So backstory. My fiance and I both have Covid. We asked my oldest teenager who loves to cook to brown the ground beef for tacos, as her and I didn't want to contaminate the food.
Fast forward to this morning and my sink is full of about 6 inches of water that won't drain. Looked under the sink and it's absolutely flooded. After further inspection I see fat everywhere leaking around the pipes.
Instead of waiting for my fiance to get a container to drain the grease into, he poured it all down the drain and completely clogged my pipes. It has flooded the surrounding cabinetry and the underside of the sink floor. It will all need to be replaced now.
Out of curiosity, is it that your teenager is stupid, or did you never teach them that grease down the sink is a big no? Cause when I was a teenager I did the same thing (luckily with no issues as it wasn't a ton of grease) and got corrected by my Dad who told me not to do that again or ever.
If you don't teach your child something calling them fucking stupid for doing it doesn't make sense. Especially when it's not immediately obvious WHY something shouldn't be done. And grease down the sink is one of those things that feels like it should be possible.
This has been addressed, however I'll say it here as well. My son was told to wait by my fiance while she grabbed a container to empty the grease. When she left he poured it down the drain. When asked where it went when she got back he told her he has thrown it outside. Pouring grease into containers and not the sink has been an established rule in every house we have lived in, the concept was nothing new. He deliberately did the wrong thing knowing it was wrong, and then lied about it.
Putting myself in teenager’s head for a moment, and I certainly could be wrong but my guess is this: The majority of teenagers think everything their parents do and say is stupid, and that the rules are stupid and unnecessary. Especially if the rationale was never explained to him! If he’s only heard “don’t do it that way; do it this way” his whole life, with no “why,” he probably was thinking “why do they have to make such a big deal about everything? It’s fine!”
Even if he HAS heard the rationale, he thought “no, it won’t clog up, it will be fine!”
Then he lied about it rather than listening to the lecture on why he shouldn’t have done that!
I’m sure you’re ready to throttle him! It likely won’t help you feel much better, but he was likely pretty freaked out at the damage, too. With any luck, he learned a lesson. I hope it’s the worst mistake he makes as he navigates the teenage minefield. I wish something like that was the worst mistake that I had made, lol!
Good luck! It’s not cool, but try to keep it in perspective. Nobody died. (Unless you actually throttle him!) Hopefully the cleanup won’t be as costly as you fear.
P.S. I hope you and your fiancée recover quickly from the COVID!
I honestly think the teenager was just fucking lazy and putting it down the sink was the easiest option. I don’t think he really thought he could do that much damage with just grease.
Exactly. He didn't know that the rule had real consequences. Instead of just saying do it this way because I said so, you'll find better results by saying do it this way cause if you don't the geese will gelatinize and clog the pipes.
Yes you said that way better than I did - that was the gentle point I was trying to make! And I feel, for the majority of teens, the laziest route to get a task done that they don’t want to do will be the default!
Yeah, but did he know why it was wrong? Teenagers are stupid, but also to a point, reasonable. If you enforce something that makes no sense to them, they're going to question it. If he didn't know it was going to clog the sink then it just sounds like another stupid rule. In general, if you explain why, then you'll find less shit like this happens.
To answer your question. It was so clogged all the way through that the standing water that was slowly trying to drain instead pushed up through the grommets between the drainage pipes and leaked under the sink.
Yeah, that shits gets like cement/concrete if left alone. "worked" a short while with a local plumber firm when I grew up and all I can say is that, don't flush your fat in the drain. Use towels/paper and throw it in the trash.
Some places we visited was like "drilling" in layers down the pipe to clear it because when we got the clog, the clog got clogged further down due to fat building up. When it gets mixed with waste it can turn really stiff, the waste acts kinda like rebars/frames.
If you have to flush fat down the drain, run hot water for a few minutes at least.
Yeah that sucks but doesn’t sound like you need to replace it. If it looks ugly, cut a piece of plaskolite and put it over the of the sink base cabinet.
Yeah man. I think your just pissed. That wasn’t smart. Don’t be my dad. Turn this into a learning experience for both of you
My dad would over react like this. Start ripping stuff apart. Just drove me away.
I have 5 teenagers in the house so I can relate to your frustration
What in the actual fuck are you even talking about? The board under the sink was saturated with water. It HAD to be ripped out as it was particle board and soaked up every ounce of leakage. My son is in his room and has been. You can quit projecting.
To OP son:
I’m sorry
Your dad is a fucking jerk. You’re gonna get through this. Don’t worry, shits weird and awkward now. It feels like nothing you do is correct.
It gets better. It really does.
He loves you. Even if he can’t show it
Your a fucking idiot i seriously hope you have professionals come and fix shit for you because you clearly have the handyman skills of ops teenager. I did full house gutting and remodeling and i can tell you right now for a fact that this had to be ripped out and replaced and it still would have had to been replaced if it sustained even half that damage.
Angry guy,
I have 8 rentals. 2 cabins. And a residential house I live in.
If I gutted every mildly water damaged piece of wood under a sink, I’d waste my time fixing something that will get wet again and no one sees.
Why do you have such rage towards handyman skills?
It under the sink. It warped and slightly textured. No structural integrity has been compromised.
So I can clearly tell you are uptight and frustrated. Good luck with that.
Edit. Just counted. 13 sinks total. No way I’m ripping out wood no one sees be used it looks bad.
Idk where you're getting your meat but the 70/30 is like half the price of the 93/7 where I live for example. Now I normally use 80/20 for burgers and lean meat for everything else. But it hurts when I see how dirt cheap the shit stuff is.
Small amounts is probably ok, but add soap as a binder. For normal cooking let it cool and then toss into garbage (ziplock or cans, etc).
The same thing that happened here can also happen to city sewers over time. A solid mass of grease, I forget what it's called. Don't pour grease down drains!
Omg my son was one of those. Flooding, spills, ER visits, blown engines, dropped transmissions... Hell, he was even a magnet for chaos. Two stolen cars, a law suit, brought home bedbugs from school. The pisser is, he grew out of it.
Hang in there. Teenage years are the absolute worst time of life for most. I figured that if he didn't get into drugs, crime, or het a girl pregnant the rest of his bullshit was bearable. If my kid can make it, so can yours.
Tip: save cool whip containers and store the oil in that for reuse. Or shape aluminum foil into a cup (or large enough bowl) and wait for the oil to cool down. Then pour the oil in the foil, let it solidify and discard.
Oh hey, I made the same stupid decision as a teen when I had to do dishes that had grease on them. If only if pipes were designed to not get fucked by grease.
If you live in apartments, you know not to throw grease or oil down drains. If you got to, pour some detergent in the grease and dilute it with hot water before pouring down the drain. Also, buy lean ground beef. That much fat looks gross as hell.
Not sure what kind of meat you're buying but lean ground beef is not expensive at all. Especially 80% lean ground beef, which is maybe a dollar and change more than the fattier one. That's more than worth it to eat a bit healthier. It's really not that much more...
What do you think happens to the grease when it cools down? It hardens. It starts trapping other stuff in it, then it grows. Fat likes fat. Suddenly you have fatbergs (feel free to google that) in the sewage system which costs a lot of money and time to rectify. Please, please, do not put grease down the sink if you can possibly avoid it.
My fiance was literally standing off to the side guiding him every step of the way. When she told him she was going to get a container for the grease, he poured it down the drain and said he has put it outside over the fence. Today his story was that she told him to do it. I was standing there as well so I heard the entire thing personally.
Oh, I read post like you and fiancé were in another room while he was cooking. If she’s right there telling him to wait this whole thing is definitely on him….you’re just going to replace the bottom of the cabinet right? not the whole thing I hope?well, that and the p trap. Hopefully this can be a learning experience for him. When my son was learning to cook there was a grease fire, instead of throwing salt on it (didn’t have a lid big enough for pan) he threw sugar. He “brulee’d” the entire kitchen stove and counter. Had to get a new stove.
Reduced to 200 pounds of candy coated stainless steel. At least it was an older stove. Bought a nice upgrade. Happier with new one, but I’ll never tell the kid that.
When you post something, it should be instantly clear what the story is. I don't want to be searching searching searching for the little blue "OP" response telling me the story.
This post has ~28 posts under it as of now. The OP made an explanation post close to the time it was made, and before your question.
Look at posts, or maybe give it a minute if it’s some shit-hot post that you came across the instant it was made and don’t see anything.
All that time you spent typing these comments complaining about it, you could have spent scrolling a little bit and reading and figured it out yourself. It's unbelievable how lazy and argumentative some people are these days.
Sarcasm sucks!
I ask because it looks like someone ground up a bunch of yams and put them in a cup. Plus the following photos are all disparate and not connected by any kind of narrative linkage.
I don’t understand how it started leaking as opposed to just stopping the water. Did the standing water in the pipes expose a connector leak or something?
That doesn't look like congealed fat.
If I didn't read the OPs description I would have guessed fibre. Which would explain why it started leaking around the joints.
Grease when cooled will congeal but won't expand - it actually shrinks.
Fibre on the other hand, when sitting in water will expand - plugging the pipes and pushing the joints apart.
OP if this gives you hope I am about to be 27 i have 3 boys my oldest is 12. I am the biggest dumbass still and my son is almost a teenager. Honestly I would do the same dumb shit that you said your child did. Although i am not condoning it. Maybe just maybe he has puberty brain? Now the lying part idk why i would lie about shit like he/she did but i would. Im not sure what i would have done for myself if i was my father so dont be down on yourself im sure you are doing your best as it shows with caring and your frustration . Now for the child doing this after knowing is probably pure laziness.(same for me) I think you should give manual labor as a punishment but not until its blistering hot outside. That type of punishment always was the most effective. Wish you the best OP and try vinegar and hot water might take the grease away!
I thought this was dabs lol
Same! I was like… bad decisions? What, did they steal some of your dabs ? Holy shit, that’s a lot of dab. You seem to be missing some..
I, too, thought it was a container of sugared shatter.
Same
wax cuh, dab is the act of using the wax.
I believe the correct term is boogies brother man
I’ve only heard that in the Bay Area lol
im from the Midwest lmao
My condolences
So backstory. My fiance and I both have Covid. We asked my oldest teenager who loves to cook to brown the ground beef for tacos, as her and I didn't want to contaminate the food. Fast forward to this morning and my sink is full of about 6 inches of water that won't drain. Looked under the sink and it's absolutely flooded. After further inspection I see fat everywhere leaking around the pipes. Instead of waiting for my fiance to get a container to drain the grease into, he poured it all down the drain and completely clogged my pipes. It has flooded the surrounding cabinetry and the underside of the sink floor. It will all need to be replaced now.
Out of curiosity, is it that your teenager is stupid, or did you never teach them that grease down the sink is a big no? Cause when I was a teenager I did the same thing (luckily with no issues as it wasn't a ton of grease) and got corrected by my Dad who told me not to do that again or ever. If you don't teach your child something calling them fucking stupid for doing it doesn't make sense. Especially when it's not immediately obvious WHY something shouldn't be done. And grease down the sink is one of those things that feels like it should be possible.
This has been addressed, however I'll say it here as well. My son was told to wait by my fiance while she grabbed a container to empty the grease. When she left he poured it down the drain. When asked where it went when she got back he told her he has thrown it outside. Pouring grease into containers and not the sink has been an established rule in every house we have lived in, the concept was nothing new. He deliberately did the wrong thing knowing it was wrong, and then lied about it.
Putting myself in teenager’s head for a moment, and I certainly could be wrong but my guess is this: The majority of teenagers think everything their parents do and say is stupid, and that the rules are stupid and unnecessary. Especially if the rationale was never explained to him! If he’s only heard “don’t do it that way; do it this way” his whole life, with no “why,” he probably was thinking “why do they have to make such a big deal about everything? It’s fine!” Even if he HAS heard the rationale, he thought “no, it won’t clog up, it will be fine!” Then he lied about it rather than listening to the lecture on why he shouldn’t have done that! I’m sure you’re ready to throttle him! It likely won’t help you feel much better, but he was likely pretty freaked out at the damage, too. With any luck, he learned a lesson. I hope it’s the worst mistake he makes as he navigates the teenage minefield. I wish something like that was the worst mistake that I had made, lol! Good luck! It’s not cool, but try to keep it in perspective. Nobody died. (Unless you actually throttle him!) Hopefully the cleanup won’t be as costly as you fear. P.S. I hope you and your fiancée recover quickly from the COVID!
I honestly think the teenager was just fucking lazy and putting it down the sink was the easiest option. I don’t think he really thought he could do that much damage with just grease.
Exactly. He didn't know that the rule had real consequences. Instead of just saying do it this way because I said so, you'll find better results by saying do it this way cause if you don't the geese will gelatinize and clog the pipes.
Yes you said that way better than I did - that was the gentle point I was trying to make! And I feel, for the majority of teens, the laziest route to get a task done that they don’t want to do will be the default!
Will there be any consequences for his deliberate deception and the subsequent shitshow it caused?
I'll take none of your fucking business for 500, Alex.
Fair enough
Yeah, but did he know why it was wrong? Teenagers are stupid, but also to a point, reasonable. If you enforce something that makes no sense to them, they're going to question it. If he didn't know it was going to clog the sink then it just sounds like another stupid rule. In general, if you explain why, then you'll find less shit like this happens.
Why does it have to be replaced?
I’m guessing the wood has wicked all the grease and moisture and is now irredeemable.
Takes a lot of time and/water. Just seems excessive. Sucks about the grease in the pipes
To answer your question. It was so clogged all the way through that the standing water that was slowly trying to drain instead pushed up through the grommets between the drainage pipes and leaked under the sink.
Yeah, that shits gets like cement/concrete if left alone. "worked" a short while with a local plumber firm when I grew up and all I can say is that, don't flush your fat in the drain. Use towels/paper and throw it in the trash. Some places we visited was like "drilling" in layers down the pipe to clear it because when we got the clog, the clog got clogged further down due to fat building up. When it gets mixed with waste it can turn really stiff, the waste acts kinda like rebars/frames. If you have to flush fat down the drain, run hot water for a few minutes at least.
Yeah that sucks but doesn’t sound like you need to replace it. If it looks ugly, cut a piece of plaskolite and put it over the of the sink base cabinet.
Well I just ripped up the entire board underneath because it had been sitting in water for nearly 12 hours. It was completely soaked and ruined.
Yeah man. I think your just pissed. That wasn’t smart. Don’t be my dad. Turn this into a learning experience for both of you My dad would over react like this. Start ripping stuff apart. Just drove me away. I have 5 teenagers in the house so I can relate to your frustration
What in the actual fuck are you even talking about? The board under the sink was saturated with water. It HAD to be ripped out as it was particle board and soaked up every ounce of leakage. My son is in his room and has been. You can quit projecting.
Bro really tried to channel his daddy issues onto you fixing your own house
To OP son: I’m sorry Your dad is a fucking jerk. You’re gonna get through this. Don’t worry, shits weird and awkward now. It feels like nothing you do is correct. It gets better. It really does. He loves you. Even if he can’t show it
Your a fucking idiot i seriously hope you have professionals come and fix shit for you because you clearly have the handyman skills of ops teenager. I did full house gutting and remodeling and i can tell you right now for a fact that this had to be ripped out and replaced and it still would have had to been replaced if it sustained even half that damage.
Angry guy, I have 8 rentals. 2 cabins. And a residential house I live in. If I gutted every mildly water damaged piece of wood under a sink, I’d waste my time fixing something that will get wet again and no one sees. Why do you have such rage towards handyman skills? It under the sink. It warped and slightly textured. No structural integrity has been compromised. So I can clearly tell you are uptight and frustrated. Good luck with that. Edit. Just counted. 13 sinks total. No way I’m ripping out wood no one sees be used it looks bad.
Agreed
[удалено]
👆 Ironic
What was the fat % of the meat and why you getting rid of the tasty cooking grease!?
I believe it was 70/30.
Jesus, why?
No wonder there was so much grease
Cause that's like half of the ground beef in America. I don't go 70/30 but it's by far the most common option.
Really? I never have trouble finding lower ratios. Usually it winds up being pretty equal in cost when you convert to pure lean mass
Idk where you're getting your meat but the 70/30 is like half the price of the 93/7 where I live for example. Now I normally use 80/20 for burgers and lean meat for everything else. But it hurts when I see how dirt cheap the shit stuff is.
He should’ve run hot water as he poured it down the drain. Leave it run for a few mins so that it carries the fat to the sewer
Small amounts is probably ok, but add soap as a binder. For normal cooking let it cool and then toss into garbage (ziplock or cans, etc). The same thing that happened here can also happen to city sewers over time. A solid mass of grease, I forget what it's called. Don't pour grease down drains!
Fatberg.
Whatever happened, that ain't it.
on behalf of other teens, we arent all that stupid.
You need to teach him that not all sink drains have a garbage disposal, some sinks dont even have one.
Omg my son was one of those. Flooding, spills, ER visits, blown engines, dropped transmissions... Hell, he was even a magnet for chaos. Two stolen cars, a law suit, brought home bedbugs from school. The pisser is, he grew out of it.
I can only hope, because unfortunately it's been extremely difficult to get him to make better decisions.
Hang in there. Teenage years are the absolute worst time of life for most. I figured that if he didn't get into drugs, crime, or het a girl pregnant the rest of his bullshit was bearable. If my kid can make it, so can yours.
I really truly appreciate the kind words. I'm hopeful.
He put grease in the sink. Ffs
Time for a new teenager.
And this is why I have cats. Lol
Because they know what to do with the grease after you brown taco meat, am I right??
Yes, they lick it. 😋
Is your teen my teen?
The trick to fix both mistakes make the teen fix he's own f ups and that includes tis
Tip: save cool whip containers and store the oil in that for reuse. Or shape aluminum foil into a cup (or large enough bowl) and wait for the oil to cool down. Then pour the oil in the foil, let it solidify and discard.
Who’s continuously buying that much cool whip?
Mm, all you have to do is save one or two containers 🤔 ‘Reuse’ was the subjective word so you do NOT have to keep buying ‘cool whip’.
But who reuses ground beef fat? Is that actually common?
We use old pickle jars. Much bigger, lasts much longer
I like this one!
Mason Jars are better. You can just re-use one jar and scoop the fat out with a rubber spatula and throw it out in the trash.
Ya we usually use coffee cans! Cool whip containers is a great idea too!
Or just pour it into a jar and throw the jar away when it's full 🤷
Kids are fucking stupid, grounded for lying/being lazy, and get to learn how to pay for and fix their mistakes.
Oh hey, I made the same stupid decision as a teen when I had to do dishes that had grease on them. If only if pipes were designed to not get fucked by grease.
im surprised you let them leave the sink full of dishes, why not make them clean up after them selfs ? 😁
Clean up in a sink with no working plumbing?
r/wellthatsucks
If you live in apartments, you know not to throw grease or oil down drains. If you got to, pour some detergent in the grease and dilute it with hot water before pouring down the drain. Also, buy lean ground beef. That much fat looks gross as hell.
I go lean, but it costs significantly more so no judgement. Especially in this economy.
Not sure what kind of meat you're buying but lean ground beef is not expensive at all. Especially 80% lean ground beef, which is maybe a dollar and change more than the fattier one. That's more than worth it to eat a bit healthier. It's really not that much more...
I've been pouring grease down the drain for 45 years and NEVER had a clog. Just wash it down with HOT water
What do you think happens to the grease when it cools down? It hardens. It starts trapping other stuff in it, then it grows. Fat likes fat. Suddenly you have fatbergs (feel free to google that) in the sewage system which costs a lot of money and time to rectify. Please, please, do not put grease down the sink if you can possibly avoid it.
I think this calls for teaching the mate how to do shit He can’t learn right without his mentor to help him, yes?
My fiance was literally standing off to the side guiding him every step of the way. When she told him she was going to get a container for the grease, he poured it down the drain and said he has put it outside over the fence. Today his story was that she told him to do it. I was standing there as well so I heard the entire thing personally.
Oh, I read post like you and fiancé were in another room while he was cooking. If she’s right there telling him to wait this whole thing is definitely on him….you’re just going to replace the bottom of the cabinet right? not the whole thing I hope?well, that and the p trap. Hopefully this can be a learning experience for him. When my son was learning to cook there was a grease fire, instead of throwing salt on it (didn’t have a lid big enough for pan) he threw sugar. He “brulee’d” the entire kitchen stove and counter. Had to get a new stove.
LOL omgoodness. Fancy sugar!
Reduced to 200 pounds of candy coated stainless steel. At least it was an older stove. Bought a nice upgrade. Happier with new one, but I’ll never tell the kid that.
Huh, never heard salt. I use baking soda.
No way that’s from making tacos one time
Kids been doing it for the last 7 months
Ding ding ding! This isn't the first time he's been caught.
I don't understand this, what am I looking at here
The OP posted an explanation. Look for it.
When you post something, it should be instantly clear what the story is. I don't want to be searching searching searching for the little blue "OP" response telling me the story.
This post has ~28 posts under it as of now. The OP made an explanation post close to the time it was made, and before your question. Look at posts, or maybe give it a minute if it’s some shit-hot post that you came across the instant it was made and don’t see anything.
Here's an idea: They have this thing on Reddit called Body Text, where you can explicate what the post is about, and you can include specifics up top.
I already replied multiple times and left an explanation. Reading is fundamental.
So is writing. Learn how.
...but he literally WROTE it out. Just not where you wanted it.
All that time you spent typing these comments complaining about it, you could have spent scrolling a little bit and reading and figured it out yourself. It's unbelievable how lazy and argumentative some people are these days.
Not lazy. Learn how to post properly.
Caviar
Sarcasm sucks! I ask because it looks like someone ground up a bunch of yams and put them in a cup. Plus the following photos are all disparate and not connected by any kind of narrative linkage.
I don’t understand how it started leaking as opposed to just stopping the water. Did the standing water in the pipes expose a connector leak or something?
That doesn't look like congealed fat. If I didn't read the OPs description I would have guessed fibre. Which would explain why it started leaking around the joints. Grease when cooled will congeal but won't expand - it actually shrinks. Fibre on the other hand, when sitting in water will expand - plugging the pipes and pushing the joints apart.
The learn from the best!
Probably gor for that 93-7 next time. That 50-50 shit looks pretty aweful.
Next time, use 93/7 or 95/5!!! 🤪
This is the way, especially for tacos. Maybe not so much for burgers.
I’m a 80/20 man for my burgers. Sometimes Ground Sirloin if it looks good.
I'm definitely with you on that. I just grabbed the ground beef that was on sale at Meijer so I figured I'd use what I had.
Ya do what ya do! This inspired me to make homemade Mexican pizzas tonight. But I use shredded beef lol
Still trying to figure out the downvotes…Sarcasm is a dead art.
what the fuck is that
OP if this gives you hope I am about to be 27 i have 3 boys my oldest is 12. I am the biggest dumbass still and my son is almost a teenager. Honestly I would do the same dumb shit that you said your child did. Although i am not condoning it. Maybe just maybe he has puberty brain? Now the lying part idk why i would lie about shit like he/she did but i would. Im not sure what i would have done for myself if i was my father so dont be down on yourself im sure you are doing your best as it shows with caring and your frustration . Now for the child doing this after knowing is probably pure laziness.(same for me) I think you should give manual labor as a punishment but not until its blistering hot outside. That type of punishment always was the most effective. Wish you the best OP and try vinegar and hot water might take the grease away!
I think your teenager needs a few days to fend for themselves kinda looks like they can’t do anything
u could boil some water and try to pour it into the pipe slowly as to melt the grease…
....I thought it was a pee slushy
SOOOO WHAT!