O.K. Robert I'm hoping you will once again display some of that magic for less common plumbing problems you always seem to be able to handle with ease.

I won't know all of the correct terms but I'll do my best to describe the issue.

This is a different area drain problem than the previous one I had posted.

I have several metal area drains on surface of concrete in backyard near pool which connects to some thin plastic pipe that travels under ground through the dirt until it reaches the sidewalk in front of property and comes out of round hole in side of curb.

The problem is that one of the area drains in the back yard had a badly broken elbow that previously connected the metal drain on surface to the thin plastic pipe under ground. The metal part and grill on surface come out easily since nothing is attached to them any more. The small hole on surface of concrete is so small that it prevents me from positioning a new elbow to connect to the thin plastic pipe.

Is there any flexible elbow or other technique to connect drain on surface to pipe under ground that does not require me to bust up any of the concrete??

Thanks.

Flexible drain lines to replace drops and traps are not allowed anymore because they are thin wall and break easily in time. Plus if you try to snake them, they will rip.

One trick is "Not to Break Open the Concrete". But instead take a carbide rotary concrete drill bit and drill down to see how thick the concrete is in the area you will to work in.

Then if the concrete is a standard thickness, 3" to 4", you can cut the concrete with a diamond saw blade. And with a simple Breaker, rotary hammer with a chisel bit, break the concrete apart and expose you plumbing pipe problems.

When a client had pool and spa problems it was an issue with an underground pipe. He was so scared to open up the concrete and get right to the problem. With my pipe locator I found where the problem was and cut open a 2 x 3 foot hole on his deck. I dug 2 feet down, removed the bad lines and replaced them.

Then I did the best to match the repair concrete to the original. I came close but not perfect. Over time it blended in. But the repair was only hundreds and not thousands.

Robert,

O.K., thanks, I can have that done, not a disaster to have to fix a small area of concrete. But it was worth checking on whether there is some plumbing technique I would never have known about.

I have to ask you something else.

I know you've been doing plumbing and other trades for a long time, but how is it that you seem to have had so many customers that required a solution that was more clever or creative than most jobs?? Is it that working on higher end jobs is the reason??

I would think that most guys that work in the trades you do could go for decades doing pretty much the same standard types of jobs and never encounter situations that require some of the specialized tools and techniques you have used.

Also, to what do you attribute having acquired the higher level of knowledge than most that work in your trades??

I am clever and can figure different ways to solve problems. Here is an example. At 17 I was invited to see a friends mother's bathroom being remodeled. The contractor, around 75, used his hammer and broke holes in the walls which were made of wood lath covered with plaster. He was adding an outlet next next to the medicine cabinet. He made around 7 holes, and tearing out a narrow section between the holds to run romex electrical cable. The the owner was having their painter re-plaster the walls.

I said to the mother, I wouldn't have done it that way. She said when her husband comes home I should tell him how I would do it. Then an hour later the husband came home and with him, his wife and three children standing by, asked how would I do this job!

I said I know your contractor is experienced but I could have:

Replace the light switch with a combo device, and grounded outlet with a toggle switch for the light, pulling a neutral wire from the conduit going to the light over the medicine cabinet. Or I could tear out the single gang box and install a double gang box and placed the outlet next to it.

Then they said they wanted the outlet next to the medicine cabinet. So I said I would than pull a hot wire from the light switch on one wall to the light above the medicine cabinet, then but a hole for the outlet box and run Romex from the light box to the new electrical box. Making no holes that needed repair.

This was 3 ways to solve one problem. So every time I need to do a job at a property of mine, I'd think out of the box.

Just curious but are the risks of the jewelry business the potential for theft, or are you referring to strictly changing sales trends, profit margin, etc type issues???

Business used to be conducted on a handshake. Fournier's from other country's had the mentality who can I screw today so tomorrow I won't have to work so hard. Americans tried to do better business today so will thrive.

I believe sub-karat gold is less than 10k, is that correct?

But what is meaning of fournier in jewelry world?

It used to be:

14 Karat Gold only had to be 13-1/2 Karat

Then they added the term to 14 Karat gold was 0.583% instead of 13.5 Karat (0.5625).

O.K. so it refers to less than any grade of gold than what it is represented to be.

When you add in what seems to me to be an even greater risk of precious stones not being what they are represented to be, I can see what you mean by not worth the risk.

I have always heard that much of the diamond biz was based on relationships and trust, but thinking about it now, I have to believe that every transaction would receive intense scrutiny even among those that have been doing business with each other for years.

The person that was selling might have gotten some of his inventory from someone else that misrepresented it.

Very risky business indeed.

And now scientist can make in the Lab real Diamonds and Gem Stones. So a stone could be natural, manufactured or modified (Color and imperfections removed).

Manufactured diamonds would seem to pose the least risk since if you are representing them as not real, you don't have the risk of believing they were natural and discovering you were wrong.

I believe they look really good but of course I am completely untrained in evaluating such things.