|
Nothing picture worthy but I did most of the wiring for the kitchen lights, the rest of the southeast kitchen outlet wiring, the dishwasher circuit, the garbage disposal circuit, and a few other minor electrical things this weekend.
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 18:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 03:40 |
|
|
The weekend before last I did end up working on a house, but it wasn't mine. Sister's sewer line backed up. Oh joy of joys. The brass cleanout plug was seized into the cast iron cleanout so I used a chisel and BFH to solve the problem. Then rodded the main line out from the cleanout 8 feet toward the septic tank, then from the other end about 12 feet, finally broke through and got it flowing again. Unfortunately there was another plug upstream from the cleanout and no way to get to it very well, and multiple old drum traps that had ball valve drains on them (wtf!) That broke off when touched, so I ended up having to do some repairs. First home Depot run...  A drum trap for the kitchen sink and laundry machines. The previous owner broke the drain valve off this one and fixed it by stuffing a loving broom stick into the hole left behind. The gently caress.  The main line.  Also pictured: a cleanout plug that is neither 3in NPT nor 4in and necessitated a panicked trip to a real plumbing supply shop for a 3.5in NPT cleanout plug, because home Depot doesn't stock those. Kitchen and laundry drain was done by someone who didn't know poo poo only rolls downhill.  This is the tub drain. Whoever remodeled the bathroom didn't know about things like thread dope, or realize that solder is important and you can't just sleeve brass and copper together and hope it doesn't leak. Thus the two leaks on the pipe.   The drain valve broke off of this drum trap the second my finger touched it. Zero pressure, just snapped off.  Good work plugging that busted drain valve with a broomstick, ya dickhead. Next time call a real plumber. Even I know not to do this.  The main line was apparently made from adamantium, not mere cast iron. Cutting this far completely ruined a good sawzall blade so back to home Depot I went for the fourth time to buy an angle grinder as all five of mine were 1.5 hours away at home. Guess I own six now.  I win you lovely awful smelling motherfucker  TRIGGER WARNING: Fernco fittings  I know they aren't up to code. I hate using them. But I'm not faffing around with joining PVC and cast iron the legal way when the cast iron on both sides is going away in a few months and the end goal for this weekend is "make it so she can shower again and not lose her job and house" and there is already 2 inches of shitwater on the vapor barrier in this crawlspace, it's not like a few drips are going to make it worse. Oh, did I mention? This is in a crawlspace not a basement. I felt like I ran a marathon from squatting so much. Tadaaaaaa! We're done here for now. The main line to the septic tank and the toilet and vent stack are still cast iron and will be till I have time to go help out again. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 19:36
|
|
|
For those of us who don't have crawl spaces or basements or cast iron plumbing, what's not to code about that?
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2017 03:44
|
|
|
And this is why I went into HVAC and not plumbing or anything. gently caress that noise. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2017 03:50
|
|
|
IOwnCalculus posted:For those of us who don't have crawl spaces or basements or cast iron plumbing, what's not to code about that? The Fernco fittings (rubber with 2 hose clamps) aren't up to code.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2017 11:56
|
|
|
sharkytm posted:The Fernco fittings (rubber with 2 hose clamps) aren't up to code. Really? They're ubiquitous on drains in commercial stuff in DC. I've never had a building that didn't have them. e: A quick search suggests no-hubs are legal and ferncos aren't. I conflate those in my head, but I guess the stainless band in the middle is the key difference. It's actually no-hubs that I have always had. glynnenstein fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Jul 13, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2017 12:09
|
|
|
Yep. Nohubs fine, rubber compression donut gasket that goes in a hub and takes PVC is fine, rubber sleeve and two hose clamps is not fine. There are also PVC fittings that fit into a hub with oakum and tamped lead (not melted lead obviously) and you then cement your PVC to it like normal. I don't really care since it's getting torn out and replaced with more cemented together PVC in a couple months. Desperate times, desperate measures.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2017 18:15
|
|
|
 gently caress Sister's shitpipes are plugged again. I'm guessing it's the main outside the house again, looks like it's going to get replaced sooner rather than later. I asked her to try unplugging it the way I did and start digging so we can get it done quickly this time around.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2017 01:07
|
|
|
This just happened to me. Ended up having to excavate 30 feet of pipe. Its a big job.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2017 13:58
|
|
|
kastein posted:
I don't think I have ever heard it described that way...
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2017 20:50
|
|
|
daslog posted:This just happened to me. Ended up having to excavate 30 feet of pipe. Its a big job. Yep. Not looking forward to it. Fortunately it's only like 2 feet below grade and the septic tank is a whopping 15 feet away so there's a hard limit on how much bullshit will be involved.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2017 01:38
|
|
|
kastein posted:Yep. Not looking forward to it. Fortunately it's only like 2 feet below grade and the septic tank is a whopping 15 feet away so there's a hard limit on how much bullshit will be involved. Depends on how many bulls they've been keeping in the house.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2017 02:01
|
|
|
When we had our house's septic system -- "tank" is overkill for a house this old, think "cesspool" -- inspected, the inspectors found a second system, into which the first overflowed before percolating into the gravel field ("Less 'field' and more 'statistically-unlikely concentration of subsurface gravel,'"as per said geologist), of which the several previous owners were unaware and therefore never had drained. Still in pretty good shape, at least.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2017 02:39
|
|
|
When was the last time they had the tank pumped? Maybe I missed it if you mentioned it, but septic tanks need to be pumped every few years to remove solids that don't percolate to the leach field.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2017 12:04
|
|
|
chrisgt posted:When was the last time they had the tank pumped? Maybe I missed it if you mentioned it, but septic tanks need to be pumped every few years to remove solids that don't percolate to the leach field. The first of the two "tanks" (really, cesspools made of field stone) was pumped every three years. The second? Maybe ten or eleven years, if the person who renovated the property did it? No one knows. But the inspectors evaluated it after it was pumped and said it looked fine.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2017 12:26
|
|
|
chrisgt posted:When was the last time they had the tank pumped? Maybe I missed it if you mentioned it, but septic tanks need to be pumped every few years to remove solids that don't percolate to the leach field. Not sure if you're talking to me, but the level is several feet below the discharge pipe from the house right now, so it has a while before that will be an issue. The pipe is definitely to blame for the sewer lines in the house backing up.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2017 14:52
|
|
|
Tell her she needs to purchase one of these. https://www.harborfreight.com/50-ft-compact-electric-drain-cleaner-68285.html
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2017 17:54
|
|
|
She has one. We tried it and it didn't do anything worth the price. Garden hose worked way better, but it plugging back up again tells me the pipe is probably full of roots or rusted through and broken. It definitely dips down in the middle because even after clearing it out, shining a flashlight down the pipe only showed me reflections of the top of the pipe. And that plus the rough pipe condition means the poo poo will stop rolling downhill somewhere in the middle.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2017 15:54
|
|
|
The return of the shitpipening How it looked when I arrived. Glad she dug it up ahead of time so we could just get down to business fixing the pipe.  Hmmmmm I think I found the problem. The pipe is cracked badly and several feet of it is plugged with poop, roots, and poop.   What a wonderful smell you've discovered. Also now I know why they call it black water piping  The last remaining iron pipe downstream of last episode's repairs. Bonus code legal Fernco fitting! (They are allowed horizontal below grade when connecting two types of pipe, but not above grade unless they are the steel collar type that is theoretically capable of supporting plumbing)   Rare action shots, bonus jorts. I'm classy what can I say  After abusing a crummy old garden hose to flush chunks down the pipe, it cleared out. Just the roots left now.  That's a lot of poop  Fixed the irrigation pipe that got located with 1800-shovel instead of 1800-digsafe    We thought either we blew up the pipe trying to rod it out last time or a plumber did it in years past. Nope, turns out someone spiked the yard with something (not sure what) and got very unlucky. Went through the top and bottom of the pipe, cracked it badly, about 20% circumference unbroken. And the water seeking roots from several trees and bushes headed right for it and created a very solid blockage.  Fin We also replaced the wax seal under the toilet since it was leaking badly, but to no one's surprise the subfloor and floor are badly rotted so the bathroom floor is coming up, the wall is coming down, and we will be doing the vent stack and remaining cast iron pipes in the house at some future date. They can use the bathroom without it flooding the bathroom and basement with sewage now though so that can wait.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2017 16:03
|
|
|
You also told them to call a septic company to come pump out that tank, right? ...right?
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2017 19:01
|
|
|
drat, you're a good brother. Not that I have the skill to do it but I'd say "good loving luck, family."
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2017 19:34
|
|
|
gently caress wax seals forever. I've converted to the silicone/silicone-dipped foam ones.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2017 21:09
|
|
|
I've only ever dealt with wax seals twice, and both times they skeeved me out in the "this shouldn't loving work" way, but both of them did. I'm totally using those foam / silicone ones next time.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2017 21:13
|
|
|
The major problem I've had with wax seals is when you don't set the toilet down quite right. It's difficult to re-position the toilet without completely fuxxoring the wax seal. The silicone/foam one I used last time around seems to be functioning successfully.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2017 21:47
|
|
|
beep-beep car is go posted:You also told them to call a septic company to come pump out that tank, right? It's actually fine. That's the level it naturally reaches before hitting the outlet pipe to the leechfield. The solids mat floating on the surface is only a couple inches thick, they have years to go before it's full. And yeah, anyone but my sister I'd tell em to hire a plumber. My brother makes bank, I'm doing ok too, parents are on town sewer, she's house-poor and unfortunately the degree she got is useless (we were all raised to follow our dreams, fortunately my bro and I both dreamed of being programmers/engineers) so I try to help when I can or it's a serious emergency. Not being able to shower = lose job = lose house.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2017 22:54
|
|
|
... you didn't drown in that septic tank, did you?
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2017 11:54
|
|
|
he's too busy cuttin' up jeeps!
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2017 18:02
|
|
|
Pretty much, I've been slacking on the house because I cut up a parts Jeep, resurrected another, bought another project Jeep, got a new frame for it, and bought a lift to install it, which has left little weekend time available to do anything on the house. I need to get some poo poo in order on the house before winter though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2017 12:21
|
|
|
I started wiring the living room! And have been picking away at mudding the master bedroom. As soon as the living room is wired I can insulate another 6 of the 8 exterior walls.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2017 03:25
|
|
|
Is it snowing there yet? I bet having some insulation will be really nice.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2017 21:53
|
|
|
Not yet, maybe in a few days. With the temporary furnace hanging in the kitchen still (it's a 200k BTU in, 160k BTU out heater you'd typically see in a warehouse or commercial workshop, does the job but ugly and loud ) it's actually remarkable tolerable even uninsulated.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2017 02:47
|
|
|
I am 1 outlet, 1 nm-c run, 1 breaker, and 1 light switch from having the most ridiculous overbuilt living room electrical system in existence working. Of course, I forgot to order the goddamn breaker.  Edit: wait no I have the breaker, it's the 4-way commercial grade 20amp switch I don't have. Shows up Friday from Amazon.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 04:32
|
|
|
Gonna need a wiring diagram, that we may properly judge your gooniness.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 12:59
|
|
|
No diagram, but it's about 0.5 grovers of outlets, ceiling lamp, wall sconces, switched outlets for floor lamps, and the outlets have built in USB charge ports because goons need to charge phones. I would have gone with less outlets but you can't switch half of a USB enabled one, leviton didn't put the snap off tabs on the sides. So I ended up with 3 unswitched outlets and one switched in a few places that fortunately will be behind couches. The other half of the room is far more normal.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 13:46
|
|
|
I was hoping you'd have some 50amp 240v outlets in the living room for the odd sunday morning welding project on the coffee table.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 13:50
|
|
|
Those are in the basement where any self respecting goon would be living anyways, so yes they are in the goony living room.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 13:56
|
|
|
So did you buy a NutBuster yet?
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 14:07
|
|
|
ExplodingSims posted:So did you buy a NutBuster yet? Ffs, I've made 2 Amazon orders this week without remembering to put it on one. Thanks.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2017 22:03
|
|
|
House has working kitchen ceiling lamps and living room ceiling lamp for the first time ever, and will have living room outlets working tomorrow. This is weird, I keep putting my headlamp on from force of habit but I don't need it inside anymore, except in the dining room and basement.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2017 07:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 03:40 |
|
|
ExplodingSims posted:So did you buy a NutBuster yet?  I'm pretty sure you guys are referring to a tool, but I would like to know more.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2017 11:06
|
|