Plumbing repair
January 30th, 2008 by Grant in: Rental PropertyAs I suspected the old cast iron pipe had rotted out underneath the basement floor of my rental unit. My buddy Paul (who has his own plumbing company) stopped by to take a look, and after a few swings of the sledge hammer, found the bottom of an elbow joint completely corroded out to the point where the high flow rate from the spin cycle of the washing machine was forcing water out from under the foundation and back through the stone wall of the basement.
I told him to go ahead and fix the problem, as it wasn’t something I wanted to tackle myself. Twenty bucks in plumbing fittings, and a half days worth of swinging a sledge hammer ($500 in labor and mileage from a neighboring city) and the problem was fixed. Paul finished the job by re-pouring the concrete floor he took out.
Problem solved.
At this point in time I didn’t have time to do the job myself. On top of it all, I could have ripped out all the concrete and then found I was in over my head, and the tenants would have been without a kitchen sink and a washer and dryer until someone else came in and fixed the problem.
Part of being a handyman/landlord/real estate investor is knowing what you can do yourself, and knowing what your time is worth.
This is one of those cases where I’d gladly pay for a pro to come in and do the job.
Tags: landlord | plumbing | Real Estate | rental
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