fix just about any leaky pipe our apartment could dream up. Actually, come to think of it, I might put Julianna up against a local plumber.... she's taken enough baths and played with enough sink water to have the basic plumbing concepts down pat.

After all, how complex can the problem really be? It isn't exactly rocket science. Water should come from the faucet and go down the drain. Quickly. It should not form puddles on the floor, it should not seep up through the cracks in your tiling, it should not drip from pipe joints. It should go down the drain. Out of sight. Out of mind.

Yeah, right.

Not here.

Last weekend Matt spent part of his day off doing this.....



Yep, that's our bathtub. Detached from the wall. See, every time someone used the bathtub, water covered the bathroom floor. There's just something about a sopping wet bathmat greeting you at the end of your shower that puts a damper on the whole experience. The bathtub drain was working great. But the drain in the actual tub was never connected to the drain in the tile floor underneath the tub. So when the floor drain started backing up, the water seeped out from under the bathtub.

Matt ripped the bathtub from the wall (never fear, the initial caulking job was of such poor quality that this took little effort, he basically just heaved once, and the entire tub shifted a foot to the left). You don't even want to know what he found under the tub. I didn't take a photo.

He got that all nastiness cleaned up, and called our plumber, Mr. Zhang. We have Mr. Zhang on speed-dial. I know, I know, with all my speech about how plumbers aren't worth their stuff, why bother calling? Glad you asked. Mr. Zhang has the roto-rooter snake contraption that you poke down drain pipes to un-gunk them. We don't own one (nor do we ever plan to), so we call Mr. Zhang and have him bring his by the apartment. Regularly.

An hour or so later, Mr. Zhang and the snake roto rooter thingy showed up. He got that thing humming and un-gunked our tub drain in no time. 3 dollars every visit. It's his standard rate. Matt shifted the tub back in place, and spent about an hour caulking like a mad man. At one point he even went out to buy more caulk. He values thoroughness. I value a dry bathmat. What can I say? We make a good pair :)

The result? Pretty much as close to perfect as you can get. Which, in local-plumbing-terms means this: the tub still leaks a little bit (of course), but the leaking is contained to one teensy tinsy patch on the bathroom floor. The water doesn't even get close to the bathmat. Victory!

But guess what I am doing tomorrow morning? Calling Mr. Zhang. You see, our washing machine drain hole has this little quirk. Every 4 to 6 weeks, the floor drain that the washer hose runs into starts backing up. It's a slow start. I wash a load and notice a small patch of water on the floor. Next load, bigger patch of water. If I let the problem go untended, one load of laundry can flood the entire laundry room/guest bath. I washed 6 loads today. And mopped after every single load.

When Mr. Zhang sees my number on his caller id, he knows the drill. After all, he comes almost once a month for the same problem. I'll have my three dollars ready.