Builders Share

Leak Speak

I had just solved the problem of a frozen faucet valve by soaking the valve parts in a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water.  My bargain bidet was going to work out OK after all.  There was just one more thing to fix and this project of installing a bidet would be complete.

When I did the rough plumbing for the fixture some time back, I didn't pay close attention to which side I ran the hot and cold supply lines.  I do remember struggling a bit working in the tight space where the supply lines needed to run, so I probably had my eye more on running the 1/2" copper pipe as directly as possible.  At any rate, the pipes came up through the floor with the cold water on the left and the hot water on the right. It wasn't until I hooked the bidet up that I discovered this mistake.

I could have left it with the hot and cold reversed, but that would mean joining the world of reverse plumbing whenever entering the bidet closet, and who knows what other implications that would have. I decided I should do the job right, so I picked up a pair of flexible supply connectors at the hardware store and then proceeded to change out the ones I had just recently installed with the longer flexible ones that allowed me to cross the lines between the 1/2" copper and the faucet valve.

Then another setback.

I'm not sure how it happened, but in the course of changing out the supply connectors, the hot water shut off valve developed a leak.  It's possible that I had over-tightened the compression nut for the connector and this cracked the valve, but whatever the cause, the leak meant I would now have to replace the shut-off valve too.

The shut-off valve was soldered in place so I had to break out the propane torch again, heat up the solder joint and remove the valve.  The hardware store only had compression style fittings for the replacement and that was fine with me.  Once I cleaned up the 1/2" hot water supply line, installing the compression fitting was easy. 

Now with the valve replaced and the connector lines crossed to bring hot water to the left faucet valve and the cold water to the right,  we were ready to try out the bidet.

Plumbing go-round

Sometimes it feels as if I'm doing one renovation project inside of another, kind of like a set of Russian Dolls.  The house is being renovated and many of the parts that are going towards the renovation need renovation themselves.

I described the rehab of an old sewing cabinet into a sink vanity so that I could make use of a salvaged sink.  Now I'm in the midst of resurrecting a salvaged bidet.

Bidets are just uncommon enough that they fetch a pretty high price here in the U.S.  Anybody who wants this special toilet fixture must be willing to pay about double the price of a standard toilet.  I was lucky enough to come across one at a salvage dealer a couple of years ago for $50 and snapped it up.

My bargain bidet sat collecting dust in the barn for a while, and then it sat unplumbed in the little closet that would be its home for even longer until last week when I was finally able to devote attention to this minor plumbing project.

The first step to connecting the bidet to the rough plumbing was to solder (or 'sweat') shut off valves to the supply lines.  This required turning off the main water supply and prepping the 1/2" copper using plumber's cloth and solder paste.  Then, after placing the valves, I could heat the pipe using a Bernzomatic torch and apply the solder so that it flowed around the joint, quickly wiping the excess off with a damp rag.

With the  shut off valves in place, I was ready to put the bidet in place by fitting the waste tail piece into the drain trap.  Once the fixture was in place and the waste connection made, I installed the supply lines.  These attach to the faucet and the shut off valves by compression fitting.

Now that all my connections were made, I turned on the main water supply and searched for leaks.  Sure that I didn't have a leak, I opened the valves to try out the faucet.

Two things became immediately apparent: (1) the supply lines were crossed so that hot water was coming from the cold tap, and (2) the hot water tap valve was stuck.

As far as the crossed supply lines, this was something that I hadn't paid close enough attention to when doing the rough plumbing two years prior.  It was no big deal really because with flexible supply lines between the shut-off valve and the taps, I could re-cross them.  Unfortunately, I had used short rigid supply connectors so I would have to buy some new ones.

The problem with the frozen hot water valve was another story. My first instinct was to use brute force to try and free up the valve.  This didn't work.  I then decided that buying a salvaged bidet was a mistake and I should just take a sledge hammer to it.  Before doing that, however, I thought it might be more reasonable to try to find a replacement valve.

A visit to the manufacturer's web site (Kohler) gave me the hint of soaking the valve in a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water.  This dissolved the calcium deposits that had encrusted the valve and freed it up.  (And without spending a dime!)  Now I was sorry I had resorted to brute force originally because the threads that hold the knob to the valve got stripped a little when I took a wrench to it.  Luckily the threads weren't stripped beyond use.

Next:  Reconnecting the supply lines introduces a leak...

A Little Fixture of Luxury (part 1)

The upstairs was completely re-framed in renovating the house, but the basic configuration changed only a little.  The re-framing took place so that the master bedroom ceiling could be lifted, the bathroom enlarged, and a loft constructed for my son's bedroom. 

Formerly the closet between the master bedroom and the second bedroom was a walk-through affair.  I closed off access from the second bedroom and moved the door slightly so that it was more symmetrical with the door on the other side of the room.  I also framed-in a closet for the smaller bedroom.

I made the bathroom larger so that tub could be positioned away from the sloped ceiling.  Originally, the bathtub was tucked in against the knee wall which prevented it from being used as a shower.

One small luxury we decided to add in the renovation of our modest home is a bidet.  This is a handy toilet fixture that Americans have never quite gotten used to.  Simply put, it allows you to wash your private parts without having to take a complete shower or bath.  I might argue that it's a way of conserving water, but I don't have any real statistics to back that up.

The bidet will go in a little closet off the Master Bedroom.  I roughed-in the plumbing for this feature two years ago when I plumbed for the laundry downstairs.  The first order of business towards installing the bidet was finishing the floor.

We originally wanted to lay down a kind of rubberized industrial floor as a fun solution to this little bidet room but as we started to look into the cost, we backed away.  The area is only 9 square feet but the cost of materials alone was going to be around $100.  For a space that was going to be taken up mostly by the bidet itself, and in a time when the budget is tight, that was more than we wanted to spend.

Looking into cheaper solutions of vinyl tiles, we couldn't find a color or pattern we liked without having to order an entire box.  We decided that a painted wood floor will be fine I had some scraps of luan in the barn, and decided that it would be sufficient to cover the uneven floorboards and provide a smooth surface for painting.

After placing the luan I installed baseboard and door casings around the inside of the door. I primed everything and then put two coats of semi-gloss latex on the baseboards and casing.  On the floor, I put two coats of latex and two additional coats of clear high gloss urethane to make it easy to clean.

With the carpentry and painting done, I'm ready to hook up the bidet....

handyman

Rub a Dub

The chapter on broken down trucks and forgotten supplies did, in fact, come to a close and the next day I got busy finishing the task of connecting the tub to the plumbing.

Before hooking up the supply lines, I needed a place for the water to go once it was in the tub, so the first order of business was connecting the tub drain to the trap and the DWV (drain, waste, vent) plumbing.  To do this, I had to lift the tub so I could install the tailpiece pipe.  The auto jack that I used for positioning the tub a few weeks ago (see Here's to Jack and Dolly) came in handy here again.  With the tub jacked up, I slipped the flange and the nut over the pipe and then screwed the threaded pipe into the junction piece.

I used a reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade to cut the tailpiece pipe to the proper length for fitting into the trap, and then assembled the trap.  I emptied a few pitchers of water into the tub and opened the drain to check for leaks.  A professional might use compressed air to confirm that the piping maintains a certain p.s.i. but as long as I know water can drain and it's not going to end up in the living room, I'm satisfied.

Connecting the supply lines meant breaking out the torch and solder.  I was a little short with the roughed-in supply lines so I had to use two sleeves and a short length of 1/2" copper to connect the hot water.  I'm saving myself some work and money by not replacing the old tub fixtures.  They're nothing fancy but they're serviceable and as long as they don't drip, we'll be happy to use them.

I'll get around to re-painting the supply lines soon enough, but for now, the water's flowing where it's supposed to flow, holding where it's supposed to hold, draining where it's supposed to drain, and most importantly, everywhere else is high and dry.

handyman

Revisit to Hot Water

Not too long ago I replaced one of the elements in the hot water heater (see: Hot Water Detour), and not long after that I installed a timer for the hot water heater so that we weren't spending electricity heating hot water when no one was around to use it (see: Time for Hot Water). 

Well, ever since I did those jobs, the hot water seemed to be getting hotter and hotter to the point where it was scalding and difficult to regulate.  So just as the guests were arriving I thought I should go downstairs and see if I could adjust the thermostat.  I didn't want anyone scalding themselves in the shower of course, and what better time to remedy the problem than 5 minutes before they were due to arrive.

Adjusting the thermostat on the hot water heater is a 5 minute task, but that's when the thermostat is working.  When it's not working, the job takes on more of a life as you have to figure out that the problem is just that, a broken thermostat.

The upper and lower thermostats on a hot water tank are different units but they're designed to work together so that both of the elements are heating water if either of them registers a temperature below what's been set. In my case it was the lower thermostat that stopped working.

I decided to disconnect the lower thermostat and element and just run the tank on the upper element while my guests were visiting and until I could get a replacement.  This worked okay for most of the weekend as the tank was full of very hot water at the start, but after two days, the water was getting used up and the single element wasn't enough to keep up with the demand.  Unfortunately there were some tepid showers the last day of their stay.

Once the house was cleared out of guests and I had a chance to get to the supply store I was able to return to the cellar and install the new thermostat.  Now our vintage hot water heater is back to regulating the water temperature somewhere around 120 degrees.

handyman

2 Out of 3 Ain't Bad

There's always some trepidation surrounding the installation of a toilet.  The thought of the fixture not setting properly in the wax ring and the risk of a black water leak in the house makes the task a bit stressful beyond its complexity.

Getting all the pieces to line up is the hardest part.  The flange must be set so that the bolts can be positioned in alignment with the toilet's bolt holes.  Most flanges are designed to allow you to install the flange first and then add the bolts later by inserting them in a slot that has wide and narrow sections.  You insert the bolt in the wide section which receives the bolt cap and then slide the bolt to the narrow section where the bolt can be held in place.  Positioning the flange so that the narrow end of the slots align with the toilet's bolt holes is a crucial first step.

The next piece is placing the wax ring on the bowl.  It helps to press it well into place so that it doesn't fall off when you turn the bowl over or slip out of place as you position the bowl over the flange.

When you're ready to set the bowl on the flange, it helps to have an extra set of eyes to guide your alignment of the bolts into the bolt holes.  And once the bowl is positioned correctly you need to wiggle and press it down to compress the wax ring and assure a tight fit.  And of course, when tightening the bolts you have to be careful not to over-tighten and crack your new toilet.

I was able to follow most of my own advice for installing the toilet, and got it hooked up and running in time for our guests.  The supply line had been prepped back around New Years when my brother helped do a temporary installation for house guests then, so hooking up the water was just a matter of tightening the compression nut.

The sink on the other hand required breaking out the propane torch and solder to sweat the new valves.  It also meant gluing some PVC adapters to complete the drain hookup.

I purchased the bathroom sink over a year ago when I spotted it at a salvage store.  I was told it came out of the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston during a renovation there.  The only problem is that it was a pedestal sink without a pedestal.  As the day got closer for installation, I was still wracking my brain as to how I was going to mount the sink, and even considered giving up on it altogether.  And then I got the idea of mounting it on a cabinet and remembered an old sewing machine cabinet stored in the barn.  (We had used it in the past to hide a small TV and VCR--a kind of mini entertainment center.) The sink fit nicely.  I just had to cut a larger hole in the top and a couple of holes in the back for the plumbing, then I clear-coated the finish with 3 coats of urethane, and now the old sewing cabinet is living its third life as a sink vanity.

With the toilet and sink installed upstairs, we were ready for our guests.  The bathroom still has a way to go.  There's more wainscoting to install, the wiring for the radiant heat still needs to get done, and the third fixture, the bathtub, needs to be painted and installed, but we've come a long way in the short time since I started prepping the floor for tiles.

handyman

Hot Water Detour

After working hard to get the master bedroom floor painted, I wanted nothing other than a nice hot shower, but all I could get out of the shower head was a tepid stream.  Great. What now?

Our ancient electric hot water heater was acting up so I headed to the cellar armed with a screwdriver and a multi-tester.  Most likely one of the elements had burned out.

First, a little background on our vintage appliance.  The house came with this old Sepco hot water heater.  It was part of an arrangement that the prior owner had with one of the local power companies, Central Vermont Power.  The homeowner pays a monthly fee for "hot water service" which includes a lease on the tank, maintenance thereof, and the electricity to heat the water.  This frees the homeowner from having to maintain or replace their hot water tank and also let's them monitor their hot water usage separate from the rest of their electric bill.

I'm not one to go for these deals.  The power company that was providing the hot water was a different one than that supplying the electricity to my house, so essentially I'd be paying a middleman for something that I was quite capable of managing myself.  And being the handyman, it would be anathema to actually allow somebody else to maintain a household appliance for me.  I mean, really, why would I want to spend my weekend golfing or playing whiffle ball with my kid when I could be in the cellar fixing the hot water tank!

When I didn't sign up for the service, Central Vermont Power reminded me that the hot water tank belonged to them.  I told them, fine, come and get it.  They called back a few days later and asked me if I wanted to keep it anyway.  Frankly, I was expecting this.  The tank is big and heavy (concrete lined) and they had to cut a hole in the floor to get it into the cellar however many years ago they installed it. They probably checked their records and realized that removing the tank was going to be an expensive trash removal operation.

Now I had to decide, let them come and take this old tank off my hands and buy a new one, or keep this and save myself, at least temporarily, the task of having to dispose it.  I decided to keep it.

So now comes the first Sepco hiccup. I determined that it was a burned out element after all and proceeded to replace it. The basic way to do this is:

1. Shut off the power to the tank, disconnect the leads to the element, and test for connectivity.  If the element shows not connectivity, it's burned out.  (On my tank, you can actually listen closely and hear the elements heating the water, using an ohmmeter is more to the point though.)
2. Drain the tank by attaching a garden hose to the drain spigot, turn off the cold water inlet valve, open the drain spigot, and open the hot water taps on the faucets in the house to allow air in as the water drains out. (Oh yeah, and you'll need a place for all that water to go to.)
3. With the tank empty, remove the burned out element, slide the new one in, with a new gasket, and hook up the leads.
4. Fill the tank up by leaving the taps open in the house, close the drain spigot and open the cold water inlet.
5. Turn the power back on after you know the tank is filled by the presence of water coming from the hot water taps.

So those are the basics, but when you have a tank that may very well be as old as your father, you might run into the following:

• Rusty bolts that hold the element in place. You break these and your Saturday morning chore just turned into a weekend hell.
• The amount of sediment in the tank (a calcium carbonate and sand mix that very closely resembles vomit) is so much as to have completely immersed the bottom element. You have to scoop and flush it out as best you can.
• Old style element. You'll drive to two or more building/plumbing supply centers before you find the right one or an adapter to make a new one fit. 
• The updated old-style element requires some funky modification to the bracket that holds the thermostat in place.

My little detour from painting the upstairs to getting us back to having hot showers took a little longer, and had more surprises than I hoped.  But what old house task doesn't take 50 - 100% longer than expected...

handyman

Sandy Bottom

Shortly after moving into Chez Melendy, I noticed that our water pressure was dropping. It was especially noticeable in the washing machine where the cold water just trickled into the basket and the clothes weren't getting properly washed because the lack of pressure had somehow confused the cycles. 

Since I was the one who had done all the plumbing, my first thought was that I had messed something up.  I had left out some crucial aspect of plumbing a house that was the secret of licensed plumbers and now I was going to suffer for it.

It wasn't that bad.

When I checked the little screen at the kitchen sink tap, I noticed there was a fair amount of silt inhibiting the flow and this was even more pronounced at the little filter screen for the washing machine.  I thought, oh, it's probably because I didn't properly flush out the system after having put it together.  But a week or so later, same thing.

Now I was convinced that my well was running dry and the pump was sucking up sand off the bottom. (I'm great at "worst case scenario thinking.")  After calming down some, though, I decided that even if it was the case that the well was running low, it might be better to try installing a whole house filter myself before calling the well company.  Even if a filter didn't solve the problem, it wouldn't be money wasted because the filter would simply improve the quality of whatever water was going to come into the house.

I bought a SmartWater filter from GE figuring that the brand would probably make it easier to find replacement filters going forward.  Unfortunately, the model I chose, didn't come with its companion installation kit.  The local supplier didn't stock the kit, and when I tried to order it from the manufacturer's website, it wasn't available.  This was a little bit of a hassle because it meant that I had to figure out which fittings I would need to complete the task.  If you've ever stood in the plumbing supply isle of your nearby big box home-improvement store, you know of the head-spinning possibilities.

The installation instructions listed the necessary parts, but all in plumbers-speak.  I knew what a 1/2" compression fitting was but I didn't know there were so many different varieties.  Once I finally figured out which fittings were right for the job, I was ready to shut off the water and start cutting the pipes.

One important thing I learned when soldering copper pipes (besides of course being very careful wielding a torch around wood that's over a hundred years old) is that you're best to get all the water out of the pipes before starting.  I've tried to rush the job more than once only to be frustrated by not being able to get the pipes hot enough to melt the solder. When there's even a little water in the pipes, it serves to dissipate the heat and keeps the pipes from getting hot enough.

Once the filter was installed, I had to decide what level of filtering I wanted.  The GE SmartWater system uses a standard size that can accept all kinds of cartridges from very course filtering to very fine.  I decided on one in the middle that claims to reduce sand, soil, silt, sediment, and rust. (I hadn't really thought much before of the difference between sand, soil, and silt.)  Another filter I tried later only claims to reduce, sand, soil, sediment, and rust, thus letting the silt through.  I can't say I noticed the difference between the two other than that the one that reduces silt got clogged quicker than the other.

Both of them work fine, and no longer do I have sand and soil (and sometimes silt) clogging up my spigots and washing machine.  The SmartWater filter also has a little remote blinking light that you can stick on your refrigerator to remind you when it's time to change the filter.

After seeing what gets filtered out my drinking water, I don't think I'll ever go back to non-filtered. I suppose that's one of the plumber's secrets I did find out in the process.

handyman

p.s. Check out the following How-To associated with this post: Soldering Copper Pipes