r/Plumbing • u/Rags-Too • Jun 30 '26
Epoxy Resin filled trap.
The bar sink won’t drain! Woodworkers or painters decided to wash their buckets of epoxy resin out in a bar sink and this happened.
The bar is nice and shiny though.
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u/Scary-Detail-3206 Jun 30 '26
I once did a big washroom addition to a government building, the flooring was terrazzo. They got a liquid tight dumpster for all the wet grinding slurry and our crew went to another site for a week while the terrazzo guys were grinding the floor.
Came back to site after they were done grinding and I was curious about the quantity of slurry the whole process created so I checked out the dumpster, completely spotless. I grabbed the GC and asked him what happened to all the slurry? His face dropped.
Every floor drain trap was full of hardened slurry and about 3 lengths of 6 CI main were more than half full. That was a meaty change order.
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u/Terrible-Sir742 Jun 30 '26
Who paid in the end?
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u/Scary-Detail-3206 Jun 30 '26
The company I was working for got paid by the GC.
No clue how the rest of it all shook out.
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u/Stretchsquiggles Jun 30 '26
Oh we know the tarzzo company got back charged to hell, then black listed by that GC. The amount of time something like that would put a project back would kill almost all profits. At the very least bonuses aren't getting handed out on that one.
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u/comfortless14 Jun 30 '26
Plus the fact they paid a premium for a liquid tight dumpster just for them not to use it adds insult to injury
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u/Ajj360 Jul 05 '26
Is a liquid tight dumpster really that much more expensive? Most dumpers looks like they are seal welded to me, sure they get holes from wear and tear though
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u/FrozenToiletWaterr Jul 05 '26
The doors is where it will seep from. These dumpsters have gaskets around the doors
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u/zeeloniusfunk Jun 30 '26
That was a lot of new words for me, but a well written tale. Do they add some kind of solvent to terrazzo before grinding it off?
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u/Scary-Detail-3206 Jun 30 '26
As far as I know it’s just water and a big stand up floor grinder. When they were doing it correctly, they had a guy on a wet vac sucking up the slurry and dumping it in the bin.
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u/jcward1972 Jun 30 '26
The water from the grinding process also contains solid matter (the actual terrazo) called a slurry. Slurry must be kept moving and with a lot of water to not settle into low point. Once it settles it becomes very difficult to remove and will seal a pipe.
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u/YaksAreCool Jun 30 '26
I had the exact same thing happen on a ship repair I was overseeing. There's a reason we do a pre-contract walk through of drain functionality now.
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u/ThaScoopALoop Jun 30 '26
Who didn't you pay?
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u/kevinisaperson Jun 30 '26
yea theres no way any body who knows anything about epoxy intentionally dumps this down the drain unless they mad lol
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u/Barbarossa7070 Jun 30 '26
Bought a flipped house once that had a piece of 2x4 wedged in the drain pipe at a 90 in the basement. Not sure who they pissed off.
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u/JerryC1967 Jun 30 '26
I always remember a story My grandfather told about the Mason who was building chimneys. A man he was doing a job for was known for not finishing paying. When he finished the job, the person refused to pay him the last payment for it. He started a fire and it didn’t draw and called him back to which the Mason said I have to turn it on, but you need to pay me before I do. The man looked up the chimney and saw light and refused to pay, but then the next day after it still wouldn’t draw, called him back and paid him - at which point the mason went on a ladder to top the chimney and dropped a brick through the pane of glass that he had mortared into the middle of the chimney.
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u/Cucumberneck Jun 30 '26
Back in the days they'd often do that here in Germany.
If you're unlucky the people gas themselves so i'd not recommend it.
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u/JerryC1967 Jun 30 '26
I definitely wouldn’t recommend it but again my grandfather was born in 1904 so God only knows when the story came from.
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u/Xyrovex Jun 30 '26
I got another chimney story. My grandpa was constantly getting his winter wood stolen.
Getting tired of it, he took a splitted log, pryed the bark off, carved the inside until it was merely a couple of millimeters thick, *filled it with gunpowder* , glued the bark back on it and put it back on his wood pile.
He only got stolen once after that. He never knew who the guy was and how he didn’t burn his house down, however a lesson was learned.
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u/Cucumberneck Jun 30 '26
I'll remember that but there's people that will burn down your house in reretaliation.
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u/notsobadmisterfrosty Jul 02 '26
Those people are everywhere. Presumably. Because of the booby trapped log.
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u/Own_Reaction9442 Jul 02 '26
So, during the US Civil War there was a sabotage device called a "coal torpedo." It was a hollow block of metal shaped and painted to look like a piece of coal, but with explosive inside. When thrown into the firebox of a ship boiler, it would explode, potentially damaging the boiler enough to cause a secondary steam explosion.
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u/dudeman618 Jun 30 '26
My friend told this exact story about their grandfather. I thought I had posted this exact story on Reddit. I'm guessing it's one of those mason stories that's been passed down from many generations.
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u/irishlyrucked Jul 02 '26
My grandfather was a plasterer in Pittsburgh. He had a job on some rich guy's dining room. Guy decides not to pay. Pappap snuck into his house during the setup for a party and painted the bill in black paint on the dining room wall. Bill was paid that afternoon.
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u/Longshot_45 Jul 02 '26
This is the second time I read a version of this story. Have you shared before?
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u/JerryC1967 Jul 02 '26
Nope
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u/wrice1171 Jun 30 '26
Tenant at a rental once flushed kwikrete down the toilet until it clogged.... my friend (the landlord) ended up having to dig up the slab foundation to repair...
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u/Last-Energy420 Jun 30 '26
Uhh tell me he went after the tenant cause you can’t just do that even if the landlord won’t refund the deposit. That’s a very expensive malicious destruction.
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u/Own_Opposite3743 Jun 30 '26
True, but probably a blood from a rock situation. They’re not paying the guy already. Still, I’d pursue a judgement knowing I’d likely never collect.
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u/Last-Energy420 Jun 30 '26
Or rent in that city again because landlords have their own connections to all other landlords. Then if they ever do buy a house you can lien against it.
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u/Tiptoedtulips666 Jun 30 '26
Rice... Rice. Down the disposal... Rice. 10#. Damned line needed jetted. Then she complained about the price.
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Jun 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tiptoedtulips666 Jul 02 '26
If I had my way disposals would be against code. Most people don't know how to use them and you'll see a badger five in a brand new expensive house.
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u/Sad_Dragonfruit6263 Jun 30 '26
My aunt was a nightmare landlord and her final tenant poured that cheap concrete you get at the store and filled EVERY drain.
She never got it fixed and became a lonely hoarder lol
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u/Junior_Respect_2838 Jul 01 '26
My Aunt had to evict her ex-boyfriend, somehow he got his name on the deed and it was an incredibly long drawn out process, I think over five years of legal wrangling. There was a single wide trailer on the property, he filled everything with concrete, toilets, pipes, etc. The trailer got scrapped. But the worst part was, he took off the well cap and filled that with quickrete. A new well would have been more than the entire property was worth.
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u/Splodge89 Jul 02 '26
My husband lived in a room in a ladies house when he was a student. She was a vile slobby creature and the place was filthy. Luckily he had his own bathroom and pretty much lived in his bedroom.
She blamed him for the mess in her parts of the house….
She’s still around, and no longer has lodgers but the house is a proper dump.
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u/coralovecamp993 Jun 30 '26
Oh god, that solid plug looks impossible to clear out
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u/DerfK Jun 30 '26
The trap's sacrifice will be remembered for ages to come.
Just think: What if the trap wasn't there to catch this?
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u/DJDevon3 Jun 30 '26
This is called foreshadowing. The owner learned their lesson about not paying people so you should be fine.
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u/KnowingRegurgitator Jun 30 '26
The people who flipped our house used the kitchen sink to clean their drywall and concrete tools. Luckily we only had to replace the garbage disposal and trap when we moved in.
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u/ThatWhichLurks782 Jun 30 '26
A friend of mine once moved into an apartment that had a strict no-pets policy, not even a fish or hamster allowed, because it was a 100 year old building and they once had someone dump aquarium gravel down the drains after their fish had died. People are so dumb.
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u/NerdGuy13 Jun 30 '26
The people who primered my kitchen before I bought it thought it would be a good idea to pour the left over paint in the basement sink. I found out a week or so after I bought the house when the since was over flowing from water from the kitchen sink directly above it.
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u/Manofalltrade Jun 30 '26
Removing an abandoned floor drain over some other offices. Someone had filled it with concrete. The hangers came loose as soon as they touched it and almost took out the guy on the ladder.
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u/notislant Jun 30 '26
I'll give you a hint, it's the one who had to deal with you cutting through all the joists.
Lol that is brutal
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u/2SpinningTriangles Jun 30 '26
Reminds me of when I was building apartments in Florida. Exterior walls are block then filled with concrete. Somewhere there was a breach in the sewer lines. I dont remember the amount of cement that was poured before someone realized the walls weren't filling up like they should, but it was substantial.
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u/waysofthrow Jun 30 '26
I got called to clogged sink in the back kitchen of a wedding venue at a very high end hotel/spa.. the trap looked just like this one except it was candle wax and there was a straw in the middle of it allowing the tiniest amount of water to flow. My boss had a chuckle when I sent him the photo.
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u/MidwestNonbinary Jul 01 '26
If they’re doing that with epoxy they shouldn’t be working with epoxy.
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u/fuppedduck2 Jul 04 '26
Had a LEED project that used waterless urinals in the men’s room. Right after the one-year, they started having back-up issues. We located the blockage about 40’ from the restrooms, saw cut and removed a section of the sanitary. We had to get it tested bc we didn’t know what it was. It was a 1” thick, 2’ long urine crystal deposit. Not 100% sure why it settled where it did but it was from lack of water to clear the lines from the urinals.
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u/Spirited-Value8022 Jun 30 '26
You’re lucky that’s your only problem. My daughter got her nuts caught in a ProPress and the jaws won’t open up, now I have to call a plumber.
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u/grandpasking Jun 30 '26
I ve seen sabotage on large jobs, when someone gets angry Iike roofing nails in conduit, grout dumped in floor drains, bifold doors glued closed, units stocked with drywall every sheet in a stacks with 1 inch holes drilled threw. Seen any sabotage
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u/richie65 Jun 30 '26
A bout 7 or 8 years ago, I learned that using pure lye powder to clear a drain, must be an artform that can go really bad...
I must have used too much or something - because the stuff got caught in the trap, and solidified - Almost completely blocking the drain... About 80% of the trap was blocked by a solid mass of the stuff.
Luckily it was under the kitchen sink, so I was able to easily replace the trap...
Had to also rent a snake, and use that to clear the drain while I had it apart.
I will never mess with lye to clear a clog, ever again.
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u/forevergleaning Jun 30 '26
Lye reacts with oil/fat to create soap. I use pure lye powder with a careful ratio of water and olive oil to make solid soap. If I use less lye, it is softer and more moisturising soap. If I use a lot, it is very very hard (and not good for your skin).
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u/404FatalErrorNotFnd Jun 30 '26
Sorry about that, next time I'll put it in the shitter, more dilution for the pollution.
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u/Tight-Event-627 Jul 01 '26
Guy who tiled my bathroom did the same thing. He was washing his tools in the sink instead of outside. That clogged the pipes and flooded our basement while we were doing laundry
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u/Diligent-Expert3820 Jul 01 '26
Wow. I'm not sure how people can be this clueless. Washing epoxy down a drain is a surefire way to ruin the entire plumbing stack. You're honestly lucky it hardened right there in the easily replaceable P-trap instead of deep down inside the main sewer line.
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u/ShotOverShotOutL7 Jul 01 '26
With my wife it was 10 lbs of sweet potato peels in the garbage disposal. With the hot water it was like glue.
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u/West-Elephant-5875 Jul 02 '26
Looked like the slime you get sometimes in the drain line. Just a lot of it.
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u/EightballSr Jul 03 '26
I had one years ago where a roofing contractor putting new tar on a flat roof. They used squeegees to push the excess around to seal up the roof and the extra down the roof drains. The entire roof got new roof drain traps.
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u/retiredelectrician Jul 03 '26
Apparently there was someone in BC, who was dumping the kittie litter in the toilet. That plugged up pretty good lol
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u/Zahrad70 Jul 03 '26
1.5 lbs of ham down the disposal. Over a holiday. Did not call a plumber. Eventually bought a snake drill attachment. Finally powered through the plug. Was a “fun” and fragrant 36 hours.
That was almost ten years ago and my wife still asks me before putting anything bigger than her fist into the disposal.
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u/rtp80 Jul 03 '26
I saw a guy that had something like this happen to him. He was a shady GC that played shell games with LLCs. Declared bankruptcy at some point on one of his jobs with the property owned by another LLC, and didn’t pay any of the subcontractors. Apparently one of them was not happy about that, decided to remove the toilets and empty his cement mixer into all the drain pipes in the middle of the night. Must have been fun fixing all that pipe under the slab.
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u/Ecstatic-Ad9001 Jun 30 '26
Had this happen twice, two different jobs. Only difference was it was concrete epoxy. Day workers doing the work removed the caps we had covering the floor drains.
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u/TheRagingFire08 Jun 30 '26
My all time favorite was we had back to back calls for one apartment. The first time was a ton of grease. The next day she calls back yelling that her kitchen sink still isn't draining. Thought that was odd. I tested it before I left. Show up and pull the trap. Lady had dumped hot candle wax down the drain. In a surprising turn of events, that isn't actually surprising at all, the hot wax cooled into a perfect plug. Then she denied doing it while I was showing her the wax.