Yesterday afternoon I was starting to wash a few dishes when I felt water dripping on my feet. I turned off the water and looked around and saw that I had spilled nothing on the sink area — backed up and looked to see water pouring from the cabinet doors under the sink.
Yipes!
Opened the doors and water came pouring out. Got a towel from the bathroom to mop up the water and prevent it from spreading out all over the kitchen and got a flashlight.
Hmmmmm . . . nothing dripping and none of the fittings was wet.
Turned the water back on — just a little bit. Water began to drip from the drain pipe going into the back wall of the cabinet . . .
Bent down to get a good look at the problem and felt around. There was a hole in the bottom of the pipe. Pressed around the hole . . . and it enlarged as the area was paper-thin.
This was not a small problem — like the under-sink problem last summer in Corfu.
Called Phill (http://www.phillsplumbing.com/) and actually got him and not an answering machine or voicemail. I described the problem and, as he was in the middle of another job, he asked if the problem could wait until the morning. Of course, I just couldn’t wash dishes for a while — darn. Said he’d call me in the morning about 7:30 am on his way over.
At 7:30 am Joe, from Phill’s Plumbing, rang the doorbell — clean shirt, clean pants, putting booties on his shoes — and said Phill was working on the other job. Showed him the problem and a toilet that would not shut off (had closed the valve most of the way so there would be little water leakage — hadn’t seemed a big enough problem to get the plumber for until I needed him for something else).
Joe’s estimate came in at $236.75 if he could get in and replace the pipe under the sink, i.e., if the pipe was solid enough to get out and replace without having to open the wall — couldn’t tell until he tried.
Meanwhile, I’d gotten Charlie up: into her sunroom with tea, meds, vitamins and raisin toast for breakfast. I finished my coffee and went to sit on the exercise bike — to read and watch the news on my iPad. Less than two hours later, Joe was done with both the kitchen and toilet — everything cleaned up nice and neat.
The new plumbing seems to work properly — wrote a check for $236.75 and Joe went on to another job — installing a custom-made shower.
Note: I found Phill several years ago on Angies List and he’s been over for several different problems (our house was built back in the 60s) including the installation of a new waterheater. I also prefer to deal with small, locally-owned companies where possible. Both our sunroom and Heating/AC system were put in by family-owned OC businesses and we dealt directly with the owners.