On Plumbing in Mockva25 март 2011

I think I’ve mentioned we live in a Soviet-era building which on the outside is not an impressive structure. In fact, it’s pretty ugly and the words that comes to mind are: “drab, utilitarian, soviet housing, etc.” I’ve also described our man-eating elevator in a previous post that is no doubt the original machine installed whenever the building was constructed – I’m guessing sometime in the 50’s or 60’s. On the inside, however, the apartments that the Anglo-American School have are modern and spacious and very comfortable, especially if you are lucky enough, as we are, to have a two-bedroom place. “Amanda’s room” when she is not here (most of the time although she insists we call it her room in her absence) doubles as an office and photo processing studio.

In order to refurbish these apartments there must have been a complete “gutting” of the old apartments down to the basic structure of the building. I suspect however, because it is very expensive to remove and install pipes and drains embedded in walls, the original plumbing was left intact and the new fixtures in our modern kitchen and bathroom were tied into the old lines.

Very often when someone in the apartments above us (we’re on the 5th floor of 9) flushes a toilet, takes a shower or uses the washing machine (we’re fortunate that each apartment has its own washer and dryer) I frequently hear a gurgling sound especially in our bathtub drain. Having built two additions to our house in New Jersey, including doing most of the plumbing myself, I know that gurgling drains are usually caused by partially stopped up drain pipes.

While this doesn’t happen every day, often in the afternoon somewhere between 1 and 4PM the drain in our bathtub and sink belches and as you walk by the bathroom door you pass through a wretched, sometimes putrid odor that grabs your attention. Nancy says she doesn’t ever notice the smell but for me it causes fond memories of when I had to install a new drainage field on our septic tank. The smell is foul and kind of knocks you off your stride for a minute. After we come home from a week-long holiday the windows need to be opened for about 20 minutes.

I’ve discovered a quick fix for this which involves pouring a few milliliters of bleach into the bathtub and sink drains. Within 10 minutes you feel (and smell) like you’re sitting next to a chlorinated swimming pool which is considerably more pleasant than rancid sewer gas.

My theory about why this tends to happen most often in the afternoon is that when people start coming home from work and school the plumbing starts getting used more often than in the morning hours and hence the belches. I’ve also noticed an interesting correlation between the frequency of the belches and a large, obviously used plumber’s snake that sometimes sits outside the front door of our building – not right in front but within site..

When we first moved into the apartment last August, I noticed the snake was there and at the time didn’t think too much of it. At the time no belches were emitted – the pipes must have just been snaked pending our arrival. Eventually the snake disappeared. In late fall and right now in March the snake has reappeared and I’ve noticed that the belching has been much more infrequent. I’m guessing that when the blockages in the pipes reach (literally) a critical mass the snake is hauled out to remedy the problem. The times between uses are roughly every 3-4 months so the maintenance guys must store the snake away until enough residents complain and then it’s brought out again.

The snake is right there by the door now, the belches are much less frequent at the moment which seems to confirm my original hypothesis. The bottom line: Tying new, modern, sparkling plumbing fixtures into old worn out Soviet-era pipes and sewer lines is not a old idea…less expensive, but still not a good idea…

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