things you find when you pull a toilet up

[Bob10]

?????

I was being paid. And cleaning that mess was the job.

you charged a habitat house?

[K. L. McReynolds]

you charged a habitat house?

A lot of the staff was paid.

No, they hired me to do repairs and punchlist problems. The back log was to great, they could not get all the issues fixed with volunteer labor---and some of the issues were not volunteer friendly---as in this example. I actually worked for them doing this job for almost 6 months, 5 days a week.

[petertay15]

When things wouldn’t flush well, and everything at the stool had been tried, we finally called to septic pumper to see if the problem was at that end. They took the lid off the septic tank and pumped it out. Then while it was still open, they asked me to flush the toilet while they watched through the open lid. When the water from the flush came down the line, there was also a loud “plop” as something fell into the empty tank. They fished it out. It was one half of a large bath towel! WHAT? Must have been a child who did it, but how did a half a towel even get through the stool?

[Bill Wilson]

And what happened to the other half? 

[mouse jockey]

We bought a house in a rural area where no one knows what a permit is. Master bathroom toilet was loose and occasionally leaking septic tank gasses into the house, pulled the toilet found the flange was shot. Pulled the flange and found folded newspaper used as a spacer!
Someone actually put newspaper in a potentially wet environment as a spacer!!!
Everything we've touched after that has been similar, cut the framing/studs to install a medicine cabinet in an outside wall. way too many to list.

[BrokenOlMarine]

We use the same septic service to pump our tank(s) as needed.  We have lived here for twenty five years, they have pumped us out two or three times.  They pumped the rental we owned when we bought it, and when we sold it. They also pumped the father-in-laws place a couple times over the years.

A couple things we learned from watching... 


-  Tenants don't follow the rules. 
  I was shocked, shocked I tell you.  The contract clearly stated no feminine products were to be flushed.  None, nada, no how, no way.  When he popped the cover on the tank for the rental... a solid layer of them lay atop the scum layer. 
  Shocked.  If she hadn't already been evicted... 



-  The fragile foam, scum layer can support weight.  Our guy got a call regarding a large heirloom ruby ring accidentally dropped and flushed.  Popped the top, there it was on the top of the scum layer. He carries a long handled retrieval net, but you get just one quick shot.  Position the net then push it right under the target.  Touching the layer causes it to collapse.  Anything that doesn't float, sinks.  He rescued the ring, and many other items, but has missed a rolex and an antique pocket watch.  Unlike the folks on BONES he won't don a hazmat suit and climb in the pumped out tank for your lost items.