It doesn’t float uphill
Yesterday was a busy day for me, and it was not things that were planned. That can be either a good thing or bad thing depending on the circumstances. Mine was a combination of the two. Let me tell you about it.
We just filled a nice two-bedroom one bath mobile home last week, which made for a busy week as well. The reason for that was we needed to get all the in-homes done on potential applicants, decide who was the best fit for the house and then get them leased up before the end of the week because the first was Monday.
At my last in-home, I could tell we had found the right applicant and set the lease up for the following day.
At the lease up, the new tenants let me know they were planning on moving in over the weekend. That was good because I wanted them to spend the night in the house before filling out their move-in inspection sheet. This is the sheet they fill out where they document any and all defects in the property. This does two things: it verifies the condition that the exiting tenants left the house in and it establishes the initial condition of the house which will be used to grade the new tenants once they leave.
While talking about this I brought to their attention the plumbing. This was the house I wrote to you before about, where the plumbers said that we needed to redo the entire drain system under the house and wanted to charge thousands of dollars for that when all it needed was a coupling moved.
Anyway, the septic man had been out the previous week to pump the tank and had removed a bunch of roots from the system. I told the new tenants that and to keep an eye on the drains because even though the visible roots had been removed, we won’t know if there are more in the lines. I explained that until they get into the house and start doing things like laundry and taking baths, an issue might not present itself until those amounts of water are being used regularly.
Well, the tenants didn’t have to keep that sharp of an eye out because the toilet stopped draining Tuesday night. They texted me to let me know and we went out Wednesday morning. It was a strange thing. Only the toilet was working incorrectly. So we bled the line and snaked it, looking for a blockage. Nothing came back, but the toilet started draining. So, we figured we must have pushed it out and it was fixed.
That lasted until the evening and then it started doing it again.
I called my septic man Eddie Hilley on Thursday morning and explained what was going on. He and his brother Anthony came by first thing to check it out. I was so glad to see them when I pulled up to the property. Eddie was digging with his excavator, and Anthony was spotting. And it didn’t take long to find the issues — plural.
First and foremost, there was a large oak tree next to where the septic tank is. And its roots had grown under the drainpipe leading out of the house. The first couple of roots weren’t that big of a deal. Except that the drain installer had used thin wall PVC and the roots pushing on the pipe caused it to be pinched and lose its cylindrical shape. We thought that might have been causing the blockage, but we weren’t sure yet. So, we kept digging.
Then we found the main issue. There was one huge root that was eight inches in diameter (the size of a small tree) that had grown under one section of pipe that was causing the entire line to run up hill.
Just water could make it over the hump, which is why it worked fine when we tested it. But when you added other material, it was stopping right there and going no farther. We cut that huge root out of the way, got new PVC to replace the thin wall stuff, put it in with a proper drop and now it’s working right.
Back at the office, I was showing Mom and Madison the pictures of the root and plumbing. Madison couldn’t believe that root was what caused all this. That’s when I told her the two rules of plumbing: No.1…Payday is Friday. And, No.2…Poop doesn’t float uphill.
She laughed.
But seriously, this was true. And as I rode home, I thought about how much this situation could have cost us. You see, if I had just gone with that plumber’s recommendation, he would have charged me over two thousand dollars to redo the plumbing drains under the house. The tenants would have moved in, and the problem would have still been there because it was on the septic side. So regardless of what they would have done under the house, it would not have worked because it doesn’t float uphill.
This is a reason why, as a real estate investor, it pays to have contractors who are knowledgeable and that you can trust. And Eddie and Anthony Hilley are two of those guys. Ya’ll give them a call if you need any help.
Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.