Over the weekend, we discovered we have a cracked plumbing stack. Fun times! A mysterious mildewey smell + some water leaking down into the basement + a running upstairs toilet tipped us off to a problem that (apparently) has been going on for years and years. Lucky for us, it’s on the second floor and doesn’t affect the function of our main bathroom.
My stairwell wall stripes had to be torn up. The upstairs shower also had to be taken out in the name of investigation.
Full disclosure, this shower was already a goner. It leaked, and we weren’t 100% sure why. Turns out it likely had multiple problems, including a drain pipe that wasn’t even glued into the stack! We stopped using it years ago and resolved to fix it someday. So this is not really a loss of a shower, but more of a head start on a forthcoming bathroom renovation. I’m trying to turn lemons into lemonade here.
We have a couple of plumbers coming today to give estimates on replacing the stack. Cross your fingers it’s less than I’ve mentally prepared myself for.
It’s official. We own a money pit. It’s a good thing we’re happy here, because we’ve sunk too much time and money into this house to ever leave.
