Do It Yourself Help-Home Projects
 

There's a lot of talent here. I was hoping we could help each other with home project questions.

I happen to have a few home projects going on right now and would like to ask some help of someone who knows plumbing.

This is my dilema:

Kitchen - good cold water pressure and poor hot water pressure
Bathtub - has poor hot and cold water pressure
Bathroom - sink has great hot and cold water pressure.

I have replaced the kitchen and bathroom sinks within the past year and I am hesitant to get to involved with my plumbing because it is old galvanized pipe--where is the problem at, just the screens or is it indicitive of an issue with the hot water heater (which is about 15 y/o)?

I've been warned about touching the galvanized pipes..is it true they are hell to work with?

Where is the shut off valve for the tub and how hard is it to replace the whole unit, shower and faucets in the tub. I have the tile slated to be torn down and replaced in Jan so opening the wall is no big deal. I'm just afraid my hot water pressure is not going to make it until then.

Also I have bit of rot in front of the tub--is there a way I can guage how bad the rot is without lifting the tub?

Help.

Good luck!!

Thanks--I do have a shut off valve at the house and there is one on the water heater, I didn't think about shutting it off at the water heater.

In the tub is there a screen to the faucet? I am trying to figure out where that hot water is coming in at, I have two knobs one each so I am assuming they each have their own line of water--I'm not sure where to dig for a screen to clean and suspect it is in the wall. I've never messed with any tub plumbing--replaced lots of sinks and toilets but never messed with the tub.

Do you know if you shut the water off at the vstreet, do you have to be concerned about how open it is when you turn it back on--is there such a thing as to much pressure turning it back on into the house?

I really appreciate the reponses!

If you have galvanized pipes, the problem with your low pressure water could be the pipes themselves. When they rot, the rot from the inside in. Thus, you won't see any damage until you cut the pipe open...at which point, you'll see all the rot clogging up the pipe. I had this in a house once. And it was the hot water pipes. I started in the bathtub, and ended up replacing all the pipes...allllllllll the way to the street. It was a nightmare.

For the rot in front of the tub: If you're planning on replacing it anyways, you can always try to old "If you can stab a screwdriver through it, it's rotten" test. But that only works if A) you don't have tile, and B) you're already planning on replacing any linoleum (or whatever else you've got on top of the subfloor).


Dylan...hates plumbing

Great thread! Thanks Kimbo for getting it started!

Sorry to hear about your water pressure issues. We have taken on the joys of an older home also ( circa 1850's) which has been updated in interesting manifestations over the years. This includes the labyrinth of pipes and fittings under it. Most of the copper has been replaced, however it wasn't replaced with the size pipes that provide for better pressure so we will be changing those all out this spring. The size of your pipes may have something to do with it, along with what has been mentioned earlier in the metal decay itself.

We just replaced the gauge on the water holding tank and the nipple was totally clogged going into the filter. We are on a well, so I'm not sure if you even have a tank, so that may not be something you can check. Repairing those two things increased our pressure 3X.

Good luck and I hope it turns out to be something manageable for you!

Yay for the DIYers!

Our new countertops are FINALLY in! I cant WAIT to be rid of the existing country blue ones!

As per usual, I am expecting what should be fairly straightforward to be ANYTHING but... By the end of the day, we will have shiney newness and hopefully Jess won't have too much more "tinsel" at hys temples!:wallbreak:

Wish us luck! :dance2:

Christie

Do you know if you shut the water off at the vstreet, do you have to be concerned about how open it is when you turn it back on--is there such a thing as to much pressure turning it back on into the house?

Kimbo, yes you need to !. Shut it off at the main first, replace, add a water pressure regulator, ask at the store what pressure it should be set to.
2. When you get ready to turn on the water, open all the faucets in the house, this will prevent a bang to the pipes from the sudden pressure return.
Good luck buddy!

I hate plumbing too!!

This is actually my fear, Dylan. I've been warned about galvanized plumbing a lot. I've also been warned about the knob and tube electrical in the house. It's a 1942 house that I have very little attachement too.

I am not fixing the house up for my pleasure and am trying to put as little financially into it, I want to put it on the market--this is my last year in Seattle. Chances are someone will buy this house and rip it a part or even rip it down and put a bigger house on the property.

Thanks everyone for your input.

I really need to give in and crawl under the house--not my favorite thing to do. I know I have new copper coming in from the street, I need to get under there and see if I can find some of this stuff, but now I know a few things to look for.

Shit--I'm not liking what I found. I crawled under the house and I can see the copper coming into the house, it looks like there is a regulator in place where they have tied the copper and the galvanized together. The main galvanized line coming in looks clean and rust free.

What is scaring the hell out of me is what I see coming out of the bathroom wall (under the house). I found one of the pipes with a very small drip coming out of it and is right next to a dime size rust spot--I suspect this is the major culprit and is ready to go--however when looking at the array of joints and lines I see quite a few rusty spots but no other visible drips. I am really having a hard time figuring out where this one line with the drip is going to and quite frankly think it is one of the lines out of the water heater.

This is what is really bothering me--it is sitting right next to my furnace and right by one of the cement slabs that is holding one of my major wall structures--I don't have a full slab, it's all dirt under there with the exception of these obvious reinforced area's to hold up a wall in the house. That slab does not look to stable to me as the dirt is removed from atleast 1/2 of the underside. I am really concerned if the water pipe broke what other damage it has the potential of causing.

Jack this is my question--what are the chances it would explode? Or is it just going to drip and the leak will get bigger? The leak is sitting in a bad spot-right where the pipe is coming thru the floor-. I need time to get some quotes -- I am thinking it is time to open the damn wall and do all the plumbing--at the same time I am going to have them put in a tankless gas water heater. Do you think this is an emergency or will be soon?

The good news is that the furnace has a new air filter and I got to go to home depot today!!

I'm sitting here debating on whether to open that wall up today---this is a '42 house--when you open these walls they flat ass stink.

I'll check this out when I get to working in the bathroom--still projected for Jan of 2010.

Jack I cannot thank you enough--

The game plan is that tomorrow at 0600 I will begin taking down the wall on the opposite side of the bathroom plumbing, at 0830 my friend will be here to train me in the art of plumbing. She thinks we will have it done by noon but what is not done she is going to leave me to do and will check back in on me after she gets done with her racing. We are going to drop the gas lines in for a gas tankless water heater and for a dryer while we are at it. I'm working on the water heater to buy--I think the Bosch Aquastar that is 6.4 GPM, it meets all the criteria for the energy credit. She'll check in with her distributor for a price break and by next weekend, if not sooner we will get that installed and get the wall back up.

We are going to completely replumb all the pipes with the exception of the main pipe in--for now we are going to let that one be and concentrate on everything else. Once I know something like this is going on I have to get if fixed -- I'd be constantly crawling under the house checking on the pipe and I really hate crawling around under there.

I sure hope I can find my knee pads, I know I'm going to be needing them. One thing I am really glad I did is part of the sale agreement on my house was that the prior owner had to clean out the crawl space and install new visqeen (sp?). I've had the house 10 years now but that plastic is still pretty clean and the crawl space seems to be rodent free. The spiders don't bother me but I hate the cobwebs on my face--I take a broom in with me to take care of that.

Wish me luck--I've never plumbed a house before especially after a plumbing crash course.

I LOVE this thread! What a good start Kimbo - although sorry you have to deal with these kinds of repairs and such. They certainly are ongoing for homeowners. I will be back!

Great advice thus far!!

WILD


*Plumber, huh Jack?????? :cc:

Don't you have some wood to chop---:giggle:

I've been so stuck on the plumbing thing I haven't been able to get into the wood chopping thread.

This might be slightly off-topic, but i am wondering how people get their outdoor holiday lights so straight and evenly spaced?

__

Either has anyone else once the "gnomes" invaded!

:canadian:

I will say this, (little bit I KNOW?, kinda...) when I bought this place, it was all customized threaded on the property galvanized piping. My father [back then] came right in (from HIS house building time period, upgrading a large landmark town building, -and just working with things knowledge, I guess) and said "easy replacing that piece". He measured, had it threaded at the local little town hardware store. That lasted years.

And I actually viewed ALL of this "exposed" metal plumbling as something akin to "Lloyd Wright" home artwork! LOL!!

But, I recently got copper replacement. At some point prior to this, (to add on) I adapted some plastic plumbing which is super easy and inexpensive to do of course, but I didn't like it! AT all.

Like some have said though, if you are in it for the LONG haul and have concerns... the galvanized does clog up from the inside. I would have thought that with a smaller diameter the water pressure would have been "greater"...(?) Want to explain that to me Jack?

But, it was well water sediment in mine from over the years, not "rotten from the inside out", that I could tell anyway. Maybe I was misinformed though. (One very unique description of this here, I'll tell ya!! Thanks. LOL!! Blech!!!)

I'm worried about the friggin' carpenter ants here. Whatcha got for that Jack? I've done many things over the years here. Little bastards.

Hi all! Happy SNL!!

WILD

*OH! Hot water tanks should be flushed out regularly, I "think". I did anyway. Now, I have the "hot water on demand", tankless "thingie"... (popular in Paris!). I believe that cut my gas bill down as well! But, like Jack stated, if it is that old, I wouldn't flush that out now unless you want to kayak out of your house!

Kimbo--I don't have to hang lights this year, it's just something I've always been curious about. My dad refused to put lights up outside, so if we wanted them, we had to do the task ourselves. I could never get them straight, though. :duct:

Jack--Pretty funny question, huh? Ah well. Glad I could keep you entertained. :)

~cara

Oh my god! This reminded me of the "Married With Children" episode "Psycho Dad"!!! I just saw that AGAIN tonight?!

(Sorry, don't know what your show is, but I'm gigglin' here!!)

PSYCHO DAD!!!!! (There is a "Psycho Mom" version on the show for Peg, too!)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJX1Atch1k"]YouTube- Psycho dad and psycho mom[/ame]

:clap::clap::clap::clap:



*I love Al Bundy's way of fixing things! I know a guy like that!! Seriously!!

Cara... Being that this is one of my pet peeves.... the "zen" Christmas lights and their unacceptability... I found a couple of tricks over the years...

The lil clip thingys that are sold at whatever your favorite retailer might be... a LIFESAVER. These are for hanging lights on the house...

The lights for trees/shrubs now are sold in "nets" rather than the strings and strings of lights twirled around the shrub.

Other than that, its a matter of patience and "being on a mission"...

On another note... pet peeve #987... special order countertops that were cut WRONG!!!! :furious::furious: Thank goodness that Jess had measured meticulously (how did we ever live without the laser measure thingy from Sears?!?!?) and it wasn't the measurement that was the issue... the manufacturer just cut one of them wrong...

We know Jack's latest obsession with the flat screen... we picked one up on Black Friday with the BluRay DVD... AND have discovered the netflix streaming feature... needless to say, it makes not being able to finish the countertops more bearable.

The last thing on this round of kitchen renovation is installing the faux tin kitchen tiles. They look pretty easy... adhesive up...

Next on the list is moving the w/d and installing beadboard over the existing STUCCO walls in our now dining room....

For now, I am glad that we are on hiatus till after the holidays... more time for TV!!!

Well the sheetrock is down and my mess is cleaned up--now that I have a look inside the wall it makes sense. It does look like the culprit pipe is the hotwater pipe out of the water heater. Of course I am not going to be able to get that one fixed today because we will need to drain the tank and move it--I am hoping we can get the new heater early this week.

I've got an 1.5 hours before my friend is here--guess I'll go to Starbucks!

Sadly my project is delayed a week. Due to the location of the pipe and the fact that we need to drain and move the water heater and the fact that she thought rehooking up this water heater would be a bad decision. I've got to get the new tank in house so we can do the whole project at once. We have some challenges, we are going to try and move part of the plumbing so it would better accomodate a stackable laundry set saving even more room in the already small room...I am hoping it gets a bit warmer throughout this week--it's pretty cold here, not good for in, out project work.

Stayed tuned--

So...I need to hang some curtains. I remember how hard it was last time trying to screw into the wall, so I bought a small, Black & Decker, cordless drill and a small set of drill bits. (My first power tool! I'm so proud!) I've charged the drill the obligatory 17 hours per instruction. I'm scared to drill holes in my wall, though! What if they come out uneven? I know I'm gonna end up spackling the wall when I leave, but I'm still wary of this task. I have to drill 3 holes with a 3/16" bit. Then, I have to put in 3 plastic anchors (my dad called them "Molly Bolts" when I was growing up). The screws will be easy and hanging the curtains will be a breeze.

I just have one question, so far: when measuring where to place the holes, can I base it on the ceiling line, or do I go with the window frame? (And does that make any sense?)

Handily challenged and may need to resort to :duct: if I can't get the curtains to hang level,

cara

drill & bits. check!
level? damn!

Thanks for the help, Jack. My curtains are too narrow so I have to go back and buy the wider set. No curtains for me tonight. :( I should probably get a level and a new tape measure while I'm at it.

~cara

OK.. so here's a new one...

How do you go about jacking up a house? Ours is "drooping" in the back area.. specifically the kitchen.

There is a good clearance under it to place jacks/ supports. I have been told to use "pop bottle" jacks ( :eyebrow: sure, I know what those are) and that the process has to be very slow, so as not to upset the foundation.

Is this something I should undertake myself or hire a professional " jacker?" WTF is a house jacker upper called anyway?? LOL. Anyone ( hint Jack) know of a good website with video showing the process?

There is very mild "sloping" in other areas, but the kitchen is the most dramatic. The wife says she hadn't noticed it so much until we placed a new round table in there, which makes it glaringly obvious. So,.. yet another wee little project in the ongoing saga of Extreme Home Makeover: Butch Edition.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Jess