Bill wrote:
They do at my very old house!

Basically whenever I tear anything apart, I find more problems and the
project winds up costing a lot more than I expected.

For example I had a leaky horizontal drain pipe going from the kitchen sink
to outside. A few bucks to replace right? NO! I wound up having to replace
that pipe, the pipe going down, and the pipe going all the way under the
house to the other side of the house.

The previous owner of the house installed this drain pipe (under the house)
basically level. Then proceeded to fill it up with grease from the kitchen.
It was solid grease for the entire length of the pipe. Then they poured tons
of drain cleaner into the drain which ate away at the pipes and it was
actually draining out the bottom of the pipe and not a drop going into the
sewer. Luckily plastic drain pipe is not too expensive, so was just a lot of
work. (I installed the new drain pipe at the correct angle.)

Chuckle. I always plan on a project taking twice as long as it should,
and costing half again as much money. I also try to plan a fallback
position- if the project utterly crashes and burns on me, how do I keep
the house livable and weather proof, etc, in the meantime, while I call
in professional help? (I'm a big believer in having shutoff valves on
plumbing runs, replacing all the replaceable pieces as long as I have
something apart anyway, etc. And never start a plumbing project past
noon on Saturday- starting later will ensure you are missing a needed
part when the stores close.) Parts are cheap, my time and ambition are
precious. If I don't have a warm fuzzy that I can do something
successfully, I hire it out, and watch and learn for next time.

aem sends...