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If it makes you feel any better, lead times on a lot of computers are pretty long these days because of... you know, everything. So unless you're happy with something you can grab in stock at Best Buy, you wouldn't be getting a new laptop anytime soon anyway 
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Aug 19, 2021 18:09
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My toddler flushed his lightweight cotton underpants down the toilet this morning. He did so on the 2nd floor of our house. The house is 2 stories on a basement. Theres another toilet/shower on the 2nd floor, a toilet on the first floor, and a toilet/shower stall in the basement. All the bathrooms in the house are in the same corner, so I presume they're all connected to the same sewer stack. I bought a 3 foot toilet auger and ran it twice through the toilet he flushed the underwear down, no joy snagging them. In some searching, it seems in this situation some people just flush and hope that the underwear make it all the way out the sewer line. I'd rather not have a flooding situation on some level on my house on a Saturday afternoon, so I have a plumber scheduled to come out tomorrow. I assume he'll have a longer auger/snake. I am keeping an eye on all showers/sinks/etc for backups. Anything I should be doing differently? Thanks.
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Aug 19, 2021 19:21
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Take showers somewhere else. Clogged toilets will fill to the brim with a SINGLE flush but not overflow, showers on the 2nd floor will flood your whole first floor living room. Or take showers in the basement.
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Aug 21, 2021 16:05
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TheGreyGhost posted:We're mid repipe. I sprung for the good copper poo poo because I'm not doing this thing where I spend every quake wondering if the PEX finally died. Some wonderful findings: The hot water relocation is the exact issue solved by PEX manifold distribution system, last I checked. And the main advantage, that if planned correctly, you have uninterrupted piece of pipe from said manifold to the appliance shut off valve. No joints, no elbows, no potential leak points.
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Aug 22, 2021 04:02
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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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Blindeye posted: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? That’s specifically in the eyes of how our building is according to what we heard from the PE and plumber—could be bullshit but who knows.. We have a block basement and center stack up to our tank and units which I get the feeling is a bit odd. I got the impression that some of the higher end PEX would’ve worked fine but would’ve been a bitch and a half to get and not much cheaper.
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Aug 22, 2021 05:45
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Could you ask them to clarify?
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Aug 23, 2021 04:33
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Fixed a toilet today by replacing the fill valve. It’s not much but it’s my first plumbing fix as a homeowner and I wanted to brag about it somewhere  Checked in the mirror beforehand to make sure I had the asscrack showing a bit, I credit my success to that important step.
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Aug 23, 2021 20:57
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Fortaleza posted:Fixed a toilet today by replacing the fill valve. It’s not much but it’s my first plumbing fix as a homeowner and I wanted to brag about it somewhere  Hell yeah!! The more plumbing experience you get, the more crack you'll show. Proven fact that is.
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Aug 24, 2021 00:48
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Hey folks, I live in a townhouse and trying to figure out what's going on with our pipes. Sorry for the random non-linear writing, just wanted to make sure I covered everything. TL;DR: We have two toilets, both where the water in the bowl goes down after a few minutes, one where I saw air bubbles coming up. The tub drains slower but the kitchen sink on the floor below doesn't drain slowly. Using a zip it device in the tub got me nothing. I'm in a 2 story, 1 full bath upstairs, 1 half bath downstairs. The kitchen is on the first floor and the full bath is directly upstairs from it. Every so often we will flush the toilets and the line goes to where you'd expect in the bowl. After 5 minutes to an hour, the water line in the bowl goes down. I'd say about 15% of the water from the bowl goes "missing." I saw our downstairs toilet the other day have air bubbles coming out, but I don't think anything was draining in the house at that time. We have a clean out in the kitchen, and there's a sewage cover in our backyard (round concrete cover that says "S S" on it). We have a plumbing stack where the half bath is that goes right above that room, and another one about 5 feet away that goes up two stories to the roof. The second plumbing stack goes vertically inside our wall which is in our bedroom, and throughout the day I hear it making a ticking noise every so often. It seems to happen more when the house is warming up/cooling down, so I think it's just the pipe expanding/contracting due to the temps. We have a bit of a slow drain in the tub. Nothing else in the house drains slow (not even our kitchen, which is right under the tub). I opened the drain and didn't see any hair or anything. I used a zip it thing and nothing came out. When I shower, the water fills the tub about half an inch near the drain, but the other half of the tub doesn't have water covering it; so while there's water settling near the drain, there isn't any on the opposite side even after a 15 minute shower. So I basically have two problems: 1) The water in the toilet bowls go down after some random amount of time. I haven't figured out exactly what triggers it. 2) The tub drains a bit slowly, but keeps up with the amount of water coming out of the shower head after the tub gets half a gallon of water in it. I called up a plumber, and without looking at the place suggested to snake the main line by pulling the toilet out from the first floor since we don't have an obvious cleanout. I asked about the one in the kitchen and he said it's unlikely he could use it. Part of me suspects the plumbing stack has something stuck in there, but the plumber seems to have dismissed it based on what I told him. He's going to come out and snake out the main line tomorrow, just want to make sure there's nothing else I'm missing. I do think that's probably the first step as both toilets seem to have venting issues of some sort, and clearing out a clog on the main line may help. I'm sure he could just take a peek at the vent pipes and would know whether or not those need to get snaked..
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Aug 25, 2021 02:07
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The way that the bowl water is behaving, I'd run a camera down the vent stack from the roof. Most plumbers won't get on a roof, so they'll dismiss venting issues. You may also have a partial blockage in the line downstream of the two toilets but before the kitchen sink drainage. If it was past the sink, them using the upstream plumbing would fill the sink with wastewater. It could be both. The tub draining slow tells me that you have a problem at or directly below the ideal bend, which is the union joining the sink, tub, and toilet drainage into the stack. Fill the tub with enough water that it'll take a couple minutes to drain, then start draining it, run downstairs & see if the powder room toilet is acting weird (bowl water rising & falling, odd sounds). If everything down there is normal, you got some freaky-deaky at the ideal bend. Could be a blockage that's affecting the vent as well as the toilet, so yeah, pull the second-floor toilet, snake it, run water through the sink & tub, and you should hear it going on down. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Aug 25, 2021 |
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Aug 25, 2021 03:52
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Thanks for the input! Yeah, I'm scared as heck of heights otherwise I'd take a peek myself. I got this plumber's info from a few folks at work and he's highly reviewed on Yelp, so I'd hope he knows how to triage this correctly. I'll push the plumber to at least peek at the vent stack for me as it's been bothering me for a while now. I know we had rats in the attic at some point, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a dead one in there.
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Aug 25, 2021 04:45
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My water heater crapped out the other day, and upon telling my landlord, who is a pretty decent guy, he decided it was probably time to put a tankless one in, and today he did. Except. I mean, I'm not a plumber, and I've only done a bit of reading about them, but like, is this OK? It's a direct vent condensing unit, but it's being fed indoor air for the intake side. If it were in the garage as he told me his is at his own house, or in the attic as he said he's done in a few of his other properties, then cool whatever, but this is in our laundry room, which is not a giant space, and is accessed through the en suite attached to our bedroom. I think I need a second opinion on whether or not this is OK to do. I'm pretty sure the hole in the roof is large enough to take a concentric vent, and might crawl up and replace all this with one myself if this is not ok enough.
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Aug 26, 2021 23:35
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We're in a new-to-us house that dates to 1931. The last owner did a lot of upgrades, apparently competently. However. We've noticed that when we run the clothes washer, when it's draining there are blorp noises in the downstairs bathtub and sink. No fluid rises to the surface; it's just burping. Should I be worried? Should I be calling a plumber?
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Aug 26, 2021 23:56
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ReidRansom posted:My water heater crapped out the other day, and upon telling my landlord, who is a pretty decent guy, he decided it was probably time to put a tankless one in, and today he did. Except. I mean, I'm not a plumber, and I've only done a bit of reading about them, but like, is this OK? It's not necessarily unsafe, but also may not be to code in your jurisdiction. It will certainly create a negative pressure which will drag in outside air that is either colder or warmer than what you are trying to condition you house to be, so it will absolutely waste some energy. The typical solutions to this are a differently set up unit where exhaust and makeup air are on the same port in a double walled exhaust/intake that looks like a single pipe to the outside.
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Aug 27, 2021 01:44
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Just going to jump in here to say don't replace the roof penetration exhaust system yourself as a renter. If it's not to code then you could raise a fuss over it. How does tankless condensing work? Surely it cannot function fast enough to take a shower without some kind of huge secondary input energy? Or is one of us misunderstanding something here?
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Aug 27, 2021 02:00
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The only things I could find in the code were prohibitions against installation of this sort of venting in a bathroom or storage room/closet, and this is kind of both but also neither? It's in a laundry room attached to and accessible only through the master bath, but there's a door between them. It is also used for storage, but I suppose it is primarily a utility room, so it's probably all kosher. I've got a CO/explosive gas detector in there, maybe I'll just monitor it going forward, see how it behaves when other exhausting stuff is being used, vent hoods and clothes dryer and such. If I notice anything fishy,maybe I bring it back up then. He did ask me to keep a close eye on the vent stack next time we get a heavy rain, so maybe he already has some concerns about whatever they did up there. As for condensing, that's just something to do with capturing additional energy from the exhaust through some additional heat exchangers or exhaust gas recirculation or something, making it way more efficient. It's still a gas heater.
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Aug 27, 2021 13:56
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ReidRansom posted:As for condensing, that's just something to do with capturing additional energy from the exhaust through some additional heat exchangers or exhaust gas recirculation or something, making it way more efficient. It's still a gas heater. Basically this, but it also means more parts, more expensive, and more likely to break. It also needs more service. There is a debate-not-much-debate about this and I think anyone who installs or services these things for a living has a non-condensing unit in their own home but loves selling condensing units.
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Aug 27, 2021 16:07
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Motronic posted:Basically this, but it also means more parts, more expensive, and more likely to break. It also needs more service. Yeah when I got a water heater last year the plumber told me that, he wouldn't use one in his house, but some peeps love the "efficiency" even though it would take decades to pay for itself, and if you don't maintain them they can get scale and stuff built up in them. Which he said was common as no one does the proper maintenance on them.
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Aug 27, 2021 17:56
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They're also way more complex and have proprietary parts. With a standard gas tank, you can buy thermocouples or gas valves/thermostat literally off the shelf for less than $100 and be back running that day. When something breaks on the Navien tankless, you get to fight with their support to send you the part 3 weeks later. Enjoy those cold showers for multiple weeks.
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Aug 27, 2021 18:15
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Yeah, never worked on a tankless, but a gas tank is crazy simple to work on, only a few actual parts and all are easy to change. I had the gas value go out on my brand new Rheem (less than 6months since manufactured) and I guess that like never happens, support peeps on the phone had me go though the whole test procedure twice and and even take it out and check the ohms on it. Then overnighted me a new one for no charge and had it in and running like an hour after it arrived. Only reason it look that long was I didn't think to drain the water heater before it arrived.
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Aug 27, 2021 18:58
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I posted gently caress a month ago about replacing a lever drain to a twist one. I bought the bathtub drain tool as well. I got the lever assembly out but I'm having trouble getting the actual drain part out. It seems like there's a plate? I can't get either the tool or long pliers to grab onto it. It's a jacuzzi whirlpool tub but i don't know if that makes a difference. nashona posted:
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Aug 29, 2021 02:35
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ReidRansom posted:
Gotcha. Thanks. Seems lazy to not draw outside air. Maybe just call the city and ask?
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Aug 29, 2021 18:56
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Blindeye posted: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? Not saying this is correct, but they're probably worried about any locations where the PEX transitions to a shutoff valve/etc., since the cheaper connection types could potentially become disconnected, which is why they made the comment about more expensive types being ok, since they were probably talking about more substantial joint connections. Like i said, I don't think that's a good/correct thought, if true, but I could see the reasoning.
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Aug 29, 2021 19:38
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As anyone here ever seen a faucet handle like this before? It's leaking and I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the handle off. My initial thought was that the silver part on top was a cap and tried to pry it off, but no luck. Then I tried prying the whole handle part up from the base with a screw driver, but nope. Also tried prying and turning the base. Looked under the sink and couldn't see any obvious release there either. Also no brand identifier I could see anywhere. House was build in 1996, so I assume it was installed with the house.
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Aug 29, 2021 23:20
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So I'm not quite sure of what details are needed, but I've noticed that the vinyl flooring around my toilet is getting discolored and blue gray. the toilet does not move, seems pretty sturdy in place, I have not seen any water leakage or smelled anything weird. That said, the linoleum or vinyl, I'm not sure what it is, this house is over 30 years old, does not feel spongy or smell, but at the back of the toilet, I've noticed the vinyl has started lifting and pushing away from the wall and the cabinet, which to me would indicate some water got underneath. But what is the first step to getting this fixed, who would I need to call first?
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Aug 31, 2021 05:54
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Nitrox posted:Could you ask them to clarify? What I got from the plumber was essentially two items that make a lot more sense. His complaints about the PEX durability are: 1. Our main water lines (and all the ones in our community for that matter) up to our kitchen and bathroom are quite literally only capable of being sandwiched between two beams in the corner of the unit and an AC Soffit. If we put plastic there, it’s going to be a plastic join within 1cm of the wood on each side. It probably works out okay, but those beams are close enough that getting good plastic seals along there are going to be very very difficult and also fairly vulnerable on top of it being right up against 3 different directions of beam/metal. It “probably” would’ve been fine, but it would’ve been riskier, which brings up item 2. 2. We had to expose a good chunk of the stucco on the outside to finish taking the lines through our kitchen which was always a distinct possibility. Lots of direct sunlight on the install there so no way to really shield it for a while. In summary, it’s probably not actually any less bad in a quake. Just my extremely hosed 70s unit causing problems.
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Aug 31, 2021 06:10
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Cowslips Warren posted:So I'm not quite sure of what details are needed, but I've noticed that the vinyl flooring around my toilet is getting discolored and blue gray. the toilet does not move, seems pretty sturdy in place, I have not seen any water leakage or smelled anything weird. If you're seeing staining in the vinyl that will not clean, it's because water is getting in between the color & clear layer by capillary action, which can mean that you have a leak for the toilet seal wax ring (formally known as a closet flange seal) or it could mean that enough fluid has gotten under the pedestal to finally start penetrating the cut vinyl under there, and it's working its way out. if it is the vinyl sheet that is curling at the baseboard, it's age that does that, not water. As vinyl sheet ages, it shrinks & curls. However, if you have a luan (thin plywood) underlayment that got wet and is exploding, that could cause it to lift as well. Either way you'll need to replace the vinyl & underlayment.
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Sep 1, 2021 03:59
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PainterofCrap posted:If you're seeing staining in the vinyl that will not clean, it's because water is getting in between the color & clear layer by capillary action, which can mean that you have a leak for the toilet seal wax ring (formally known as a closet flange seal) or it could mean that enough fluid has gotten under the pedestal to finally start penetrating the cut vinyl under there, and it's working its way out. Abd no matter what....this is "pull the toilet to inspect" territory.
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Sep 1, 2021 04:04
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Sounds like you'll need to replace the flooring in either case. If you're somewhat handy you could probably replace it yourself and take a stab at the toilet mounting (it really isn't too hard, I did it on two toilets with no experience). Otherwise, hire a flooring guy, who will probably have to pull the toilet anyway to do the floor. Then either try mounting the toilet yourself with a new ring, or try it then hire a plumber to fix your job. The toilet mounting can get pricey as it's both a cost to get the plumber out to you, then to do the job right so they don't get a call back in case it leaks. Some plumbers price in the cost of coming back anyway.
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Sep 1, 2021 04:35
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I get a surge of water pressure when I turn on any faucet in my house then it slowly backs off. When I first moved into the house late last year I replaced the water pressure regulator. I believe it's currently set to 55-60 psi but I can't remember off the top of my head. What else would cause this? Also the outdoor spigot on the front of my house bypasses the regulator and our incoming pressure is like 200 psi. I had to put an RV pressure regulator on it so I could actually use my hose end sprayer.
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Sep 2, 2021 17:02
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TheWevel posted:I get a surge of water pressure when I turn on any faucet in my house then it slowly backs off. When I first moved into the house late last year I replaced the water pressure regulator. I believe it's currently set to 55-60 psi but I can't remember off the top of my head. What else would cause this? Your water is heating up and expanding creating more pressure in the system until you run a tap at which point it quickly equalizes. It's caused by a water heater running. The solution is to install a properly calibrated expansion tank in your system.
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Sep 2, 2021 21:39
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And because I'm a dumb dumb- this would happen on both hot and cold taps, right? edit: and we do have an expansion tank, perhaps I'll look at that more. Thanks TheWevel fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Sep 2, 2021 |
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Sep 2, 2021 21:55
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TheWevel posted:And because I'm a dumb dumb- this would happen on both hot and cold taps, right? Yes, it's all connected so if pressure builds on one side it'll build on the other. Your expansion tank may need replacing as they do wear out. It could also be improperly inflated for your current water pressure. If none of that is the case then it could be your pressure regulator is failing but that seems unlikely since you just installed it. A way to test all this would be to close the valve letting cold water into your water heater overnight, letting the cold tap flow before you go to bed to equalize the pressure on the cold side, and then in the morning check to see if the pressure has built back up on the cold water side. If it has that means your pressure regulator is probably the culprit. If you don't have a valve to isolate your water heater, you could also just turn it off. I'd probably turn it off anyway even if you're using a valve to isolate it. You're essentially halving the amount of space the water has to expand when you do that and it would be prudent just to make sure the pressure doesn't build up too much on the hot water side during the test. It might make for a cold shower in the morning but that's just the hidden cost of home ownership. 
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Sep 2, 2021 22:45
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If you're seeing hot ambient temperatures currently and your plumbing is run through the attic, the brief high pressure blip of flow can also just be to an increase in the temperature of the static water volume within the piping, which would also affect both hot and cold lines.
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Sep 3, 2021 08:38
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I have an old Solar Electric Water Heater and its time for it to get out of my life. I'm tempted to DIY the replacement with an Hybrid Electric Water Heater. The old installation is a bit questionable in terms of a few things and I was hoping I could get some feedback on my general plan and any things that I'm missing before I make my detailed plan with drawings and measurements and parts list. I also plan on shifting the location of the new water heater about 3 ft down the wall from the original installation. Just to be clear. The prior installation was not by me. Removal of Old Water Heater
Prep for New Water Heater
Install New Water Heater
I know that PEX can't be part of the last 18 inches to the hot water heater. But I understand that I can use those braided threaded connections for the last length. Is PEX a bad idea? Essentially it would be copper to PEX to stainless steel flexible line to hot water heater. Some photos. Top of old water heater  Hot/Cold Water Lines. They got to the floor.  Solar System...  Solar Piping 
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Sep 3, 2021 20:45
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I've done two water heaters before (not a plumber) -- our of curiosity why PEX and not copper? You don't necessarily have to sweat pipe, I used shark bite fittings and the whole thing took me 6 hours the first time, the second time was probably 3.
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Sep 4, 2021 00:08
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Bank posted:I've done two water heaters before (not a plumber) -- our of curiosity why PEX and not copper? You don't necessarily have to sweat pipe, I used shark bite fittings and the whole thing took me 6 hours the first time, the second time was probably 3. Unknown fear of sharkbite fittings/internet fear mongering is probably the only reason. Even doing the PEX, I would be sweating a copper to PEX fitting. Should I not be so afraid of sharkbite fittings?
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Sep 4, 2021 00:34
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c355n4 posted:I have an old Solar Electric Water Heater and its time for it to get out of my life. I'm tempted to DIY the replacement with an Hybrid Electric Water Heater. The old installation is a bit questionable in terms of a few things and I was hoping I could get some feedback on my general plan and any things that I'm missing before I make my detailed plan with drawings and measurements and parts list. I also plan on shifting the location of the new water heater about 3 ft down the wall from the original installation. Just to be clear. The prior installation was not by me. PEX has been fine for my water heater. I used the fflexible copper pipes for the last 18" and it's been fine going on 2 years now. One thing is that you don't need a louvered door for ventilation unless you're putting in a gas water heater. And if you are putting in a gas water heater I would recommend a better setup because you don't want to suck up your conditioned air out the flue. Additionally, you'll want to do some maths to make sure your intake air volume is enough for the water heater. A lot of the newer hybrid/efficiency ones have pretty high combustion air intake requirements and the handful of 1/2" holes in doors that served water heaters of the past don't cut it with those. Bank posted:I've done two water heaters before (not a plumber) -- our of curiosity why PEX and not copper? You don't necessarily have to sweat pipe, I used shark bite fittings and the whole thing took me 6 hours the first time, the second time was probably 3. c355n4 posted:Unknown fear of sharkbite fittings/internet fear mongering is probably the only reason. Even doing the PEX, I would be sweating a copper to PEX fitting. Should I not be so afraid of sharkbite fittings? SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Sep 4, 2021 |
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Sep 4, 2021 00:39
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Ah cool, thanks for the link. I was looking for those flexible copper guys on like Lowes/HD and only found stainless steel braided. Yea, no gas for me and I would definitely not be trying to DIY that. The louvered doors is a requirement for the hybrid heatpump electric water heater if it is in a room smaller than 700 sqft. Alternatively, in the future that wall is shared with the garage so I can ultimately duct it to pull air from the garage.
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Sep 4, 2021 00:48
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