Thursday, October 16, 2008

Plumbing goes awry

Well - As you know whenever you do any plumbing project it ends up being more difficult that originally planned. That is exactly what happened the other day. What should have been as simple as taking off the p-trap to retirieve Joshalyn's CTR ring turned into a much bigger project.
I have known that I would need to do something about the plumbing under the Bathroom sinks for quite a while. Well probably the first time I thought about it was 8 years ago. I always had hoped that I wouldn't need to worry about it. Since Joshalyn's ring was the first major thing to fall in there I decided I would look at it. What I found was that all the pipes under the sink leading to the wall were 1 1/2" pipes that had been cemented together using a 1 1/4" pipe as a connection inside the 1 1/2" ones. so there was no easy way to get them apart. (The only way is to cut or break them). So I went to Lowes and bought all new piping. Of course I then realized that I should have gotten 1 1/4" pipe for the bathroom and in that process realized that the bathroom had really only been plumbed for 1 sink.
When I realized that I had the wrong size pipe I decided that I would go ahead and install a new pop up drain. To match the faucets that we already had I would need to get a brass one. Well I found that I could buy a fairly inexpesive faucet for $3 more that it would cost for the pop up drain. But that would mean that instead of brass we would now have silver faucets and drains (which I like better anyway. It turns out Lynette wanted the brass look but it is too late for that, everything is done.) In replacing the faucets I found that the old owner of the house had used copper pipe for the water supply. That was fine except that I came up about 2" short and the copper pipe didn't meet the faucets water supply pipes. So back to Lowes to get new water supply hoses. Long story longer, I then realized that I needed to get a splitter of sorts (I guess it's called a "T"). What I needed was to be able to run water to 2 different sinks. I picked 2 up (one for hot and one for cold). It turns out I thought I had the right size but I was wrong, so back to Lowes I went. I really don't know how many times I visited that store but at one point I worried that someone might recognize that I had been there quite a few times and wonder what was up and start watching me. What should have taken just a couple of hours ended up taking about 7 or 8 hours. It was Columbus Day. For those of you who don't celebrate Columbus day, because you really didn't know it was a holiday, I work for County government so we get it off. It was this last Monday. So that is what I spent my holiday doing. Anyhow I hope your Columbus Day was as good as mine.

In working on this project I thought of another project that I had done where I was replacing the lever in the shower in the master bathroom. While researching how to do that I found the following link. Before I give you the link I want to warn you that there is at least 1 time where the lady drops an "F" bomb. And while I admit that it wasn't necessary for the story she told If you can get past that I think you will find her experience hillarious. http://frectis.net/?p=673.

3 comments:

Nettie said...

Where's Uncle Ed when you need him?

daygran said...

Sounds like plumbing problems ran in the family last week. We had to replace the pump and all the pipes in our well. It is amazing how much water you need when you can't turn it on. (Aunt Kera)

Jimmie Jan said...

Josh you didn't tell me you were having such a hard time when I called and you were working on that. Wow you are a true plumber now ... Runs in the family ya know. I am proud of you!! Put more pics on I need to see you all!
Love ya Mom