Move to St. Louis!!
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- gramme
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the follow-up, however you're about a week late in responding...we had a haz-mat situation in our basement (gallons of raw sewage erupted from our basement drain during the storm that night). We contacted MSD at 9:30 on the 22nd, they said they would send someone out ASAP. Apparently "ASAP" for them meant 2 AM. They claimed they were unable to give us an ETA. It became abundantly clear that the city sewage staff is seriously understaffed and poorly organized. I called three times and got the same runaround; the dispatcher told me his team had no phones and thus there was no way I could find out when they would arrive at our house. I was under the impression that they would send a city-contracted plumber, which is why I stayed up late waiting for them. At around 2 AM I heard a truck in my alley. I ran out and asked if they would come in to check out our problem. They informed me that was not their job. They checked the sewage main and claimed there was nothing wrong there, that the problem was with our plumbing and that we had to get our own plumber. No one had informed me of this protocol before. I called the MSD dispatcher back; he did not apologize for the situation.
We had a plumber come out early the following morning. They cleared the clogged pipes but wouldn't touch the basement situation. Long story short, we had to clean it up ourselves. It turns out that our storm drains, kitchen and bathroom (including sewage) all go to the same pipe in our house. I have been told by our plumber that this is not up to code. No wonder we had a backup – the sudden storm flooding the downspouts, the ground was already wet, and when you throw in some standard-level sewage we had a mess on our hands. It seems this situation is very common in older homes in the city. The old houses just get grandfathered in, while new construction is required to separate storm, sink/shower and sewer water. I don't expect the city will ever attempt to rectify this and bring everyone's plumbing up to code, due to the astronomic expense.
I tell you all this to let you know that we were seriously disappointed by the city's delayed, unprofessional, uncourteous and irresponsible system. I have been telling everyone I know how poorly the city handled this situation. Is this seriously what I pay taxes for??? MSD knows they have me in their pocket like it or not, and so they obviously don't care about customer service or prompt action.
What exactly do we pay you people for? I've been all over the country, and never have I seen such an ass-backwards municipal system.
No need to follow up on the haz-mat problem, my wife and I cleaned up the shit ourselves.
Matt Steel
- duckofrubber0
It's always good to see our 1% tax in action. God bless this city. Of course, we do have the cleanest drinking water in America, so drink up?
And I too own a grandfathered old home in the city, and I'm just counting the days till I get to discover ankle deep sewage in my basement. Hopefully later rather than sooner...
Good luck sir and give em hell.
- mrdobolina0
SewageToday
- blaw0
On the other hand, you could live around here where they do force you to bring that exact situation up to code, at a cost of $4,000-$8,000, like it or not.
Believe me, I'm sympathetic to your situation and completely understand why you are upset. You are, however, pissed at the wrong people.
- So who should I be mad at? The people who laid the pipes 85 years ago? Seriously, any ideas?gramme
- If a pipe breaks, or a wire shorts, or the roof leaks, who do you blame? You just take it on the chin and move on.blaw
- But isn't the city partially to blame for being lax with plumbing codes? STL is seriously unionized, you'd think they'd be a bit more vigilant.gramme
- ...they'd be a bit more vigilant.gramme
- gramme0
Yeah, I suppose at the end of the day it's something of a first-world problem...maybe the only people I have a legitimate gripe with are the sewer people for their horrible service. Even then, I know they aren't responsible for the home plumbing situation in this city. Thankfully, our home warranty will cover most of the cost of repair.
I know a guy in Mexico City who witnessed an entire section of road collapse to reveal a cave where a massive, very old sewage main had burst. He, an engineer and several other people were bathing in hundreds, maybe thousands of gallons of crap as they brought in sandbags to hoist the pipes back together. It took them something like 12 hours to fix the pipes. In places like that, there is no municipal system to begin with.
- j_red0
gramme, that's the one of the drwabacks of having an old home; along with the 'charm' you also get old wiring/plumbing etc. We just moved into a 1906 home, we could have bought new and it would have been cheaper and less problems, but it comes with the territory i guess. i guess i don't know how it feels to have your house full of sewage....sorry to hear that.
- gramme0
true dat...
Maybe I should look at this as pre-diaper training. I guess I passed, since I managed to not puke while shovelling up the scatological evidence after the water went down.
- mrseaves0
gramme, I can sympathize- we had the same problems this summer... we live in the stl hills area. Happy new year to you and welcome to the joys of homeownership!
- Point50
I've never had sewage in my basement, but did have flood in my basement in UT once. but it wasn't from rain, it was because some asshat farmer up in he hills above my neighborhood left his irrigation system on. Well, the drainage pipe for a lot of the farms up there happened to run right down thru the property that I was renting. There was some blockage in the drainage pipe just past my property, so it backed up into my yard and put 4 ft. of water into my basement (this house was built in 1896). I was in college at the time and no, I didn't have renter's insurance. So I started making phone calls and found out about the origin of this drainage system and the whole irrigation deal. The lady from the county office basically told me "good luck with any of the farmers admitting to having left their irrigation pipes on; and if you do find out who did it you'll need a lawyer."
So basically, I kissed about $3000 worth of comics and football cards away that night. Such a rookie mistake by someone who had never lived in a house with basement before.
- Point50
what I meant to say was:
that sucks gramme. I've been thru something similar, but not with sewage. Maybe you should look into getting some estimates on something that would prevent it from happening again?
good luck.
- leetv0
I lived over on Shaw.. loved it, rough neighborhood with beautiful homes. I thought it would improve. It never did and it never will.
I had so many problems with the city it was ridiculous. Move out of the state of misoury.
Best thing I ever did was move.
- skwiotsmith0
Born and raised in STL, (though I now call the Twin Cities my home). Now that I don't live there, I love going to STL, but hell if I'd ever move back there again.
Oh, yeah, and that STL tap water is fantastic.
- PonyBoy0
eh... St. Louis...
... MEH... St. Louis.
*** begin "let's get a bit off-track"
:D Your story is a story I've heard MORE than once when I lived there. My old bosss' son used to live in his basement... (his son was also my boss... and a complete ass at that)...... same thing happened there... and fucked up allllllllll his lil Dockers and what I like to call 'reliving the glory years' mementos from when he was an NCAA kicker (football)... EVERYTHING... RUINED! tehehe... thank God too... the dood was leaning down the Al Bundy path of life.
*** end "let's get a bit off-track"Sorry for that cruddy situation there, gramme (no pun intended)... I hope it works out, man.
:( & :)
- gramme0
mrseaves, where in STL hills do you live if you don't mind me asking? We live on Lisette, between Macklind and Kingshighway.
We love the neighborhood, it's safe and relatively quiet. I am nevertheless toning down my warm feelings about cool old houses. Not as cool as I once thought.
At least we didn't have 4 ft. of water down there...that's ridiculous, Point5!
- mrseaves0
yo. I live by mom's deli on Lansdowne. I love stl hills. It's city and suburban all at the same time. Cool old houses are awesome if you have the cash to update the old crap. (we don't) So about once every few months something goes wrong. Don't think I'd have it any other way though.
um yeah. 4 ft is crazy. I would have moved.
- I live right around here as well. Nice area. Bad plumbing.duckofrubber
- skwiotsmith0
'hills'? Are you talking about The Hill? Lived in STL for 19 years and never heard of anything called the 'hills'...
- gramme0
St. Louis Hills is the area south of "The Hill" proper, or the Little Italy area of STL. The area is south of Columbia, north of Gravois. Bartolino's is on The Hill. Da Baldo is in St. Louis Hills. The new Schnuck's @ Chippewa is in St. Louis Hills.
- skwiotsmith0
Alright. Shows you how often I got into the burbs...
- gramme0
It's not exactly the burbs though. That whole area is within St. Louis city limits (hence South City). There are a lot of houses but it feels like the city imho. Chesterfield is burbs. Echkk. Gimme city or country. Blow up the rest.
- Rather, how long it's been since I lived in STL...skwiotsmith
- hahagramme
- they are blowing some up as we speak (hwy 40)mrseaves