Busted pipe

[Soh]

The second floor bath tab got clogged. I went on a mission with a hammer and a sharp object to destroy whatever that is obstructing the natural flow of the water. After a few hammering, I was able to completely un-clogg the bath tab. Mission accomplished, or so I thought.

I went to downstairs, and I see something slightly strange view outside.

Ice/snow is melting.

I live in Chicagoland, and the high hasn't been higher than like 20s'. I thought, "Maybe it's the heat from the house that's causing this."

I went upstairs and threw away this cleaning solution to the bath tab because I was doing some remodeling and couldn't use the toilet. And JUST TO MAKE SURE NOTHING IS CLOGGING ANYMORE, I put some clog remover to the bath tab. Perfect.

Now I went downstairs again, and now something is seriously strange, I mean wrong! (This picture was taken after I poked a hole to drain the water.)



Just to make sure that the situation is totally screwed up, I run up stairs and turn on the bath tab faucet and run down. Yes, I see "melting" water outside my house. It's in brown/yellow. It smells pretty strong, and not good one at all, but at least it's not coming from the toilet.

Well, I know I don't know anything about plumbing, so I called this company and this slightly arrogant kid showed up. He successfully ripped off the drywall ceiling pretty good.



By the way, is this a common practice among plumbers? That is to make a mess and just leave?

A bit of looking around, and he found a busted pipe. Now it's crystal clear why this whole thing happened.

The kid: "It'll be two thirty-five."
Me: "(Two thirty-five? Is that $235?) What?"
Kid: "This come with the whole package, so you have to pay for everything. I mean the installation is included."
Me: "..."
The kid: "..."
Me: "OK."

So I bought this whole package with different things, and I have no idea what they are for. It didn't take that long for him to take out the busted pipe, which was about a foot long, if that, and replace with a new one. Total cost was $65 for the visit, $95 to "check out what's wrong," $235 for the plastic pipe, but I found a "free service (visit) charge" coupon inside the yellow pages, so that total was $330. I also gave him back that whole package that I bought.

OK, it's not done yet. I have to fix the ceiling. And of course, I have no idea what to do. I made a few people come over to look at it, and one guy said he'll do it for $200, the next guy said $650 + material, and the last guy will do it for $600. There's one more guy, but he hasn't called me yet to give me the quote. I think I'll go with the $600 guy. It might be wrong to think this way, but there must be some reason why the $200 guy is so cheap, and it might not be a good reason.

Anyway, so the total cost of breaking this little plastic is...

$930!!!

Beat.

[Teh1337zor]

Me: "..."
The kid: "..."

classic convo

[J. Stew]

at least you didn't break your other pipe

[Golden_Rhino]

Either do it yourself or get the $200 guy and patch up any screw ups. There is really no reason to pay someone $600 for that little drywall.

**EDIT**

I just realized that you are guy who installed his own ceramic tile. Definitely fix the ceiling yourself. If you can tile, you can patch a hole. Tiling is 20 times harder than patching a hole.

[blutarski]

I hate having repairmen come to the house. I feel like I should have a sign that says "I'm a faggy man, I can't make repairs myself. Just bend me over and bang a thousand dollars out of me."

[water fowl]

We call them bath "tubs" here on earth

[whipsaw]

this is a friggin awesome OP. nh.

[evilgenius]

wow you are pretty handy... huh?

[Mr. T]

Dude, that tile job you did in your bathroom is way harder than patching the ceiling. Do it yourself.

[oober]

Drywall is pretty easy... Get yourself a how to book, it's pretty str9 foreward, but make sure everthing dries quickly, you dont want any toxic mold growing...

Odds are slim, but no joking... Abatement would be in the 1000's

Get a fan on that immediately with some bright lights.. Until dry....