By Chelsea Terris 

The inner workings of household plumbing systems are not fully known to every homeowner. Often, problems arise that appear to have no logical explanation. Mysterious though they may be, most plumbing issues have logical causes. Check out the below issues and their strange but sensical origins. 

Condo Conundrum

When the resident manager of a multi-building condominium association is called for help, he finds water leaking down the wall of the kitchen to the bottom floor. A review of the plumbing situation in the unit directly above reveals no leaks and no water running down. As it had been raining constantly for several days, he investigates flashing on fireplace exhausts, adjacent to the wall of each kitchen unit, but detects no leaks. Meanwhile, the amount of water coming into the lower unit increases by the day.

Finally, a leak from the dishwasher in the unit on the very top floor is discovered. The water found its own level through an incomplete brickwork job behind the dishwasher and traveled down, passing the two units below, ending up back in the bottom condominium unit. Mystery solved!

Snaking Clogs

In the city of Jakarta, Indonesia a luxurious home with many bedrooms, each with a full bath, is having problems with clogged toilets. No reason can be found by the homeowner for these clogs. More confusing is the tendency of the plugging problem to switch from one toilet to another in a seemingly random manner.

The solution turns out to be a resident python. The snake entered the home’s plumbing through the network of sewers in the city. The solution? When chemical cleaners were placed in four toilets at once, the unhappy snake decided to clear out of the fifth toilet, post haste.

Shower Shock

In an old house, a homeowner experiences electrical shocks each time he uses a shower in the main bedroom.   The cause is the location of some very old wiring, wrapped around the shower water supply pipe where the insulation had worn away. Once the wiring was replaced, the issue resolved.

When weird plumbing issues strike, your best bet is to call a professional plumber. You never know the real story until a trained expert takes a look, and the causes may amaze you!

Chelsea Terris