This past weekend I had to deal with a more urgent plumbing issue. Our shower had been draining very slowly lately and then it just got to be almost completely plugged, which meant showering while standing in a few inches of water. I knew what had to be done but it needed some dedicated time to deal with it. The first step was exposing the piping, which involved enlarging a small that I already ha in the kitchen ceiling.
As you can see, the plumbing is old galvanized pipes. There's a rubber connector where some plumbing was redone when we redid the bathroom upstairs. The first step, and the most committing, was to cut out the section of pipe that I wanted to replace. So with a reciprocating saw (aka Sawzall) and a metal blade, I made two cuts and loosened the rubber connector.
And voila, a large section of pipe is removed. To keep the standing water at bay and also to keep in the sewer gas, I stuffed in an old undershirt. As you can see in the next photo, there was an obvious blockage in the pipe.
The right end in the picture wasn't fully blocked off, which is why it let at least some water through. But the other end was completely plugged by decades of gunk. That's the end that goes up to the vent pipe and it doesn't look like it was doing any venting so who knows where the sewer gas was escaping to. Maybe it went back out to the main stack. I scooped as much gunk out as I could with a spoon and then even shoved a coat hanger into the remaining vent pipe but I'm still not sure if I opened up a hole or not. For the remaining pipe that headed out and down to the main drain, I scrubbed it with a brush and wiped it down as much as possible. I got it pretty clean so it shouldn't give any more problems in the near future.
After that it was just an issue of connecting the right pieces together and then using more rubber connectors at the old pipe. Plumbing is pretty satisfying in that it's fairly easy when everything goes right. But often times you're working in tight spaces, like under a sink, and it doesn't go exactly as planned and water leaks so you have to redo it. This time, fortunately, I got it on the first try and the tub is back to draining like normal. Now to patch the hole in the ceiling.
