Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by sonick

LMAO I thought this was just my dad, is this a common thing old people do?!

It drives my mom nuts. My dad has assembled a bunch of old, useless exercise equipment in my old room that he doesn't even use that he all bought on FB. He'll go out to Langley/White Rock to go pick up something if he thinks it's a good deal ignoring the fuel cost or the uselessness of the thing he bought.

[blkgsr]

Originally Posted by 68style

Any of you guys have experience with building drainage?

Starting about a year and a bit ago... a couple of first floor units in my building flooded. Huge insurance claims. The blame was from the strata not the units, backed up drainage pipes in the parkade supposedly was the cause... they started bringing in companies to come in and do some kind of cleaning thing on the sink drains, etc.

Through the woodwork I heard about 1 other unit flooded. 1 of them was so bad the people didn't live in it for almost a year and the entire unit was rebuilt inside basically.

Fast forward to yesterday night, hear lots of commotion outside... and 2 units near me, 1 unit away and then the one next to them... they're all running around with buckets... residents tell me that suddenly the bathtub and toilets just started filling up with water and overflowing, can't stop it even turning the water off. Obviously there's more problems than just the kitchen sinks.

I'm sitting here 1 unit over and nothing happened here, but I'm like fuck am I next? Has anyone ever heard of this before? Ironically like 1 hour before this happened I was sitting here calculating how much I could rent my place for if I moved out and whether it was worth it to do that or just sell the place and definitely leaning toward renting it... but wow this definitely gives me pause.

your unit could be on a different branch of the sanitary system which is was the kitchen and bathtub drain into. there's a blockage somewhere down the line of their branch before it hits the main line or another branch line. could be in the standpipe or horizontal run.

they need to find the blockage and snake the line

[Hondaracer]

People probably flushing a bunch of shit they shouldn’t but really shouldn’t be backing up to that degree especially if it was recently fixed

[sonick]

Originally Posted by supafamous

It drives my mom nuts. My dad has assembled a bunch of old, useless exercise equipment in my old room that he doesn't even use that he all bought on FB. He'll go out to Langley/White Rock to go pick up something if he thinks it's a good deal ignoring the fuel cost or the uselessness of the thing he bought.

Oh haha you mean on marketplace.

My dad gets targeted by FB ads for random made in China disposable gadgets and electronics like sketchy knockoff smart watches lol.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

People probably flushing a bunch of shit they shouldn’t but really shouldn’t be backing up to that degree especially if it was recently fixed

You are making the assumption that they found the actual problem, and took the correct measures to fix it instead of "it works now, pay please"

[whitev70r]

Should ban seniors from FB ... .

Low tech IQ, FB, scams ... bad combination.

[Mikoyan]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

People probably flushing a bunch of shit they shouldn’t but really shouldn’t be backing up to that degree especially if it was recently fixed

Parents condo strata had a notice up to stop flushing fish heads down the toilet.

Another time someone dumped some type of detergent down. Enough that there was sewer foam bubbles 15 floors up overflowing from the tubs and toilets. Shittiest bubble bath ever lol.

[Hondaracer]

Fish heads lol Jesus Christ

[Qmx323]

My building has had notices for

- Garbage juice in the elevators
- Dogs pissing in stairwells
- People putting junk in disposal room (Old TVs, lounger, etc)
- Someone was disposing of soup/stew by dumping in their garden (first floor unit)
- Gentle reminders that parking lines are to be parked within and the problems that can arise when people start parking inappropriately.

My personal favorite (In Toronto though)

- Pedestrian walking by building was hit in the head by a large peeled onion.

[Traum]

I agree with EvoFire on how the problem may not have been properly resolved during the last time when it was "fixed".

Now this didn't happen in a strata property -- it happened within the last 2 - 3 years at my parents' detached house in East Van. Drainage from the basement shower stall would occasionally have water backing out from it and make a small mess. It was never bad enough that anything actually spilled out of the shower stall. Eventually they hired a plumber to auger / drain snake it through the pile, and that saw some temporary improvement. The plumber was actually not convinced the problem was solved, and between him and my parents, they were sensible enough that they hired City Staff to clean and scope the drainage pipe as well. It turned out that not only was there partial blockage in the drain pipes, they were also partially cracked / ruptured just before they reached the City's pipeworks. Because it was still within the boundaries of our property, we had to pay to have someone dig up our yard, re-lay some new drainage pipes in, and reconnected the new pipes to the City's. It wasn't cheap and it was definitely an expense we weren't expecting.

Funny thing was, at least 3 other houses on our block saw a similar issue within the same year, although my parents' place was the first one.

I dunno how it'd translate into your strata property's situation, but I suspect it might be useful for your strata to hire City staff to look into checking the drains too and go from their? Their equipment is supposed to be very comprehensive.

Originally Posted by EvoFire

You are making the assumption that they found the actual problem, and took the correct measures to fix it instead of "it works now, pay please"

Originally Posted by 68style

Any of you guys have experience with building drainage?

Starting about a year and a bit ago... a couple of first floor units in my building flooded. Huge insurance claims. The blame was from the strata not the units, backed up drainage pipes in the parkade supposedly was the cause... they started bringing in companies to come in and do some kind of cleaning thing on the sink drains, etc.

Through the woodwork I heard about 1 other unit flooded. 1 of them was so bad the people didn't live in it for almost a year and the entire unit was rebuilt inside basically.

Fast forward to yesterday night, hear lots of commotion outside... and 2 units near me, 1 unit away and then the one next to them... they're all running around with buckets... residents tell me that suddenly the bathtub and toilets just started filling up with water and overflowing, can't stop it even turning the water off. Obviously there's more problems than just the kitchen sinks.

I'm sitting here 1 unit over and nothing happened here, but I'm like fuck am I next? Has anyone ever heard of this before? Ironically like 1 hour before this happened I was sitting here calculating how much I could rent my place for if I moved out and whether it was worth it to do that or just sell the place and definitely leaning toward renting it... but wow this definitely gives me pause.

[Hondaracer]

One of my top recommendations if anything ever happens within yoir home/unit and they have to start opening up walls or digging stuff up

Take pictures! Take as many pictures as you need

There’s so many times where I’ve opened a wall or even when I built my basement suite and I took like zero pictures. Now it’s a huge headache to pull wires, locate things

[Eff-1]

A couple weekends ago we had a sewage backup in a ground floor townhouse. Literal poo was coming in from the toilet and the shower.

They snaked the pipe and discovered a blockage from people flushing tampons and things down the toilet.

And so literally the next day I had to type a notice to residents saying stop flushing things down your toilet except for toilet paper.

That's the second ground floor unit that I know of that's experienced water backing up because of a blockage in our strata and we're only 3 years old.

[The Producer]

Originally Posted by Eff-1

A couple weekends ago we had a sewage backup in a ground floor townhouse. Literal poo was coming in from the toilet and the shower.

They snaked the pipe and discovered a blockage from people flushing tampons and things down the toilet.

And so literally the next day I had to type a notice to residents saying stop flushing things down your toilet except for toilet paper.

That's the second ground floor unit that I know of that's experienced water backing up because of a blockage in our strata and we're only 3 years old.

That's why JDMDreams flings his trojans out the window

[JDMDreams]

[donk.]

If they have not put a camera down the drain yet, there is your problem.....

Camera down the drain = 500$ max.
Insurance claim = 25k minimum.

Snaking works 90% of the time, but if it's a repeat issue:
-someone is dumping shit down the drain that they should not (usually in Richmond from personal experience) like some said above
-drain not sloped properly
-something catching on the inside of the pipe, and 1000 flushes later it's fully built up and clogs

We have some buildings where we annually clean the horizontals and verticals, just because strata knows some people don't give a shit and keep throwing fish heads, dirty panties, bags of rice, or what have you down the drain

An annual notice sent to all building owners (and renters) reminding the ONLY thing down the drain should be shit and toilet paper goes a long way

[Hondaracer]

If they snake a camera down something can they provide you with the footage?

I’m kind of interested in getting my drain tile snaked but I’d be curious as to what it looks like inside as opposed to having someone just jam a snake down and say it’s clear

Also donk don’t know if you’ve ever run into this scenario but can you snake UP from a sump? Or does it have to be down from the highest point

[donk.]

If they can't provide you the footage, they are using old equipment.
At minimum you can watch them on the screen, call in advance and ask. If they say no, get a different company.

My house in Regina has the main failing, roots growing in, in several places. For 400$ it's cleaned and camera'D, then I get new video sent to me by email. Then back billed to the city, since it's on the city side lol.

Sometimes we need to snake upward, because of no access to units, or a specific scenario, so yes. Just make sure your ready to catch x stories worth of blockage, and don't be looking up the hole lol.... One poo shower was enough for me

[Manic!]

For way less than the cost of hiring someone to shove a camera down your toilet you can one. The chest ones use your cellphone as a screen and the more expensive ones come with a screen. You are looking at $20 to $100 for one.

[donk.]

Originally Posted by Manic!

For way less than the cost of hiring someone to shove a camera down your toilet you can one. The chest ones use your cellphone as a screen and the more expensive ones come with a screen. You are looking at $20 to $100 for one.

I use to flip those on Craigslist for 50-100$ profit a pop
10-30$ off eBay, sold locally for 70-150$ lol
Then someone caught on, and started undercutting me, then they got undercut and eventually some dude was making 10$ profit

The problem with those, is it's like trying to put a wet noodle down the drain, those are good for like 1-2m of distance, tops. Furthermore, the screen drags on the shit and is not made for dirty shit pipes

To get 5-20m in, you need a fishtape to go with it, or just pay the dam plumber, the one time in your life that you are going to use it

Edit:
Wait isn't this the real estate thread, and here I am filling it with shit. Quick someone post a shitty house or condo

[Hondaracer]

I just wanted to look through my drain tile not the sewer

[carsncars]

Originally Posted by Qmx323

My building has had notices for

- Garbage juice in the elevators
- Dogs pissing in stairwells
- People putting junk in disposal room (Old TVs, lounger, etc)
- Someone was disposing of soup/stew by dumping in their garden (first floor unit)
- Gentle reminders that parking lines are to be parked within and the problems that can arise when people start parking inappropriately.

My personal favorite (In Toronto though)

- Pedestrian walking by building was hit in the head by a large peeled onion.

Things residents in my building have flushed/rinsed down the sink and caused blockages, and now we get periodic reminders NOT to flush/rinse - in order of increasing ridiculousness:
- Fats/oil/grease
- "Flushable" wipes
- Condoms
- Tampons
- Rags
- Kitty litter (??)
- Golf balls (???)

[headhunt3r]

A toilet does seem like a good chipping target.

[Tapioca]

What's wrong with people? It's shocking to hear the lack of common sense these days.

[Badhobz]

You guys live in proximity of others ?!? How horrifying

So I come back from my trip and my fuck face Neighbor decided to put a very long wooden stick (looks like trim on the bottom of the fence or something) that’s sticking out from the side of his house leaning on our mutual fends and intruding into my “air space”.

So I took a saw and now half that stick is on the ground on his side. Fuck you

[carsncars]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

What's wrong with people? It's shocking to hear the lack of common sense these days.

Oh I have many more stories from my strata. E.g. 2 separate instances over 1 year of units flooded (causing damage to units below) due to people hanging laundry off their fire sprinklers (????).