After one Redditor's complaints weren't taken seriously by their landlord, the tenant says they had to rip out the walls and floors in their home to deal with a sewage leak.
Photos shared to the platform show the floors and walls of a room in the house completely gutted, with insulation and drywall all over the floor.
Other photos in the post show the rusted sewage pipe with an obvious crack.
The Redditor explained in the caption that they had been smelling waste in their room and outside for months. After the concern was dismissed by the landlord, they hired a plumber to find that the main sewer line was "rusted out" and seems to be clogged from toilet paper and paper towels. This resulted in the need to rip out the walls and floors of the room.
Commenters on the post mentioned that the buildup was likely also from previous tenants and suggested being conscientious of what goes down the drain.
"We are super careful about fat/grease/hair, and we use single ply toilet paper" said one. Others also mentioned baby wipes that often claim to be flushable, but Redditors warned against it.
One surefire way to slash your risk of a pipe burst due to a toilet paper clog is by nixing paper products from your bathroom entirely by installing a bidet.
Bidets became wildly popular in America during the onset of the pandemic amid toilet paper shortages and have remained popular due to their convenience, cleanliness, and money-saving capability.
While bidets do incur an upfront cost, you still stand to save between $180 and $350 from going down the drain annually by making the switch. Plus, ditching toilet paper altogether is a solid choice for the environment as well as your wallet.
Bidet or not, it's still always best to flush only bodily waste and toilet paper.
One Redditor mentioned that after a similar incident, their insurance company cut them a check for "$9,449 towards a sewer line replacement" and they had to pay a $700 deductible out of pocket, too.
And that does not account for the cost of replacing other home goods damaged by such a leak, especially items that hold sentimental value.
Another commenter mentioned a similar experience that happened to their relative, writing, "Nothing in the house was usable as one thing would back-flow poop water into all their sinks/tubs/toilets."
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