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I'm trying to set myself up for an inspection of a new (ish) DWV system installed in a 60 year old house. I'm not having any troubles stopping up the fixtures inside the house, but I can't seem to stop the main line leaving the house. We have a 3" sewer line leaving the house four feet below the outside surface. There is a 3" cleanout pipe that goes straight down, connecting to the main line with a 90 degree tee. I've tried using 3" pneumatic test balloons to plug the system as well as a 3" "double" (the big black dong), but none of them effectively seal the intersection. Do any of you plumbing-savvy goons have tips as to how I might be able to effectively plug this system and perform my test?
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Mar 4, 2011 07:03
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I have an odd situation. This is a fairly new house, all Wirsbo Pex and new Moen shower faucets upstairs and roughtly 30-60 minutes after having a shower there is a strange mechanical sounding noise as if something is falling inside the walls behind the shower area. It's like a clanky banging sound and it's always 30-60 minutes after having a shower. Would this have anything to do with the shower/bathtub diverter or something? Is it normal?
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Mar 4, 2011 16:31
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isnoop posted:I'm trying to set myself up for an inspection of a new (ish) DWV system installed in a 60 year old house. I'm not having any troubles stopping up the fixtures inside the house, but I can't seem to stop the main line leaving the house. You arent putting the test balloon in far enough I am guessing. What PSI are you pumping the balloon up too. Are you doing a water or air test? Ahz posted:I have an odd situation. This is a fairly new house, all Wirsbo Pex and new Moen shower faucets upstairs and roughtly 30-60 minutes after having a shower there is a strange mechanical sounding noise as if something is falling inside the walls behind the shower area. It's like a clanky banging sound and it's always 30-60 minutes after having a shower. I am not sure about that. It could be the popping sound a drain line makes when its pinned against wood caused by the expansion and contraction of the pipe.
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Mar 4, 2011 22:10
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I've got a leaky drain pipe and I'm not sure where to start. This is the drain for my only shower, the leak is slow but I'm afraid to use it in case it causes more damage. It's leaking at this joint but there isn't anything to tighten. The only thing I can think of is maybe using plumbers epoxy to seal the joint but I'm not sure how well that will last. What can I do short of redoing this entire section? edit: (or if I do have to redo it is there an easy way to do so (it's pretty tight quarters up in there and I honestly don't know how they managed to get it all put together in such a small space)  Click here for the full 1024x768 image.
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Mar 6, 2011 06:04
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Miscreant posted:I've got a leaky drain pipe and I'm not sure where to start. I'd have to see it, and your link is broken for me.
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Mar 6, 2011 19:01
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:I'd have to see it, and your link is broken for me. Sorry, waffle Images isn't working now for some reason. After talking to a few people the consensus seems to be to cut off the galvanized portion as much as possible (from under the tub to the overflow (neither of those are visible in the pic) and everything else up to the cast iron and replace with PVC. To cut that off could I use a dremel with a metal cutting blade or will I have to pick up a small angle grinder (my 7 inch wont fit real well up in there and there is a lot of copper I don't want to damage. 
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Mar 6, 2011 20:07
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Miscreant posted:Sorry, waffle Images isn't working now for some reason. Yes cut it out and re trap the tub with a new waste and over flow. Personally to make it simpler I'd just cut the bottom Wye out with the clean out and start there. To cut upper portion above the TEE i'd use a sawzall with a medal blade. Then use No hub bands to connect back to the galvanized . (they make bands that go from metal to plastic)
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Mar 6, 2011 20:24
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:Yes cut it out and re trap the tub with a new waste and over flow. Personally to make it simpler I'd just cut the bottom Wye out with the clean out and start there. I'm with you there, I was thinking that if I take out the wye with clean out I could always just unscrew the pvc for clean out. The only thing I'm concerned about is that the vent stack is directly above that wye and I don't know how (if) it's supported anywhere besides off of that bracket on the lower left of the picture. I'm going to have to cut out the water lines just to have room to maneuver around there as well, going to redo that in pex and since it's a small rambler with all the plumbing currently exposed in the basement I'm really tempted to just redo the whole works and fix all the other oddity's while I'm at it. The only question I have with that is on the 4-7 (depending on how much copper I keep) copper connections I'd have to make should I sweat them or use sharkbites?
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Mar 7, 2011 22:43
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Miscreant posted:I'm with you there, I was thinking that if I take out the wye with clean out I could always just unscrew the pvc for clean out. The only thing I'm concerned about is that the vent stack is directly above that wye and I don't know how (if) it's supported anywhere besides off of that bracket on the lower left of the picture. Well if are really worried about that vent not being support. Just cut below the tee so you have enough room to put a no hub clamp on it. and then your only stress will be vertical and the wye will still support it. Now why are you going to cut out that water line, Its not badly in the way. And you are just making more work for yourself. Personally I wouldnt touch the copper but if you really want to and are comfortable with sweating copper. That is the preferred method. Since shark bites have a rubber gasket in them. And eventually chlorine will eat away the rubber.
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Mar 8, 2011 01:12
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:Well if are really worried about that vent not being support. Just cut below the tee so you have enough room to put a no hub clamp on it. and then your only stress will be vertical and the wye will still support it. I guess if the vent is unsupported I could fix that in the closet above (there is an access panel up there. The main reason I want to cut the copper is so I can drop the trap straight down and lower it to where the wye is. This is the view directly below the drain and overflow for the tub, each have a water line run directly under them and the hot water line going up is actually pressed up against that double galvanized trap I need to remove all the way up to the overflow (the bottom copper line in the pic). 
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Mar 8, 2011 02:52
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Miscreant posted:I guess if the vent is unsupported I could fix that in the closet above (there is an access panel up there. Ya i'd still just cut it between the wye and the tee. and just use 2 no hub fernco's. Then put the trap in the same place and its done. Install a new waste and over flow and you are done.
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Mar 8, 2011 06:14
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:Ya i'd still just cut it between the wye and the tee. and just use 2 no hub fernco's. Then put the trap in the same place and its done. Install a new waste and over flow and you are done. Is there a trick to getting the old waste and overflow connections out? Do I just cut them and use ferncos there too or remove everything including the actual drain by tring to unscrew it from the topside which I'm told can be "fun" but would make everything PVC?
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Mar 8, 2011 14:17
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Miscreant posted:Is there a trick to getting the old waste and overflow connections out? Do I just cut them and use ferncos there too or remove everything including the actual drain by tring to unscrew it from the topside which I'm told can be "fun" but would make everything PVC? The old waste and over flow can be a pain to remove. It all depends, what type of tub you have. Is it cast iron? If it is you can cut it out alot easier. Sometimes when you use a tub wrench to remove them. They can break, then unless you have an inside wrench. You will just have to cut them in half.
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Mar 8, 2011 16:53
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It's a porcelain tub with one of those vinyl bathtub inserts (luxury bath I think) over the top of it. I don't know how that works but I imagine it involves voodoo and plumbers putty.
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Mar 8, 2011 18:16
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Natural gas plumbing question The pipe coming out of my meter is 3/4". My total max supply needs for the house are 232,000BTU. I need a 35' run from the meter to the first appliance. I've calculated that I need a 1" pipe. My initial logic tells me the 3/4 would be the bottleneck and the 1" upsize would do nothing but perhaps that is not how it works
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Mar 10, 2011 23:28
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dwoloz posted:Natural gas plumbing question They usually upsize it from the gas meter to fulfill the volume. Its just like a house water main. They can be 3/4 while the line going into the house is 1 inch.
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Mar 10, 2011 23:50
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Done replacing all the galvanized. Only one major problem, the galvanized vent stack wasn't attached to anything at all (it just sits inside the tin vent stack) and was supported entirely by the piece I removed (after talking to a few people that is pretty common in this area. Some emergency bracing and pipe strap added in the access panel saved the day. All told it wasn't too bad, $30 in parts and a few hours of my time. Thanks for the help! 
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Mar 11, 2011 07:01
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:They usually upsize it from the gas meter to fulfill the volume. So... even though the meter is 3/4" it's not a bottleneck?
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Mar 11, 2011 07:28
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Miscreant posted:Done replacing all the galvanized. Only one major problem, the galvanized vent stack wasn't attached to anything at all (it just sits inside the tin vent stack) and was supported entirely by the piece I removed (after talking to a few people that is pretty common in this area. Some emergency bracing and pipe strap added in the access panel saved the day. All told it wasn't too bad, $30 in parts and a few hours of my time. Ya I said not to take out the wye to still use it as support. Well either way it looks good. But the slip joints on that tub aren't that good. I mean as long as you don't bury them its fine but I would have hard piped it. edit: Kudos on using a long sweep 90 to replace that wye. It actually meets code. dwoloz posted:So... even though the meter is 3/4" it's not a bottleneck? No you should be fine, now why are you questioning your gas piping. Are you having a problem?
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Mar 11, 2011 08:03
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The last few days my hot water heater which is usually silent has been making a gurgling noise. Meanwhile, my hot and cold water pressure is low throughout the dwelling. My stepfather thinks it could be a problem with the town water pumps, but I am not so sure. Any ideas?
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Mar 12, 2011 03:02
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A Fancy Bloke posted:The last few days my hot water heater which is usually silent has been making a gurgling noise. Meanwhile, my hot and cold water pressure is low throughout the dwelling. My stepfather thinks it could be a problem with the town water pumps, but I am not so sure. Any ideas?
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Mar 13, 2011 00:54
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:No you should be fine, now why are you questioning your gas piping. Are you having a problem? Thanks for the advice I'm eventually going to reconfigure all the gas plumbing and add a larger water heater. In an ideal world Id put in a tankless but unfortunately I was told the gas main I'm hooked in to is only capable of delivering low pressure and good for 190,000btu. Not even enough for the tankless alone :-\ Upgrading the service would cost around 10 grand......uh, I'll pass
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Mar 13, 2011 03:42
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dwoloz posted:Thanks for the advice Well you are good to pass on the tankless. They are joke n my opinion. But who told you 190,000 Btu's wasn't enough for a tank less?
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Mar 13, 2011 03:46
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I picked up a tankless unit second hand already actually (before I realized it was out of the question). Its a Takagi TK-3 and is 200k BTU It seems like there generally arent any units out there less than that
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Mar 13, 2011 08:47
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Hey Goon Plumbers, I consider myself a fairly handy individual around the house but I've had a problem recently that I can't seem to solve. There are vibrations in the pipes near one of my showers. At first I thought it was air in the pipes so I purged the entire house of water not once, but twice, with no success. Everywhere else in the house is fine. Upon further investigation, it seems to only vibrate when mixing hot and cold water, if I go full hot I get full pressure and no vibration, same for cold. Does this mean I need a new shower knob/tap? Possibly the mixer inside has a rubber flange that is loose or broken and is shaking when trying to mix water?
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Mar 13, 2011 19:23
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dwoloz posted:I picked up a tankless unit second hand already actually (before I realized it was out of the question). Its a Takagi TK-3 and is 200k BTU MarshallX posted:Hey Goon Plumbers, I consider myself a fairly handy individual around the house but I've had a problem recently that I can't seem to solve. It could be a couple things. It sounds like its water hammer. You can install a hammer arrester near the shower on the hot and cold lines to take care of it. Or the pipes aren't properly secured. What type of water piping do you have?
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Mar 13, 2011 21:08
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:What time of water heater do you have? (Gas, or electric.) How old is the house you are in? Electric. The trailer is about 25 years old. Today the hot water was sputtering when used, and the water pressure was slightly better but still not great. Still getting the same sounds from the heater also. I'm at a loss.
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Mar 14, 2011 03:25
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A Fancy Bloke posted:Electric. The trailer is about 25 years old. Today the hot water was sputtering when used, and the water pressure was slightly better but still not great. Still getting the same sounds from the heater also. I'm at a loss. Hmmm depending on what type of water lines you have. I would say the water heater is just making noises from it cooking the water. Pull a strainer on a sink and make sure nothing is in the aerator.
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Mar 14, 2011 03:33
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:It could be a couple things. It sounds like its water hammer. You can install a hammer arrester near the shower on the hot and cold lines to take care of it. Or the pipes aren't properly secured. What type of water piping do you have? It's all copper as far as I know. The huge problem is that accessing anything past the tap of this shower is going to be a giant pain in the rear end (downstairs shower, tiled) It was fine when we bought the house three years ago. It's mainly the fact that it only hammers/vibrates when mixing hot/cold and not when it's straight hot or straight cold that makes me think it's the mixer in the tap.
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Mar 14, 2011 13:43
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MarshallX posted:It's all copper as far as I know. The huge problem is that accessing anything past the tap of this shower is going to be a giant pain in the rear end (downstairs shower, tiled) What what type of shower valve do you have?
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Mar 14, 2011 13:56
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:What what type of shower valve do you have? http://www.belanger-upt.com/index.php?option=com_gi-catalogue§ion=produits&id=540&oid=88&Itemid=232 I believe that's it. Definitely a Belanger though.
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Mar 14, 2011 14:10
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MarshallX posted:http://www.belanger-upt.com/index.php?option=com_gi-catalogue§ion=produits&id=540&oid=88&Itemid=232 You don't really get a chattering with the single style shower valves. You can try to replace the cartridge if you want. But I believe a hammer arrester has failed and causing your problem. One other trick to try is draining down the entire house. Basically turn off the water and drain water pressure at every fixture. Then close them all down and turn the water back on. If they were cheap and installed a capped T for a hammer arester. This will put more air into it and fix the problem. edit: Now you said it only does it at this shower. If you turn the water on slowly to where it usually makes noise. Does it do it still? Turd Herder fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Mar 14, 2011 |
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Mar 14, 2011 14:26
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:edit: Now you said it only does it at this shower. If you turn the water on slowly to where it usually makes noise. Does it do it still? That's a tough question to answer because it only starts to hammer when mixing hot/cold, which is also where the water is at it's highest pressure. I can't tell if it's because the pressure is too high or because the mixer is borked. Let me try to illustrate:  quote:Basically turn off the water and drain water pressure at every fixture. Then close them all down and turn the water back on. If they were cheap and installed a capped T for a hammer arester. This will put more air into it and fix the problem.
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Mar 14, 2011 15:03
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How can I be sure I have a water hammer arrester? Seems weird that something put in to stop this problem is actually what's causing it.
MarshallX fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Mar 14, 2011 |
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Mar 14, 2011 20:34
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Is this a shut off valve minus the knob? My house doesn't have a shut off valve, I have to use a street key at the meter. There is the above mystery thing though and its the first fixture after the meter. It appears to have threads on the front and might be leaking (but its also raining right now so can't tell) I'd really really like to have a an easy lever operated ball valve for a main shutoff but I was told that messing with these old pipes (house was built in 1919) they would break and cause more trouble. Maybe I can fix this valve (or whatever it is)
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Mar 14, 2011 23:20
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MarshallX posted:That's a tough question to answer because it only starts to hammer when mixing hot/cold, which is also where the water is at it's highest pressure. I can't tell if it's because the pressure is too high or because the mixer is borked. Let me try to illustrate: I understand when your vibration noise is coming in. I still believe it needs a hammer arrester because its a copper piped house. Try replacing the mixing valve if you'd like. MarshallX posted:How can I be sure I have a water hammer arrester? Seems weird that something put in to stop this problem is actually what's causing it. Here is just one example of what they use for one. They are usually accessible. http://www.drillspot.com/products/351042/watts_1_2_15_water_hammer_arrestor dwoloz posted:
I have never seen a valve like that So i cant say for certain. But if it is a valve it wont shut the house off with much ease either. since its been outside all this time. Galvy can be a bitch to gently caress with. But you wont break it, just squish some of it. Don't be afraid to try it. Turd Herder fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Mar 15, 2011 |
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Mar 15, 2011 00:19
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It just doesn't seem like I'd even have enough room to work. I guess I could flush cut the pipe going into the house with a few sawzall blades but then what if I went to screw off the mystery valve and the pipe shears off. Not enough room to get a thread cutter on there
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Mar 15, 2011 04:00
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dwoloz posted:It just doesn't seem like I'd even have enough room to work. I guess I could flush cut the pipe going into the house with a few sawzall blades but then what if I went to screw off the mystery valve and the pipe shears off. Not enough room to get a thread cutter on there While working with galv. never cut something short. Cut it kinda of long so you have room to work and then its less likely to squish as you turn it out. Also don't use more galvy. Run pex , it will be much quicker and cheaper.
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Mar 15, 2011 04:40
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Dwoloz, I do not mean to insult your intelligence here. I am merely asking because things don't add up to me. I have never seen a water meter outside, nor have I seen a water pipe set up like that. Are you sure that isn't the gas meter and a gas line you are looking at? Water meter should be inside where it cannot freeze. Refer to my pic for a general idea. I just wanted to verify. I'd hate for you to start cutting into a gas line with a saws all.
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Mar 15, 2011 06:36
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Rd Rash 1000cc posted:I understand when your vibration noise is coming in. So when I go down the route of flushing the system with all taps closed, which tap do I open first after the line is wide open from the street again.
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Mar 15, 2011 13:42
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