When Duck Tape Won't Work Anymore

Last May Ryan and I took a great trip to Goblin Valley and Moab. When we returned home, we were met by a horrible stench coming from the storage room. To our dismay, when we opened the door to the room, we saw that the pipe in the ceiling above our food storage had been leaking. This pipe connects to the kitchen sink above us and the garbage disposal... thus the stench. Eeeewww!!! We began dragging everything out of the back room into our kitchen for assessment and cleaning. Thankfully, although we did lose a few boxes, everything was in jars or cans and only needed to be washed off. I think the only food item we tossed was a bag of rice that soaked up quite a bit of the drainage. Once everything was cleaned and dry we stacked all the boxes and jars under, on, and around our kitchen table so that the storage area could be free for the plumbers to work on.

Only the plumbers never came. We called and called, but they never showed. The leak mysteriously stopped leaking and we were able to dump the bucket we put under it and go back to our lives. Well, sort of. We never moved the food storage back in for fear of the leak starting up again. We haven't seen our kitchen table since.

Last week Ryan was on the phone with his dad discussing some things that should be fixed before we find new renters upstairs. Ryan was standing under the pipe talking about how he would still like the pipe fixed even though it hadn't leaked since. He was poking it with his finger, moving down along the line of exposed pipe to the area that looked most solid, and least likely in need of any attention when...thunk.... his finger went through the pipe.

"Uh dad," he said, "I think we need to call the plumber. If the location of the last leak was unclear, it's pretty obvious now." Within seconds the water began trickling through. And though it wasn't a gushing leaking, that water brought with it the worst smell I have ever encountered from a pipe of any sorts. Ryan and I both began gagging involuntarily. If we didn't know it was coming from the kitchen sink, I would have thought for sure we had direct access to the sewer line. We put a new bucket under the leak and made a mad dash for anything that smelled good to try and curb the horrid stench. It was awful.

Ryan's dad placed a call to the plumber that was supposed to fix it 10 months ago, but like last time, there was no response. He eventually found a plumber in his neighborhood area and sent him our way the next day. It has been an ongoing process since the plumber has other jobs to attend to and has only been able to stop by here and there, but at least the pipe has been replaced, the smell is gone, and soon we will be able to move our stuff back in. We learned that what started the problem was that once upon a time, who knows how long ago, a magnet got washed down the drain and eventually got stuck. From there things began to build up on both sides causing the blockage, the stench, and the deterioration of the pipe. Who would have guessed? All that is left now is putting up new sheet rock on the ceiling. Thank goodness for good plumbers - starting with ones that actually call you back!