Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Plumbing again

OK. This will be the last plumbing post, I hope! I don't want this blog to become another installment of This Old House :)

So, this weekend I redid the drain from the kitchen sink. If you remember, it was serving as a vent for the sump pump, resulting in sewer gas smell in the kitchen. My project was to cut the kitchen drain off at the base of the basement ceiling and run it over to the main drain about 8 feet away.

No problem, you just cut the PVC drain pipe off and cement a new piece on. Wham, bang, a few elbows and done, right? Almost. I had to cut into the main 3 inch drain from the upstairs bathroom, cutting a big chunk of it out so the reducing "T" could fit in. In order to make the "T" fit, I had to push the whole drain pipe over about 3 inches while slipping the "T" in. It actually wasn't so bad, but I forgot that when you cut into a drain pipe two things happen...1. all the water that didn't go all the way down will leak all over you and the floor! and 2. Sewer gas will start invading the house. Can you tell I'm not a plumber?

At least I remembered to have a rag with me and I was able to stop the flow of water long enough to grab a bucket and put it under the pipe while it drained. Once the bucket was catching the water, I used the rag to plug up the septic tank end of the pipe. In the end, the whole project took about an hour and a quarter. Of course, while this was going on, you couldn't use the water, since I didn't want water all over the floor :)

I have to say, the plumbing does look very good now. Here are two pictures of the new piping. I didn't get pictures of the drain. Now, on to the electrical mess...wires hanging, electrical boxes dangling, taped wires feeding the water pump...Isn't owning a house fun?


This is the spot that used to have about 5 different pipes sticking willy-nilly all over. The holes in the wall are where the washing machine feeds went through the walls.

This is the feed for the hot water heat boiler. It used to be a piece of copper piping that sort of arched above the door, waiting to booby-trap you as you walked through

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