Jon @ Homer

Supply Plumbing (bathroom)

The first task to tackle in the bathroom project is to replace the old galvanized water supply piping. We pulled and cut out the old galvanized pipes - much of the newer plumbing in the house was already copper but there were places where it went from copper to galvanized back to copper without any dielectric unions. Also, I had used PEX plastic when I installed the dishwasher and bar sink in the kitchen. Needless to say the plumbing was a mess - something needed to be done.

A reciprocating saw with a metal blade is a really handy tool - especially when many of the threaded connections were frozen. We started on Saturday morning and by Saturday evening we had cold water running to the downstairs bathroom. By 8 pm Sunday we had the whole first floor plumbing reconnected. We had some 65 sweated joints and only three leaked - one because we didn't flux the joint and one was because we tried to use a street elbow into a valve. The problem with the street elbow is that it is tapered or just not consistently sided enough.

If you note in the last post the rust stains in the toilet - the reason was that the dedicated supply line was at least 30-35 feet long of galvanized pipe.

So now I have 100% copper water supply and soon it will run to the upstairs bathroom - one major job to cross of the list of things to do.

posted by Jon at Homer @ 6:40 PM