Renter Strut
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
If your bathroom sink is plugged up and Drano Max doing nada, whose responsibility is it to cover the plumber costs? Renter or landlord?
Comments
That is on the landlord. It is THEIR place, you are just renting it. Tell the landlord to fix your sink hommie.
Sounds like you signed a REALLY FUCKED UP lease!
exactly the reason why I'm moving out of this spot as soon as I can.
i rented out my condo here through a renters company (is this what you call them?), and the rentee had to pay for anything under $150 according to the lease.
give the landlord a call
it totally depends on your contract....however, it usually falls on the responsibility of the owner (unless it's shown to be "your fault" or something you obviously did wrong)...
as a sidenote....DO NOT use liquid plumber...it actually makes the problem worse over time...and seriously fucks up your pipes....O-dub...i definitely wouldn't tell them you used Liquid Plumber...
take it from me....I'm the super of my building...yeah...haha...i'm the guy who fixes the sinks, etc.
Nice work if you can get it
Just don't be a Booger
Landlord... unless it emerges that you were at fault.
yeah, I would say...
1 bedroom (probably 1,600 sq feet)
garage spot
shop room (for tools, workbench, etc.)
storage room
FREE RENT....
you do the math...and I ain't no Booger! haha...
O-dub...just hook up a snake...and do that shit mang!
Actually, sometime during the night, the Drano finally did its magic (for good or for bad). I know the corrosive qualities of the product are not good but how does it make blockages worse?
well, from my understanding...and what I've seen...basically it does "melt" everything down...but, it makes it into a kinda black matter...which actually hardens...or kinda calcifies (sp?)...so, in essence if you have hair down there...in a big clog...it will melt some of the hair allowing it to flow...but, it makes it hard...and stick together...so, when you do get more hair, etc. down there...it will stick to it...and then you have to use it again...etc...
the problem is when you go to snake it...cuz, it's hard...and instead of being able to go through it easy...or get the hair clog out...it's now you have to kinda "chip away" at this hard shit...till it finally comes through...not to mention it can corrode pipes...
best thing you can do is use a plunger...or a snake...
Yo,
I manage properties for a living & deal with leases - where I'm at, the landlord has to take care of all repairs, no exeptions. Some are slower than others at getting things done. You have to hope you get a vigilant dude.
I have this to say about Drano - if you don't care about the building & the plumbing, then use it. I have a standing order in my buildings that Drano not be used. It ruins pipes. It will not make the blockage worse, but it will not really take care of the problem if the blockage is heavy. For that, you'd need to pass the snake in the pipes. Plunging the drain takes care of the problem in most cases. For plunging to be effective, you have to block the overflow on the sink with a rag. That will help create a vacuum & your blockage will go bye bye 9 times out of 10.
peace
h
Ick.
Adding the drano only made things worse for a few hours because it hadn't yet cut through the gunk so it mostly just pooled in the water, turning it yellow...with brown and black gunk floating through it.
Yum.
But sometime during the night, it finally melted through whatever it needed to and now it's all flow.
We had a slow sink that would drain, but you couldn't run water for a long time (wash face, etc.). It was cool if you were just brushing your teeth or something quick. It would fill up and then it would slowly drain over time. Draino didn't do anything. It was stuck.
Our water heater ended up going out. We had hot water, but no pressure. So for a few days I had to let water dribble on me for a shower. it really sucked. We told the landlord and called a plumber out to fix it. When he fixed it we figured that we would have him fix the sink since he was already there.
He snakes the drain and runs a lot of water to make sure that it's clear. It seems like it's good until i shift my stance and notice that the bathtub is filling up with nasty gunky water. He sees that and says "oh? that's no good." He snakes the bath tub and runs a lot of water to make sure it's clear.
This is the part where the third floor apartment comes in. He clears the drain and runs the water and says "it's good, no?" He leaves, with both of thinking everything is fixed. I decided to clean the bath tub since it had all that nasty stuff in it. I figured a little bleach would be a good idea. I decide to rinse the tub and then fill it and let it soak for a little bit in some water+bleach. I then drain it and rinse it down.
We hadn't had solid hot water for a few days and I had just done some nasty cleaning, so I was excited to take a shower. I got in and was enjoying finally havig water pressure and hot water. I'm only in there for about 3-4 minutes and my roommate knocks on the door and says "turn off the shower...it's flooding downstairs."
I kind of giggle with an "oh shit, what have I done." I dry off and then get a phone call from the guy on the first floor saying "can you come down here quick, the ceiling is about to collapse." At this point I am thinking "holy shit!" I go down there and there is water gushing through the ceiling straight into his bedroom (the majority of the water going directly into his bed). To make things worse, he has some sort of butterfly kite pinned to his ceiling (kind of like a light fixture) and it's acting like a sprinkler, spraying the water around the room. I don't know why he didn't take it down. Anyways, the water smells weird...kind of like, uhm, nasty gunky water and bleach. Hmmm.
The middle apartment was vacant. When the plumber cleared our sink he actually passed the clog down one floor and it blocked the exit pipe below the second floor, causing all of the water from our apartment to passs through the second floor bath tub. Since nobody lived there nobody noticed what was happening. All the water the plumber ran, all the water from me cleaning the tub, and then the water from my shower all passed into the 2nd floor tub, over filling it probably about 3 tubs worth. It spilled on the floor and made it's way downstairs through the light fixture.
The ceiling never collapsed, but the dude moved out a few days later. A second plumber came out to fix the mistake. I still don't know if the landlord was remibursed for all the damage since it was the plumber's fault. It was crazy.
All in all...
Living in apartments is scary.
O-dub...what the other manager dude said "For plunging to be effective, you have to block the overflow on the sink with a rag. That will help create a vacuum & your blockage will go bye bye 9 times out of 10." is VERY true...
another trick you can do is hook up a hose and block the overflow with a rag...and push it through with water...that's worked quite a few times...when even the plunger is a no go...
Friend: Hi Eric, so the plumbing has been backing up in the downstairs bathroom
Landlord: Oh, yeah, um you mean the sink?
Friend: No-
Landlord: You mean the shower?
Friend:No.
Landlord: Ohhhhhh.....
So Mr. DIY Landlord doesn't call a plumber, he comes over that afternoon and SCOOPS out all the shit from the toilet. It took a lot of willpower not to laugh at that one. The next time it happened he called the plumber, but it was almost worth having to deal with it a second time to see him scooping our shit out of the toilet.
Hey OM, how does one become a landlord? I imagine that you have to get jumped in like a gang inititation or something.
I ain't the landlord...that would be sick..since my building is mutli-million..haha....and they collect some fools yearly salary in a month....I'm the manager...the super! haha...and I don't know how to get into it (partly luck?)...my experience comes from my pops (who is currently the chief engineer of 3 high rises)...so, the old owner of my last spot asked me when the other manager had foolishly sprayed the call box with water to "clean it off"...which subsequently short-circuited the whole thing... :/ to take over the job...
I will say it's much easier to get a job...when you already have the experience...cuz, that's how I got this new job...which is much nicer...
enki if you do become a manager...best to avoid a place with an elevator...(and as a sidenote...from my understanding...it is required by law to have an on-site manager when you have a complex 15 or more units [I think 15 if not 15 then 14, or 16])...
Respectfully,
Deejay OM
The Super Apt#6
Yeah, we tried that but there was too much standing water to make enough of a difference. To be honest, I'm surprised the Drano worked - we poured in an entire bottle and waited and for the first few hours NOTHING happened. We figured, "Fuck, we gotta get a plumber in" but by morning, it had cleared it. For now at least!
did that work? (usually does...or the "hose" trick i told