The Quepos Bridge Club plays at 12 noon every Tuesday at Dos Locos Restaurant.
P-Traps
By The House Doctor
And you may find yourself ……living in a beautiful house, with beautiful view….and you may ask yourself…..What’s that smell? - sub- par plumbing to say the least. I won’t fill every page of the Quepolandia with my standard soliloquy of complaints based on a serious lack of drainage education that I encounter daily, instead I will attempt to educate.
This my fellow Quepolandians is a “P-Trap”. 
It has nothing to do with trapping urine. A “P-Trap” is commonly used under sinks, tubs, showers, and built into the porcelain toilets we use the world over. What is it? Simple technology invented by the ancient Romans. Yes indeed folks, this clever turn made from pipes has existed for thousands of years. Why? Because the final resting place of our waste just stinks.
A “P-Trap” keeps a level of water in the lower portion at all times creating a seal impossible for sewer gases to rise. Waste goes down from the force of gravity and with a properly vented plumbing system is carried away. As we all know,.. $#!+ flows downhill.
So, if you have a sink stink, check for a “P-Trap”. If there isn’t one, no stress, they are relatively simple to install, and available at every hardware store. Normally in 1 ¼” to 1 ½” sized pipe. Depending on what modern human installed your existing system, you may need to purchase reducers or expansion adapters to make it work.
If you have a “P-Trap” and it still stinks, it may be slightly clogged, not at the appropriate level, or your drain system is not “breathing” properly. Picture a can of fruit juice. Puncture only one hole to pour, the juice chugs out slowly and gurgles. You need to puncture another hole above to let the air in, then Viola! It pours smooth. Drains are the same way. If you’ve encountered a standard Costa Rican “McGuyver”, Do Not Attempt repair unless you enjoy being wet, smelly, and need to invent a new vocabulary of swear words. So Best of Luck! I have faith in you. If You don’ have faith in You, just call The Doctor.
visitors since December 2009
