At Mr. Plumber we often get calls to help repair damage caused by homeowners or unlicensed plumbers. We recently had a situation in which a homeowner, (we’ll just call him Bill to protect his identity) tried to fix a clogged drain by himself. Bill went out and rented a drain cleaning machine. He brought it home and then muscled this one hundred plus pound contraction up a full flight of steps to the upstairs bathroom in order to try to unplug the toilet. I say unnecessarily because as he found out later, clogs can be located in a different area than where you suspect they are.
So now Bill has this contraption upstairs and he starts using the 100-foot cable that comes with it and snakes it down into the toilet. Unfortunately for Bill, he doesn’t realize until too late that the cable isn’t hooked up to the equipment and is now long gone. After panicking a bit and wasting a few more hours in a futile attempt to recover the cable, he admitted defeat and called us in for professional help.
Bill, like any respectable do-it-yourselfer, doesn’t want to admit what he has done and doesn’t tell us right away what happened – he just wants us to fix a clog. As soon as we put our video equipment down the drain line, we were able to see the cable still in the pipes and that’s when we realized there was more to Bill’s story. Reluctantly Bill filled us in on the rest of the details and asked us if we could help.
We proceeded to fish out the cable, although it took some work. Bill mistakenly thought the problem was taken care of. We had to explain that whatever caused the clog to begin with wasn’t fixed and we’d do some further investigating to figure out the cause of the original clog. We again put the camera down the drain and were able to determine what had caused the clog in the first place. (All of which took a lot less time and money than it took for Bill to rent and improperly use the equipment, which he informed us later!)
About this time Bill’s wife shows up looking surprised and wants to know what a plumber is doing at the house. Bill sheepishly replied, “I promise never to do my own plumbing again!”
All to often we receive calls from frantic homeowners who need us to help repair damage caused by an unlicensed plumber or damage they caused themselves. We find in most cases by the time we get called into one of these situations, the homeowners have already wasted a lot of time and energy on the problem, they’ve spent twice as much to fix the problem, and in many cases they have to pay extra for damage that was done because the job wasn’t done right the first time.
Don’t mess around, wasting time and money, when you want it done right the first time, contact a professional plumber.
So now Bill has this contraption upstairs and he starts using the 100-foot cable that comes with it and snakes it down into the toilet. Unfortunately for Bill, he doesn’t realize until too late that the cable isn’t hooked up to the equipment and is now long gone. After panicking a bit and wasting a few more hours in a futile attempt to recover the cable, he admitted defeat and called us in for professional help.
Bill, like any respectable do-it-yourselfer, doesn’t want to admit what he has done and doesn’t tell us right away what happened – he just wants us to fix a clog. As soon as we put our video equipment down the drain line, we were able to see the cable still in the pipes and that’s when we realized there was more to Bill’s story. Reluctantly Bill filled us in on the rest of the details and asked us if we could help.
We proceeded to fish out the cable, although it took some work. Bill mistakenly thought the problem was taken care of. We had to explain that whatever caused the clog to begin with wasn’t fixed and we’d do some further investigating to figure out the cause of the original clog. We again put the camera down the drain and were able to determine what had caused the clog in the first place. (All of which took a lot less time and money than it took for Bill to rent and improperly use the equipment, which he informed us later!)
About this time Bill’s wife shows up looking surprised and wants to know what a plumber is doing at the house. Bill sheepishly replied, “I promise never to do my own plumbing again!”
All to often we receive calls from frantic homeowners who need us to help repair damage caused by an unlicensed plumber or damage they caused themselves. We find in most cases by the time we get called into one of these situations, the homeowners have already wasted a lot of time and energy on the problem, they’ve spent twice as much to fix the problem, and in many cases they have to pay extra for damage that was done because the job wasn’t done right the first time.
Don’t mess around, wasting time and money, when you want it done right the first time, contact a professional plumber.
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