Cant wait til next week’s warmer weather. Third house today that i had to slide under, and chase broken CPVC water lines to repair. Laid in mud and dogshit. Got sprayed with just above freezing water multiple times. Two houses yesterday, three today, three more tomorrow. Its finally above freezing here so im sure the broken plumbing calls will roll in for the next week. Find one leak, cut out the shattered pipes, rebuild what was cut out, wait 20 minutes for the glue to take up, turn the water service back on and watch for more water to spray from somewhere else; which is always as far as humanly possible from the spot im in.
I fucking hate winter. I cant wait for this shit to be over with.
This is normal for my area. We dont have a frost line, so some homes are on a pier-and-beam foundation, concrete piers spaced evenly, with the floor joists resting on concrete blocks. Bottom of the house is usually open to the environment, as you can see in the photo background. And whatever else makes its way under; snakes, rats, pissed off doggos, you name it.
The shit i do to not starve to death.
Sorry about this shitty working conditions, but mad respect for doing the actual work of maintaining civilization.
Im just glad stuff like this is once a year, then its back to more civilized stuff like sewer blockages.
As one of those customers that went a week without water with a baby in the house, thank you for your service
I was giving you shit for your kids eating the blue spk's in the other thread, but mad respect to you comrade. I got a buddy who's on call in HVAC (hi if you see this comment!) and it sounds like hell. Someone's gotta do it!
Ughh I work HVAC and this cold snap saw my boss on vacation while I was left running the show (the only employee). I'm was legitimately happy yesterday things were above freezing and my boss was back so I could get rid of that on call phone. Thankfully I only had to crawl under a few houses, your situation sounds much worse.
having a plumber come by tomorrow for first time ever to do an estimate for a hose faucet installation and put an accessible shut off valve in for me.
honestly it's mostly because i don't want to go into my crawlspace otherwise i usually DIY stuff. hoping he doesn't find fucked up CPVC pipes because mine are old and i'm thinking about having them replaced down the line.
so mad respect. my dad used to do this
I’ve seen guys carry a sheet of cardboard with them and slide it on top of the ground so at least they don’t have to lay in this shit. You could also ask the house, everyone has cardboard now bc of Amazon
I usually carry a roll of heavy plastic sheeting with me for just such a thing, and tyvek jump suits for the really nasty sewage events, but that particular house i was under was the last one of the day, i was out of plastic sheeting, my apprentice is out sick AF which meant id have to crawl out, pack up all my tools, spend an hour on a supply house run, then have to go back to the mud and mess. Thirty minutes of suffering and its done or just prolonging the agony.
Bet it's all the same houses that froze up last year when it got this cold for several days, too. At least the money is good.
