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nasty topic but...
Feb. 17th, 2011 05:52 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
shava23.livejournal.comI'm having a bit of a dispute over this... I live in a 100 year old triple decker, with aging plumbing infrastructure that's had to be fixed several times since I moved in. A couple years ago the sewer backed up. My landlord accused my teenage son of flushing the paper towels they found, but he knows better. Workmen had been re-doing the 2nd floor unit's bathroom; they were my suspects.
Since the semi-finished part of the basement is in our unit, I lost LOTS of household stuff, but I considered it an act of God, and manned up, as it were. Several people after told me that I should have sued the landlord or the painters. I'm not a suing type.
My landlord was furious and scolding me today because he was saying that a stained ceiling in the basement, which eventually gave way with a 6" water rotted patch next to a pipe join, might have been from water from toilet overflows in the upstairs bath.
Now, the toilet upstairs has overflowed a couple times a year since we moved in. LL says, this is not normal and that I should have called him immediately each time for it to be snaked, although it responded to a normal household plunger. When it overflowed, we used bathtowls for the bit of water/spooge and washed the towels with lots of borax.
We don't flush anything but biowaste and septic-safe recycled content TP. No pads, no paper towels or whatever. I think everyone in the house learned that by age 5, tyvm.
My question for the hivemind: Is it abnormal for your toilet to overflow every so often? Is the LL trying to pin something on me? Should I hire my own plumber to look at the pipe leak to make sure it's not from what would be several pints of overflow every few months at most?
I have always loved old houses even with their quirks, and I haven't been around much of any households that didn't have a plunger in the bathroom very conveniently located for an emergency. I've known some folks who have issues all the time (and they should probably get their plumbing checked or a new toilet or something, but hey).
I can't see that a couple pints every so often would soggy-rot the ceiling. It would evaporate. I just feel a little bullied. My LL isn't a bad sort, but he gets temper-y and fixated. I'm afraid that even if it's the pipe, he's going to rag me on it because of some feeling that if he doesn't bully me, I'll blame him. Whatever...*sigh*
Since the semi-finished part of the basement is in our unit, I lost LOTS of household stuff, but I considered it an act of God, and manned up, as it were. Several people after told me that I should have sued the landlord or the painters. I'm not a suing type.
My landlord was furious and scolding me today because he was saying that a stained ceiling in the basement, which eventually gave way with a 6" water rotted patch next to a pipe join, might have been from water from toilet overflows in the upstairs bath.
Now, the toilet upstairs has overflowed a couple times a year since we moved in. LL says, this is not normal and that I should have called him immediately each time for it to be snaked, although it responded to a normal household plunger. When it overflowed, we used bathtowls for the bit of water/spooge and washed the towels with lots of borax.
We don't flush anything but biowaste and septic-safe recycled content TP. No pads, no paper towels or whatever. I think everyone in the house learned that by age 5, tyvm.
My question for the hivemind: Is it abnormal for your toilet to overflow every so often? Is the LL trying to pin something on me? Should I hire my own plumber to look at the pipe leak to make sure it's not from what would be several pints of overflow every few months at most?
I have always loved old houses even with their quirks, and I haven't been around much of any households that didn't have a plunger in the bathroom very conveniently located for an emergency. I've known some folks who have issues all the time (and they should probably get their plumbing checked or a new toilet or something, but hey).
I can't see that a couple pints every so often would soggy-rot the ceiling. It would evaporate. I just feel a little bullied. My LL isn't a bad sort, but he gets temper-y and fixated. I'm afraid that even if it's the pipe, he's going to rag me on it because of some feeling that if he doesn't bully me, I'll blame him. Whatever...*sigh*
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