California Targets Private Property With Latest Water Well Fees, Charges: Report

[MossRoad]

My other favorite tool...

4" sink plunger with 8" handle.

 

[California]

That barbed plastic snake goes down easily through the slots of a shower drain.

 

[cqaigy2]

Yup, i use those plastic snake tools and small sink snakes too.

 

[ultrarunner]

Water savings in reality can shift costs… often thousands of times higher than the water being saved.

It really comes down to simple math which is beyond some head of households.

Drips are not emergencies requiring after hours dispstch.

Just Labor Fsy I had a series of calls demanding s plumber come out now.

The shower head drip could fill a gallon container in 3 hours… just say 10 gallons in 24 hours at 2 cents a gallon is 20 cents of water which isn’t even wasted if repurposed.

A dollar’s worth of water is a problem that can wait but try explaining that to a renter.

Slow bathroom basins are now regular occurrence…

If you are not going to run the water spit in the toilet or waste basket.

Most drains only require a flow of hot water to clear but water down the drain is another problem.

Nearly 40 years managing rentals is a good primer on tenant lifestyle caused problems… how the same unit can have $400 heat bill with one and $60 for another or one has mold everywhere and subsequent have zero mold, etc…

and this doesn’t even get into pouring grease down the kitchen sink or wipes down the toilet…

 

[California]

Nearly 40 years managing rentals is a good primer on tenant lifestyle caused problems…

and this doesn’t even get into pouring grease down the kitchen sink or wipes down the toilet…

I just can't see this topic and not reply!

Remember Skat abrasive mechanic's hand soap? For you kids, like Lava soap with a high percentage of granite sand. I had to teach a low-IQ tenant how to disassemble and clean his kitchen sink trap after I couldn't get him to stop putting it down the kitchen sink. All the time. The abrasive is too heavy to flush down with running water. Or the time two women's boyfriends finished their sentences and moved in with them - terrorizing my other tenants. Like Ultrarunner, I could relate tenant stories for days.

Ok that's way back when I was journeyman Carpenter and bought rentals to clean up and operate. Operating them paid for grad school where I learned financial analysis, and realized selling the cleaned-up rentals and carrying the buyer's loan was a simpler way to earn passive income.

Fast forward 30 years and it was a stretch to buy out sister's half of this orchard when settling Dad's estate. So I rented the guest cabin here to college students to help restore my depleted savings. After a few years of wonderful tenants I got blindsided. A woman who was an author, not a student, and who hadn't disclosed that why she wanted to spend a year away from the city was: to not be distracted by scary men while she wrote the definitive Lesbian Women's Separatist Manifesto. You can imagine how that year went. I have gotten along great with the several female couples in the neighborhood, we share canned fruit etc, but this tenant was a nightmare. She would jump out of her skin when she saw me go outdoors. Starting the tractor terrorized her. One time a neighbor and I continued a conversation for a long time because she wouldn't walk past us back from the mailbox. She made it clear she didn't want me here. At the same time when I was away from the ranch, home in town, she would write me thoughtful letters about how her book was coming along, as if I were someone she trusted. In summary weird and half. The rising stock market restored my savings, so I haven't rented since that strange tenant experience.

 

[ultrarunner]

It does provide a glimpse behind the curtain of the inner workings of households…

I had one tenant become very upset because MY gardener was always doing work at the rental across the street.

She was very demanding and no noise could be made before 10am or if she was tired but the first to complain if leaves had not been swept.

Anyway the Gardener was related by marriage to the across the street renters as the bother of the Grandmother in Law.

When I said he is their uncle she said do I look stupid to you… see Great Uncle Albert is 100% Chinese and both rental families African American…

As to water it often comes down to who is paying for it…

You know you can get free heat running the landlords hot water through an old radiator might and day… seen it happen.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Apparently my employer switched to low-flow aerators to conserve water a year before I got here. Now we have multiple calls per week about slow running/clogged sinks for just what you mentioned... there's not enough water flowing down the drain to clear soap, toothpaste, etc, from the trap. Combine that with hair or razor stubble getting caught on the device that lifts the stopper, and you get a coating that reminds me of the texture of egg whites in over-easy eggs, but it's black goo coating the pipe, stopper, and it also builds up to the point the overflow is most likely plugged as well. Disgusting. But, it saves water. Costs them plenty to get them cleared so often, but it does save water.

I've found that these mini snakes can be purchased in bulk and can be reused dozens of times.

https://www.menards.com/main/plumbing/drain-cleaning-tools/plumbing-snakes-augers/gt-water-products-mini-drain-snake/dkms/p-1444431963544-c-8514.htm

And small sink plungers if that doesn't work.

After that, call the plumbers.

True that. I pulled the flow restrictors in the bathroom sink and always drain at least half a bowl of warm water when I shave. If the water just dribbles through the pipes the deposits close it off. You have to flush it.

 

[joecoin]

We tend to take for granted up here, the abundance of water we have. Heck, I can go out back and drive a point 15 feet and hit good water plus I'm 15 miles from lake Erie.

Me too, Erie County Ohio. Never a well problem in 40 years, except when my pump went bad.

 

[MossRoad]

I just can't see this topic and not reply!

Remember Skat abrasive mechanic's hand soap? For you kids, like Lava soap with a high percentage of granite sand. I had to teach a low-IQ tenant how to disassemble and clean his kitchen sink trap after I couldn't get him to stop putting it down the kitchen sink. All the time. The abrasive is too heavy to flush down with running water. Or the time two women's boyfriends finished their sentences and moved in with them - terrorizing my other tenants. Like Ultrarunner, I could relate tenant stories for days.

Ok that's way back when I was journeyman Carpenter and bought rentals to clean up and operate. Operating them paid for grad school where I learned financial analysis, and realized selling the cleaned-up rentals and carrying the buyer's loan was a simpler way to earn passive income.

Fast forward 30 years and it was a stretch to buy out sister's half of this orchard when settling Dad's estate. So I rented the guest cabin here to college students to help restore my depleted savings. After a few years of wonderful tenants I got blindsided. A woman who was an author, not a student, and who hadn't disclosed that why she wanted to spend a year away from the city was: to not be distracted by scary men while she wrote the definitive Lesbian Women's Separatist Manifesto. You can imagine how that year went. I have gotten along great with the several female couples in the neighborhood, we share canned fruit etc, but this tenant was a nightmare. She would jump out of her skin when she saw me go outdoors. Starting the tractor terrorized her. One time a neighbor and I continued a conversation for a long time because she wouldn't walk past us back from the mailbox. She made it clear she didn't want me here. At the same time when I was away from the ranch, home in town, she would write me thoughtful letters about how her book was coming along, as if I were someone she trusted. In summary weird and half. The rising stock market restored my savings, so I haven't rented since that strange tenant experience.

Another reason I never became a landlord.... watching my grandparents deal with weirdos, thieves, abused/abusive couples, and the occasional nice old lady that would die in the apartment after 12 years of no problems.

 

[5030]

Another reason I never became a landlord.... watching my grandparents deal with weirdos, thieves, abused/abusive couples, and the occasional nice old lady that would die in the apartment after 12 years of no problems.

Took us a bit of trial and error (and some money in repairs from crappy renters) to get to where we are now. 3 good sets of renters that treat our properties with respect.