Dave wrote:
"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
In article merica,
"Dave" wrote:




Wow. Sounds like your job was a lot more labor-intensive than I
expect mine
to be.

Let us know about that when your job is done.


Am tempted to take it up with the contractor, who was rated with
the BBB, but I can't really blame him, it was one of his workers
who took a shortcut
and thought it wouldn't matter.


Gosh. You can't blame a contractor for what one of his workmen did?
So you're going to pony up for new cabinets and flooring without a
peep? That goes beyond charitable, to unfathomable at best.

Okay, the plumber came out, used the access port I cut in the outside
of the house, and removed the T-joint along wth maybe ten inches (5"
either side) of 1-1/2" galvanized pipe as well as the leaking
horizontal member itself. (I have *GOT* to get a Saws-All.) Turns
out the leak was due to the horizontal member rusting from the inside
out, due to it being installed in such a manner that there was a
small pool of water left in the pipe near the T-section that never
drained out. Have to admit I am not totally clear on how this is
possible, but that is indeed what happened. Rusted from the inside
out, right next to the T-section. This pipe was original to the
house, and was fifty-two or fifty-three years old. Not four or five
like I originally thought. The contractor and his head man had
nothing to do with this leak. I just jumped to conclusions. So
anyway, T-section and pipe replaced with PVC. Took about an hour,
after which I spent the rest of the day putting the steel siding back
up. Looks good, works fine. Everybody's happy. We still have to
replace the cabinets and possibly flooring, but believe we can do
that ourselves. In the meantime, life goes on.
I thank all of you for your input, and the encouragement to persist
and not try to do it myself. That would have been a big mistake. The
home warranty covered the plumbing costs, and I have a better idea as
to how things inside the wall work. Truthfully, I feel lucky. Believe it
could have been a lot worse...

Thanks all,

Dave

That's an excellent follow-up. It is interesting to see how it all turned
out, what the final answer turned out to be regarding what was causing the
leak, etc. And, yes, a Sawzall is great. I have one, but to be honest, I
don't personally use it a lot. But, I see contractors using them for a ton
of different things. I also have a contractor who uses an angle grinder all
the time for pipe cut-offs etc. Angle grinders seem way more dangerous than
a Sawzall to me, so I don't own one of my own.

I'm glad it all worked out.