The genetics of plumbing

 

To recap: a section of our cast iron stack pipe draining the second floor had a 5 foot crack. Yesterday, a master plumber and his son came in and replaced that section and the cast iron lines above it with PVC. Post-mortem imaging revealed ca. 95% occlusion in the horizontal line draining the toilet, sink and shower out to the stack pipe, which had also been replaced with PVC. These repairs should last longer than me.

The master plumber was savvy enough to recognize the slow draining of the shower and to replace the line connecting to the stack pipe. On about a dozen occasions in the past week, we’ve been told that this plumber is a third generation plumber. As a geneticist, I received this information as an assertion that plumbing expertise is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait.

Regardless of the mode of transmission (pending genome sequencing), I was deeply impressed by his knowledge and his ability to explain exactly his reasoning and his patience with questions. They replaced the faulty cast iron lines with PVC within a few hours, removing all of the iron pipe and leaving a clean work area in what will eventually be our dining room. Now, the dry wall they broke out to gain access has to be replace, sanded and painted.

This bill comes to $2200. While I don’t welcome this or any of the many other expenses we have and will incur to get this 1935 building in working order, I’m happy to believe that when we’re done, we won’t have any major plumbing surprises in the future, and can amortize this expense over the time we occupy the house.