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Okay Goons, I just got a new house and have a question. I am used to houses on the East coast with a meter in the basement and a main water shutoff right next to it, generally right by the electrical utilities. The house I bought is on the west coast and it's a 50's rambler. I have been doing small plumbing jobs (replacing toilet flushers, faucets, etc.) and can use the local shutoffs, but there are some jobs like the taps to my washing machine and water heater that I'd need to shut the house water off for. Originally, I had thought this valve was for the sprinkler system put in by the PO (and lord was it wired badly, in the spring I'm going to create some utility pits for the wired portions).  It is located immediately to the right of the utility vault for the filthy outdoor water meter:  Now here's the mystery; if I'm right that the green valve is for the sprinkler system (and I won't touch it because the system is winterized), where the hell is the main water cutoff? My utility room with the washer, dryer, water heater, etc was finished at some time but I see no access panels put in for shutoffs, and I suspect that they may have been dumb enough to drywall over it at some time; any tips for isolating where the shutoff might be?
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Jan 21, 2019 20:36
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The Gardenator posted:In the second picture, below the meter looks like a gas style shutoff. People use those sometimes instead of a normal hand tightened gate shutoff. You might be right, but it's on the city's side of that meter, I'm pretty sure. It'd be weird if there wasn't a more convenient main shutoff; I'd have to reach through a 4x6" rusty hatch to open or close it.
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Jan 22, 2019 13:49
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angryrobots posted:That's all a lot of people have, and use. They do make a tool so you don't have to reach down in there. I would find where it enters the building, and add a shut off at a more convenient location. I had no idea that was common. Maybe 1950s construction was just decidedly lazier about such things than the old 1920s/30s houses I had lived in before. Thanks for pointing out that tool.
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Jan 22, 2019 19:01
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B-Nasty posted:Just remember that in many/most areas, that curb water shutoff is property of the water company. They would prefer that they were the ones shutting it off and not the homeowner. If you break it, you'll likely be paying some crazy fees to them to fix it and for any water you've now wasted, not to mention any other destruction of property caused by a flood or fines for touching WaterCo property. I agree, plus what I thought was the tool to turn off water to the sprinklers (as it was labeled) I think is the key for the main based on its shape. How much would it cost to get a new cutoff installed?
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Jan 22, 2019 22:34
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SpartanIvy posted:Depends on what the condition of your pipes are and how hard they are to get to, but I would imagine pretty expensive. My plumber did it as part of an almost whole house replumb which was over three grand Well the washing machine's two taps are ancient, but if I cut a hole behind there and the water heater it's next to in my utility room, presumably I'd expose the main and can get a shutoff installed there? The reason I came here was because I want to replace those taps before they begin leaking.
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Jan 22, 2019 22:47
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SpartanIvy posted:Makes sense to me but I'd be concerned on the condition of the threads of the pipe if it's ancient. That was a very real concern for me because my old pipes (1950 galvanized steel) had become paper thin in places. Luckily the main water pipe looked good, but if it had broken when trying to unthread the old pipes/valves, I would have had to paid for a new pipe from the meter on the street to the house which I think I was quoted as being another thousand with digging and such. That's for sure. Honestly right now I am of the attitude of leaving things alone if it still works. The only "major" change I've made is adding an arrestor to the dishwasher line because I heard some knocking.
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Jan 22, 2019 22:59
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Anne Whateley posted:I can email the property management company just to document it. That's what I did when my bathroom actually flooded like 3? years ago when my upstairs neighbor overflowed his bathtub. It was bad enough I was concerned about the structural integrity of the plaster, but apparently they weren't! That was when I coordinated with the super and took a full day off work for him to fix, and he no-showed. I called him at like 2 and he was like "well it's too late to start now!!!" So the paint is still hanging off the ceiling and bubbling off the walls. You need to start looking for new apartments if you can.
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Apr 5, 2019 16:36
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Hey guys, I have a sprinkler system problem for you all! One of my sprinklers in the far end of my backyard is leaking out of the set screws (rainbird 42s if you're curious). I figured since it was old it needed to be replaced since it looked clean, and swapped it for a new one.... ...which promptly begins leaking out the top as well. There seems to be some flow going to it even when the sprinkler isn't turned on. Is a check valve enough to solve the problem or do I need to do something more drastic to fix this?
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Apr 29, 2019 03:59
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PremiumSupport posted:Not sure if you're joking or not, but the vast majority of the tankless units are natural gas. It's far easier for a gas burner to heat water quickly enough for a tankless setup than it is for an electric element to do so. This. Most electric systems can only handle 1-3gpm of hot(ish) water which is a stretch for things like showers. Gas is really your only good option for a whole-house system.
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Jun 17, 2019 22:19
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BIGFOOT EROTICA posted:Hey guys, I'm looking to make a very small (2.5ish gallon) pressurized water tank. Probably keep it right around 50 psi. There is a reason any container over 15psi needs to be stamped as meeting the boiler and pressure vessel code. Do not do this on your own or you might just make a pipe bomb.
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Jul 15, 2019 02:40
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Motronic posted:Air is compressible, water is basically not. That' why these tanks use an air bladder over the water. This man is telling truth. The BPVC does not specify what the fluid is you're pressurizing but compressed air at 15psi is more dangerous because of its compressibility. For the same reason, water at 15psi isn't really gonna propel out of the vessel because it won't expand or contract significantly as a liquid, which is why I thought you were pressurizing it with air. Either way, using off the shelf piping is fine but once you start modifying it from its original use there is no guarantee of its safety.
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Jul 15, 2019 03:50
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BIGFOOT EROTICA posted:Okay, got another one. Unrelated to my lovely redneck misting system. So think about the role of a P trap. It uses water as a plug to keep sewer gases backing up. If the drain of your garbage disposal slopes down to the other sink as shown, the single P trap will do that job fine. The only situation I can think of is if you had some wonky elevation issue with the other drain pipe.
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Jul 30, 2019 03:42
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scuz posted:Yeah the one-faucet thing is the real head-scratcher for me. This is something that would have been taken care of a long time ago if the sink weren't a pedestal and such a pain in the rear end to work on since it's so close to the wall. I'm gonna spend some time tonight trying to get the lines off and seeing if it's just something gross in the supply lines and if those look okay going up to the faucet then poo poo, I'll probably just take the faucet off the basin and soak it in CLR or peroxide or something, reassemble everything, see if it comes back unless there's a better idea? Perhaps the piping in that section or the faucet has a surface (physically or materially) conducive to manganese buildup?
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Aug 16, 2019 18:00
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Has anyone here ever installed their own water heater in an existing house? I have an electric one so my main concern is how much of a bitch copper pipe soldering will be. The previous owner had soldered the gate valves that feed it and I would want to install new ball valves and an expansion tank.
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Jan 16, 2020 22:20
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SopWATh posted:I have limited experience with sweating pipe, but the only tough part was being short I was always kinda looking up at the solder dripping down on my neck which hurts real bad. The valve stem assembly I plan to make on a bench should be transferable between water heaters as I've designed it. In theory every component from now on can be unscrewed and replaced without future soldering. Of course, knowing my water main, I'll also likely need to use the bread trick to ensure a dry tap too....
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Jan 16, 2020 23:10
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SopWATh posted:Is your main shutoff one of those old, partially stuck, bad-packing gate-valves? The only shutoff is in the front lawn with the meter but it's easy enough to get to, but in the past working on other piping it will trickle a bit. I wish an indoor ball valve was installed when the basement was finished but alas, this isn't the case so I'd need to find the pipe in the basement ceiling somehow without loving up tons of drywall. As for the good news, the physical space is cramped for the water heater but it is electric and has ~8" of copper pipe coming out of the wall before they soldered on these lovely gate valves. The plan is to solder threaded ends as much as possible on my work bench to create an easy to install manifold before I even put the new tank in, where every fitting can be swapped. That way the only 2 field solders will be threaded ends on the existing hot and cold lines. Blindeye fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jan 17, 2020 |
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Jan 17, 2020 00:33
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kid sinister posted:Yep. Drain the old one first. You will want to unscrew the drain from the bottom out of the tank. That's because electrics pull sediment out of the water and it collects as gravel in the bottom. When it gets slow, stick a long screwdriver in the hole to bust up the big pieces. Trust me on this one. You'll remove 10-20 pounds of weight from the old tank before you carry it out of your house. All this is to replace the dumb gate valves already installed. Any opinions on shark bites for any connections?
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Jan 20, 2020 02:23
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SopWATh posted:Sharkbite works fine if you can do a good job preparing the pipe ends, making sure they're really round, deburring the ends, and so on. Theoretically there's only two fittings I'd need to field-solder, and those could be secured with threaded-end sharkbites if I want to. The pipes are not the most well secured but I can easily attach pipe braces there to stabilize the connection.
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Jan 20, 2020 19:34
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Rhyno posted:Good thing this is for the house we just sold! If the current unit is wired in you'll likely find a junction box with conduit going to the washer's junction box. Unwiring should be a couple of screws and removing a few wire nuts, and you can re-use the conduit by hooking it up to the new unit's junction box. If you're paranoid, get those waterproofed wire nuts filled with gel.
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Jul 28, 2020 22:01
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So, Galvanized pipe. I have a few lengths of it between my brand new water main and the copper system that feeds my fixtures. It's all behind drywall though (finished basement) except for the one small hole made to hook up the new water main. They said that to put in a ball-valve shutoff would require tearing out the wall to remove the full length of pipe and screw in new stuff, but I've seen compression fittings and other ways to replace sections of galvanized. So, if I had a plumber come out and put in a large access panel there, could they cut the galvanized pipe and splice in a shutoff or is that too much work to be worth it? Right now the only way I can turn off my water is via the water meter outside.
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Sep 14, 2020 06:28
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Old (40 years?), but zero leaks anywhere in the system and water pressure is stupid high in my piping. Mind you ripping out this 20 feet of pipe would cost me probably 5 grand in interior finishes that would need replacing. Honestly, I'd rather it break and end up getting insurance to fix it....
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Sep 14, 2020 16:21
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Nitrox posted:is it possible to fish new pex line behind framing/drywall and leave original in its place? Also, I've cut a 2" wide strip of drywall from a finished wall, drilled every stud, drilled cinder block, and then pulled a new 1/2" pex line for an outside spicket. Then put that drywall back up and had it spackled and ready for paint, all in one day. About 9' long strip of drywall altogether. You may want to get actual quotes about this, instead of assuming five grand or whatever. There's multiple electrical interferences, a load bearing main beam, specially textured drywall, and HVAC ducting to get through. I've looked into this.
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Sep 16, 2020 04:59
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GoonyMcGoonface posted:My sink broke recently (shattered straight through the porcelain when someone dropped a toothbrush holder on it). Because I live with people who are at high risk and have not yet been vaccinated, I decided to try and replace the sink myself. Yes, that was my first mistake. Hard to tell from here but dry-fit your P-trap to the sink, seeing how far back you need to cut the old pipe. If you have at least 1" past that cemented PVC coupler, you can measure and cut the pipe 1/8" past where the p-trap piece ends, then cement a new coupler to the sink and drainpipe. If you're less confident, they do make sleeved couplers that might work depending on your space.
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Apr 7, 2021 03:36
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SpartanIvy posted:My girlfriend is telling me I can't flush even a single piece of fried chicken down the toilet even though I just had all my cast iron replaced with PVC There was a serial killer who literally claimed the body he flushed down the toilet bit by bit had been KFC when it backed up his toilet. Though to be fair, KFC backs up my pipes as surely as it'll back up yours.
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Jul 16, 2021 02:22
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Nitrox posted:Is PEX prone to earthquake damage more so than cooper? I haven't heard of anything like that before, so genuinely curious As a structural engineer the idea that PEX is more vulnerable than copper surprises me. Yes, you have connections, but the flexure of the PEX compared to copper would mean far less stress on those connections due to differential movement, no?
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Aug 22, 2021 04:39
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Slugworth posted:New home, sillcock has been leaking from the screw on top of the valve every time we use it. Yesterday it started leaking from the larger nut, which I appear to have fixed by tightening it down a bit. Still, I'd rather just be done with the thing. You're in luck! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXboEYUSg4
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May 31, 2022 18:40
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| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 20:29 |
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I have a really small tub drain that those crossbar tools don't fit despite it being a relatively new (~2015) bathtub. Is there a tool for those ~1" drains and they the PO would have used such a small size?
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Oct 13, 2023 16:34
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