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!