How screwed up can a waste system get?

[Smcart5]

I must have the worst waste pipes around, unscrewed the wastes under the sink to find the source of the smell and found most of the washers had degraded to the point they had broken in several places (explained the leaks that started not long ago)

Main connection to the soil stack that runs from kitchen-bathroom-stack was in an unrecognizable size until i measured it, it had thick black chunks of something (source of the smell) that i scraped out with a spoon and it started leaking which i remedied using a gel that sets in water, repaired all wastes with ptfe and new washers.

Had to plunge the sink in the bathroom to dislodge a blockage causing a slow draining waste (the traps had been sealed up with some kind of putty , doing that dislodged the plastic fitting sealing the waste connection on the underside of the sink so that needs repairing now

Do you guys find that more goes wrong out on jobs than you expect?, this is all from the place i moved into not long ago.

 

[Winston]

It's the sheer joy of plumbing You start on one thing before you know it, it's all falling apart dont know why I am smiling

 

[secret squirrel]

It never ceases to amaze me how badly things go and how fast, then you have to explain why the cost goes up

Had a look at an electric shower, I thought that it'd be a new shower, not too difficult a job.

No power to the shower checked the iso switch next to the fuse box and its burnt out! I thought that the wire would be the last problem, then, discovered a small leak from a 15mm pipe dripping onto the iso switch and fuse box......

Still not 100% sure where the leaks coming from, still trying to explain to the customer that just because the pipe is wet here it doesn't mean thats where the leak is........... Going into the loft tomorrow, Can't wait....

Yet as winston said "thats plumbing"

 

[stevetheplumber]

I must have the worst waste pipes around, unscrewed the wastes under the sink to find the source of the smell and found most of the washers had degraded to the point they had broken in several places (explained the leaks that started not long ago)

Main connection to the soil stack that runs from kitchen-bathroom-stack was in an unrecognizable size until i measured it, it had thick black chunks of something (source of the smell) that i scraped out with a spoon and it started leaking which i remedied using a gel that sets in water, repaired all wastes with ptfe and new washers.

Had to plunge the sink in the bathroom to dislodge a blockage causing a slow draining waste (the traps had been sealed up with some kind of putty , doing that dislodged the plastic fitting sealing the waste connection on the underside of the sink so that needs repairing now

Do you guys find that more goes wrong out on jobs than you expect?, this is all from the place i moved into not long ago.

when i go to a job and theres several leaks under a sink units i always price to rip out and replace the lot quicker and easier than trying to repair especially nif its any form of pushfit

 

[Smcart5]

Leak mysteriously sealed itself, i think i forced the seal open when plunging by emptying the trap and forcing air down the pipes and made a temporary gap between the washer and sink waste, not sure how but it stopped leaking, dry for two days now

 

[WHPES]

Got called out to a job over a blocked basin and looked under the floor of the bathroom to discover huge lengths of unsupported pipe, having gone banana shaped over time and full of water, resting on the ceiling below. I think I only saw one pipe clip under the entire floor and the copper water and heating pipes were laid out like spaghetti, resting on the ceiling below and on each other. The original work was done in the late 1970s (by an established company).

More than once have I been called out by a customer who has had a blocked sink, tried to unblock it with a plunger and subsequently popped a push fit joint apart above a ceiling and had a flood.