Ever head of a Cottonwood Root Viper??
They are one scary beast! Known to grow up to fifteen feet long and three to four inches in diameter!
Remember this photo of the tree roots that had grown into the toilet drain plumbing??
Ya – yucky!
I decided to get to work on that drain plumbing and started by getting a bunch of angles & adapters so I could finagle a line that worked it’s way from the new toilet location, around the heating vent, and to the existing drain pipe.
I really didn’t want to cut the existing pipe until I knew I had what was needed to make the change. Doing so would result in my working toilet being unusable – it’s connected to the same drain pipe.
So… once I was convinced I had what was needed, I carefully cut the drain pipe without cutting the roots. I wanted to leave a good length of them so I had something to grab onto.
That worked just swell and I started pulling. To my surprise, it only took a bit of tug. Instead of a thin line of roots coming out, a huge cottonwood root viper slithered out.
I was SHOCKED!!
GROSS!!!
It was pulsing with life and really stunk!! Imagine this thing growing in your toilet plumbing!!
YYUUUCCCKKKKK!!!!
That thing got flung out the back door immediately after snapping a photo!
It’s three inches in diameter and over four feet long!!
After a bit of time to recover from the shock, I went back to work on the plumbing.
Nothing exciting or terribly interesting, I just glued my plumbing contraption together and made sure it sat in the right place.
The toilet ring is not installed yet because I don’t know where the floor will be!
What??
Yeah… back to the floor needing to be leveled – everywhere in the house…
That’s some viper!! Did you pull it out by it’s tail… or head? Sewage plumbing ought to be quite smooth with that root removed! After a wet-cold winter here in Ohio we’re beginning to experience signs of Spring coming. I’m hoping the Muskingum River recedes early… looking forward to more canoeing than last year. If so… I’ll get help mounting the Tohatsu to make a few distance up-stream runs.
Great question!! I’m not sure – to be honest. I was so freaked out and in a hurry to let go that I didn’t really notice which end I had in hand!! 🙂
Appears my comments do not make it onto your blog most times. This is attempt two. Myself and my brother are amazed by that Cottonwood tenacity
Sorry about that Tom. I didn’t see anything this time but occasionally a comment gets marked as spam. I’ll try to keep a closer eye on that.
Yeah – that thing is pretty crazy!