Hot showers and flushing toilets!

I returned from more travel to find that I finally had a toilet that flushed more than twice before overflowing! Can you believe it?! I couldn't either.

What happened was I lost my marbles on February 14th. I had been told twice, over the phone, that the house was ready and all was good. I stayed late at work and got home ready to pee. Alas, it was not to be. And, then. I lost it...just a little bit. I called the after hours line and when they told me they would be by to check tomorrow, that's when I, in a slightly hysterical, breaking voice, shrilled that I hadn't had a toilet working for more than 3 days out of 20 and this had been going on since January 6th!! He said he would ask his boss and let me know. To which I replied, "How?! How will you let me know?!
Do you have my phone number? Do you know my name?! You won't let me know! I know how this works!...." The line got cut off, mercifully---for the poor guy on the other end. Not to worry though, I just gave him 10 minutes to call his boss and then I called the after hours emergency line again. And, this time, the boss was listening in.

The boss sent the after-hours call guy over here. He was clearly not pleased to be at my home dealing with this at 730pm. He was banging into doors with his equipment. He said not one word to me. (because I'm the one causing work for him rather than them fixing it properly over a month ago. Yep, I'm the bad guy.) He went to work thawing the toilet line, like they've done so many times in the past. I am not sure at what point the thought of, "Hmmmm, this exact problem keeps happening with alarming frequency. I wonder WHY. Perhaps there is a CAUSE for the freezing toilet pipe and sewage tank besides the cold weather since EVERY other house endures cold weather too without having a sewage/toilet freeze up every couple of days". I am not sure when or if that thought was ever had during the course of these workers coming into my house over and over and over again.

The boss showed up on February 14th though and he saw my frustration. I explained I didn't have any of these problems last year. There MUST be something causing this to happen. None of it made any sense to me.

He goes into the attic and almost immediately asks down to the worker, "Peter, did you check if this valve was working? Was it seized before?" Seized, what? I call up, "um, what is this seized valve for?" He explains that this valve opens and closes in response to a thermostat reading from the sewage tank. When the temp falls below a threshold, the valve opens and the warm glycol runs through the heating tube trace around the sewage tank to keep it thawed. When the sewage tank temp rises, the valve shuts off. I asked, "So, this valve, huh. It's probably not seized in the Open position is it?" "Nope", he confirms.

Hmmmmmm.......so you're telling me there is a thermostat and valves that control whether the heat trace is working to keep the sewage tank thawed.

Are we all aliens here? Does anyone not remember the THREE times you've had to THAW my completely frozen sewage tank?

No one thought this was weird that the sewage tank was freezing over and over and over. Nope, they just kept thawing it out and telling me all was fixed.

The boss replaced TWO (yes, there are actually two valves up there controlling this and one was completely seized and the other was not working great) valves. Thawed the toilet line and they both left around 10pm that night.

I returned after a week away and guess what, the toilet was STILL WORKING!! Hmmmmmm......I guess when you actually look at the cause and try to fix that, outcomes are better. #sigh #bigfreakingsigh

I've been back a full week and I haven't had one plumbing problem.

Even better, they turned on, or fixed, our second boiler. I didn't know we had two boilers. I have been dealing with lukewarm showers for about 8-9 months now. Since last summer. The water just wouldn't heat up. You turn it up to max and it was warm enough to stand in, but after about 1 min, you would start to feel chilled and my showers would end with me covered in chill bumps. I started showering at night so I could get into bed quickly and warm up. It didn't get hot enough to even steam up the mirror in the bathroom. I have been taking very short showers.

I come back from travel and discover they've turned on/fixed the 2nd boiler and it is divine! The water gets so hot!

That's the happy ending....I have a hot shower AND working plumbing again! Things are looking up! lolRead more