Plumbers are responsible for the plumbing sanitation of the nation and sometimes we lose sight of how important that is. One can only truly appreciate the importance of having drains flowing freely towards their appointed destinations when they experience the loss of this function. I know; I have lived it and have seen the results when the drain process fails!
Let me take you back two years when we bought a home in the San Diego area. We had only been in the home about one month when our drain woes began. I can remember the day vividly as if it were yesterday. I had searched high and low for some patio furniture for my new home and I had finally found what I was looking for. I was ready to sit back and enjoy my new find with a glass of ice tea and a good book, when I heard a glub, glub, glub sound. Now, our patio sits right off the master bathroom/bedroom so I knew the sound that was calling out to me was not a welcoming sound. I sat there silent for a moment; setting my hearing on fine-tuning, shutting out the chirping of the birds and patiently waiting for the oncoming roar of the airplane overhead to cease. There it went again; glub, glub, glub!
I closed my eyes for only a second, tilting my head backwards knowing that trouble was definitely brewing ahead of me. I tossed my “unread” book to the side, frowned at my “full” glass of ice tea and raced into the bathroom. The ominous “glub” sound that had echoed out to me was coming from behind the shower curtain. I slowly peeled back the shower curtain and then the liner only to discover water bubbling up through the tub. This water sadly was not the only thing bubbling up. There were volumes of toilet paper finding its way up through the drain along with all the water.
Sheer disgust passed over me and I could not believe what appeared before my very eyes. I raced through our living room, down the hall, and into our other bathroom to see what nightmare awaited me there, if any. Once again I was greeted with wastewater and toilet paper bubbling up in my tub. All of my drains were backing up into my house!! Argh! How dare my drains do this! I work for Anderson Plumbing, Heating and Air and this shouldn’t happen to me. I was kicking myself, I knew better than to buy this house without having the drains inspected. I made excuses to myself; it was so crazy trying to close the deal that we just never got around to having a camera inspection of the sewer drains (to see if any diabolical drain clogs lay in wait under the house). Well, here they were staring me straight in the face, taunting me and not backing down.
Knowing what I know about plumbing was probably my biggest friend and foe at that precise moment. On one hand, it was great that I understood more or less that this was serious and needed to be fixed. However, my experience in my job as the plumbing service manager here did not allow me the luxury of turning the other cheek and going into a state of denial. (Well, not this time around anyway). Did I mention the tub backed up the weekend before? Okay, so I did share in the traditional moment of denial but this time I was faced with the obnoxious truth that we had to have this problem resolved. My days of adorning myself in large green plastic trash bags, face masks and elbow-length gloves to scrape toilet paper out of the tub (all the while holding back my breakfast) were over!! It was time to let the professionals plumbers at Anderson Plumbing Heating and Air do their work and a great job they did. Yes, it was so inconvenient and yes my husband was not happy about a 30-foot long trench blocking the only very narrow pathway to our front door; but, it had to be done.
Like most people I winced over the money we had to spend to take care of our drain cleaning [1] problems; it is only natural to want to see where the money is being spent. There was no aesthetic change to the outward appearance of our home, no “bling” to show for my buck. However, we no longer have the drama of me dressing like the creature from the black lagoon to clean up the unspeakable mess left behind. Better than that, knowing that things will flow smoothly for us on a daily basis has definitely brought us peace of mind! It has also allowed us to have guests over without the fear of having to send them to the neighbor’s house to take care of business or worse yet, the gas station down the hill!