During our recent bathroom renovation we discovered that the wallpaper wasn’t the only problem awaiting repair. Over the last few weeks we dealt with a plumbing issue that finally wrapped up a few days ago — and it wasn’t pleasant. We’ll spare you the graphic photos, but here’s the full story of what went wrong and how it was fixed.
When we first bought the house the inspector and we noticed a small dried water stain on the living room ceiling directly beneath the upstairs bathroom. It was narrow, only a few inches across, and long dried, so the consensus was that it had been caused by a toilet overflow years ago. We weren’t worried: a little primer and paint would hide it, or so we thought.
That fall the toilet began to clog intermittently. At times, plunging would push water backward into the shower — a clear, gross sign that something wasn’t right. The backups didn’t always involve the toilet; sometimes the shower or sink would back up after a shower or shave. The incidents were sporadic enough that we debated calling a professional but decided to wait until we remodeled.
Then one backup proved immune to plunging.
***PHOTO OMITTED TO PROTECT YOUR DELICATE RETINAS***
In the course of aggressive plunging I inadvertently created a fresh water stain on the ceiling below; the force of my plunging had compromised the toilet’s wax ring and allowed water to leak again. That prompted us to call a plumber. He removed the toilet, ran a 150-foot snake, and pulled out what he described as years of paper buildup deep in the lines. We breathed a sigh of relief — problem solved, or so we thought.
One week later the shower backed up again while I was filling a tub for a steamer during a wallpaper-removal session. Between the mess of stripping paper and the foul-smelling shower, frustrations were high. The first plumber’s work hadn’t permanently fixed the issue.
When the next plumber arrived he listened to the history and offered a hypothesis that required cutting a hole in the ceiling to confirm. It turns out the bathroom’s plumbing had been installed incorrectly when the house was built more than 30 years ago. The main drain pipe was sloped the wrong way — effectively uphill — so gravity couldn’t move waste and water away. Instead, water pooled in the line and eventually backed up through the lowest fixture: the shower.
The permanent solution required opening the ceiling further, removing and replacing the misaligned drain, and even swapping out a load-bearing joist so the pipes could be installed at the correct angle. This wasn’t a DIY job; it required professionals. Though it wasn’t enjoyable to have our house torn apart, we were relieved to finally address a hidden defect that had caused decades of trouble.
The crew completed the repair in a day after returning for the full job, and while the bill was painful, the underlying problem was fixed. With the plumbing sorted, we could return to our bathroom update. As a small bonus, removing the toilet revealed a swatch of wallpaper hidden behind it — an odd little discovery that gave us a chuckle later on.
After the plumbing work was finished, we still faced a large hole in the living room ceiling. We debated repairing the drywall ourselves — a process that involves taping, mudding, sanding, and often repeating until the finish is flawless — but smooth ceilings are unforgiving and any imperfection would bother us forever. So we hired a local drywall professional recommended to us.
He patched the ceiling flawlessly in a few hours for about $100 and even cheered us up with some kind compliments. Now we only need to prime and paint the repaired area to complete the restoration.
Update: A few readers asked whether our home warranty would have covered this. Our warranty had lapsed before this problem surfaced, and even if it had been active it likely wouldn’t have covered an existing condition that had been present for decades rather than a sudden failure that occurred after we moved in.
Unplanned repairs like this are never welcome, especially when we’d rather spend money on visible improvements. Still, it’s a relief to have the issue solved and the house put back together. As always, homeowner life continues to present new challenges — we’re already dealing with another midway-solved issue — but these experiences remind us we’re not alone. If you have your own plumbing or home repair war stories, we’d love to hear them.
Psst — the “Volume Two” tag in this post references an earlier leak lesson we learned at a previous home. The best part about that one was that we handled it ourselves, at no cost.