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pseudonordic posted:I got the valve wrenches and tightened it by hand and the leak stopped! quote:Any ideas on how to replace the overflow drain gasket with a ~1/16” clearance around the pipe and the tub and no access panel behind it?
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Mar 12, 2022 22:45
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Thinking I know the answer--just don't want to pull out the well....It has been at least four years.... Water pressure was low. Checked the water room. Noticed the well pump won't stop. When power to the well is turned off--all the water below the shutoff valves siphons away. Including the pressure tank. Turn the power back on, you can hear the water gurgle into the pressure tank and back into the house. I am pretty sure this means I either have a hole/slice in my well pipe some where OR my check valve has stopped working. Typing this I'm thinking I need to see how long it takes to fill the empty supply line...maybe give me a better idea how deep the problem is. My question is: Do check valves ever go bad? I guess I should make sure I have one on hand when I pull the sucker... But the most likely problem is going to be an issue with the supply line somewhere, right? Probability wise?
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Mar 14, 2022 23:08
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HycoCam posted:Thinking I know the answer--just don't want to pull out the well....It has been at least four years.... So this is a shallow (under 90 feet) well with the pump in the well house/room? Shallow (up tp 25ish feet) or "deep" (up to 90). If "deep" the ejector is on the bottom of the line in the well and you probably want to have one of those on hand. The ones I've seen also operate as a foot valve. If it's shallow you just need to have a foot valve on hand. In reality you want to have all of this on hand as well as more well line if you're already gonna be digging this up. But to answer the question - yeah, I've absolutely had to replace check valves/pumps due to check valve problems on shallow, deep and pump-in-the-bore wells. I've got one right now that loses prime when the power is off but it's okay other than that. I'm going to take the opportunity to put in a variable speed pump (probably this summer if I can get what I want).
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Mar 14, 2022 23:30
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Have fun pulling a well pump by hand if its anything past 20 ish feet deep. Check valves do go bad for a variety of reasons. Unless you're broke, this is probably a job for a plumbing/well service company with a pump hoist. How deep is the well? How old? Diameter? Drilled? Dug? Well pit? Do you have a copy of the well record? It should tell you how deep the well is, where water is, how deep the pump is set and so on.
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Mar 15, 2022 00:29
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My well is a submerged pump with a check valve between the pump and the start of right at 100' of black poly pipe. That first 15' sucks for sure. Have pulled it way, way more times than I'd have liked (4x over 19 years). We had a cold night. This winter has had colder weeks and colder nights--but as a side note, the neighbor had a spigot freeze and spray the same morning I noticed the water pressure issue in our house. Weird coincidence my check valve fails at the same time? A split in the pipe seems more likely, so I'm making 100% sure there isn't an issue between the well head and house first. Pretty sure it isn't a split from freezing--the coupling areas around the well head look great and the pipe should have swollen, not split, is my thinking. I do dread pulling. Of the four times I have pulled it--the third time--it didn't need to be pulled!! That was a bad day... Hope to have everything on hand by Friday. Until I have the parts and am sure its not leak past the well head, I'm keeping the well pump off. The family is coordinating showers, toilet flushes, dishes for a day or so. One of the tools I'll have on Friday is a tripod with a wheel attached to help get the well line to the tractor. All the new well installs now seem to be variable speed pumps. My current pump has about 10 years on it--replacing a pump from the 70's. Hoping to get two more decades of my current pump. Trying not to burn it out too quick!
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Mar 16, 2022 04:21
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HycoCam posted:We had a cold night. This winter has had colder weeks and colder nights--but as a side note, the neighbor had a spigot freeze and spray the same morning I noticed the water pressure issue in our house. Weird coincidence my check valve fails at the same time? That would be a hell of a weird coincidence. Fingers crossed for you.
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Mar 16, 2022 04:27
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Following up with the well not turning off and low water pressure issue--the check valve could be bad, but a bad check valve wouldn't cause those issues. I'm told the pressure tank would fill, click off, then drain, and cycle back on. When I got the well pulling wheel--it came with some more free tips!  Last night the ball valve got added between the outside water supply and pressure tank. Today's work starts with taking the water supply line apart where the line from the pump comes out of the ground and heads to the house. Once disconnected--if there isn't water at the top of the pipe, the issue is probably below ground. The plan is then to call someone standing at the breaker panel to turn on the well. When water comes gushing out, have the power shut off again, then listen and watch. You're looking to see if the water level goes down in the well pipe and listen if you can hear water draining inside the well. If the water doesn't come gushing out, but instead trickles--indicates either a big hole, bad clamp, or pump issues. (I am in denial on pump issues/eliminating everything else 1st...) If the water disappears from the top of the pipe--I have a problem between the submerged pump to and the well head. The well gets pulled if this the case. If the water stays at the top of pipe and/or is there when I disconnected the two--my problem is most likely between the well head and house. The way to verify that is to add another shutoff, even temporary, at the well head so the water won't flow out of the house. i.e. block the well head side of the leg to the house. Then go into the house and open the valve between the pressure tank and incoming water (the one I installed last night), then listen and wait. If there is a glugging sound from the pressure tank draining--the leak is in the supply line to the house. If you can't hear anything, wait a sufficient amount of time and open the temporary shutoff at the well head. Be ready for all the water from your pressure tank/house to want to come blasting out and make sure you can stop it. However, if it trickles out--another sign the water went somewhere. In my case, most likely into the french drains ringing the house and driveway. Anyhow--just a troubleshooting update. The well buddy who gave me the free tips has his money on cheap Lowes' clamps I used the last time to repair the well. 100% stainless steel turns out aren't always 100% stainless. I'll keep the thread updated. Digging trenches for a EV charging station too--busy day! HycoCam fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Mar 19, 2022 |
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Mar 19, 2022 15:17
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HycoCam posted:The well buddy who gave me the free tips has his money on cheap Lowes' clamps I used the last time to repair the well. 100% stainless steel turns out aren't always 100% stainless. Oh yeah........the bands are stainless but the screws aren't on the cheap "stainless" clamps. That could certainly bite you.
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Mar 19, 2022 18:18
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The issue was a 1" slit in the poly well pipe heading to the pump--about 20' below the water line in the aquifer. Disconnected the well head, turned it on, water came gushing out, turn off the power and you'd hear the water go down the pipe. Pulling the well with the hole up was really easy--no water weight until you get past the hole! As the well came up you could hear the water leak, sounding like a hose nozzle not attached and got the well up quick enough to see the water spraying out. Rather than cut and patch the at least four decade old plastic tube, it was replaced with new 160psi poly. Have both fully stainless screw clamps and the fancy, "new" (in the last few decades!) cinch clamps holding everything together. Water pressure is back. The ladies in the house are happy to be able to wash the shampoo out of their hair again! Thanks so much for sounding board!
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Mar 20, 2022 17:29
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I had my kitchen spray hose spring a leak, which made me think it's time I was got a new set of hoses for my washer. Then I was thinking about my other braided hoses, like on the toilets and other sinks. Should I replace those on some schedule as well? Which means I probably also need a full set of stop cocks.
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Mar 21, 2022 03:53
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I've noticed recently that the quality of water (of any temperature) sometimes noticeably declines after we use a significant amount amount of hot water. Yesterday after taking a somewhat long shower, my spouse got a glass of water from the kitchen sink and it was cloudy with some tiny black bits of sediment in it. It may have smelled a little off as well (or we may have been imagining that.) We are on city water and normally have no issues getting clear, odorless water straight from the tap and drinking. Thinking back, we have noticed occasional instances of weird water as described above over the last year months or so, but its only been maybe a once every month or 2 occasion. It seems correlated with high hot water use (like, long shower + having run multiple loads of laundry or dishes in the same day.) I'm not sure how to go about begin diagnosing this problem, and how big of a problem this might be. It seems related to hot water, so my first thought is maybe something is going on with the hot water tank. The tank we currently have is heated by electricity and was the initial one that was installed in the house (2006ish) My other thought is that it might have something to do with the internal plumbing, but I'm more skeptical here. The reason for this is the very occasional nature of the problem plus the fact that when the event is occurring, weird water comes out of multiple taps (kitchen + both baths.) I'd appreciate any insight into possible causes, how urgent this problem may be, potential solutions and who the right person to implement a solution might be. Thanks!
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Mar 21, 2022 12:49
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Call your water authority/supplier. This is most likely to be a distribution issue. They may be aware of it (recent repair upstream or similar) and have not sufficiently flushed the lines.
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Mar 21, 2022 13:53
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Has the water heater ever been flushed since 2006? If not, you likely have a layer of nasty crap laying asleep in the bottom of your heater's tank. As you have seen, it does not favor being disturbed.
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Mar 21, 2022 15:02
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Guy Axlerod posted:I had my kitchen spray hose spring a leak, which made me think it's time I was got a new set of hoses for my washer. Then I was thinking about my other braided hoses, like on the toilets and other sinks. Should I replace those on some schedule as well? Which means I probably also need a full set of stop cocks. Every 10 years is a pretty good schedule, unless you have high water pressure and no PRV, where more frequent might be better.
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Mar 21, 2022 16:10
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I had some lovely home Depot jobbers pop off their barbs at like 1 year at an apartment. My downstairs neighbor wasn't super thrilled.
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Mar 21, 2022 23:43
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I'm interviewing contractors to finish my basement, which among other things, will include a bathroom. Two of the contractors I've talked to have told me different things about what's possible or not. I can show pictures if needed, but basically my question is when you're using an ejector pump (needed due to the fact we're on septic and the main drain line leaves the house about 2ft above the floor... and is on the OTHER side of the basement from where the bathroom would be), do you have to tie into PVC drain line immediately or can you use the pump to travel some distance horizontally? Where we want the bathroom, there are drain lines about 15-20' away that are in the ceiling of the basement. One of the contractors said they'd drop the ejector pump into the unfinished area of the basement (which will be on the other side of the wall from the bathroom), then take it up and over and drop it into the existing drain line. The other contractor seemed to think that wasn't possible and wanted to extend the existing drain line (which would involve dropping it to give enough vertical room to maintain the pitch) but the ejector pump would need to be located in the finished portion of the basement, which the contractor suggested building a small closet around it to hide it. To us, we'd much rather prefer having the ejector pump in the unfinished area and leave the existing drain lines where they are and just use the pump to get it over to the existing drain lines. From an aesthetic point of view that seems like it will be a nicer end result. However, we're unsure if there's some reason that would make that unfeasible. I'm happy to post pictures or take measurements or whatever if that would be useful.
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Mar 22, 2022 01:15
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Comrade Gritty posted:I'm interviewing contractors to finish my basement, which among other things, will include a bathroom. This is a local code issue, potentially. I'm not aware of code that doesn't allow you to locate a centralized (read: anywhere you want) grinder pump pit providing it has appropriate slope from all drains to it and is otherwise fit for purpose. I've never seen the pit in finished space. Ever.
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Mar 22, 2022 02:21
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Motronic posted:This is a local code issue, potentially. I'm not aware of code that doesn't allow you to locate a centralized (read: anywhere you want) grinder pump pit providing it has appropriate slope from all drains to it and is otherwise fit for purpose. I've never seen the pit in finished space. Ever. Ok cool thanks a lot. I doubt our code has anything special here. It *looks* like it just follows the 2006 UCC, since their website says: quote:The Township adopted the Uniform Construction Code, as required by Pennsylvania law. The Township adopted the 2006 International Building Code as the approved building code. The second guy made it sound like using the pump to pump the wastewater horizontally as well as vertically couldn't be done, and we had to tie directly into a drain line vertically, which would mean that the pump would have to be in the living area (hidden in a closet) because that's where the drain lines are. Basically, this is our current plan  In both plans the bathroom would actually shift forward so that the back of it is in line with the top side of the staircase instead of the back side as it is now. Red lines are the existing drain lines that are mounted up along the joists. The blue lines show where the second contractor wanted to extend the existing drain pump, and blue circle is where he would put the ejector pump, which he would tie into the now extended drain line. The green circle is where the first contractor wanted to put it (which with the bathroom move, puts it into the mech/storage unfinished area), then he was going to use the pump to push the wastewater up and over to tie into the existing stack where the green arrow is. When I mentioned doing that to the second contractor, they seemed to imply it wasn't possible to do a horizontal run out of the ejector pump that far... but it's only like 20' or so, which seems like it would be easier to manage than the 8' of vertical, but I know very little about plumbing. In essence, guy #2 seemed to *only* want to use the ejector pump for vertical, not for any horizontal at all, while guy #1 seemed totally unphased by it. I was a little concerned because guy #2 is from one of the big builders in the area that do a lot of work on $1m+ houses (including building them out) and it felt weird that they'd be recommending dropping the ejector pump in the living space with a closet to hide it unless there was a good reason. Maybe I'll call the building codes office at the township and see if they have any opinion on it. Thanks again!
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Mar 22, 2022 04:11
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Comrade Gritty posted:In essence, guy #2 seemed to *only* want to use the ejector pump for vertical, not for any horizontal at all, while guy #1 seemed totally unphased by it. I was a little concerned because guy #2 is from one of the big builders in the area that do a lot of work on $1m+ houses (including building them out) and it felt weird that they'd be recommending dropping the ejector pump in the living space with a closet to hide it unless there was a good reason. I had that backwards a bit, I didn't realize you were talking about the discharge side having a horizontal run. I've definitely seen it and I don't see where it's disallowed by code (https://up.codes/viewer/pennsylvania/ipc-2018/chapter/7/sanitary-drainage#712) unless your municipality has adopted something very specific additions for some reason. Comrade Gritty posted:Maybe I'll call the building codes office at the township and see if they have any opinion on it. I think that would be a good idea to start. I wouldn't put much stock in "being from a big builder" FYI. I get not wanting to have a 90 on the pumped side where possible, but putting the pit in finished space is pretty bullshit. At some point that pump is going to need to be changed, and it's a pit full of effluent. You just don't want to have to deal with that in finished space.
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Mar 22, 2022 14:31
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I have a shower drain that is vexing me! Every few weeks it gets slow again, so that we are standing in a cm of water by the end of a ~5-10 minute shower. When this happens, I boil a huge pot of water and pour it through. That usually semi-fixes the problem for the next few weeks. It's one of those built-in square grid drains, so we can't really put a good hair catcher on there. If it were a sink I would have taken the P-trap apart long ago. But I went into the crawlspace and it's all cemented ABS  One time it was really bad. I tried snaking it to no avail, though it was with a cheap manually operated 3/8" snake. Tried plunging it too, I even managed to get a plunger sealed on the square drain, but it didn't do much. Finally used Drain-O in desperation and it worked. I would love to figure this out so that it stops getting slow again every few weeks. Should I send the snake down the vent pipe? Is that a thing?
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Mar 22, 2022 22:02
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I'm no expert, but I'd say get a better snake and/or get the drain scoped. There might be tree roots in the pipe where it goes out to the municipal sewer line, for example. Do you do any other activities that generate a lot of wastewater, aside from showering?
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Mar 22, 2022 23:14
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No other drains in the house back up like that, it's just that shower, so it's not the line to the municipal sewer (which I already had scoped when I bought the house last year anyway).
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Mar 22, 2022 23:16
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But do you put as much wastewater into any of the other drains? Showers put a lot of water down the drain, so a slow drain will be more obvious from a shower than most other activities. Hence the question I asked earlier. But OK, if you're sure it's specific to this one drain, I'd still say to try a better snake and/or scope it. 
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Mar 22, 2022 23:20
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Is the shower drain properly vented?
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Mar 23, 2022 01:26
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Guy Axlerod posted:I had my kitchen spray hose spring a leak, which made me think it's time I was got a new set of hoses for my washer. Then I was thinking about my other braided hoses, like on the toilets and other sinks. Should I replace those on some schedule as well? Which means I probably also need a full set of stop cocks. Ideally it's good to replace those about every 5 - 10 years, depending on your incoming water pressure, water source, type of chlorination used, etc., but especially any lines that are connected to appliances with quick-closing valves. Bann posted:I've noticed recently that the quality of water (of any temperature) sometimes noticeably declines after we use a significant amount amount of hot water. Yesterday after taking a somewhat long shower, my spouse got a glass of water from the kitchen sink and it was cloudy with some tiny black bits of sediment in it. It may have smelled a little off as well (or we may have been imagining that.) We are on city water and normally have no issues getting clear, odorless water straight from the tap and drinking. Thinking back, we have noticed occasional instances of weird water as described above over the last year months or so, but its only been maybe a once every month or 2 occasion. It seems correlated with high hot water use (like, long shower + having run multiple loads of laundry or dishes in the same day.) Do you see it from just the hot water tap, or both? If it's both, than it's more likely what Motronic said re: distribution, although usually that'd be more brown and not black if it's municipal. If it's just the hot, then probably the hot water heater like PainterofCrap said. Since you mentioned though that the glass of water, which I'm assuming was for cold water, had cloudiness and debris, it leads me to think it's from distribution. If it's a consistent time of year that you notice it, it could be that they changed supply source within the system and the slight change in water chemistry is causing the biofilm on the pipe walls to slough off. alnilam posted:I have a shower drain that is vexing me! Every few weeks it gets slow again, so that we are standing in a cm of water by the end of a ~5-10 minute shower. When this happens, I boil a huge pot of water and pour it through. That usually semi-fixes the problem for the next few weeks. Have you had a plumber try to clean it out? When we re-did our shower, it drained fine for 1-2 months, but then started backing up. I tried getting out what I could, but we have a grouted-in square drain with removable cover and strainer, so I didn't think there was much getting through. Turns out that when the contractor demo'd our shower, they didn't cap the drain line and a HUGE amount of debris went down the P-trap. Didn't tell us about it either... the plumber took out a decent haul of debris, and then provided me with photos and an invoice that I paid, that documented improper demolition work as the reason for the blockage. I sent the invoice in to the contractor requesting reimbursement for the charges, but I never heard back from them. 
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Mar 23, 2022 06:48
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Recently my toilet started flushing more slowly and weakly. I have to hold down the trip lever for like ten seconds to get it to flush all the way. When I looked in the tank I found this just sitting loose under the flapper   Does anyone know what it is or what's going on?
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Mar 23, 2022 23:06
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It appears to be the flapper valve. Except that they don't have holes in the middle. I can't believe it's a flow restrictor. That's the very last place you'd ever want one. Is it sealing now? How does it flush? e: a brief search leads me to believe that this is/was the outer covering on a Fluidmaster flapper that must have come loose. They appear to be bonded the frame top, so they could fill with water through the hole but once the top ring of the valve slams shut with that part hanging in the opening, water can't leak through. Lucky it didn't get wedged in further down the drain hole (unless it's rigid?) PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Mar 24, 2022 |
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Mar 24, 2022 02:42
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I found one of those in a toilet in a house I was renting a couple years ago. Took it out, toilet flushed much better. I assumed it was a flow restrictor intended to save water.
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Mar 24, 2022 13:48
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PainterofCrap posted:It appears to be the flapper valve. Except that they don't have holes in the middle. The flush still feels weak but there doesn't seem to be a problem with the sealing. I'm also not sure how it helps seal because the part looks smaller than the hole. So my main problem now is just figuring out why there seems to be weak flow.
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Mar 25, 2022 03:35
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Turn off the tank supply, empty the tank as much as possible, secure the flapper in the open position, and pour a bucketload of hot water down the tank drain. Flush it a few times after. It's amazing how much crap builds up, especially in the rim drains. Then, let it fill, and watch it flush. See how quickly the water is going down.
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Mar 25, 2022 04:48
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PainterofCrap posted:Turn off the tank supply, empty the tank as much as possible, secure the flapper in the open position, and pour a bucketload of hot water down the tank drain.
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Mar 25, 2022 10:58
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Hoping someone in this thread might be able to decipher this from the depreciation report in the building I'm moving into: I have an aquarium and inhabitants in there that are extremely sensitive to copper (shrimp and snails). People who have copper pipes generally can't use their tap water to do water changes in their aquariums because the copper kills invertebrates. I can't figure out if the report above means that the pipes are black iron or that they're copper. Any help on that? Appreciate it.
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Mar 28, 2022 00:43
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VelociBacon posted:Hoping someone in this thread might be able to decipher this from the depreciation report in the building I'm moving into: They're both. Main supply is black iron, walls are copper. You need an RO filter for your aquarium refresh water. Regardless of any of what any of this means or turns out to be.
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Mar 28, 2022 01:00
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VelociBacon posted:Hoping someone in this thread might be able to decipher this from the depreciation report in the building I'm moving into: e: Motronic knows
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Mar 28, 2022 01:03
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Motronic posted:They're both. Main supply is black iron, walls are copper. You need an RO filter for your aquarium refresh water. Regardless of any of what any of this means or turns out to be. Thanks, drat. Aquarium hobby just got a lot more irritating! It's a 2br 2bth with no like laundry room sink so I dunno where or how that's going to work with the filter. Guess I should test the water here where I currently live in my 1960s shithole apartment and also test it in the new place and see if the copper levels are any different/existant.
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Mar 28, 2022 03:45
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Last Thursday, the ensuite bathroom was backing up into the bar sink directly below it in the basement. I couldn't clear it so I called in a plumber and they snaked it and it started draining. The clog must have been in the pipe that leads from that section of the house to the junction on the other side of the house that goes out to the septic. There were no backups elsewhere. Yesterday, it started backing up again same as before. The plumber came back and snaked it. After it was clear, he put the camera thing down and we couldn't see any clogs or breaks along the line to where it joins with the downstairs bathroom before connecting to the main waste pipe out to the tank. Neither time did anything come back on the snake. The only thing he could see with the camera is that the cast iron for the waste pipe was visibly corroded worse in some spots and it looked like there were maybe some flakes of the cast iron, maybe knocked loose by the snake or just from regular use. Other than that, no obvious breaks or roots or obstructions along the line. Any idea what might be going on? We're already pretty careful about how much toilet paper and such we're putting down, and that whole section of plumbing is pretty lightly used in general.
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Mar 28, 2022 21:22
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unlimited shrimp posted:Last Thursday, the ensuite bathroom was backing up into the bar sink directly below it in the basement. I couldn't clear it so I called in a plumber and they snaked it and it started draining. The clog must have been in the pipe that leads from that section of the house to the junction on the other side of the house that goes out to the septic. There were no backups elsewhere. When was the last time your septic tank was emptied?
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Mar 29, 2022 18:12
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Last summer. Not seeing other signs of the tank being full though, the sink only seemed to be backing up when the ensuite above it was being used.
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Mar 29, 2022 19:10
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Is there a good trick to find a super tiny leak from an undersink drain pipe? It's definitely from the drain line, not the supply. It's literally about 3-4 drops in 24 hours, so I can't see or feel it. It would be great if there was a neat trick to find which joint it's from.
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Mar 31, 2022 06:10
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i like nice words
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Anne Whateley posted:Is there a good trick to find a super tiny leak from an undersink drain pipe? It's definitely from the drain line, not the supply. It's literally about 3-4 drops in 24 hours, so I can't see or feel it. It would be great if there was a neat trick to find which joint it's from. Try wrapping a bit of paper around it maybe. If its only a few drops, it won't soak it, but you can probably see where it will get a little bit wrinkly.
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Mar 31, 2022 11:03
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