Friday, March 16, 2007

The Poo Pipe.

We're getting between 20 and 25 centimeters of snow by Saturday night. So, once again I'm worried about the poo pipe.

What's the poo pipe, you might ask? Don't worry - I won't have to drink a barium milkshake to show you.

The poo pipe looks kinda like this. Except it's only about a foot tall and there's no spaceship on top and no pneumatic tube beside to send messages to aliens.

Plus, in case you were wondering, poo doesn't really come out of it. Or - into it as far as I know.

The poo pipe is located on our rooftop terasse. It's for the whole building, but it's in our private deck portion. So, I guess that makes the poo pipe ours.

Genesis of the name. When we had the inspector come through before we bought this place, he told us that pipe is basically where the air pressure escapes whenever you flush your toilet. The woman who lived here before us had a metal garden chicken sculpture sitting on top of the poo pipe. He said that was a bad idea. The poo pipe air chute must remain free of debris. Sometimes, you can see air come out of the poo pipe when it's cold. But it doesn't smell like poo. It just looks like breath might on a chilly day.

Which brings us to this weekend's snowfall.

It could likely bury the poo pipe. This has happened before. We had lots of snow. And at first, the snow drifts all leaned away from the pipe and it continued happily huffing air into the sky, all chimney-like. But more snow came. And inch by inch, I watched the top of it disappear under a heap of white. And then no air came out.

And I couldn't undig it because there was 3 feet of snow, blocking the patio door. So, every day I'd check on the poo pipe. Helpless under the avalanche. Unable to cough out any air pressure.

Corn said, "Just leave it. It will be fine".

And it was. But what happens if the poo pipe gets buried again? Where will the toilet flush pressure go? Back through the pipes in reverse? Will my toilet explode?Will my neighbour's toilets explode? If they only knew that 2 dimwit non-handy, first time homeowners were the custodians of their toilet pressure.

Oh well. Wait and see. Churn on, little poo pipe. Churn on.

p.s. I wrote "poo" 15 times. Oops, 16.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Puff away little poo pipe!

Carry an umbrella and you will be fine.

Keep smilin!

Anonymous said...

Doncha hate when your poo pipe gets blocked?

Just use a broom handle to flush the toilet, and stand waaay back. And if you dump a double-flush load, DO NOT flush while still sitting on the john. (Heh-heh. John is Milky's and JB's first name.)

OMG! I hope the poo pipe for the new building I'm moving into is on my patio ("patio" being Ontarioese for "terrasse").

JB said...

Very nice. I'm pretty sure the little stinky air bits will be able to escape through the snow, but if your poo pipe freezes over, you might want to get out there with a blow torch.

Anonymous said...

DOH! I meant I hope the poo pipe ISN'T on my patio.

Anonymous said...

The poo pipe on your patio is likely the air intake. If you don't have air behind your water, then it takes forever for your water to flow.

Kinda like when you try to dump water out of a bottle, it takes a loooooooooooong time. However, if you drill a hole in that bottle, the water is gone almost instantly.

The air coming up from it is a reaction to the vacuum being created when water is flushed. There is plenty of ways for air to work it's way through the snow and your poo pipe will be fine.

One of the Holmes On Homes episodes has them doing a rooftop deck reno and finding a poo pipe under the existing deck. They were mortified to find it there because there are gasses in that pipe that you really don't want to breathe. Mr. Holmes also said that someone with a cigarette, or using a BBQ could have been dangerous.

I'm not sure that your pipe is the same as both your drain and your water intake require vents on the outside. The one for the drain is where the poo gasses are, the water intake vent is gas-free.

Milky

N@ Lauzon said...

I KNEW MILKY WOULD HAVE A HOME RENO MAN EXPLANATION!

yay! And thank you for it. :) So, does that mean i have a water intake vent, then?

I love that you said 'poo pipe' throughout your response like it was the standard term.

Anonymous said...

- Yes I'm a geek.

- Yes I used "poo pipe" as a standard term (soon to be an Astral term??)

- Yes you two poo pipes! You have water in, and water out on your sink, and your tub... each has a pipe. One gives you pressure for your incoming water, and the other exhausts poo gases and other nastiness from your drain pipes.

Milky