Update on the dining room and upstairs plumbing

You may ask yourself why the dining room and upstairs plumbing share a post, but I'll bet you can figure it out from this picture - yes, the upstairs plumbing is all above the dining room ceiling.

It's spring! And besides resumption of the drainage work (more on which later), that means it's time to finish the plumbing in the big house. And that means pulling all the water-damaged ceiling down from the dining room to expose said plumbing.

Looking straight up from the ladder, we see the supply lines to both upstairs bathrooms. We're standing under the toilet in the blue room's bathroom (the one with the microtub). I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty more about both bathrooms in the year to come.

At any rate, I was pleased to discover that the plumbing appears to be in pretty good shape. I found a leak in the shower in the microtub (or it looks like it - it's been dry for a year, so we'll see, this week, when I hook up the water again). But there doesn't appear to be any freeze damage from the foreclosure period, so ... we'll see what we see. The plumbing in the kitchen, which is on the same branch of the supply, froze badly and I've had to knock out a lot of wall to find it all, so it was a pleasant surprise that I wouldn't have to fix any plumbing thirteen feet above my head.

I do need a taller stepladder, though. I won't be able to fix this ceiling with my little one.

The structure of the ceiling is horrible. You can't get a good impression of it from the picture above, but there has been a lot of sagging. The previous owner just nailed drywall to it all and it was utterly invisible (I guess a ten-foot-tall man would notice, but the rest of us are so far from that ceiling that three inches of sag are literally unnoticeable), but I'm going to try to do a more solid job of restoration than that.

More on that later. I just wanted to prove I'm not dead.

The pipes froze anyway

Dammit.

The good thing is that since I had at least shut off and drained part of the plumbing, the part that froze (in the big house's kitchen) didn't harm any of the pipes. Judicious application of space heaters has thawed some of the problem - but still no water to the carriage house yet.

I clearly should have wrapped these pipes with heat tape.

Washer hookup functional!

The dryer outlet's circuit breaker isn't installed yet (because I bought the wrong type of circuit breaker; they all look the same but are subtly different, and there are at least three types; mine are Square-D) - but other than that, the washer and dryer hookups are a go!

I glued the drain yesterday, then installed the trap for the utility sink this morning, and then the Building Muse took over and I cut and glued the entire plumbing to the washer hookup in one session lasting about four hours, time I really hadn't intended to spend on building today. Also, I had to visit Menard's because I ran out of 3/4" CPVC elbows (just one freaking elbow) - but as I had to return the circuit breaker and get the right one, that means I don't have to go tomorrow to get the dryer finished, so it all evens out in the end.

At 7 PM, after returning from a short hike with the kids and dog, I turned the water back on, and discovered only one leak - and that one not in a glued joint; I'm on a 100% roll on glued joints so far. The leak was in my homemade washer hookup.

I'm really pretty proud of this, even though it looks like a school project. I just bought the shutoff valves, drilled two holes in a bit of 2x4, and screwed the CPVC connectors onto the other side. The only problem was that the stem of the valve was juuust too short to make that final turn on the cold valve, and when I turned the water back on, it leaked copiously. So I scraped off a little wood on the bottom of the 2x4, and tightened the valve one more turn, and it was fine, crisis averted.

The only fly in this ointment is what my pictures haven't shown you yet: for some reason, there is a large hole in the floor around the drain stack, leaving me no easy way to put my washer and dryer there. I'm going to put some plywood there for now, but obviously at some point I'm going to want to fill in that hole and put concrete over it.

Outlet for washer, and drain

Today it was back to work on the house, after dealing with the crushing misunderestimated overwork, then household matters that had waited.

Here, we see the drain for the washer, the utility sink, and a very shiny new outlet that is not yet connected - wired, but not hot yet.

I'm pretty proud of the outlet. It looks very solid.

With the drain, I got lucky. When they built the carriage house in or around 1901 (really! It shows up on the insurance company's map for 1901!) it was all the rage to include an outhouse for the gardener, apparently. At any rate, on the other side of this wall is what's left of a urinal, and on this side of the wall, I have a convenient Y for my washer and utility sink drains. (Otherwise I wouldn't have considered putting them here.)

The only problem is that the existing fittings, being iron, are impossible to move. I even got a bigger pipe wrench and jumped on it - the only thing that happened is that the entire drain stack moved, but not the fitting. Rather than snap things off the drain stack, I tried Plan B - turns out the insert of a 1-1/2" drain trap fits into that fitting pretty well. So my drains are 1-1/2" PVC, and the insert sticks into the cast iron drain, and everything works out pretty well. Once it's all solidly installed, I'll caulk around the seal to keep the noxious fumes out.

Not too shabby for a day's work.

Bathtub plumbing really done now

A bit of a slow day - I've mostly just been sleeping. But having slept here, I also showered here, and that means I was motivated to finish the shower (see how that works?)

As you may recall, I used screw straps to hang the faucet assembly from the wall frame. That was solid in terms of translation, and in the yaw and roll rotational dimensions - but left some play in the pitch. (Which makes sense if you think about it.) I reasoned that the best way to eliminate the play in the pitch was to strap the pipe down up at the shower head.

I'm fortunate here in that there's a little closet behind the bathtub plumbing, so I got to knock a hole in the wall to do the job, without having to worry about patching it for now. I'm a great believer in ready access to things, so I'm going to make a little access panel to put here. If I get really creative, I'm going to put it on hinges.

And I'm doubly fortunate in that there was already a piece of wood in place for the anchor. Somebody once put a nail in there to hold the pipe relatively steady, but I prefer my screw strap.

In case you're wondering, it was great sleeping here; it was actually quieter than my sister's office I've been using at night (less traffic), and no ghosts manifested, no thieves broke in - nothing! Just a good night's sleep.

If I do anything more today (I'm thinking of going to see a movie) it'll just be cleaning, of which there is still any amount left to do. The next bathroom task will either be fixing the bathtub wall or installing the new vanity, which is still sitting in the van downstairs.

Bathtub faucet re-reinstalled

OK, faucet re-reinstalled, plumbed, and found good. I didn't tape the pipe up to the shower, though, so I'm going to redo that. Then I just have to build the wall again, get a new tub surround, and we're ready to go!

In other news, second coat of paint (topcoat) on the frame of Window 2, and got the stove up into the kitchen. Also set up a dehumidifier in the garage/storage area downstairs. Now that the incessant rain has stopped, it's drying out, but not fast enough for my taste. So: progress. Small, but steady.

If all this paying work would stop coming in, I could move faster, except of course then I'd have to go into a marketing panic, and be depressed, and not have any money for stuff anyway.

Plumbing setback

The shower valve turns out to be basically shot, after all. The threads are torn up pretty badly; I didn't really understand what I was looking at before today. So I bought a new faucet mechanism and I'll install that tomorrow. Darn. I would much rather have reused the existing one. Maybe I can still repair it at some point, and use it somewhere else.

Bathtub faucet reinstalled

That ain't going nowhere soon. This is my first experience with screwing 2x4s together instead of nailing them. Wow. Technology marches on - this makes carpentry feel more like Legos.

The dark plank in the middle was the original structural member, with a vertical plank holding the faucet in place. I put the 2x4 on top in, with screws, then screwed the original plank to that.

Two more little chunks of 2x4 provide a spacer and platform for two straps holding the faucet assembly in place. It's solid as a rock now, which is good, because I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that having the CPVC in the basement support the weight of this faucet assembly would be a Truly Bad Idea.

Incidentally - further support for my "late standpipe" theory; the coupling on the hot water matches that on the cold, but with the standpipe there, it can't be turned. So they put on the little angle stuff under it, and there's a second coupling about 4 inches to the right, now. I rest my case.

Kitchen sink!

This is almost a kitchen you could use for, say, food preparation. I didn't take a before picture of the sink. Let's just say that the previous occupant ate a lot of ramen noodles, and that the old faucet had limed shut. Perhaps long before he moved out, actually. Once I replaced the faucet to get water to the sink, the resulting mass of ramen was easily removed by scraping with a window shim - a cheap, disposable tool for said purpose. Its smell was fortunately muted by having been freeze-dried during February, but was still nothing pretty.

Every time I complete one of these tasks, I feel so civilized. I still don't want to take my shoes off in here, but ... I'm closer.

Partial plumbing fail

Don't you hate it when you forget to glue one of the joints?

The kitchen faucet works great, though, and at least I have cold water again.

Hot water plumbing

Just a note that (except for the bathtub, obviously) I did the hot water plumbing, after a quick glue-and-bread run to Meijer. The cap is where the pipe to the bathtub will go; I did everything from there back to the elbow and sleeve just now.

Tomorrow I'll put in my new kitchen faucet and maybe call the gas company to get some actual hot water. Although, sans shower, the point is less urgent. I could clean better, though.

I suppose I could go ahead and hook up my washing machine, too.

The destructive power of plumbing

My dad came over to help today. I showed him how the shower valve didn't work, and by the time we finished, this is what the bathroom looked like. I gotta stop having him over to help. Har, har.

But seriously, this was the logical conclusion, and looking at the plaster and rotten timber back there, I would have had to take it out just to eliminate pathogens. A little carpentry will do me good, anyway.

The bathtub faucet is nice, solid 1920's brass, and with some shining up it will be lovely. We destroyed one screw getting the hot-water tap off, but the reason we had to take out the wall is that (1) it was impossible to get the shower bypass valve out while the faucet was still installed and (2) right behind and to the left of the hot-water tap, somebody thought it would be a great place to put a standpipe for the bathtub drain. It was literally impossible to take the faucet out backwards, so it had to come out forwards.

The hot-water and cold-water valve bodies have been replaced (they're visibly newer); whoever did that obviously had given up on the shower bypass valve. Well, we showed that guy! Of course, he probably balked at taking out the entire wall just to fix the shower, but I really need my morning showers. And that wall and the tub surround are no loss.

So that was my plumbing diversion for the day. I thought I'd cap that off so I could get water back to the kitchen sink, but my CPVC glue dried in the can because I forgot to close the cap last time. Blocked at every turn. So maybe I'll just go destroy another window or something.

In re windows: I believe I had mentioned that my two front windows are 30"x54" with a six-inch boxed frame thing between them. The 32" replacement windows are standard at Lowe's for $138; it turns out a special-order 30" replacement window would be $195. I don't know, a hundred bucks' difference for the two windows is reason enough for me to figure out a two-inch-wide center post solution. Don't you think so?

Argh! %(*&(*@#$(&@3!!!1!

OK, so having sorta fixed the first leak, it was on to the next.

First, we expose the leak by cutting into the floor (this is the fun part, and the part that really brings home to you that you own the house, and nobody will yell at you (except you) for breaking it).

But when we examine more closely, we see that a longer section of this pipe has burst. Here's a picture of the leak in action:

O mama! So this calls for a super-duper pipe repair clamp. This is real hilljack work. After a second visit to Lowe's for today, here are my weapons:

That red square is a six-inch by six-inch piece of neoprene. I'm going to cut a patch twice as long as the three-inch pipe repair clamp, and use both clamps together to make a long patch. To make it even better, I'm wrapping the whole thing in repair tape before applying the patch.

Here's the new super-duper hilljack patch:


Tightened to a certain point, it's still drippy, but I'm excited. I go out to the carriage house and throw the cutoff -- and ... nothing. So I go back and investigate. Here's what I just spent two days fixing:


Looking on the bright side, I no longer have to worry about those drips.

Yeah, it turns out that the black pipe to the carriage house starts under the kitchen floor. When I looked a little more carefully, I could even see where it had been buried. After debugging, things always seem obvious.

So it's back to the ol' drawing board again. That was all I could take for today, though.

Not quite

So I gained relatively accessible access to the pipe break, applied the pipe repair clamp, stood on my head in the dirt and rat droppings to get both hands in (one for the wrench, one for the screwdriver), and finally flipped the switch!

The result: the pipe clamp isn't tight enough, and still drips, and now I can hear another jetting break under the floor in the other back room. So I'm not quite there.

But at least I don't have to disassemble the entire house brick by brick. And I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. Or actually, light shining through into the basement from the crawlspace -- but it's the same principle.

Update: here's the pipe repair clamp in situ:

Pipe repair clamps

Ah, Mr. Google.  How did I live before you were invented?

So for breaks like the one I have in my galvanized pipe out to the carriage house, Lowe's carries a gadget known as a pipe repair clamp.  For $2.74 and some cutting, I should be able to fix my leak.  This one.  Which leaves plenty, but hey, you have to take things one day at a time.

Plumbing epiphany

Whilst walking the dog I realized that I really don't need to fix that pipe going to the second floor.  It's a dumb place to put a pipe anyway, going up through the wall between the parlor and the entry hall, under the front bedroom and above the stairway, then along the middle of the house, taking a right turn at Albuquerque to the upstairs bath.  How it gets to the blue room bath I don't yet know.

What I realized is that it would be just as good to take a pipe upstairs from the kitchen to the wall between the blue room bath and the main bath.  This would solve the entire problem.  And since my goal is to install on-demand water heating, there's no real reason to run two pipes, either.  Less to break is good.

So there's the reason to have a dog.  Walking her gives you time to think.

Plumbing (sigh)

Well, the good news is that the plumbing in the carriage house looks pretty good, so if I can get water out there, and clean it, I can move into it, at which point I won't have to keep driving across town every time I get the urge to do something, or need to check my email.  (Assuming my new ISP gets the broadband turned on -- they were supposed to have called already to set up a technician visit.)

The bad news is that when I tried to turn on the section in the basement to get to the carriage house, water came out in unexpected places.  So I'm not 100% sure I understand what's happening there.

Debugging sucks in any medium.

Also, one of the shutoffs I just installed has a leak -- when I opened it, it dripped on the downstream side.  So I have to replace it, meaning I have to go to the store first because I've already installed all four of my shutoffs.  And after I do that, I have to figure out why water is coming out of the hot water pipes even though when I cut the line to the hot water heater to cap it, it wasn't wet.  That, I don't get.

At least I have lots of cutoff valves, though!  Most of which don't leak.

Oops!

Did I say it was obvious where the leak was?  Well, this pipe had actually split all the way down to the cutoff valve.  Ah well.  So it was back to the old drawing board.  After another half hour's work replacing that valve and the tee:

Voilà!  This is plumbing already under pressure -- I have a working toilet (now much cleaner) and a working hose tap for my bucket.  I have returned to a good deal of civilization.

Next plumbing target: the carriage house.  The water enters the house on the east side, and the supply line runs down the entire middle of the basement, to exit at the west side, bound for the carriage house.  If I'm really, really lucky, the buried pipe between the main house and carriage house didn't burst.

Anyway, this plumbing, and cleaning the first toilet, was all I got done today, house-wise.

Plumbing

One of the benefits of CPVC pipe, in addition to being cheap and easy to install, is that when it freezes, the damage is entirely unsubtle.  No more wondering where that leak is!  No, with CPVC you know.

I fixed this today, with a little sleeve and ten minutes' work.  It took me longer to open the primer and glue cans, actually -- I had to take them to my mother's house, since my pliers are sitting in the port in San Juan awaiting loading.

Emboldened by my success with the sleeve, I replaced a tee, put in a ball valve, and spliced in another sleeve, and that should take me to the downstairs half-bath and a hose tap outside.  Tomorrow, after it's all had time to set, I'll test it for the first time, and hey -- I may be able to start cleaning!

In other news today, I got my third carpet out and two more windows open.  The air really is getting better in the house, step by step.

A word to the curious -- if you were expecting breakneck speed, you will be sadly disappointed.  I have to keep up with the paying work first.  My goal is to do at least one task per day with The House, to keep the momentum rolling.  This week is just plumbing and cleaning, and getting to know the property.  Next week, who knows?