An Arkansas homeowner got far more than he bargained for while trying to figure out why his kitchen sink wouldn’t drain. After crawling beneath his nearly 100-year-old home, he gently pressed on a cast iron waste pipe, only for his finger to punch straight through it, sending water pouring into the crawlspace.
Reddit user AdKey9344, the homeowner, shared a video of him attempting to repair the sink’s pipe on r/Wellthatsucks. His stunned “Oh my God” reaction made it clear he hadn’t expected the decades-old cast iron pipe to give way with almost no pressure.
Watching the water gush into the cramped crawlspace immediately struck a nerve with Reddit users, many of whom said the situation looked like every homeowner’s worst nightmare.”Every man’s worst nightmare,” one commenter wrote.
Others said being trapped in a cramped crawlspace while water poured from a broken pipe was the most unsettling part of the video. “There’s nothing like being under a house and nowhere to run when the water hits the fan or ground or you or everything,” another user commented.
Several viewers admitted they wouldn’t have known where to begin if it had happened to them. “I genuinely would be so lost and terrified in this situation,” one person wrote.
The ordeal also reminded many why plumbing is a skilled trade. “There’s a reason why plumbers make so much money,” another commenter joked. Fortunately, viewers soon learned there was one important detail the video didn’t reveal at first.
The Arkansas Homeowner Turned Out to Be a Plumber and Fixing the Broken Pipe Was a Breeze for Him
In response to a commenter criticizing OP for messing around with the underground pipes, the Arkansas homeowner revealed that he wasn’t just some amateur. “I’m a commercial plumber; I got it fixed in about an hour. It was a clogged drain line, not a water line,” he responded promptly. He said a quick trip to Lowe’s gave him everything he needed to complete the repair.
For anyone who didn’t believe AdKey9344, he shared a time-lapse video in the comments of his successful repair. The homeowner later explained that the nearly 100-year-old house had passed through multiple owners over the decades, leaving behind aging cast iron plumbing that had finally reached its breaking point.
