Gross. Not how I wanted to spend my Saturday night!!

[lupo pazzesco]

I'm a guy, so I have to solve the problem rather just offer condolences!

It's probably just the trap under the sink full of crap. A knife or a stir stick goes down the drain, other stuff gets hung up, and they next thing you know the sink backs up.

That's all well and good, but how to FIX it? I'm not exactly talented with tools or anything, so I'm not sure what you mean. And with my luck with repairs, I'd ruin the whole damn thing.


Bathroom stuff is all ok. I checked. It's just my kitchen plumbing that's fucked all to hell.

[the_std]

The easiest way to check for clogs - unbend a wire hanger and use one of the ends to poke down the drain. But if it's coming out your dishwasher, this likely isn't your only problem. But it's definitely worth a try!

[MannersMakethMan]

I don't think anyone could blame you for getting a bit annoyed since nothing seems to be happening from what's supposed to be an emergency line.

I second the baking powder/vinegar idea if there's no standing water, else maybe a pipe cleaner/metal hanger/knitting needle or similar might be enough to shift the blockage if it reaches. If not, then there's probably not a great deal more to be done, and you'd be best off having a lie down until they finally come.

It might seem like things are all against you now, but just think of all the good things you must be due for another time. They will come. Good luck!

[BookstoreEscapee]

Someone had a sig...I think it went, "Everything will be OK in the end. If it's not OK, it's not the end."

[lupo pazzesco]

I ended up calling a grand total of 6 times over the course of about 3.5 hours. No response from emergency maintenance at all. I also called the emergency management line twiced. Still nada, zip, zilch.

I was able to prepare breakfast this morning, but I couldn't use my kitchen sink, or load the dishwasher. The water did eventually drain, but the random particles and crap in the bottom of the sink were enough to make me want to lose said breakfast. And the thought of that crap lingering on my floor...ugh

I managed to mop everything up, off the floor and get the excess water out of the dishwasher. When the office opens today in about an hour, they will get phone calls from me. Repeatedly. And I wll get an explanation as to why I was ignored, when, essentially, I can't use any water in my kitchen for fear of my sink and dishwasher backing up again on me and flooding my kitchen once more. The dirty dishes are everywhere...and the traces of slimy crap in my sink make me die a little inside. I ALWAYS keep my kitchen clean and this is just weirding me out.

I'm also exhausted. I stayed up until 2 a.m. in the vain, vain hope that maybe, just MAYBE someone would at the very least call and acknowledge me, but no go. I didn't sleep well either, worrying that my sink would erupt again or the phone would ring and I wouldn't hear it. So I'm going on very little sleep here, which only serves to make even crankier than I was last night.

[lupo pazzesco]

Grrr!!!

Four calls. FOUR. in the last 2.5 hours, roughly. IT was confirmed that this is, in fact, a maintenance emergency. But the asst man at the office keeps calling the maintenance man and he keeps swearing up and down he's coming, he's coming, but nothing. For two and a half HOURS. The asst manager finally told me she called the property manager, and that SHE will start calling maintenance.

I just want my kitchen fixed.

There will be a complaint lodged with the customer satisfaction line. See if there isn't. The office closes in a little over an hour, and I won't be home before then. So, if I have to start dealing with afterhours emergency maintenance line again, SOMEONE is going to pay. (I sound like a total SC/EW but at this point, I'm really not caring. I'm pissed.)

[Aethian]

The only difference Dear is that you are NOT a SC/EW. You had an emergency and the apartment complex let you down big time.

[lupo pazzesco]

Aw, thanks Aethian. <Snugs>

Well, i got home from work tonight and hallelujiah, there's a notice on my table, saying they fixed everything. Granted, they didn't CLEAN anything, so I spent a good hour or so on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor. I wanted it CLEAN, and a Swiffer wetjet just won't do it for me. And I just finished running a load of dishes in the diswasher, so it does indeed look like everything is fixed.

I am, however, going to still make a complaint, just to inform the head company what kind of shenanigans the maintenance crew pulls in supposed emergencies. I won't turn EW and demand any kind of compensation, but I do want the situation addressed, if only to spare some other poor sap the crap i went through.

[SG15Z]

yay good to hear it got fixed sooner than the air conditioner did. And definitely complain. Hopefully it will keep this from happening to you again.

[telecom_goddess]

I just want to add my story...it's not really sucky cause my apartment complex came through and it ended up way better than it could have.

Easter Sunday....early afternoon out of NOWHERE the damn spout on the toilet tank pops off, and guess what folks it's a pressure valve. So I now have water shooting out at a high rate of speed, can't get the valve back on there for nothing until the water is shut off. On Easter Sunday....no maintenance, no office, no idea where the main shut off valve even IS. So I call 911 and the emergency maintenance number, we eventually get the fire department and maintenance dude out there...they eventually get the water shut off and a new valve on. By now my bathroom is a lake....with every towel I own jammed up against the doorway, and still 1/3 of my hallway and living/dining room area SOAKED. I mean walk on the carpet and it squishes in an unpleasant way. But once the valve and toilet were fixed/replaced/re waxed etc and the main lake sucked up by the fire department...the apartment people sent over a carpet cleaning crew with a nifty device that is designed for floods...and sucks up the remaining water out of the carpet...so it's about as damp as it would be after a cleaning. Plus they put some stuff on it to prevent mold and it's doing ok so far, even if the sub flooring is warped now .

All in all it turned out ok...I had the now disgusting bathroom cleaned and the last the of towels washed and dried by about 9 pm, and the carpet in a livable if damp condition. Nothing of mine actually got damaged thank god.

But yeah I never heard of that valve just coming off like that before...and it turns out that a coworker of mine had that happen, and it turned out much worse for him since it ran all day from an upstairs bathroom....flooded his whole house