...
... I was honestly missing "The Adventures of Attic Rat" stories...
... Well Wewire2,I just got the 2nd installment,..it all went something like this...(All True,by the way),...This past Monday was a nightmare,..my helper called in sick,and I had a pretty difficult snaking job lined up for that day,..it was a pull from the basement of this 60-80yr old house,up 2 floors to the attic,all riding beside the waste vent that exited the roof.I was to be pulling (2)- 12-3 Romex lines,and(2)-14-3's for additional circuits on the 2nd floor..After a couple of shots I was able to receive the snake in the basement bathroom drop ceiling,which was where the vent pipe started it's ascent.
...I made up my "serve",..I don't know what you guys call it,..(the attaching of the wires to the snake hook)..and ran upstairs to the attic to begin pulling.I thought I'd covered ALL of the bases,to save a few dozen trips up and down,..ie;..unrolling plenty of cable,keeping the pathway clear,removing customer property that may get broken..but as I was in the attic,..(mind you,I'm 2 floors up),..I heard a deafening,mind-numbing crash,...The H.O. was home,and called up to me,.."Did you hear that,..is everything OK?" I took a few seconds to respond,..still wondering what the heck could've caused such an earshplittenloudenboomer..I ran to the basement only to find the bathroom floor filled with water,and the toilet still "running"..what I then saw almost literally made me soil myself..
The toilet,which was about 3feet adjacent to the area I was working in had a small knick-nack shelf above it,mounted directly above the toilet tank,maybe some 3 feet above on the wall..once held (among other things) a glass enclosed fragrance candle,that somehow got knocked off the wall,and fell THROUGH the toilet tank lid..splitting the tank lid in two..and the candle was now in the tank,which caused the tank to flush,but broke the valve filler thingy and water was spraying out of the tank now all over the wall and floor...I panic'd,..and went for the "speedie" valve on the side of the toilet..of course it was 10,000 years old,and started leaking as I tried to tighten it...I was definetly gonna have a coronary right at about that time,..and then ran to the main water shut-off for the house.Thank God,..that held,and the H.O. now stood at the top of the basement stairs looking like she was about to go into convulsions...I explained what must of happened,that the snake,or wire,had gotten a loop in it,and knocked the offending candle(depth charge)into the toilet tank..To make a long story longer,I called a buddy o' mine who is a Plumber,and he was in the area,and came by to help out..
He put a new "speedie"valve on at the toilet,and replaced the broken tank filler valve thing-a-ma-bob...I mopped up the mess,and lucky the sump pump drain was close by..I finished the installation that day,and had to replace the toilet tank lid,which wasn't easy,because the toilet was made in 1963,..American Standard..it took us a while for my Plumber buddy to find a tank lid that would fit,and that was the right color,..(off-white),...but we finally found one in his shop..I had to give the dubious H.O. a discount that day,and wound up making 1/2 of what I wanted to...I then went home,..and had me a nice STIFF drink!!!!
Russ..