Friday, December 26, 2014

Hair clog in the bathroom sink

Do you ever wonder why the bathroom sink drain clogs with hair? On the pages of my site, <Plumbing-geek.com>, I talk about the drains that are plumbed in iron pipe and how that kind of pipe tends to accumulate the hair that goes into it. The question is though, unless you are washing your hair in the bathroom sink, why does it have hair in the drain?
My 1935 house has a large main bathroom with a vintage cast-iron pedestal sink. The sink has it's attendant lit mirror but the bathroom also has a built-in vanity with it's own lit mirror. I brush my teeth at the pedestal but I brush my hair at the vanity. Because I don't brush my hair over the sink the sink does not receive hair and the drain does not clog with it.
Most bathrooms are smaller than mine but placing a second mirror anywhere else and using it to care for your hair is going to have a relieving affect on the amount of hair that goes down into that iron pipe, causing you to deal with that unsavory job.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Ear Worm

I was setting up to work yesterday at a relatively new client's home. They had done an expansion that involved two bath remodels and a new bar sink. It was going to be a full days work at the least. No sooner did I get going than I noticed that the young housewife was humming as she worked. It was a Billy Joel song that I recognized and after a few moments it occurred to me that I was receiving an ear worm from her brain to mine. Her task for the day, aside from caring for her young son, was to wipe sheetrock dust from a hundred different surfaces. She would be working in my area the entire day and she was humming and humming the same song. Ugh!
I kept thinking, 'turn on the radio, turn on the radio.' and what do you know, she did! It was a little countryish but what the heck, it was a different tune. A few tunes later though what do you think came on the radio? That's right, it was the Billy Joel song, the very same tune. 'That's weird,' I thought. Then back to songs I didn't know for a few selections and again that BJ song. 'That is not a radio is it?' I asked myself rhetorically. The ear worm was weaving a nice fat cocoon by that time.
This went on for so long that I think she realized it was becoming noisome and turned the machine off. I couldn't figure out what device she had been playing. Sandy suggested it was an iPod when I told her how my day had gone. "I could get more songs on an iPod while falling down a flight of stairs!" I remarked at the time.
In any case she had finally tuned off the incubator. What though do you think she began to hum and sing to fill the silence? Ack!!!

Brian  12-20-14