r/Plumbing

Wife and I just pulled this from our shower drain. Water has been draining slowly over the last couple of weeks and so we got a snake in there but nothing was coming up. We ended up duct taping two together and ended up pulling up this monstrosity which was not fitting through the drain opening. It crumbled with some needle noses but now wondering what else is down there. Unfortunately did not change much with the drain speed so my fear is that it is worse and we just can't reach down far enough.

House is from the 60s and pipes are cast iron

Previous owner set up this tee to feed the master bathroom separately for some reason. Need to remove it in order to remove the tank. It’s so corroded I can’t get the nut at the top of the tee to spin.

Any ideas? Is this past homeowner DIY and in professional territory?

For context, my wife and I recently moved in with her 94-year-old mother. The basement has a small blackwater/sewage ejector tank with a pump system. Each time the pump activates, the check valve makes a very loud “thunk” sound from water hammer.

The purpose of the check valve is to prevent sewage from flowing back into the basement plumbing fixtures, since the basement bathroom is the low point in the system.

Last week, while I was taking a shower, the water stopped draining. I tapped on the check valve and everything immediately began flowing again, which made me suspect the valve may be sticking intermittently.

That got me thinking about whether the piping could be redesigned to eliminate the need for the check valve entirely. One idea I had was creating a vertical loop configuration so the basement fixtures would no longer function as the system’s lowest point, while still preventing backflow.

The following AI-generated illustrations show the concept before and after the proposed redesign. The loop is in the bathroom above the “pump room”.

I live in Maine, against code? Am I missing something?

Hi all,

Had a dishwasher replaced today and after they left and I turned on the sink- I got gushing water under the sink and on the floor leaking into the basement. It doesn’t appear to leak when the sink is off.

Here is a video. The tech is coming back tomorrow morning to ‘fix it’ but do I hire an independent plumber instead or is this a simple fix?

Please excuse the mess in the video, but my kitchen faucet is leaking. Specifically, it seems to be leaking from the handle, which is then working it's way down through the shroud and below the sink.

I'm guessing it's something like an o-ring or something that needs to be replaced? Or maybe as far as a whole new faucet? I just wanted to get opinions before starting to take things apart without knowing what to look for.

My dad and I are doing a DIY home renovation project because our shower was full of mold (old house, we moved in a few years ago).

He’s a civil engineer and aquarium enthusiast, I work at an MEP firm, thought we’d have this in the bag…….. why are we stuck on the friggin drain??

As you can see from the picture, I tried desperately to drill through and access the bare pipe underneath the fitting….. well there’s another fitting under that fitting haha. So we figured it would be easier to find a coupling that fits inside the pipe, rather than trying to attach over the fitting and pipe.

Why can’t we find an inside coupling that fits!! What are we missing! We’ve tried magicmend and about four different coupling pieces (2” and 1 1/2”), all way too big to fit within this pipe.

Really hoping this is simple user error, because it feels like witchcraft. We’re using a schluter linear drain/system.

What are we doing wrong?? 🤔

I had a new washer delivered a couple of weeks ago. The installer had attached the hose to the drain pipe correctly, using the plastic hose guide, but the hose extended into the pipe too fair; almost the entire length of it.

I’ve attached the plastic guide to the wall, forming a high loop and ensured the hose extends 7” into the drain pipe. The hose is secured to the pipe with cable ties.

The run is relatively straight without any kinks but I’m not sure about the high loop. I know a dishwasher requires one but not sure about a front-end washer.

Should I leave it or cut the hose to the correct length and attach it the drain pipe like in the user guide?

I recently replaced my hot water heater with a new unit due to the old one rusting and leaking. I set it up the same way the old one was set up. Problem is, the new HWH has smart leak detection and every day the relief opens and expels a small amount of water that trips the sensor. My question is, should this relief be going off daily and also should this pipe be routed somewhere other than into the pan?

I’m roughing in the house and I am super slow and I want to compare myself to journeymen master plumbers so I have a goal to get to.

I'm planning to install a pressure regulator underneath my house, and was crawling around inspecting the lines. I'm not a plumber, just a curious homeowner.

I believe this is attached to the hot water line as it runs adjacent to the water main. The crawl space is TIGHT, so I was not able crawl the lines all the way back to the hot water. It looks like it has a mesh screen on it. Is this an old pressure relief valve?

Other clues, the house was built in 1988 in a mountain town in California

(Sorry for the poor images. They are screen shots of a video I took)

I was trying to take the shower head off to place a shower filter bc i have very hard water but this ball piece is stuck on there and doesn’t come off, should i get a wrench or pliers? is it even supposed to be on there if the shower head came off?? I am so confused pls help

I soldered a slip-on coupling for a repair on hot water pipe to shower valve.

To the experts here, does this look like it would fail?

Woke up this morning and this is the water that came out when running the bath. The water is also discolored in the sinks and toilets in other rooms.

Apparently one other unit has an issue and the rest of our building is fine. Maintenance said they have no idea what’s going on and to “just let them run to see if it gets better.. looks like a city issue”.. Well we called the city and they said there’s no issue.

Any ideas what’s going on and what I can tell or request from maintenance? I’m getting ready to ask people if I can shower at their house and go out to buy gallons of water.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Water is draining perfectly fine. This is the color of the water when the bath stopper is pulled.

Just discovered this morning. No idea how to long it's been there. My main level has a carbon monoxide alarm that hasn't gone off ever. I assume reattach is not difficult but I also have not gone back into basement yet

I have some wd40 on this but cannot remove it. Can anyone recommend the proper tool? Thanks

Hello friends,

I am working on a replacement for this porcelain sink. As you can see it is cracked, it appears to be an american standard which was discontinued but popular in the early 2000s.

Finding a replacement sink has been a nightmare. We are calling places, they are saying that we need to cut the granite—but places won’t cut it unless it is granite they installed. So basically telling us we need to replace the whole countertop.

We are in Ohio.

What to do in this situation? Anyone come across this, and know how to go about this situation?

Thank you in advance ☺️ My husband and I are not handy and love any advice.

I have a small pin hole leak on the sewer line(circled in red) would this be a simple enough fix for me to do by myself? Ideally I would like to replace everything circled in blue with pvc. I am pretty handy with most of my stuff but I'm not too sure how to tackle this or how difficult it would be because of the connection through the foundation wall. Thank you in advance.

I was showering and took a step back towards the shower head and heard a cracking noise. I pull up the shower mat to see this mess of a crack. I stopped the water quickly and got right out to avoid making it worse. My apartment complex only came out and took a photo and hasn't done anything to repair it in the week and a half since. It has been radio silence from them so I have no idea what their plans are.

I'm wondering why the tub would Crack like that? I haven't experienced anything like that before and i am worried my apartment will try to say that I damaged the tub through unusual activity and try to charge me for it. I am around 300 lbs and have never had any issues with tubs/showers before. My apartment is on the first floor with concrete foundation if that makes a difference.