The trouble with local real estate

 There are two types of houses that are available in Panama, based on what I found when searching:

Homes built for locals, and homes built for foreigners.

The homes built for locals are quite affordable - but there's a reason for that: the quality standards and designs are not really up to what a typical foreigner would find acceptable.

Today I encountered one of the very typical problems also in Iris' house: the toilet drains tend to get clogged. I can't count how many local toilets I visited where signs of "Don't throw toilet paper into the toilet" are tell-tales of this issue!

I had installed a toilet a while ago - a provisorium. We didn't have running water yet, but we simply refilled the toilet-tank from a bucket after flushing. No problem...

The toiled drain in the other bathroom was plugged with some crumpled up cement bag - originally, so no debris falls into the pipe and causes problems later on. Lately, also to avoid gases from the septic system to come up through open hole.

Well, after tiling the whole bathroom, and grouting most of it, as well, I got ready to install the toilet here, too. Trying to remove the paper was very hard. It seemed to be soaked, and had lost any cohesion! Once I finally got the paper removed, to my great surprise, I found a "soup" sitting in the toilet-drain.  (Explains the moist paper plug! Yuck! 😝)

Soup sitting in drain is an unpleasant surprise in many ways

Apparently, the self-proclaimed "specialist" had glued the pipes together with a inclination instead of a declination! So, part of what was flushed down on the one bathroom, ended up flowing down the pipe to the other bathroom!

I have encountered many problems already in this house, and fixed them, or found a work around. But, how the heck, am I supposed to fix this one?!?!

I decided to break the finished tile-floor again, and using the jackhammer, open the concrete floor, and see if maybe the pipe can be lifted a little bit. 

Well, obviously, that didn't work out! A 1cm (1/2") pipe is a little flexible. But a 10cm (4") pipe doesn't move a mm on such a short length!

3 hours of work to dig out that pipe again

It looks, as if the pipe is forking off the pipe of the other bathroom, using a Y piece. And, 30cm after the Y and 60 cm before the end where the toilet is going to be sitting, the foundation of the wall between the bathrooms is fixating that pipe. It is in the wrong position for good! Cast in concrete, literally!

So far I have not been able to come up with any idea as to how to fix this problem! The only thing that might make life easier with a constantly clogging toilet, is a cleanout access close to the toilet. So, when the pipe is clogged, it is possible to insert a pressure hose without having to uninstall the toilet each time... So, if no better idea comes to me, I'll be cutting the pipe and inserting a 5cm (2") fork and letting that 5cm pipe lead all the way to the bathroom floor and put a plug on that. Not pretty. But kind of hidden a little by the toilet bowl, so you don't immediately see it, when entering the room. 

How the heck to fix that!?!

Well, we're about to go on another vacation to Austria. The hole will stay there until we get back, and whatever the best idea is going to be by that time, I'll implement...

Now, just to be clear: The issue of incorrect declination of the sewer pipes is a problem as well of many homes that were built for foreigners! One more reason for me to be present all the time and to double check everything while I am having my house built!