# What A Mess



## plbgbiz (Aug 27, 2010)

Yes, we do messy plumbing repairs. No, not this messy. Yes, that is cat poo in the coffee pot picture. Yes, you will fall through the bathroom floor if you step off that board.

Pulled our guy out and I told her she needed to get someone else.

A lifetime in the trade. I think this is the worst I have seen.


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## ironandfire (Oct 9, 2008)

I'd say thats a mental problem.


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## Unclog1776 (Feb 5, 2013)

Have only met one customer that I would truly brand as a horder and i walked the hell outta there just like you did but only after I moved a leaking garbage bag and saw a uncapped needed on the filthy carpet. Been paranoid about getting stuck ever since


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

I am sitting here eating a bowl of raisin bran and thinking how that poor lady needs help. 

I was sent to an elderly gentleman's home which was in similar shape. He had a cute little dog that was in a grocery cart. The man couldn't get out of his home. I immediately switched from plumber to good samaritan. I called a social service outfit and waited for a social worker to show {I was commission then, not on the hourly clock} and after she arrived, then I was able to leave. I was concerned about whether the man could even eat food on a daily basis. I remember asking him if someone came to bring him food.


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## plbgbiz (Aug 27, 2010)

Tommy plumber said:


> I am sitting here eating a bowl of raisin bran and thinking how that poor lady needs help.
> 
> I was sent to an elderly gentleman's home which was in similar shape. He had a cute little dog that was in a grocery cart. The man couldn't get out of his home. I immediately switched from plumber to good samaritan. I called a social service outfit and waited for a social worker to show {I was commission then, not on the hourly clock} and after she arrived, then I was able to leave. I was concerned about whether the man could even eat food on a daily basis. I remember asking him if someone came to bring him food.


Good idea Tommy. I'm going to make a call Monday morning. She needs help, just not help I can provide.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2008)

Seen quite a few hoarders. Y'all are good men to contact someone. It is sad and disturbing . 
Well done Fellas !


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## Will (Jun 6, 2010)

How do people get to that? That's rough


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## plbgbiz (Aug 27, 2010)

Will said:


> How do people get to that? That's rough


 Who knows Will. Must be some mental issues. This lady can't stand her own mess so she spends most of her day sitting in her car. But yet she is unable to clean anything or throw away anything.


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## dclarke (Dec 22, 2012)

I had a call when I was a helper years ago. Not a hoarder but obvious that something wasn't right. We called social services and the office got a call from someone in the guys family. They were pissed. What do you do when 3 toilets are clogged and he's called other plumbers who all ran away because it was so nasty. He had literally 20+ general closet augers around the house. He drew a check on a piece of notebook paper and filled it out before writing a check.....like I said obvious issues. I've been in some bad ones but he's the only one I've felt like we needed to call someone. I remember the secretary telling us before we went that he described why his toilet was clogged. He " took a dump truck sized $hit" among other description.


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## Best Darn Sewer (Dec 23, 2012)

Edited.


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## Best Darn Sewer (Dec 23, 2012)

I have been to my fair share of hoarders houses, also. I have worked on them plenty. Those who live like that are mentally ill. I can't get angry about it. I wear gloves and don't touch what I don't have to. 

Two times in 15 years have I declined service due to unsafe/unhealthy conditions. Once was not that long ago. The house had a notice of eviction on the front window and a large 20' long dumpster in the driveway. I knew I was getting into something bad when I saw that. There were workers cleaning the house. It was a middle aged woman living there. I assume she received the eviction notice and now her family was helping to clean it up so she wouldn't have to move. I can only assume it was about as bad as the house where Biz took pics from before they began to clean. 

What shocked me was that none of the workers were wearing any PPE. NOTHING!! The HO showed me some of the major leaks and issues that needed addressing. IMO the house needed leveling. All of her carpet had already been torn out. There were random holes in the wall. She had a leak under a lav sink that had been there so long that the mold had become a part of the cabinet and was multiple shades of orange and green. I told her I would need that cleaned thoroughly before I do anything. I was trying to get out of doing the work politely. She asked one of the workers to address it and he said that's as good as it will get. I just flat out said I can't. It is waaaaay too unhealthy. 

Anyways, she had monstrous cock roaches everywhere. Many dead but most were very much alive. They were crawling on the walls and ceiling. Her master toilet had about 10 dead roaches in the tank and the flapper had melted onto the flush valve from years of neglect. Her ceiling fan blades had dirt dobber nests on them and were sagging due to too the humidity and I assume the A/C didn't work. There was about 20 years worth of cobwebs everywhere. I spoke with her while she sat on her bed as 2" long roaches crawled up her wall behind her bed. They were also crawling over my head on the ceiling. Suffice it to say, it was bad.

She asked how much it would cost to fix all her plumbing issues and I had to tell her I just can't. It was just too unsafe. What I did do was go get my shop vac and suck all of the dead roaches out of her toilet tank and replace the flapper and lever so she could use her toilet. I felt sorry for her being she was clearly very sick and IMO people deserve to have a functioning toilet. Hell, even on Maslow's hierarchy of needs the ability to rid yourself of waste was the most basic of needs. I didn't charge her for fixing her toilet and apologized but I just couldn't do any more. I have worked at AIDS clinics and many many disgusting places but not there. 

The second time I refused service was at a housing project and gang members were there. I carry thousands of dollars worth of equipment. I'm not taking them off the truck when the tenant tells me his name is "Shooter" and he has a mouth full of gold with prison tattoos on his stomach that he made sure to show off to me. His buddies were all standing around my truck after I pulled up. There was a woman in the house who was beating what looked to be her 8 year old. There was suspicious white powder on the floor and tons of ants inside the house. An old man was just sitting on the couch hollering and cussing to whatever ghosts he was seeing. I called the company that managed the property and said, uhhh no. I explained the situation and the child abuse going on and they called CPS. I gave them my name and a statement. The property manager decided after me speaking with her that the $200 a month they make from the place wasn't worth it and they were going to drop it. Apparently I wasn't the first service man to refuse work there. My only thought was "Is that poor kid better off in the system or in that house?" I don't know but I had to do something. That was in the worst neighborhood of Houston called Sunnyside. Look it up. Its a rough area.


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## Unclog1776 (Feb 5, 2013)

Our local **** hole neighborhood is called sunny side too!


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## Best Darn Sewer (Dec 23, 2012)

Unclog1776 said:


> Our local **** hole neighborhood is called sunny side too!


Haha. That's interesting. The name would suggest such a pleasant place to live. Our MLK boulevard cuts right down the middle of the neighborhood. A lot of rap artists come from that part of Houston. I have made a lot of money in that area but not at that housing project.


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## SlickRick (Sep 3, 2009)

BDS, I guess you know where Gunpoint Mall is. That is where I processed going to Iraq.


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## SlickRick (Sep 3, 2009)

I have seen my share of roaches and hoarders. 2 sisters saved every newspaper since 1940, there was just pathways to walk through, they were stacked to the ceiling. A fire waiting to happen.


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## Best Darn Sewer (Dec 23, 2012)

SlickRick said:


> BDS, I guess you know where Gunpoint Mall is. That is where I processed going to Iraq.


Indeed I do. I have done a lot of work in that area, too. Of the two I would say that Sunnyside is worse.


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## Pacificpipes (Oct 1, 2013)

Just finished a clogged drain/stalled disposal at a hoarders house. I showed up she stated she's on fixed income, amazon boxes everywhere. She had a drain king disposal no center Allen wrench socket took me a half hour longer than usual while she ate popcorn watching Real life on MTV. 6 dogs 3 cats that I saw. Smelled worse than any drain I've opened.


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## Best Darn Sewer (Dec 23, 2012)

SlickRick said:


> I have seen my share of roaches and hoarders. 2 sisters saved every newspaper since 1940, there was just pathways to walk through, they were stacked to the ceiling. A fire waiting to happen.


Man, I have seen similar. The first hoarder's house I ever went to was owned by a woman. The first visit I just diagnosed the issues but had to walk over a roughly 1-1/2' high pile of papers and stuff. She said she will make a path and to come back the next day to do the work. The next day there was a 1' wide path thru the hallway to the one restroom with papers and anything else you can imagine stacked up about 2' high on the edges. Her living room was filled up to about 6' high. That was early in my career and then first time I had ever seen someone who lived like that. Those shows like "Hoarders" weren't on yet and all of that was so foreign to me. I had never seen that before but just took it in stride and did my job.


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## Plumbersteve (Jan 25, 2011)

My father in law is a hoarder. We have learned much about the disease. Easiest way to put it is this: they don't necessarily feel attachment to things and they aren't lazy(well some probably are). They keep things around because of the crippling anxiety they would experience if they threw them out. We tried and tried to help him clean up so many times. One time, he was invited on a weekend trip and we got a 20 yard roll off. We filled it beyond capacity. You couldn't even tell. When he came back, he was super pissed. He went through the house in a rage looking for stuff. And we didn't throw out anything that wasn't trash. 

Well, needless to say, they needed many plumbing repairs over the years, which I did for free. But, as it got closer to the end, I wasn't able to do anything. They had a hydrant that was leaking for probably three years. It was running under the mulch bed and getting into the basement under the foundation. Nobody even knew it was happening until they moved out and started finding the floor. So many good items were ruined. 

After his wife left, he squatted in the house for another year. When we knew he was going to get the boot, we went in there looking for valuables and keepsakes. Like photo albums and home movies. We found one VHS of a home movie he had taken on a weekend in the late 80s. I edited and scored it like a documentary and gave copies to the family for Christmas. 

One crazy thing I found at the bottom of a pile in a closed off "storage" room was his class ring. I thought that was kind of crazy. One thing that had intrinsic value and sentimental value and it almost got tossed with a few tons of rotting fruit, animal waste, animal carci, torn clothing, broken furniture, undiscarded packaging materials and ****.


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## Best Darn Sewer (Dec 23, 2012)

Plumbersteve said:


> My father in law is a hoarder. We have learned much about the disease. Easiest way to put it is this: they don't necessarily feel attachment to things and they aren't lazy(well some probably are). They keep things around because of the crippling anxiety they would experience if they threw them out. We tried and tried to help him clean up so many times. One time, he was invited on a weekend trip and we got a 20 yard roll off. We filled it beyond capacity. You couldn't even tell. When he came back, he was super pissed. He went through the house in a rage looking for stuff. And we didn't throw out anything that wasn't trash.
> 
> Well, needless to say, they needed many plumbing repairs over the years, which I did for free. But, as it got closer to the end, I wasn't able to do anything. They had a hydrant that was leaking for probably three years. It was running under the mulch bed and getting into the basement under the foundation. Nobody even knew it was happening until they moved out and started finding the floor. So many good items were ruined.
> 
> ...


That is really cool that you did that for him. From what I have gathered about the illness is that it is similar to any addiction in that they are trying to fill an internal emotional void that is intangible and are using tangible items in an attempt to fill it. 

One last quick story that yours reminded me of: I had a customer once who was an older woman with emphysema was also legally blind. She wasn't 100% blind because she could read with a small led light when she held it very close to her eyes, but blind enough to be disabled by it. She had an elderly friend who helped her and looked after her as best she could. Her house had become pretty nasty due to neglect but she wasn't a hoarder though she had a floppy ear rabbit as a pet which I found odd. 

After I finished what I was doing we chatted about things for a while. I could tell that she was somewhat lonely and just wanted to talk to another person. When I first arrived she apologized about the mess and I gave my typical response of "I am not here to judge you, only to fix your plumbing." 

While we chatted she again apologized for the condition of her house and explained that she didn't always live like this and used to keep a very neat home...and followed that with "'Course I wasn't always blind either." That statement made me realize that I can't judge how people live or choose to live because I don't know what they've gone thru. I am there to fix their plumbing and hopefully give them peace of mind.


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## Richard Hilliard (Apr 10, 2010)

Tommy plumber said:


> I am sitting here eating a bowl of raisin bran and thinking how that poor lady needs help.
> 
> I was sent to an elderly gentleman's home which was in similar shape. He had a cute little dog that was in a grocery cart. The man couldn't get out of his home. I immediately switched from plumber to good samaritan. I called a social service outfit and waited for a social worker to show {I was commission then, not on the hourly clock} and after she arrived, then I was able to leave. I was concerned about whether the man could even eat food on a daily basis. I remember asking him if someone came to bring him food.


Good post Tommy this is a great reason to network in order to have people that can help your customers. I am constantly putting people together. Recently I put a wills and trust lawyer that has a lady that works with the elderly with a customer of mine that is 94. I have been working with her since the mid 90's. 2013 she was sold 3 ac units, this will not happen again to her.


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## plumberpro (Jan 1, 2013)

I just did a water heater at a hoarders house floor to ceiling junk she said sorry so many times she hasn't had hot water in over two years you couldn't see the kitchen sink or counter about five feet deep with empty containers papers there was nowhere to sit in the house she said she didn't know where to start tole her there are companies out there that help with this type of thing she said can't let her things go


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