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SpartanIvy
May 18, 2007
Hair Elf

PageMaster posted:

Plumber actually took pics before work and clamp was not attached, but I have pics from moving in before repiping and there was a clamp attached to the original system (though i've never seen copper like that and I wonder if it was the polybutylene) so it might have been something missed by the repiping plumber and city inspectors. I can reattach the clamp myself, but are there any things I would need to watch out for or test in the line first? Very original setup:



Finally, plumber said the setup is fine without bracing; I'm still having that conversation with him, but how would I do this (or would I just hire a handyman)? I've seen copper pipe braced to studs before, but never the outside of drywall like this.

That's just copper someone painted along the way. Since you don't care about aesthetics there could take a piece of 2x4 and wedge it under the pipe and put some screws through it. Just something to help take the load off the fittings.

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PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe



KKKLIP ART posted:

It looks like this (I am assuming) if you had x-ray vision:



The pipe above the 90 and behind the wall going up is still cast iron. The 90 and the line to the main drain stack (and all the drain stack) is now PVC.

Really I just want them to try to cut along the grout line when they do it and I can attach some 2x4 and just drywall the opening. They are square tiles that are all lined up.

So these sink drains are on a straight shot to the basement? And the other fixtures in the bath are on a separate stack? And they draining normally?

Typically, sinks & tubs/showers are tied together at or before the stack, and if the only things not draining are the sinks, then you have a blockage between the sink drains and the stack.

KKKLIP ART
Sep 3, 2004

PainterofCrap posted:

So these sink drains are on a straight shot to the basement? And the other fixtures in the bath are on a separate stack? And they draining normally?

Typically, sinks & tubs/showers are tied together at or before the stack, and if the only things not draining are the sinks, then you have a blockage between the sink drains and the stack.

they are a straight shot. Our house is a split level where the bathrooms are directly above the utility room so I can see everything coming out from the wall cavity. There is a main line that goes to the septic that is quite large (4 or 5 inches? I'm not sure). These two share that one outlet that connects to the main line. And I know 100% that is where the blockage is... It is all cast iron flakes and rust coming out. It is one of the very few spots where there is still cast iron, everything else is PVC at this point. Just simply complaining, we were going to reno the bathrooms soon-ish, just needed to get by a bit longer but the house had other plans.

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe



What is the diameter of the iron pipe? I'd pop off the Fernco fitting (between the iron & the PVC) and ream it from the bottom up. It's messy...but I doubt that iron waste more than two inches in diameter could be occluded by rust. I have a 2.5" cast vent stack from the basement through the roof that was installed in 1931 and it's fine.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Crosspost from the Fix It Fast thread: I'm having trouble with my shower, which has awful pressure/flow from the hot water. This is a cheap and kinda old Delta setup; I'd like to replace it, but that would mean cutting open the tile to get at the mixing valve, and that's definitely not worth it when I'm not even sure I'll still be in this house next year.

The cartridge looks like this:




It plugs into this hole:



Here's the shower's water flow with the cartridge removed. Hot water is on the left:

https://i.imgur.com/cFCJoJC.mp4

As you can see, I have plenty of hot water pressure and flow. It's significantly stronger than the cold water, in fact. However, when I close everything back up, this is what I get (cold water first, then hot):

https://i.imgur.com/B0lKv9y.mp4

If you can't see it in the video, the hot water slows to barely better than a trickle.

I can't find anything obviously wrong with the cartridge. I've tried a replacement (brand new) cartridge to no avail. I also tried widening the holes in the cartridge with a dremel, and that made no difference. If I remove the stop in the cartridge, so that the handle can go all the way around, the water gets hotter, but its flow and pressure remain terrible.

How the hell can the cold water out of the shower be so much better (higher pressure/flow) than the hot, when the hot is clearly stronger before it gets to the cartridge? And what do I do about it?

Nitrox
Jul 5, 2002
Thank you for video references, makes troubleshooting so much easier. I've seen somethin like this before, and it was due to shut off valve simply not open fully. Make sure all valves are fully open. Even the ones in the basement or utility room upstream. You also have adjustment valves on diverter case, you can mess with them to equalize the pressure if all else fails. But ideally, everything should be fully open and flowing evenly.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





IOwnCalculus posted:

Grabbed this nipple too hard:






Love that little "pipe extender". A $3 piece of plastic just saved me hours of digging to get under/around this concrete.

Debating proactively reconfiguring the other valves, or waiting to see if any of them develop any issues.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Nitrox posted:

Thank you for video references, makes troubleshooting so much easier. I've seen somethin like this before, and it was due to shut off valve simply not open fully. Make sure all valves are fully open. Even the ones in the basement or utility room upstream. You also have adjustment valves on diverter case, you can mess with them to equalize the pressure if all else fails. But ideally, everything should be fully open and flowing evenly.

Thank you for the response. The house water valve is open, as is the hot water valve for the shower. I didn't thoroughly check the cold water valve the last time I had the wall open, but visually it looked fully open.

The flow through the diverter/spout is the same as through the shower head. I guess I could remove the spout and check behind it for another valve. But isn't it getting mixed water that's already passed through the cartridge?

What I'm seeing is basically:
code:
     Cartridge In | Cartridge Out
Hot:          Bad |     Excellent
Cold:      Medium |        Medium
Are you saying that the difference in pressure between the hot and cold water could explain this? Like, somehow the fact that the hot water is higher pressure than the cold is causing the hot to get slowed down a lot inside the cartridge, to the point that with the cartridge in, the hot water pressure is lower than the cold? I'd like to understand the theory behind the fix you're proposing, basically.

Canned Sunshine
Nov 20, 2005

CAUTION: POST QUALITY UNDER CONSTRUCTION



IOwnCalculus posted:



Love that little "pipe extender". A $3 piece of plastic just saved me hours of digging to get under/around this concrete.

Debating proactively reconfiguring the other valves, or waiting to see if any of them develop any issues.

Yeah, that's nice. Did you say you're pulling out all the isolation valves there, because multi-turn gate valves are poo poo... (honestly, any domestic gate valve is poo poo).

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Thank you for the response. The house water valve is open, as is the hot water valve for the shower. I didn't thoroughly check the cold water valve the last time I had the wall open, but visually it looked fully open.

The flow through the diverter/spout is the same as through the shower head. I guess I could remove the spout and check behind it for another valve. But isn't it getting mixed water that's already passed through the cartridge?

What I'm seeing is basically:
code:
     Cartridge In | Cartridge Out
Hot:          Bad |     Excellent
Cold:      Medium |        Medium
Are you saying that the difference in pressure between the hot and cold water could explain this? Like, somehow the fact that the hot water is higher pressure than the cold is causing the hot to get slowed down a lot inside the cartridge, to the point that with the cartridge in, the hot water pressure is lower than the cold? I'd like to understand the theory behind the fix you're proposing, basically.
Has it always been this way for you, or just recently?

When I look at the cartridge, and I could be completely misinterpreting what I'm seeing, it appears like it might have the ability for you to set/adjust the flow mixing ratio for hot water temperature control (the grey piece with teeth for adjustment).

if that's the case, it could also explain why your hot water pressure is so poor, since it may currently be set for a cooler temperature, and thus it's restricting the available flow/pressure of hot water coming out of the valve.

Canned Sunshine fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Dec 12, 2021

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





SourKraut posted:

Yeah, that's nice. Did you say you're pulling out all the isolation valves there, because multi-turn gate valves are poo poo... (honestly, any domestic gate valve is poo poo)

If I touch any of the other three legs, it'll be to remove both the solenoid valve and the gate valve. At this point there's zero reason for either to exist because there's no reason I would only want one of the four sprinklers to run.

It's strange, because the PO went to the effort of putting in a 1000 gallon tank and a pump to feed these sprinklers, and I'm assuming they did so because the water pressure and flow wouldn't be enough to drive them simultaneously off of the city water feed. And at a combined flow of ~50-60GPM, they're probably right.

But then they set it up with a combination of solenoid and gate valves, wired such that the solenoid valves each could only open one at a time, and gate valves such that it would just block off one leg that would also be blocked off by just not running the solenoid. And fed the whole loving thing with a Harbor Freight noisemaker.

I need to redo their installation on the water tank too. They put it on top of a pile of dirt and, shockingly, it's eroding. But that will wait a bit.

Meow Meow Meow
Nov 13, 2010

I had a similar thing to this happen. What I did to fix was close and open the two tiny valves that are on either side of your cartridge (the things you need a slot screwdriver to turn). Don't know why it worked, I think they are check valves so it may have reseated a spring or something? :iiam:

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

SourKraut posted:

Has it always been this way for you, or just recently?

When I look at the cartridge, and I could be completely misinterpreting what I'm seeing, it appears like it might have the ability for you to set/adjust the flow mixing ratio for hot water temperature control (the grey piece with teeth for adjustment).

if that's the case, it could also explain why your hot water pressure is so poor, since it may currently be set for a cooler temperature, and thus it's restricting the available flow/pressure of hot water coming out of the valve.

The hot water flow has never been amazing, but it's been gradually deteriorating. I had a plumber come out a few months ago, after I tried to open things up and ended up breaking the shower handle because of accumulated scale. He replaced the cartridge (and, I think, those little rubber washers on the hot/cold inlets) and the handle, but that didn't really fix things.

There's a few odd data points though. Some time after the plumber came, I started getting bits of decayed rubber coming out of various faucets in the house, and the water tasted like rubber. I had the plumber come back, and he removed a few bits of debris from the shower. Best guess there is a disintegrated O ring or something. I haven't seen any rubber or tasted anything odd in a couple of months now, though.

The other odd data point was that there was a period where, when I switched the handle from cold water to hot, I'd hear a "thump" sound inside the wall. I initially attributed this to water hammer, but it would occasionally be associated with a dramatic change in the amount of hot water flow I was getting. One of the times it happened, the hot water flow was fantastic, at least as strong as the cold water was. Unfortunately, that hasn't replicated itself, and I haven't heard that thump in awhile.


Meow Meow Meow posted:

I had a similar thing to this happen. What I did to fix was close and open the two tiny valves that are on either side of your cartridge (the things you need a slot screwdriver to turn). Don't know why it worked, I think they are check valves so it may have reseated a spring or something? :iiam:

Just so I'm clear on terminology, when I say "cartridge", I'm talking about the removable piece of plastic and rubber. There's a variety of designs for them, depending on the type of fittings you have for the mixing valve inside the wall. Mine doesn't have any screws on it.

There's a couple of shutoff valves inside the wall, which is, I think, what you're referring to. They let you cut off water to the shower without having to shut off water to the entire house. However, they're open -- as you can see in the video, my water flow is just fine up until the point that it meets the cartridge.

Meow Meow Meow
Nov 13, 2010

TooMuchAbstraction posted:



Just so I'm clear on terminology, when I say "cartridge", I'm talking about the removable piece of plastic and rubber. There's a variety of designs for them, depending on the type of fittings you have for the mixing valve inside the wall. Mine doesn't have any screws on it.

There's a couple of shutoff valves inside the wall, which is, I think, what you're referring to. They let you cut off water to the shower without having to shut off water to the entire house. However, they're open -- as you can see in the video, my water flow is just fine up until the point that it meets the cartridge.

Yes I am aware of that. I am saying I had a similar issue, replaced the cartridge, it did nothing, then fiddled with those valves, closed and opened them a few times and it fixed my problem. It doesn't make much sense, just reporting that it worked for me and might be something to try if you haven't used those valves at all.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Meow Meow Meow posted:

Yes I am aware of that. I am saying I had a similar issue, replaced the cartridge, it did nothing, then fiddled with those valves, closed and opened them a few times and it fixed my problem. It doesn't make much sense, just reporting that it worked for me and might be something to try if you haven't used those valves at all.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.

I am wondering if this is tied into the other plumbing in the house somehow. When I turn on the shower, I can hear air in the pipes getting cleared out, and the shower sometimes "coughs" a few times even after regular flow is established. If there's an opening where air can get into the pipes (maybe the dishwasher's air gap?), could that potentially cause issues? I'm not an expert on air/water pressure. But given that the hot water pressure is good without the cartridge out, and bad with it in (which "combines" the two pressure systems together)...I dunno, I'm grasping at straws here.

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe
Does anyone here have any experience with reverse osmosis systems? I'm renting so I'm interested in those "portable" systems you can attach to the cold water pipe to come out of the kitchen sink.

Looks like in Canada Amazon has a couple of RO Revolution things for sale. Bad news is I can't find the documentation on their website, or any website at all!

Yeah I know this is Not Allowed but gently caress this slumlord and his contaminated building.

Yooper
Apr 30, 2012


tuyop posted:

Does anyone here have any experience with reverse osmosis systems? I'm renting so I'm interested in those "portable" systems you can attach to the cold water pipe to come out of the kitchen sink.

Looks like in Canada Amazon has a couple of RO Revolution things for sale. Bad news is I can't find the documentation on their website, or any website at all!

Yeah I know this is Not Allowed but gently caress this slumlord and his contaminated building.

I've got one, an Amazon unit. It took my terrible 2500 ppm poo poo well water and turned it into 100 ppm sweet water. With the new non-poo poo 300 ppm well it now takes it down to 25 ppm and tastes great. We use it for cooking water, drinking, coffee, etc. They say the membrane is only good for 6 months, but we're going on almost a year and it's still strong.

Barry Soteriology
Mar 1, 2020
if i suspect i have a failing water pressure regulator valve, how long can i let that poo poo ride?

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Well, how comfortable are you with leaking appliances?

Barry Soteriology
Mar 1, 2020
not very. so nothing catastrophic necessarily, but it could get pricey depending what actually happens?

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


When mine went out and I didn’t even yet realize we had one, I forget which manifested first: the solenoid valve on the washing machine leaking fairly aggressively, or the relief valve on the water heater bleeding off continuously. But both of those things happened.

Might have had something to do with my expansion tank going out, unknown.

Anyhow, swapping the valve is pretty straight forward and there’s no benefit to waiting, unless either a) you can’t source a quality part in short order, or b) you’re nervous about doing it yourself but don’t want to pay emergency rates to have it done today.

How bad is it? Have you put a gauge on the system and checked what pressure you’re actually at? Is your relief valve on your water tank already bleeding off?

Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Dec 18, 2021

Barry Soteriology
Mar 1, 2020
i put a pressure gauge on an outdoor faucet. it didn't have an indicator for shock pressure, but i let it sit on there about 5 min. i came back and it read 85 psi.

i don't think i want to attempt a diy fix, but i also don't want to call a plumber if i don't have to. im gonna feel like a dumbass if i end up breaking something either myself or by inaction tho.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


I assume you’ve tried dialing the pressure down at the valve and it still creeps up, which yeah, that’s how they go.

And if it’s going, it needs to be replaced eventually. They are not a part that lasts forever. If you’re only at 85, it’s probably okay for now, but you should make a plan for addressing it, either on your own or by calling a pro.

On the plus side, it sounds like you caught it BEFORE something went pear shaped, so that’s a win. But why take that win and sit on it until it becomes a loss? If you’re topping out at 85, I’d be comfortable waiting until after the new year but plan to address it in January.

Assuming that’s what’s actually going on.

Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Dec 18, 2021

Barry Soteriology
Mar 1, 2020
yea i dunno, im down to call the plumber, just wanted to avoid the weekend rate if i could help it. maybe i can call them tomorrow to set up something before Christmas. thanks for the perspective.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Yeah, at 85 you can let it chill for easier/cheaper scheduling for sure.

Claes Oldenburger
Apr 23, 2010

Metal magician!
:black101:

Hello plumbing thread! We've recently bought an old 1940's house that has had some suspect renovations over the years and I'm trying to correct some of them (or maybe make my own suspect renovations).

I've moved the laundry into the mudroom from the garage, and put a sink in the washers place, tying the drains together. I thought I had a handle on how to do it but unfortunately, I do not haha. I'm happy with all the pex and crimping, no leaks that I can see. Even the drains have no leaks, but there is another issue that I didn't really expect. Since the washer and the sink are on the same drain line, when the washer empties after a cycle, it fills up the sink tub. Not enough to overflow, but about 2/3 full. Any amount of filling up is obviously bad, but the really not great part is it's doing the same thing when water is coming down from the sink and dishwasher from the floor above, pretty gross. Thankfully it's not on a bathroom line.

I have ordered a swing check valve (https://www.amazon.ca/Valterra-200-C15W-Swing-Spring-Check/dp/B0064TQ2WQ) to fit inline into the plumbing between the sink and the washing machine drain, but something about that solution feels like it's probably both not to code, and not addressing the issue.

Originally the copper p trap was only for the washing machine drain, but now I have a p trap on the sink and then one later before the main drain which feels wrong. Some googling also showed I probably need a air admittance valve of some kind somewhere for proper venting. I tried to give the drain pipe some slight slope but it ended with the connection to the P trap being at a slightly upwards angle, so I need to redo that connection anyways. I would really appreciate any insight into why this is happening, and what I should be doing to install this sink properly and not in a lovely diy way :doh:









PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe



I would:

- Eliminate the trap at the stack and tie the laundry sink straight into it.

- Install a tee & trap in the copper stack (above the current trap that you'll be eliminating, up closer to your washer box), and tie the washing machine discharge into it. If soldering a tee in is an intimidating prospect, build a teed section of PVC, and & install it with Fernco fittings.

Guessing that stack goes up & the 2nd floor laundry is tied into it as well. It should go on up through the roof & become the vent.

If you are still having backup issues after that, then the stack may have a partial clog downstream. Looks to me, though, like that older trap on the stack can't handle the outflow, and may also be partially clogged.

PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Dec 20, 2021

B-Nasty
May 25, 2005

Venting is not your biggest issue here. Definitely do not put that check valve in there. I'm assuming based on your pictures that the washer is dumping too much water for the copper trap/T at the end to handle, and that is flowing back towards your sink. If you block that, it's pretty likely you're going to overflow the washer standpipe and create a huge mess.

Since you have Ferncos on there, I would disconnect it near the copper trap and ensure you don't have any clogs or gunk in the trap that is slowing down the drainage. Maybe run a snake through there to attempt to clear it out.

Claes Oldenburger
Apr 23, 2010

Metal magician!
:black101:

PainterofCrap posted:

I would:

- Eliminate the trap at the stack and tie the laundry sink straight into it.

- Install a tee & trap in the copper stack (above the current trapped inlet that you'll be eliminating, up closer to your washer box) , and tie the washing machine discharge into it.

Guessing that stack goes up & the 2nd floor laundry is tied into it as well. It should go on up through the roof & become the vent.

If you are still having backup issues after that, then the stack may have a partial clog downstream. Looks to me, though, like that older trap on the stack can't handle the outflow, and may also be partially clogged.

That makes sense. So basically the sink will now have a regular sink trap and then go straight to the stack and the washing machine will have a trap and connect a bit higher up the stack to separate the two horizontal drains?

This vertical pipe does go up but it goes to the second floor kitchen, the dishwasher and the kitchen sink, and I guess vent to the roof? The most frustrating part is that water from those two seems to be getting through that P trap and back into the laundry sink.


B-Nasty posted:

Venting is not your biggest issue here. Definitely do not put that check valve in there. I'm assuming based on your pictures that the washer is dumping too much water for the copper trap/T at the end to handle, and that is flowing back towards your sink. If you block that, it's pretty likely you're going to overflow the washer standpipe and create a huge mess.

Since you have Ferncos on there, I would disconnect it near the copper trap and ensure you don't have any clogs or gunk in the trap that is slowing down the drainage. Maybe run a snake through there to attempt to clear it out.

Thank you! I was thinking that since I'm going to have that section open, I might as well snake it to try and clear it out if there's something partially stuck in there.

B-Nasty
May 25, 2005

Claes Oldenburger posted:

Thank you! I was thinking that since I'm going to have that section open, I might as well snake it to try and clear it out if there's something partially stuck in there.

I also reread your post, and if water is backing up into that sink from further up the stack (dishwasher), I'm guessing there's clogs further down that line also, not just in the trap. If you can get a snake down the stack line so that it goes past the T into the line that goes under the concrete, that will probably be fruitful. It looks like there's at least a few inches of slope on that line running back to the sink (plus the sink tailpiece), so a dishwasher above would not push water that far unless that line is pretty clogged.

Claes Oldenburger
Apr 23, 2010

Metal magician!
:black101:

B-Nasty posted:

I also reread your post, and if water is backing up into that sink from further up the stack (dishwasher), I'm guessing there's clogs further down that line also, not just in the trap. If you can get a snake down the stack line so that it goes past the T into the line that goes under the concrete, that will probably be fruitful. It looks like there's at least a few inches of slope on that line running back to the sink (plus the sink tailpiece), so a dishwasher above would not push water that far unless that line is pretty clogged.

Excellent, I'll do that while I'm making the other changes.

Some dumb non plumber questions, if I open that stack up to make the two separate drain lines, and snake up...how gross is that going to be? Is running water down the line while I snake an important part of it? Or can I go nuts and try to clear it all. Not sure if I should rent a beefy auger from home depot or if I could get this done with a hand drum one.

KKKLIP ART
Sep 3, 2004

If it’s a 40s house and what I see is cast iron, I’m hoping you dont have corrosion in the inside of the waste pipes. Glad we got as much of it out as we could but hated the price tag.

Senor P.
Mar 27, 2006
I MUST TELL YOU HOW PEOPLE CARE ABOUT STUFF I DONT AND BE A COMPLETE CUNT ABOUT IT

Arsonide posted:

So, probably exposing myself to some ridicule here, but I need help. I'm not a plumber, but I'm in a bit of a bind and I thought some goons might enjoy the misery or have some advice, so here it goes.

We moved into this house a month ago, and prior to moving in, we had a hydrostatic test done. It passed. This is our first house so I'm new to this poo poo. A month later, a toilet backs up and we call a plumber. He charges us $2000 to install a cleanout pipe and perform his own hydrostatic test. This fails. He scopes the pipes with a camera and finds large tears in the iron pipes. He says there is no way we could have done this in one month, and he suspects the original hydrostatic test (which we showed him the report for) was either not performed or not performed correctly.

Here is where things start to get fucky. He provides us a quote to trench under the house, rip out the mainline (I am not a plumber so pardon my terminology), and replace it. $25,000. At this time I am not home, so my wife tells him to go ahead and do it. Trenching begins immediately, and lasts two days. We now have a giant pile of dirt in our yard, and a tunnel under our house. They finished digging today. He provides us with an adjusted quote: $45,000. He says that there is some weird piping that made them have to trench at a weird angle, and there are more leaks under the master bathroom, as the previous owners did a DIY hack job to install a bunch of fixtures, and he thinks they all need to be refitted. He also installed another cleanout pipe.

I must have mean mugged him really hard because he lowered it from $45,000 to $38,000 after I looked at him hard enough.

So this brings me to my current loving situation. Their crew is arriving in nine hours to finish the job, and I have no idea if this guy is rolling me or not. That's a lot of money, and I have no idea if those prices are egregious or in the realm of possibility. It needs to be done, so if it's reasonable I will pay it. I have a tunnel under my house, and I'd feel a lot more comfortable with a second opinion. But even if I hired a plumber to give me another quote, this guy would charge me a billion dollars because he dug a hole.

So I'm a little overwhelmed, he moved forward with this so fast we didn't have time to get more opinions, and we have no idea where to go with this. I could use some advice. Here is my current thinking:
  • We texted him and asked him to call off the work tomorrow, and pause this gravy train. We "need time to think about how we are going to pay for such a large expense".
  • We schedule some plumbers to come to look at this hosed up house and get a second opinion.
  • If the prices were reasonable, we resume with the first guy, if not we go with the new guys and pay the first guy for digging a hole.
  • We figure out if our home warranty can pay for all or part of this.
  • We are considering finding a lawyer to go after the original homeowner for not disclosing all of this, or the people that did the original lovely hydrostatic test, because we did our due diligence here. We would have passed on the house if this test failed, but it didn't. It got rubber-stamped.

We will have to pay for extra quotes, and we will probably eat some cost for the delay if the original was fine, but at least I will know this price is reasonable. I'm basically handing this guy a luxury car to spend two days digging a hole and fitting some pipes. Online I'm seeing the average cost to replace a mainline is like $2000-$4000.
I work with plumbers and fitters regulalry, albeit in power plants. Not residential.
Right now labor rate (not including benefits) is about $40-50 an hour, of course it really depends on your local area.

A few questions:

-How exactly did Plumber #2 did his test vs. how Plumber #1 did his?
(Probably neither of them have a record of specifics, but if you can get this figured out, it might help clear things up. It is possible both of them are telling the truth Or maybe one of them lied, or both of them. But if you can get specifics of who tested up to how far, it helps.)

-How did plumber #2 make his tie-in to the existing drain without digging it up?

-What equipment is Plumber #2 group using to dig with?

Personally... for that amount of money (and for frankly pressuring your wife into it) I would be very tempted to tell Plumber #2 to go pound sand.

3-4 guys working 5 to 10 hours of the day, plus equipment. Ok I can get the 2k bill.

Sudden Unexpected changes leading to a 20k bill??
Yeah... that does not sit well with me.

Not having a clear plan for the hours and equipment used and charged is... another red flag.

Maybe the guy is right, but I would ask that they explain and show you (and you get photos) of what the hell is going on.

If they can explain it and show you and it makes sense..... maybe...
But if their explanation and photos don't make sense, I would tell them to leave.

Senor P. fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Dec 21, 2021

Alucard
Mar 11, 2002
Pillbug
This is probably more plumbing adjacent but I suspect that since toilets are involved it would be kosher:

Anyone know how bad of an idea it is to install a heated bidet seat that's wider than the existing toilet? Most models seem to be between 15-16" wide, and my bowl is 14" around the rim. Every other dimension seems fine though.

Nitrox
Jul 5, 2002
I've heard of extra wide toilets for fat people, they have increased weight capacity as well. But I never heard of extra narrow toilets. Can you find your toilet on-line? Where are you located?

Alucard
Mar 11, 2002
Pillbug

Nitrox posted:

I've heard of extra wide toilets for fat people, they have increased weight capacity as well. But I never heard of extra narrow toilets. Can you find your toilet on-line? Where are you located?

US - and it looks to be a bog standard home depot toilet. It's not "extra narrow" but the bowl dimensions look to be narrower than the 16ish inches the bidet seats seem to be.

Alucard fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Dec 22, 2021

melon cat
Jan 21, 2010

Nap Ghost
.

melon cat fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Jan 10, 2024

Involuntary Sparkle
Aug 12, 2004

Chemo-kitties can have “accidents” too!

So we just bought a house in Seattle, we've lived here for 10 years but have rented in large buildings all of our adult lives and lived in Florida before Seattle. Meaning that cold weather as it relates to homeownership is very new to us, for context.

We're having a pretty heavy snowfall and temps well below normal (highs are about 20 degrees below normal, in the low 20s F and lows are in the teens). We left water faucets dripping overnight but apparently forgot to leave a mix of cold/hot on one of the faucets, in the kitchen. The hot water supply to the kitchen seems to have froze somewhere between the water heater and the kitchen sink. The hot water supply is okay to the other faucets/rooms, and cold water supply to the kitchen is fine.

My husband went into the unfinished attic to see if he can find the frozen section, but the pipe seems to be in an area that we can't reach. He's trying to reach a plumber, but if the supply pipe is inaccessible, is there anything we can do except wait it out until the temps go back to normal in 7-10 days?

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe



Wait it out.

I'm assuming that the house was built after 1935-40 and consequently is not a balloon-framed structure ('balloon frame' = the wall framing was put up first, and the floor framing added later inside the perimeter of the wall framing, leaving open chases between the studs from the basement to the attic).

Guessing that the frozen line is running down an outside wall. If you can see where the line is going - down inside a wall chase - and you want to try something, run a hair dryer in the chase where the pipe is. Just don't leave it unattended.

Another trick is to get an incandescent bulb of at least 75-watts, either a work ("trouble") light or a socket on the end of an extension cord - and lower it down inside the chase to warm the pipe.

If possible, see if you can isolate that line - cut off the water supply to it - in the off-chance it split, because once it gets above freezing it'll start spraying, especially if the lines are copper.

Now that you know that you have a cold spot, you should consider either moving that line, or wrapping it in heat tape, or having some type of access that you can open into the heated space of your home to prevent future freezes.

I can pretty much guarantee that the odds of a future hard freeze in Seattle is inversely proportional to the amount of time, treasure & effort that you'll have to expend to remedy the situation.

PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Dec 28, 2021

gariig
Dec 31, 2004
Beaten into submission by my fiance
Pillbug

PainterofCrap posted:

Wait it out.

I think that’s all we can do. The service pipe for the kitchen hot water is pretty far back in the attic and I don’t feel comfortable getting all the way in there. We’ve got the house being heated even more, the attic open to hope get the temp rises enough, and all of our kitchen cabinets open. Leaving the hot water faucet wide open just in case it thaws.

Going to shut off the hot water valve at night and open the other fixtures to drain the hot water in the lines. In the morning turn the hot water back on and see if it works. Probably going to take several days the pipe to thaw.

Hopefully the pipes don’t burst. We were planning a tankless water heater so might pay the extra dough to get a circulator put in so we don’t need to worry about this for the hot water lines.

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devicenull
May 30, 2007

Grimey Drawer

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

The hot water flow has never been amazing, but it's been gradually deteriorating. I had a plumber come out a few months ago, after I tried to open things up and ended up breaking the shower handle because of accumulated scale. He replaced the cartridge (and, I think, those little rubber washers on the hot/cold inlets) and the handle, but that didn't really fix things.

There's a few odd data points though. Some time after the plumber came, I started getting bits of decayed rubber coming out of various faucets in the house, and the water tasted like rubber. I had the plumber come back, and he removed a few bits of debris from the shower. Best guess there is a disintegrated O ring or something. I haven't seen any rubber or tasted anything odd in a couple of months now, though.

The other odd data point was that there was a period where, when I switched the handle from cold water to hot, I'd hear a "thump" sound inside the wall. I initially attributed this to water hammer, but it would occasionally be associated with a dramatic change in the amount of hot water flow I was getting. One of the times it happened, the hot water flow was fantastic, at least as strong as the cold water was. Unfortunately, that hasn't replicated itself, and I haven't heard that thump in awhile.

Just so I'm clear on terminology, when I say "cartridge", I'm talking about the removable piece of plastic and rubber. There's a variety of designs for them, depending on the type of fittings you have for the mixing valve inside the wall. Mine doesn't have any screws on it.

There's a couple of shutoff valves inside the wall, which is, I think, what you're referring to. They let you cut off water to the shower without having to shut off water to the entire house. However, they're open -- as you can see in the video, my water flow is just fine up until the point that it meets the cartridge.

Have you been able to remove the two tiny valves on the side? If it's anything like the one I have, you're supposed to remove all the components before soldering near it, so it should be fairly easy to disassemble.

I wonder if you've got some rubber crap stuck in there that's effecting the pressure available. Note you will want to turn off water upstream first!

What about that extra bolt you can see there? I don't know what model you have, but that looks like it's the pressure balancer: https://www.deltafaucet.com/parts/product/RP574.html

That might also be full of crap (or need replacing)

devicenull fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Dec 28, 2021

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