Lovely. Contractor working on my house discovered that the drain pipe we hooked the new bathroom and laundry up to about a year and a half ago doesn't actually go out to the main drain in the street--it just drops into the crawlspace instead. The drain pipe was hooked up to an old half bath and laundry before I bought the house. Apparently whenever it was initially installed they just decided that hooking up the drain<-from end but not the drain->to end was the right way to go.
I've actually had two sets of contractors in the crawlspace since I bought the house. One was installing a bigger return vent for a bigger AC unit. The other was putting in insulation under the floorboard and also insulating the pipes to prevent freezing (necessary since the amount of heat leaking down from the house interior was being cut by the added floorspace insulation.) At the time the half-bath wasn't being used at all and I was living alone so laundry was run every week or two, so I guess there just wasn't much to notice. Now the replacement bath and shower are the only usable ones in the house and laundry is run 2-3 times a week.
The contractor thought he could fix the problem but it looks like it's going to involve cutting into galvanized pipe which isn't something he's quite as comfortable with. Plus the crawlspace needs to be cleaned out. Plumber time.
ing gross.
