Yes, who needs a plumber .... when you have a wife at home !
On Wednesday, the wooden paling fence that divides and separates our property from our neighbours' place, fell over. Well, SWMBO had been chopping down some bougainvillea (pretty, but nasty stuff), pulling out the roots, some of which were anchoring the fence posts. Obviously, these had rotted away, so the fence fell over like a line of tents at a girl guides' camp.
Unfortunately, some of it fell against said neighbours' house, smashing a roof downspout and the linkages into the storm water drain. After getting out the chainsaw, pulling it back up and propping it, we examined the damage. You can see the broken, brown downpipe on the brick wall here, and why you need two elbow joints to make the connection into the pipe in the ground that drops into the stormwater drain.
The fitting is complex, in that there is a rectangular connector to the downspout incorporating a circular connector that fits into one bend or elbow, then a small piece of horizontal piping, which fits into another elbow joint into the round entrance, and so into the vertical dropfeed into the stormwater conduit.
"No problems" says SWMBO ... I was on the point of calling a plumber myself, but "Not on your life" she says, "I'll fix that myself". When she is in this mood, I have found it best to just, you know, go along for the ride.
So, this afternoon (Thursday), she went off to the hardware shop, only to find that the old plumbing is in imperial dimensions, and the new stuff is metric ... yikes ! At this point. I would have capitulated, but not this girl.
Not to be phased, SWMBO bought a metre of pipe and two elbow joints. In the pouring rain, she removed the rest of the debris and broken piping, measured and hacksawed the lengths, fitted the two elbow joints, and "Bingo" ... job done. Cost $29 ... cost saving probably $75 call-out fee, plus labour say 1 hour for a plumber $70 and materials at their rates, say another $55, total $200 all up.
Worth her weight in gold, what a girl !
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