Tag Archives: Plumbing

Whole House Water Filter

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My house had a water softener system when we first moved in. It was leaking and I felt like the city water we get is pretty decent, so I had it cut out when some other plumbing work was getting done. Before moving in I replaced every supply valve, toilet, and faucet in the house. Since then, I have had all the sink aerators clog, two valves foul, and a toilet get so slow it takes forever to fill. That is in less than 3 years. I need some kind of filter. Should have left the water softener in place and repaired it. Oh well, now I know. I am going with a simple whole house water filter instead.

Here is what I was left with. 3/4″ and 1″ pipe, PVC and CPVC, lots of elbows and adapters. At the time I made a cover to go over it so I wouldn’t bang anything.

I started by moving the top plank of wood up to give me a good anchor point for the filter. I used pex tubing between the wall and filter to give me something a little flexible in case things didn’t perfectly line up. The shark bite fittings are expensive, but quick to assemble and make future repair easier.

I installed the filter in location the weekend before and cut the plumbing when I had a full day to devote to it in case something went really wrong. I shut off the water and made the first incisions. I wasn’t left with much pipe coming out of the wall.

I used my oscillating multi-tool to cut the pipe as flush to the elbow as possible, and it came in handy again for opening up just a little drywall around the pipes. Turns out there is an elbow inside the wall on the right hand side. I have very little room to do anything here. Thankfully I measured and had enough sticking out to mate with my shark bite fitting. I don’t know that I can remove this fitting properly and will probably have to cut everything out of the wall if anything needs doing in the future. Then again, if this didn’t work I would be doing the cuts anyways.

The rest of the plumbing went quickly. I put everything in place, turned the water back on and checked for leaks. All good! I installed some shelves above and below the filter to keep my ladders from banging into anything important. They also give room for extra filter storage. I have a clear view of the filter whenever I walk in so I can see when it is getting full, and a mini white board to track the change date. Hopefully all my downstream plumbing is safe now.

Leaky Pool Problem

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It seems that I am stuck in a bit of a leak rut right now. I fixed the suburban just in time to realize I have a pool leak. There is a great test where you put a bucket on your pool steps and fill it to the same level as the pool. After a few days if the level is lower in the pool than the bucket, then you know it is a leak, and not just evaporation.

I did that and attempted my own leak detection tests. 30 minutes in the pool with a mask and syringe of ink didn’t turn anything up, so I called the pros. They told us it was under a pony tail palm tree in the back planter bed.

I don’t know if the plant was to blame, but it was right on top of the problem area and a lot of roots grew around the pipe. We pulled the two shrubs and saved the palms to another location. I started digging to find the water line, and sure enough. Those leak detection folks knew what they were doing. It was right there under the little palm. The elbow has some kind of issue.

I plugged all the return lines into the pool with plumber’s putty because the corks I could get were too small for the job. After that and letting the system drain down I was able to cut out the bad elbow. It is tough working at arm’s length in a muddy hole.

I drained the last of the water, cleaned the pipe and installed a new elbow. A compression fitting went between the horizontal pipe and the new elbow.

After letting the cement cure for a while I pulled the plugs to let water in, and eventually fired up the pump. No more leaks! The elbow was under some kind of stress and had a growing crack on the bottom side.

The back looks a little sad without the plants, but I bet we will get some potted plants going in no time.

Plumbing Nightmares

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I actually had a nightmare the other night about paint.  We owned a house and for some reason had cut out a huge part of a wall, but were going to put it back ourselves (lots of drywall work).  I looked at one of the remaining walls and the sheen of the paint used was all over the map, flat to gloss.  Someone started painting and accidentally mixed in streaks of black and other colors.  I awoke from that nightmare into one that might be worse.  A broken pipe in the wall.

The new house’s two spare bathrooms have pedestal sinks.  They look fine, but as I found out are dreadful to work on.  I think they must install all the faucet and drain hardware, then move them into position on the stand.  My simple faucet switch out turned into a total sink removal.

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But wait, there’s more!  Every supply valve in this house leaks when you touch it.  The valves are CPVC pipes with some kind of copper washer crushed on.  Impossible to remove.  In trying to get the valve apart so I could cut close to that copper washer I broke the cold line off in the wall.  This was at about 8:30 at night.  Crestfallen doesn’t begin to describe my state.

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Yeah, this little guy right here.  I don’t trust CPVC any more, and wish they had used copper instead.  I cut a hole in the wall and inspected.  The next day my oscillating multitool and I had made a big hole in the wall and repaired the pipe.

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Not exactly gorgeous, but no leaks and I could have the water turned on again.  With this big gash, reinstalling the pedestal sink was not going to happen.

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We picked out a nice little vanity that matched the rest of the bathroom to replace it.  The pedestal sink was high enough that a lot of drywall mudding and painting had to happen before the new vanity could be installed.  Friday night I broke the pipe off.  By Monday I had the pipe repaired, the wall patched primed and painted, and the new vanity in.  That is what a long weekend can do for ya.

In the mean time we removed the other bathroom’s pedestal sink and replaced it with a similar vanity, replaced both toilets, and took care of a half dozen other small things.  It will all be over soon.

Kitchen Renovation Part 1

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After a lot of early salvos, the kitchen war has finally begun.  First, let’s look in horror and disgust at the kitchen that was.  Painted 1980s particle board cabinets with rotted bottoms, dark blue peeling paint, and no flooring.  Not a pretty set of pictures.

Don’t look too long, you will hurt your eyes.  Granted the next set of images aren’t that much better.  I happily smashed cut and dragged out all the old cabinets, and peeled the various paint layers off.  At least it looks a lot brighter in there.

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Most of the kitchen stuff and appliances had to be spirited away to back rooms and the porch.  What was left was the bare essentials.  I call it Kitchen Base Camp Alpha.

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Next came the sanding of texture.  When the house was built, some kind of roll on orange peel texture was used.  In decades since installation it has turned to powder and sluffs off in chunks.  Every square inch of wall had to be sanded back to the drywall.  It was messy business.

Next came patching of various issue areas, priming, more patching of missed issues, and then two rounds of the brilliant blue/green color that was in the living room.

At this point I got a lot of plumbing and electrical fixtures changed, and even a bit of routing done to account for changes in cabinet location.  With the walls complete I could scrape the floor of any glues or gunks and get to tiling.  As usual odd walls and squareness issues confounded me, but I was able to stitch it together pretty well with the existing living room tile I did last Christmas break.

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dsc_0638I could now work on the small pantry without any fear of getting in the way of cabinet installation.  It would give us a place to put back some of our boxed junk and help out in minor cooking adventures at Kitchen Base Camp.  I went with adjustable wire shelves and wired an under-cabinet light in the top that goes on with the lights over the stove.  Some basic molding happened on the inside, but most will wait till I can do everything after the cabinets are complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until the cabinets get installed we got to move a few essentials back into the new area.  I call it Kitchen Base Camp Beta.

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