Every plumbing drain has a U-shaped device called a "P trap" in which water sits all the time (look beneath your sink). The stench and accompanying gases can't travel through water. Well, whoever installed this catch basin back in the '70s neglected to install a trap, thinking it was attached only to the storm, rather than the sanitary sewer system.
Let me assure this person that my nose, all the neighbors' noses and city records agree that it is indeed a 12-inch round concrete sanitary sewer system pipe. Be that as it may, it needed a trap, because, if I haven't mentioned it yet, it stank.
Of course, my prodigious frame would not fit five feet down into the 16-by-22-inch hole and be able to stand up, bend over, turn around and install a trap. Nor was I particularly excited about performing such a feat bent over the edge of the precipice, upside down, feet roped to a parked car. What to do? Hire a skinny child with plumbing skills? Put a head-cam and radio device on one of the kids and outfit him with scuba equipment and a safety rope?
Ironically, working in administration for the City of Bellevue Utilities Department (not the location of the apartment), the closest my girlfriend, Lisa, ever came to a stinky sewer trap was when the third-floor women's room door malfunctioned, locking several people inside. So I definitely was shocked and a bit skeptical when she willingly volunteered to be the dive-master for this little repair. We rounded up the needed materials and, after donning a white Tyvek bodysuit, she declined the offer of my best respirator and climbed on in, utilizing clashing black fishing boots and yellow rubber garden gloves to cap off the ensemble.
After getting situated, she went to work cutting a template of the large concrete pipe out of foam, and I made a duplicate topside. Laminating the templates together, I cut a hole in the foam for the new trap arm and handed her the pipe, a tiny bucket of fast-setting mortar mix and the template to hold the pipe in place. She whipped that mud around the template hole and set the plastic pipe in there like she had been doing this her whole life.
Waiting 10 minutes for the mud to set, she asked me for the tiny folding canvas chair, set it in the bottom of the eight inches of sludge and water, sat on it, barely out of the slop, and demanded more mud so she could touch up the cracked concrete risers on the inside of the manhole. I thought maybe the gas was affecting her brain, but I complied nonetheless.
After the mud dried, I fabricated a trap, handed it and the glue down to her, and she filled the trap with water, glued it all together and added a grate. And the stench went away. It was a piece of functional art! She went home and used at least two bars of soap in the shower. And then I bought dinner, still feeling inadequate and eternally grateful. Ladies, listen up — the new way to a man's heart might just be through the sewer.
Q: I understand that sanding lead-based paint releases harmful dust-laden particles into the air. I remember don't scrape it, don't sandblast it, don't use heat guns. What can I use to remove lead-based paint?
A: Chemical strippers not containing methylene chloride are acceptable. Strippers soften the surface, allowing the material to be scraped with little or no release of dust. Heat guns that operate at temperatures below 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit (where it vaporizes the lead) are acceptable.
Hand sanding of wetted surfaces is acceptable, and dry sanding is acceptable if the dust is contained and filtered through a HEPA vacuum. Dry sanding of defective paint on interior surfaces is acceptable if the total area does not exceed 2 square feet in any one room, and up to 20 square feet on exteriors. Powerwashing is not acceptable, due to the release of contaminated waste water, despite the lack of dust released.
Terry Meany, local author of "Got Lead?," also suggests "Peel-Away" or other similar products can be used to eliminate lead paint. This type of product is basically lye in a paste form, set on glossy paper. Stick it on the surface, wait 24 hours and peel the paper and paint off. Neutralizing and rinsing "Peel-Away" is critical, as new paint will not adhere to remnants of the chemical.
Meany says the key to lead-paint removal is containment. Containment can mean a plastic dome around your work area and a waste-water trap.
Meany once had an environmental inspector tell him that as a self-employed person he was welcome to eat lead dust for lunch for all he cared, just don't expose the neighbors or other workers.
In other words, in this country we are free to kill ourselves, so use any method you want, but don't contaminate the air, the ground or the water. For more information: www.epa.gov/lead or 800-424-LEAD.
Darrell Hay answers readers' questions. Call 206-464-8514 to record your question |
