What Have You Found In Drains?

smellslike$tome

This is similar to another thread that ran recently about things found in walls during demo.

Today I found, actually I went looking for it at the HO's request, a 1/2 carat diamond ear ring. She said it went down her shower drain 6 months ago and wondered if it might possibly still be there. I told her that it was quite possible that it was sitting in the bottom of the trap and that I would look with my camera and retrieve if possible but no guarantee for $99.00. So she thought for a few seconds then said no. Later while I was performing other plumbing tasks she says go ahead and try. So I pop off the strainer plate run my spankin' new ridgid micro see snake down into the trap and see nothing but pipe crud. So then I stick my wet vac hose in the drain and get all the water out, rerun the camera, work it around for a minute and all of a sudden the thing lights up like a Christmas light in the bottom of the trap. Suck it out with the vac and the HO is VERY happy.

Another time my wife wakes me from a sound sleep very early one morning. I know immediately from her tone, although I can't understand a word she is saying, that it has something to do with a creature. I stumble into the bathroom trying to adjust to light and find a very large frog staring at me from inside the toilet bowl. I never did get an answer from my wife as to exactly how she came to know that he was in there.

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KillerToiletSpider

I pulled an 8 foot 2X4 out of a vent stack in a high rise with a rodding machine, it had to have been in there since the building was under construction. I pulled a D cell battery through the trap on a W/C with a closet auger, the auger actually got driven right into the side of the battery.

I'm really glad I don't do service work anymore.

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A flush is better than a full house.

mickeyco

Dead sqirrel (I'm guesing it got in through the roof vent?), plastic disposable razors many times, kids toys and a bag a dopes in a rental unit (that was then flushed).

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gitnerdun

Lets see...........batteries, emerald ring, Gladys' loaded undies(her name was on 'em), bras, condoms, at least 50 syringes in the same washer drain, a very dead bird, pine cones, a 18 inch necklace at a septic inlet( thought sure it was real gold, not), Eye glasses, drill bit, someone elses sewer cable, and lots of frogs. That is all I can think of right now. But tomorrow is a new day, always an adventure.

Herk

Kentucky Fried Chicken, belt buckles, little toy cars, the usual hair picks, lids, combs, pencils and pens. One of the toughest things was a foot long by about 3/8" piece of wood that had been dropped in during construction - took several times before I was able to find out what was causing the problem because the closet auger would go right past it.

Nails, pennies, and dental floss.

Although I didn't see it myself, I heard the story many years ago of pulling out a small plastic doll from a mental hospital manhole and one of the guys who witnessed it passed out thinking it was a fetus . . .

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Driftwood

A drain cleaner was using a retriver.on His cable. He said He brought back a cats head! Nice little show and tell for the Kiddies!

skinnyj41004

I work with a plumber off and on. One of the funniest things I seen was a blocked line that we augered from the sewer uphill to the house. When the cable broke through we were flooded with used condoms. The homeowner turned red and charged to the house looking for his wife but come to find out, his son was getting busy after school not his wife.

All Clear Sewer

you name it I have found it from a cat to a frog

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PARA1

Two best things to date : cell phone (3 times) , mini vibrator (women said it was her power lifter son's), all from toilet traps. Always curious about the cell phones in toilets , so I asked a women and was told alot of chicks carry their phones in their back pocket(they will always pay to get them out of the toilet if they are insured.

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gitnerdun

I know you guys won't believe this, but I found tampons in a drain before! Unreal, huh?

Tiger

Maybe this one wouldn't be a surprise to a plumber, but it was to me. I have a maple that plugs the city drain every 5 or so years. This summer I had that lower toilet stop, so I pulled it. There was a root mass blocking the drain right at the floor. I guess a very well fertilized root can grow on its own without a leaf.

Dave

Herk

Yeah, I've only had it once - pulled a toilet and the roots were solid right across the top of the flange. At least they hadn't grown right up into the toilet.

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There are no dumb questions - just a lot of inquisitive idiots.

threaderman

I've seen lines that bad ,rough-stuff.The other things would include a squirrel,yogurt containers from back-to-back houses from the same kid ,the best was a set of false teeth.The old boy said he was going to clean them up and re-use them.And a hotel line had a 12" screwdriver stuck at a bend.And yes, somebody elses cable.

boman47k

About thirty years ago, bro-in-law and I came across aseptic tank dotted with condoms with air pockets in the ends of them. They looked like they had been tied off. Surely not! It was an older like couple. Well, we thought they were. Prop no older than we are now. Always wondered about that situation. Surely it was sewage gases trapped in them.

reveivl

I had a bathtub drain leaking in a rental property two years ago, took it all apart, and found a nearby maple tree had gotten it's roots into the old clay drain tile, and sent the roots back up the pipe. The pipe was completely packed with root mass to within a few feet of the tub, a distance of some fifteen feet, most of it above ground. If the renters hadn't finally called me, (a year or so late ), they would have had a maple tree growing up through the drain in the tub.

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From where does knowledge come? If you need to know what is in a box, you could ask someone (not reliable), you could pray, (not useful), you can consult with the scripture (not helpful) or you could open the box (science)

ApgarNJ

man, glad i live in the country. people are nasty flushing all that stuff down city sewer systems. i know some stuff is found in septic systems but i would never think of just flushing a condom down the drain.
working at city sewer plant must be one heck of job.

works4me

My wife got her engineering degree, she had to visit the local sewer plant for a class. She said you would think hard before drinking city water again after seeing that. Condoms everywhere!

KillerToiletSpider

The city of Chicago sewerage treatment plant is located in Stickney, I have taken a tour of the facility, and it is quite a place. The process starts with the bail screens, which is basicaly chain link fence sections over the 10' diameter inlet main, they average six human bodies a year in those screens, as well as 4 X 8 sheets of plywood, railroad ties, 16 foot long pieces of lumber, you name it. after the bail screens it gets pumped up to a series of settling basins where solids are removed down to 1/16 of an inch in size, after that is a flocing basin to remove particulate solids, and then is released as 98% pure water into the river system. The director of the facility will not hesitate to drink a glass of treated sewage when giving tours of the place.

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A flush is better than a full house.

ApgarNJ

that's nasty. i'll stick to my well water for the rest of my life. i hate city water.

firemike

When I lived up in Saginaw, the city gets it's water from Lake Michigan up near Tawas. When doing some work at the waste water treatment plant, we were talking to one of the operators and he told us that the water that they discharge from the sewage treatment plant is actually cleaner then the water they are bringing in for the fresh water supply.

Anyone that has worked on a fire department with city water or been around when the DPS flushes hydrants might fell the same way. The water that come out stinks, is brown or black, and is really nasty. I have seen beer cans, rocks, pieces of wood, etc. come out of a fire hydrant. A neighboring department didn't have a screen on the intake port of their truck, a rock from the main got into the pump and did $12,000 damage to it.

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