I know little too, very little too almost nothing about plumbing issues. However, I know that I’ve got one. About a year ago, I removed the small bathroom, vanity and sink and faucet, trying to replace it myself, and have never gotten it done correctly. I gave up at some point and just left the water shut off off and stuffed some plastic wrap into the pipe to seal the hole off and that’s it.

There’s a sink in the toilet in that little bathroom and now I’ve recently been hearing water running and have decided it may be coming from beneath my toilet or under the floor of that bathroom, which is right off of the front door as you enter. There is a faucet outside exterior faucet I mean. It is a shared outdoor spigot between the adjoining townhome. I am a center townhome unit sandwich between two other units. That faucet is not in good shape. I don’t know if it has anything to do with what’s going on with my plumbing, but thought I’d mention it.

There was a mystery leak last year in the neighborhood which my incompetent homeowners association decided to hire the slumlord who rents the place next to me to get a guy with no license to backhoe the entire front yard up looking for a leak. They didn’t find one it turned out. It was a few houses away, and then they just shoved all the dirt back into the front yard and never tacked it down properly and ever since then my sidewalk has been falling apart, and the front porch is sinking. When I bought the townhome in 2018, I was in @#$%& who had never bought a house before and was leaving a shitty marriage and let the realtor completely screw me and convince me not to have a homeowners inspection and so, many things were badly camouflaged as being OK, but they weren’t and year by year things discontinued to get worse and worse and I don’t know what I’ll do with all all the problems that it’s got but anyway, the plumbing is the issue today. The other thing I’ve noticed is that there’s no water pressure in the house, it doesn’t matter if you turn hot or cold on or both at the same time it’s kind of a very low trickle. I mean, you can fill a large water glass, but it takes about three minutes at full faucet open.

Back to the little bathroom in the kitchen off the front door, I did turn the water off to the toilet at the tank as well as at the sink, cold and hot valves that would be underneath the sink itself if you know what I mean. My dad put in a new water heater for me about six years ago, which I didn’t think I was having any issues with, but maybe that’s related? I don’t have access to the meter readings for the water because it’s a shared meter between four different units in a section and that belongs to the homeowners association who has that information and they don’t speak to me because I quit paying my dues years ago because they have done nothing but ignore the association rules and have done more to ruin things and ignore serious problems in their condominium community. I’m single, in debt, and don’t really have a money to put a @#$%& ton of cash into trying to improve things around here. I’m hoping just to live here long enough to find a way to live somewhere else. I may end up here forever, but at least I can say I tried.

I’m writing you guys to ask for your assistance in troubleshooting what could be causing or where I can locate the source of this running water. I also wanna know if not having that bathroom sink pipes capped off properly if that is causing me any problems other than potentially some kind of rodent coming up to the pipe at night or something. I don’t know how to maintain drains and I haven’t any idea how to handle like basement drains, there’s a shower down there that is never used in the pipes have long since dried out because I didn’t know you were supposed to flush them with water and keep them wet until last year or so sometimes I remember to put water down there, but I mostly forget.

I’m a little scared of how much is wrong but I could sure use some guidance as to where to begin here and with winter setting in I’m worried about pipes freezing and blowing up, etc. I’d sure like to take a shower is less like being on a campground standing under a giant bag of water with a hole punched in the side with a pencil. At least I have water right? Sending my huge thanks in advance for any one who’s willing to put a tow in the cesspool that I have just thrown at ya. Thanks so much - appreciate your help.

You don't have to keep on putting water in a drain. You can put in antifreeze [www.thisoldhouse.com] Don't pay dues for a few more months and the association will foreclose and it'll be their problem. People aren't poor because they don't have money; they don't have money because they're poor.



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