How they used to do things

Pipes? What do pipes have to do with technology? As it turns out quite a lot really. Owning a 100+ year old house apparently means that one's plumbing is likely not to work as it ought to. See the problem is that 100 years ago people used very different materials compared to today. Back then what they had was essentially a choice between clay or cast iron pipes. They used clay underground where cast iron would have rusted away. Above ground they used cast iron because it is much sturdier in an environment where things are constantly shifting around (wood frame houses all move to some degree). All things considered these pipes where quite advanced for their time. The clay pipes where strong and are actually still used in underground applications today. Cast iron while very durable had an unfortunate side effect. Over time the insides would rust. These pipes were thick enough that they didn't tend to rust right through but rather caused another problem. The rust would cause the inside of the pipe to become rough and in turn this would allow other gunk to stick to the now rough sides of the pipes. This gunk would build up until eventually there would be so much stuff built up on the inside of the pipe that you could no longer get waste down the drain.

The way we do things now

Today we have platic pipes at our disposal. These pipes aren't quite as strong as the cast iron pipes but still quite strong enough. They do however have a couple of other advantages. They are way lighter than the metal equivalent and much easier to install. You just cut them to the right length with almost any handy saw, sand / clean the ends, slap some glue on and stick them together. The real advantage however is that they are smooth on the inside and they don't corrode.

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