Monday, April 30, 2007

The Art of Plumbing

For those of you who want to know what is growing in the toilet, well all I can say is I wouldn't touch it with your 10 foot pole! With that in mind I started the plumbing repairs this week. When your main line pops as a result of freezing, most folks would wail and scream and call a plumber but here at the "Old Crack House" we don't need no stinking plumbers and I did all my wailing and screaming the first time my pipes froze several years ago. I am a seasoned veteran when it comes to plumbing. This doesn't mean that I enjoy it though!
I saw this years plumbing fiasco as an opportunity to improve on my previous efforts. Remember this?



It looks like this now;



There are two shut offs and a boiler drain between so I can drain this line all the way back to here. This is 1" pipe which is a real pain to solder. It takes several minutes to heat up the joint and you can't use butane because it won't get the copper hot enough. You need this stuff;




Mapp gas.
I used to hate soldering before this week when I bought a new blow torch. My old blow torch had a nasty habit of igniting near the valve when the canister was tilted sideways. This would cause me to go into a ritualistic dance where my hands would shake vigorously and I would huff and puff on the gas canister several times until the flames went out. Have you ever Huffed and Puffed a blow torch? After going through the "blow torch Bamba" several times within a few minutes plumbing became too much of a work out that even a few beers couldn't make better!
Since some of my cpvc pipes cracked I took the opportunity to move some lines and do this:




I now have shut off valves for the upper floors AND as you can see, I labelled my hot and cold lines for future reference! While all this plumbing is being done I shall take the opportunity to install the tankless water heater which requires a whole bunch of valves and fittings that I don't have lying around the place. I am also rigging up the first floor toilet and a sink on the second floor while I'm at it. The real fun begins when I get the city to install a meter and turn the water back on!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what kind of ass runs a water pipe across and along side of an electrical outlet.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences. Being able to stand on the shoulders of your experience really motivates me in my own daunting restoration. Your updates and insight are invaluable to many of us with a home restoration in progress!