"And not draining right."
Urk!
Whenever the washing machine would drain, the downstairs toilet would bubble and burble.
So, this morning we called the plumber (Southwest Plumbing) and told them our tale of woe, and they came out a little before noon to fix it. Which involved snaking the drain via an access pipe that is in our front foundation bed. We used to wonder what that pipe sticking up out of the ground was for. It turns out that probably all of yesterday while I was doing laundry, soapy water was overflowing into the foundation bed. I was inside and didn't notice. The pipe was capped. No, the pipe used to be capped. When we went outside this morning with the plumber to check it out, the cap was on the ground beside the pipe, where the water welling up into the bed had forced it.
But snaking that pipe didn't help. The snake went backwards into the pipes under the house, in our crawlspace, which shook the house, instead of out toward the street, where the plug was.
So the plumber went into the crawlspace under the house, through a small munchkin-size door under our back porch. He had two snakes, one that was quite long, and another smaller one that was about 50 feet, which is long enough to get to the street from the front of our house. He couldn't fit the larger, longer one through the access door into the crawlspace. And it turned out the clean-out was, like, welded shut or something. So he had to install a new cleanout under the house in the crawlspace. And he snaked the pipes out to the street from there.
But it still didn't work. The pipes weren't draining. He needed to dig that access pipe up (the one in my foundation bed) and see where it went. And what was wrong with it. And why it wasn't draining.
That's how I ended up with a hole in the ground, surrounded by Caution tape.
And a big pile of dirt on tarps.
And dug-up shrubs.
And some buried perennials.
And some lovely lawn art painted on the grass. Fortunately, they all start with the word "No." As in "No PSE" (Puget Sound Energy) "No C.B.L." (City of Bonney Lake) Meaning it's ok to dig to China there.
Aren't they pretty colors? I like color in the garden, but I prefer that it come from flowers or foliage.
They're coming back tomorrow. And they're bringing a camera to stick down in the pipe.
Fun, fun, fun!
