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B-Nasty posted:I think it goes: white, yellow, pink, and (IIRC) green - in order of increasing density. Pink is 'industrial' grade for deep threads and huge fittings and such. Green is for oxygen, I think. Google says you are correct! And that there are other colors available for a couple other applications. https://www.fedprobrands.com/products/ptfe-tapes/thred-tape-green-for-oxygen.html https://www.fedprobrands.com/products/ptfe-tapes.html
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Sep 4, 2019 16:23
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I mostly use teflon paste nowadays.
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Sep 5, 2019 01:02
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Jaded Burnout posted:This is me with masking tape for sure. Me, going through cabinet while working on car, looking for a 10mm socket: "Where'd all this loving electrical tape come from?" Me: wiring poo poo in the dark in my sister's house, getting ready to up-end the electrics bag: "now, I loving know I saw ten rolls of tape somewhere..."
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Sep 5, 2019 02:56
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I have a very beginners level question here but here goes: We recently bought an old house and are finding a lot if the previous owner’s DIY attempts need to be fixed or redone. They had a bad leak on the bathtub lines and replaced the fittings shortly before we bought the house. The cold water line is still slowly leaking:  Link to image because it’s looking weird on my phone: https://i.imgur.com/nPBt5b4.jpg It looks like it’s leaking out from under both nuts. Do I need to replace that entire fitting, or is there an easier way? Is this a push to connect fitting, and if so what’s the easiest way to get those off? What should I replace it with? I would just jump in there and start wrenching around but I don’t want to make things worse, I’m fairly handy in some areas but I know gently caress all about plumbing. Drunkboxer fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Sep 11, 2019 |
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Sep 11, 2019 18:25
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Drunkboxer posted:I have a very beginners level question here but here goes: Those pipes are ancient. How long ago did you buy this house? Anyway, that's a union, not a push on fitting. I'm not certain that it is leaking, but rather you have a humid basement. If the cold water in the pipe is cold enough and the humidity is high enough, the temperature difference can make the water in the air stick to the pipe, just like a glass of ice water. Is there an actual trickle?
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Sep 11, 2019 22:01
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kid sinister posted:Those pipes are ancient. How long ago did you buy this house? We got the house a few weeks ago, I had assumed they had just fixed it because they had just freshly repainted the drywall there before we moved in, but who knows. Also when the leak came up in the inspection they said “but we just fixed it!” They were probably just lazy and didn’t finish the job they started. It’s definitely leaking, I can see the trickle form after I dry the fittings. It leaks from under the large nut and where the teflon tape is visible. I’m glad it’s not a push fitting, a handyman confidently told me that’s what it was but when I cut it open to look I didn’t think so. Do you think I could just tighten it if that’s the case? edit: probably best to just replace the union I guess? I’m guessing they replaced the pipe on top but kept the same decades old fitting. Drunkboxer fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Sep 11, 2019 |
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Sep 11, 2019 22:54
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Drunkboxer posted:We got the house a few weeks ago, I had assumed they had just fixed it because they had just freshly repainted the drywall there before we moved in, but who knows. Also when the leak came up in the inspection they said “but we just fixed it!” They were probably just lazy and didn’t finish the job they started. They freshly fixed the water stained paint with a few more coats of paint.
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Sep 12, 2019 00:55
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Drunkboxer posted:We got the house a few weeks ago, I had assumed they had just fixed it because they had just freshly repainted the drywall there before we moved in, but who knows. Also when the leak came up in the inspection they said “but we just fixed it!” They were probably just lazy and didn’t finish the job they started. What is that brass part on top? The union might be something proprietary.
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Sep 12, 2019 01:24
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kid sinister posted:What is that brass part on top? The union might be something proprietary. That a pipe connecting the two water lines and going out to the faucet. I think they must have replaced that (it looks newer) and attached the old fittings to the new piece.
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Sep 12, 2019 16:23
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Nah, there's too much dust on top for it to be that new. Do you have a better picture of the brass part? Try a magnet on the brass part too to see if it's just plated steel. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Sep 12, 2019 |
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Sep 12, 2019 18:35
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kid sinister posted:Nah, there's too much dust on top for it to be that new. Do you have a better picture of the brass part? I’m not sure these are better but it’s all I have. When I get home I’ll take more. I figured the dust was just from me cutting the drywall, but I guess I’m not sure.  This is the hot water side: 
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Sep 12, 2019 20:20
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That appears to be the original two handle bathtub fixture. I'm guessing that the previous owners thought that the leak was on the other side of that fixture in the bathtub, probably from the handles. The other side looks worse than the first one you posted. How much do you like this fixture? It may be time to replace it. If you want to fix it, then here's what to do. Pipes can't easily be removed since they're all soldered or threaded together. Unions provide a place for pipes to be easily separated. Turn off the main water for your house, then put down some towels. Get a big rear end wrench and unscrew the nut on one of the unions. It will probably have enough clearance to fall down around the pipe, so you may want to attach something to the pipe first if that nut is going to fall down somewhere you can't reach. Once the nut is off, check it out all around. Make sure it isn't cracked of that the threads weren't cross-threaded. The nut alone on the union doesn't provide the seal. It's the compression parts inside a union instead, so don't bother trying to seal the threads for that nut. The nut squeezes the compression bits against each other, the seal is made. See how much play you have in the pipes. Pull it down and away as much you can. This is the hard part. Check out both sides of that compression fitting. Again, look for obvious leaks: cracks, pieces broken away, etc. A compression fitting is beveled on the inside. Make sure that the bevel is smooth on either side. If it's damaged, you'll need to replace it. If the faucet side is damaged, you'll have to replace the faucet. If everything is looking good, then that nut must've been loose. Put it back together. Make sure that union nut is good and tight, but don't hulk out on it. Clean the pipes up as best you can and dry them off. Get a helper to turn the water back on while you watch it for more leaks. I say "get a helper" so that you have someone to immediately turn it off should you have a bad leak. If it's still leaking from the threaded connection into the bottom union piece, let us know and we'll tell you how to fix that. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Sep 12, 2019 |
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Sep 12, 2019 21:22
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 ADDENDUM TO THE ABOVE POST Do this on a early morning when a real plumbing supplier is open for the rest of that day and your schedule is clear.
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Sep 12, 2019 21:28
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Thanks for the advice! Yeah I was definitely going to wait till the weekend to tackle this so I could start in the morning, especially since I’m somewhat out of my depth.
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Sep 12, 2019 21:49
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angryrobots posted:
Sunday at 7 PM is the only truly correct time to ensure you need parts and need them badly enough that you can't even turn the water to your house back on.
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Sep 12, 2019 22:03
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angryrobots posted:
ADDENDUM TO THE ADDENDUM After turning off the main valve, test another fixture and make sure the water is actually off before screwing around with any pipes.
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Sep 13, 2019 00:17
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Hey this looks exactly like what I did last year. Allow me to spread my hard learned knowledge! The type of union that joins your pipes to the valve fixture is called a Ground Joint Inlet. My fixture is an American Standard brand from 1950. I don't know if they're brand specific, but maybe. Here is the exact part I ordered that worked for me on my 3 knob setup. https://www.chicagofaucetshoppe.com/American-Standard-M962341-0070A-p/as-m962341-0070a.htm It's a compression fitting, so the thread isn't actually what's sealing the water in like on a standard threaded pipe, it's the compression caused by the threads. It's best practice to put a little bit of pipe dope on the compression face when putting one on to fill any gaps or imperfections it got over the years. What I started with. 1950 galvanized steel pipes  Disconnecting the cold water side. I picked up a gigantic wrench for this and it made it easy as cake to remove. Although it wasn't particularly stuck. You can see here how the nut and threads don't actually seal anything. They just create compression to seal the two parts together.  After finished the cold PEX line. I also recommend adding an access door. I did after this project got stretched out a few days and a cockroach came up from my crawlspace.  Hot water line done. I used pipe dope and teflon on the threaded connectors from the PEX to the compression fittings, and put a thin amount of pipe dope on the compression fitting. Get some good pipe sealant and teflon tape. Not the poo poo they sell at big box stores. I picked up some Blue Monster brand teflon tape and pipe dope at a local plumbing supply warehouse and it has not failed me yet. I use it on everything and it kicks so much rear end. I will never go back to inferior teflon tapes.  If you notice the plethora of wrench marks on the fittings, that's because I tried using normal white teflon tape and no matter how much I put on or how tightly I wrenched the fittings on, I was still getting a small drip. The first application of the blue monster stuff sealed it no problem. It's been a year and still no problems! SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Sep 13, 2019 |
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Sep 13, 2019 01:13
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Motronic posted:Sunday at 7 PM is the only truly correct time to ensure you need parts and need them badly enough that you can't even turn the water to your house back on. Stop doxxing me SHOW YOURSELF. I WILL NOT LOG OFF
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Sep 13, 2019 02:10
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At least when you screw up at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, you know the plumbing supply opens in 10 hours. When you do it on Saturday afternoon, you got 2 days of no water to look forward to.
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Sep 13, 2019 13:05
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Yeah I was going to suggest Tuesday morning for optimum availability of both plumbers and plumbing accessories.
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Sep 13, 2019 15:03
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SpartanIvy posted:Hey this looks exactly like what I did last year. Allow me to spread my hard learned knowledge! Thanks for this! I hope I don’t have to order that part and can get it at a store, I’m planning on doing this on Saturday while I have someone is in town to help out.
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Sep 13, 2019 16:09
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Well I feel kinda dumb because after all that it just needed a half turn to stop the leak, I really expected it to be a harder job. We definitely want to redo all that poo poo eventually though, so I’m happy I know how to proceed when we get to the bathroom proper. I’m going to put a door on it so I can access it later. We are in house project triage mode right now. Thanks a lot for the advice everybody! At least I got a huge wrench out of this, that’s pretty satisfying.
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Sep 14, 2019 19:48
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Drunkboxer posted:Well I feel kinda dumb because after all that it just needed a half turn to stop the leak, I really expected it to be a harder job. We definitely want to redo all that poo poo eventually though, so I’m happy I know how to proceed when we get to the bathroom proper. I’m going to put a door on it so I can access it later. We are in house project triage mode right now. Drunkboxer posted:At least I got a huge wrench out of this, that’s pretty satisfying. 
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Sep 14, 2019 20:12
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I’ll assume this is a plumbing question, so here goes: My COLD water smells in the morning. Not the hot, only the cold. When I go to fill the coffee pot in the morning with water from our kitchen sink, it smells really bad. When I run it for a minute, the smell goes away. I’ve also noticed this smell from an upstairs bathroom faucet, again only the cold water. We are on city water. What could be causing this? All my searches online always come up with a water heater being the source. But it’s not. In fact, we have replaced our water heater not too long ago, and this smell was there before and after the change. It’s only cold water, and it seems like the only time I smell it is after several hours of no water usage. And those two faucets are the only place I’ve noticed the smell. END OF AN ERROR fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Sep 15, 2019 |
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Sep 15, 2019 06:21
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Tiny Lowtax posted:I’ll assume this is a plumbing question, so here goes: I'd still suspect the water heater. Do you have any mixer fixtures, like in the basement? Something with a shut off valve after the hot and cold valves? Those can be a sneaky way for hot water to enter the cold side and vice versa.
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Sep 15, 2019 07:02
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Tiny Lowtax posted:I’ll assume this is a plumbing question, so here goes: Do you have a well? Could be bacteria in the line or water supply. Your cold water sits for a while and they grow. Hot water heater kills it off.
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Sep 15, 2019 07:07
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kid sinister posted:I'd still suspect the water heater. Do you have any mixer fixtures, like in the basement? Something with a shut off valve after the hot and cold valves? Those can be a sneaky way for hot water to enter the cold side and vice versa. The water heater wa are placed in the last 3 months, and this was occurring with the old one as well. I don’t believe there’s any mixer fixtures, but I’ll double check. Edit: no there are no mixers 30 TO 50 FERAL HOG posted:Do you have a well? No well. It’s city water and it’s actually good water.
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Sep 15, 2019 14:40
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Do you have access to most of the pipes in the house? Open basement ceiling, etc? If it was only one faucet, I would have suspected the faucet itself growing bacteria, but if it's more than one, I'd look downstream, like a laundry sink fixture or something. See what else smells in the morning. It's a very rare problem.
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Sep 15, 2019 14:48
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Nitrox posted:Do you have access to most of the pipes in the house? Open basement ceiling, etc? If it was only one faucet, I would have suspected the faucet itself growing bacteria, but if it's more than one, I'd look downstream, like a laundry sink fixture or something. See what else smells in the morning. It's a very rare problem. Yeah open ceiling in the basement, so I can see all the pipes until they point they start going up into the walls.
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Sep 15, 2019 14:50
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This is the under-sink situation in my new home's kitchen: Sorry for the poor lighting, but you get the gist. Neither hot nor cold supply have proper shut-offs/valves (please forgive my lack of proper plumbing terminology.) I'm assuming it's an easy fix, just poo poo off water, drain what's in the pipes, then cut off the copper going to the faucet and install a couple of these. Not neccesarily those exact ones, but some sort of properly-sized stop vale that is straight through, not angled. I have a new faucet I want to install already (garage sale find like a year ago for $10, Moen faucet never taken out of the package) and it has braided steel hoses already, so that half is all set. I hope it fits onto the old as gently caress sink in the first place...if not, I'll have ot get a new basin, too. And I know the drains are all sorts of hosed up, too. Here's a better view of that:  It's hard to see, but the P-trap drains to a pipe just behind that front horizontal one to the copper drain pipe coming out of the wall. I have no idea what that other random piece on the right is for...there is no dishwasher, and I don't think there ever was...all I can think is that at some point this was fixed with just whatever random assortment of PVC some neighborhood handyman had.
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Sep 16, 2019 16:47
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gvibes posted:I have a lovely mid nineties hot tub in a bathroom with separate hot and cold water handles. They just spin to turn the water on and off, but there is no “stop” to it, ie, I think I can keep on spinning it forever. It is now super finicky to get one side fully turned off—we usually have a slow drip. Is there some basic/dumb fix to this that does not require tearing apart tile to get to and presumably replace the valve? I took off the handle but I can't seem to remove anything else. I got a screwdriver under the lip of the metal thing but it doesn't seem to move. Pictures below. Any ideas? My wife said she asked a plumber we had over for something else, and he said he would need to tear open the tile to underneath, but that is second hand, and doesn't make any sense to me.   
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Sep 17, 2019 01:55
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DrBouvenstein posted:This is the under-sink situation in my new home's kitchen: Wow, that's pretty bad. Why is your drain pipe angled up at the wall? Also, I spotted an outlet down there. Get a lamp or something, along with a face plate. Plug it in and test switches around that sink. You might be able to put in a disposal too. Test the switch with both the top and bottom of that outlet. Rarely, a duplex under the sink has one always on for the dishwasher and one switched for the disposal. They're called stop valves. Sharkbites are good, but you could use 1/2" compression as well. That one you posted should work just fine. Use a mini pipe cutter if you can't get a full size one in there.
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Sep 17, 2019 02:34
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kid sinister posted:Wow, that's pretty bad. Why is your drain pipe angled up at the wall? God, I wish I knew. No real way to fix that, right? I can get the drains from the sink potentially higher up so they don't drain up to the wall drain, but the copper drain pipe coming out of the wall is angled slightly up for some reason... There's no other plumbing on that side of the house, all it needs to do is go down to the basement then across to the sewer drain. kid sinister posted:Also, I spotted an outlet down there. Get a lamp or something, along with a face plate. Plug it in and test switches around that sink. You might be able to put in a disposal too. Test the switch with both the top and bottom of that outlet. Rarely, a duplex under the sink has one always on for the dishwasher and one switched for the disposal. There's only one switch anywhere near the sink and it's the light above the sink... Maybe there was the intention on installing a dishwasher that never came to fruition.
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Sep 17, 2019 12:35
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Fix the drains first. You'll need to figure out why that pipe at the wall is angled down. What is on the other side of that wall? Try that switch with the outlet anyway. See if it's always on or what.
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Sep 18, 2019 21:43
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kid sinister posted:Fix the drains first. You'll need to figure out why that pipe at the wall is angled down. What is on the other side of that wall? The outside is on the other side of the wall. It's a 1-story ranch, so I can see where the drain pipe comes down from the wall in the basement, and then across the basement ceiling to the sewer drain. Still no clue why it's angled like that. Though a LOT of my drain pipes are original...and copper...thick, BEEFY, copper, so maybe i'll just rip them out for the scrap value and put new PVC drain in everywhere, heh.
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Sep 19, 2019 13:12
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Sink update: Replaced that weird maze of a drain system with mostly just your standard 2 bay drain kit and a P trap kit.  Only other piece I needed was a rubber adapter coupling to connect the p trap to the copper drain. I also replaced the sink because the old one was..well...old, and also leaking. But I've got a new weird problem...about the tenth time I used the new sink ( Moen Surie) the pressure was way too low. I originally thought maybe the washing machine was filling, but that wasn't it. I took off the spray head and found gunk...it looks and feels like charcoal:   I cleared it out, ran the faucet for about a minute, and checked again and more was there (not as much as last time, but the faucet hadn't been run as much.) I checked the bathroom faucet and tub and no other fixture has this stuff. My house doesn't have any sort of water filter anywhere. I'm a little perplexed.
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Sep 22, 2019 17:29
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Gross. Some kind of mold or something. Damp and dark is always a great place for that kind of stuff to grow.
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Sep 22, 2019 22:16
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Good it be a rubber gasket decomposing somewhere along the path?
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Sep 23, 2019 17:56
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It definitely wasn't mold. Not remotely slimy, hard and crunchy...like, literally felt like charcoal. Not squishy like I'd expect a gasket to be, though I suppose an old one might get like that? But isn't that usually why happens to old dried up rubber, not rubber that's sitting in water? At any rate, there's no more of it. After that first time taking apart the spray head and removing the crud, I key the faucet on for over a minute, and found a little bit more. Cleaned, reassembled, ran for a couple minutes and there was no more crud. And since I'm here, WTF is going on with my bathroom faucet supply lines? They're...connected? That's a weird return path between the hot and cold lines, sort of crimped in the middle: 
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Sep 23, 2019 18:42
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Do you have hot water recirculation? There's several methods of doing that. Basically, you have an extra water pump by the heater and return lines at each fixture to keep the water in the lines hot. The simplest method of return lines (often for retrofits) is to use the cold lines to return hot water to the water heater.
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Sep 23, 2019 21:24
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