roger g
09-23-2003, 08:34 AM
Just a few months ago I was doing some gas piping in a house that was being renovated. It wasn't a bad looking bungalow with a decent double garage and a granite stone front to the house. It appears that the house was built in the late fifties or early sixties by the owner himself and an addition was added in the seventies. The owner had died and the house now belonged to a daughter who was getting it completely renovated. I hag to go into a crappy, really tight crawl space to do my piping.
The contractor told me that that only the toilet drained into the septic system. Actually it wasn't even a septic system, just a tank with holes and one pipe about 10 feet long leaving it. The bathtub, sink, kitchen sink and laundry all drained into the grawl space!!! Not a dry well or something similar. Just onto the dirt. Not sand or gravel. Dirt!
This property is now in an area where the house all start at half a million but wasn't 40 years ago. He also said that the lintel over the garage door (about 16 feet) was only a double 2x6 which explained why the garage door could never be opened. There were lots of other horror stories and all this in a house that didn't look half bad. The contractor was furious saying that it was fine for a person to live in a hell hole that you did yourself but eventually someone would end up buying it not having a clue as to what was there. I know a lot about building but I never would have thought to look to see if the drain pipe actually was attached to anything. The one good part was that the daughter got the house and the general public was saved.
roger
The contractor told me that that only the toilet drained into the septic system. Actually it wasn't even a septic system, just a tank with holes and one pipe about 10 feet long leaving it. The bathtub, sink, kitchen sink and laundry all drained into the grawl space!!! Not a dry well or something similar. Just onto the dirt. Not sand or gravel. Dirt!
This property is now in an area where the house all start at half a million but wasn't 40 years ago. He also said that the lintel over the garage door (about 16 feet) was only a double 2x6 which explained why the garage door could never be opened. There were lots of other horror stories and all this in a house that didn't look half bad. The contractor was furious saying that it was fine for a person to live in a hell hole that you did yourself but eventually someone would end up buying it not having a clue as to what was there. I know a lot about building but I never would have thought to look to see if the drain pipe actually was attached to anything. The one good part was that the daughter got the house and the general public was saved.
roger