Late Thursday night the toilet in the master bathroom overflowed. So I got
out my trusty plunger and plunged, plunged, plunged. Tried to flush it
again, nope... let's just overflow some more, shall we? There's not enough
water on the floor yet! I stopped it, but not quite soon enough. And that
second time I noticed something odd; it didn't SOUND right.*
Now what nitwit decided half the bathroom should be carpeted? The part
where the toilet and tub sit is tiled; the part by the vanity is carpeted.
So not only is my toilet f'd up, the carpeting is soaked! Of course this
was done to save money... except in situations like mine where it's costing
them a pretty penny to deal with!
So anyway, I take the lid off the tank. I'm looking; the flapper is still
correctly attached to the flush handle. Hmmm. Okay, it's already soaking
wet so let's see what it's doing. *Ah, when I flush, rather than it waiting
a few seconds to actually start to flush water from the bowl, the inflow
valve connected to the float device starts pouring water to refill the tank
immediately but the toilet hasn't flushed yet! So the bowl AND the tank
fill up. This is a bad thing.
I found if I hold up the lever that controls the fresh water inflow for a
few seconds the toilet would flush, maybe. And alas, my second bathroom
toilet reacted the same way (but I stopped it before it flooded).
Anyway, Friday the maintenance guy showed up bright and early. He snaked
the toilet in the master bath. Still didn't work. Checked the 2nd
bathroom; same deal. So HMMMM, the problem is on the outside in the outflow
drain that runs under the apartment, which is on a cement slab. We walked
around outside until we found the "cleanout" trap where water was flooding
up from a PVC pipe sticking up out of the ground.
Oh, sorry, we'll have to call a plumber. And it's Friday so hopefully
they'll
show up today. At this point I seriously had visions of going to the dollar
store and buying a kiddie training potty to use if the plumbers didn't show
up... can't go all weekend without a toilet!
WHEW! The plumber arrived within the hour. I showed him where the cleanout
thing is and he cleared the blockage in the drain. Had me test my toilets.
YAY! They work!
Who the hell puts carpet in a bathroom? Yeah, I know it's cheaper... except
when the landlord has to replace it and the padding! Anyway... the first
maintenance guy had lifted up the carpet in the bathroom, but it was cut in
one piece going into the bedroom. And the water extended out from the
master bathroom into the bedroom carpet by about 1 foot. Guy #1 said he
couldn't do anything, they'd have to bring in the carpet people. Great. I
need more maintenance guys traipsing around. It's what I live for! Bring
'em on!
So they sent out the "Carpet Guys". They pulled out the soaked padding
which not only encompassed the soaking wet carpeted area in the master bath
but also extended out about a foot the length of my inside bedroom wall by
the bathroom. They mopped up the cement slab, then put the carpet back down
and shop-vac'd the carpet. It's still damp so they'll be back sometime next
week to replace the padding once it's completely dry.
That was my extremely fun (NOT!) maintenance men Friday.
Persia hid under the bed the entire time. I thought she'd run for the
closet in here when the first knock came on the door, but she was in the
entry way by the front door and I guess she didn't know what to do. So she
darted back to my bedroom and went under the bed. Poor baby had to deal
with all these strange guys coming in, making lots of noise, ripping up
stuff, talking loud, vacuuming, in *her* domain! The guy who came in to
deal with the carpet was kind enough to unplug and move her kitty fountain,
saying to me, "I have 2 cats and I had a fountain like that for mine.
Stupid me, I broke theirs during a move!" Awww, I love a cat lover carpet
guy :)
Jill
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