Tuesday, April 04, 2006
You call that a Pipe?
This is a flash back, a retro look into house stuff done prior to the blog, today I will tackle plumbing. The majority of the fixtures in the house were in great shape when I bought it, however I couldn’t seem to get proper water pressure at all locations. Unscrewing the end of the facets to look at the screens soon told me why, they were packed with rust. Cleaning them restored pressure but did not solve the problem, for that I had to return to the dark and scary place the crawl space. Plumbing work in the newer sections of the hose was fine, but under the old... It was like a habitrail from HELL. A mixture of galvanized pipe in all sorts of sizes, twisting here, jogging there, dead ends, reduction fittings, unused valves you name it. Now I knew why the water was slow in the laundry room faucet, it was dizzy. Given that I could only work after school and on the weekends hacking into this bad boy would have to be paced so that the shower remained functional. Take it in sections. First step cut the water and install valves so that I can isolate individual rooms. Great move to section the plumbing, you can kill just a bathroom and not the whole house, smart move and you’ll thank me later.
I’ll sum it up it was a hoot. At one point I found myself bathed in the warm glow of a police car’s spotlight, lying in the mud at the street poking around in a 7 foot deep hole filled with saw dust desperately looking for the main water shut off with a homemade wrench that I apparently am not supposed to have. The officer found my behavior curious but let me continue with my frantic quest. Remember, with an old house just because it has valves doesn’t mean they still work. When a half inch valve refuses to turn I am not sure grabbing a 36” pipe wrench is an appropriate course of action. Broke that sucker clean off. Sort of like sand blasting a soup cracker.
In the end I only lost the shower for one night, but still had a working sink so I was able clean up there. I used ¾ for the main supply lines and ½ out to the fixtures. My goal was a system that wouldn’t freeze or scald when a sink was used elsewhere in the house. It works for the main part, you will not feel the washer come on and off but if the sink in the bathroom with you is used you can tell. All of my new plumbing is copper because I have worked with it a lot in the past and it is readily available here. Straightening out the plumbing means I don’t have dizzy slow water anymore and with iron pipe gone no more rust issues. Swapping out the tiny metal drain lines for some hefty 2” PVC fixed that issue too. My sinks drain with a ferocity that is almost alarming.
GOOD TIP: Install drain valves in your plumbing at the low spots. This will allow you to drain the system should you ever need to.
I’ll sum it up it was a hoot. At one point I found myself bathed in the warm glow of a police car’s spotlight, lying in the mud at the street poking around in a 7 foot deep hole filled with saw dust desperately looking for the main water shut off with a homemade wrench that I apparently am not supposed to have. The officer found my behavior curious but let me continue with my frantic quest. Remember, with an old house just because it has valves doesn’t mean they still work. When a half inch valve refuses to turn I am not sure grabbing a 36” pipe wrench is an appropriate course of action. Broke that sucker clean off. Sort of like sand blasting a soup cracker.
In the end I only lost the shower for one night, but still had a working sink so I was able clean up there. I used ¾ for the main supply lines and ½ out to the fixtures. My goal was a system that wouldn’t freeze or scald when a sink was used elsewhere in the house. It works for the main part, you will not feel the washer come on and off but if the sink in the bathroom with you is used you can tell. All of my new plumbing is copper because I have worked with it a lot in the past and it is readily available here. Straightening out the plumbing means I don’t have dizzy slow water anymore and with iron pipe gone no more rust issues. Swapping out the tiny metal drain lines for some hefty 2” PVC fixed that issue too. My sinks drain with a ferocity that is almost alarming.
GOOD TIP: Install drain valves in your plumbing at the low spots. This will allow you to drain the system should you ever need to.
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Isn't that old galvanized stuff great? You read about ours- no pressure = rusted shut! Ours goes every which way, too. Gotta cut it out this spring when redo our walls. I can totally picture you with the wrench....heh heh
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