Because steel tends to rust, y'know?

[dragonimp]

So the deck is out. One minor hiccup of a burst pipe, but the deck is out. Why was there a pipe under the deck? Because the guy who put it in was an idiot. He was really big on do-it-yourself, but not so big on doing things to code or even common sense. Take the deck itself: ordinary wood, not weather-proofed, and painted - not stained, not sealed, painted. No wonder it was falling apart and rotted. So finding base metal pipe laid on the bare dirt wasn't really a surprise, and having it burst at a spot that was rusted through was just par for the course. There's shit like that all over the house: outlets nailed right to the drywall, extension cords run over bare insulation, wiring tied to joists with string, etc. Any work we do on the house inevitably leads to several rounds of face-palming. BUT the deck and the aviary are now gone, thanks to my brother's hard work, and we avoided a flood thanks to some quick thinking and a little ingenuity. now we can concentrait on getting the presents finished up and mailed and cleaning the house.