Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Jul 26, 1999 04:08am | #8

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   I have a new slab in which plumbing drains have been placed. The dumb ass concrete man let concrete get into some of the drains, not a lot but enough so that I'm afraid the drains wont work. I wonder if there is some kind of chemical such as muriatic acid that I can pour into the pipes to clean them out.? I'm sure someone has had this problem, does someone have any suggestions or comments?

1. 
   Guest_ | Jul 23, 1999 04:50am | #1

   *Arrowshooter,Don't waste time talking about it, open the covers, reach into the ones you can and clean them out. Pay special attention down into the traps. Don't bother with the chemicals unless you want to accidentally reroute your lines.Try getting a snake into the lines to make sure that they aren't block down the line. Better to fix now than later.Gabe

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   Guest_ | Jul 24, 1999 05:24am | #2

   *Arrowshooter, Call the concrete plant , they use an acid wash to clean up the trucks or they can point you in the write direction . If your drains are PVC the acid should not harm them.

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   Guest_ | Jul 24, 1999 06:51am | #3

   *hindsight is 20/20 but the dumb ass plumber should have taped or capped all his plumbing lines to keep this from happening. this is standard operating procedure for all good plumbers.

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   Guest_ | Jul 25, 1999 01:31am | #4

   *Acid won't hurt plastic pipes. The quicker you can get the acid in, the better, as the concrete sets up quickly. Might want to add some baking soda to neutralize it downstream as you flush it out with water.Some of the rotory de-rooters now have video cameras that can investigate the pipe from the inside. Maybe they can also take pictures for evidence if needed later.

2. 
   Barry_Allaire | Jul 25, 1999 05:29am | #5

   *I would agree with brian. The plumber should have protected his work. On my jobs , he would have to fix it or pay to have it fixed. Ihave found that it has usually been quiker find the obstruction with a snake or stiff wire & preform surgery with a jack hammer & replace pipe as necessary Any obsrtuction can cause serious problems later. I try to avoid as much potential liabilty problems like using acid unless all else fails.

3. 
   Guest_ | Jul 25, 1999 09:30am | #6

   *Just this year, the twenty plus year old shell of a never finished Holiday Inn was finally torn down at the local interstate interchange. The story I was told on it is that the owner ran out of money and that a lot of workers did not get paid so they poured concrete down the drain lines.Rich Beckman

4. 
   Guest_ | Jul 25, 1999 10:31pm | #7

   *Thats interesting Rich , about three years ago we were building a resteraunt next to a new Holiday Inn Express where they were just pouring the slab when two very pissed off plumbers came screeching up and bailed out with garden hoses . They ran around shoving the hoses down all their floor drains trying to wash them out . It seems they had taped all their drains but the dumbass concrete guys had scraped the tape off with a power screed and didnt realize it till they had about two thirds of the pour screeded .The next day they were out with concrete saws cutting out the drains that didnt get washed out quick enough . That was just the first of several screw ups on that job . Watching that thing go together I decided I wouldnt want to sleep there , especially on the ground floor . Chuck

5. 
   Guest_ | Jul 26, 1999 04:08am | #9

   *Amazing.Rich Beckman