Thanks for getting back to us CookingWithGas.
That looks pretty nifty.
Many thanks to Alley Dweller and **LSLGuy **for the suggestion. It still grates against my nature of wanting to do things the right way but this is a $12 five-minute solution that is very effective.
I wish I had put top-notch valves on there when I moved in. The builder cut a lot of corners on quality and this was *not *a cheap house.
To do it right might be a DIY job for some folks but for me it probably would involve hiring a plumber. I have done some lightweight plumbing tasks–install an inline refrigerator water filter on existing copper line, rebuild the waste line when I installed a new garbage disposal, replaced valves on bathroom faucets. Anything that involves torches or resoldering fittings is something I could probably learn but learning that stuff usually means doing it twice.
I had one of those too. The biggest most expensive cheap piece of shit I ever dealt with. Gone now, thanks be to Thor.
By the time I sold the place I’d installed a few first-rate fixes and many like the one you did there. Had you opened that wall you’d have seen more evil corner cutting and soon you’d be discussing a complete replumb job with one of watchwolf49’s buddies.
An old friend of mine was a corporate middle manager who ended up as a Fortune 1000 CEO. Bright, smart, and highly effective dude. A mentor to many including me. One of his sayings was “Never open a can of worms unless you’re prepared to eat all the worms”. These are words to live by in an expensive cheap house. Trust me on this.
You’re bound to know someone who can solder a copper pipe and can show you how for the price of a beer.
Before we closed on the house (new construction) I had it inspected. The inspector slit open the caulk around the access panel for the Jacuzzi tub machinery, and reached in and pulled out a paper bag. It had an empty beer can in it. The construction manager had insisted on being present for the inspection so he saw this play out. All he could say was that if you really wanted quality construction you had to buy a million-dollar house (this one was $365K and that was 1995). The builder was a division of Pulte. I have also experienced: Waste lines punctured by nail guns. Very cheap garbage disposal and sump pump. A washer overflow pan that was not sealed to the drain–we did have a washer overflow once and the water drained out the pan and ran down the *outside *of the drain line, ruining my living room ceiling (our laundry room is on the second floor).
I am sure I could do the soldering by reading up on proper technique. What I would worry about is that in a pressurized line, a hole too small to see can leak like a motherfucker. I guess even pros will get a pinhole leak from time to time, and you just fix it. But it’s got to be perfect once that wall goes back up.
Plumbing stories!!!
Nice fix by the way. Hard to do things the “cheap” way, but often its really the best solution. I think every object in the known and unknown universe should have a access panel somewhere to get at it and fix it!!
Last few years, I’ve been having copper and brass fittings develop pinhole leaks at elbows, I first thought it was our poor southern cal water quality, which seems to be eating up chrome (maybe it is that cause) but upon closer inspection it seems just as likely a manufacturing defect aka cheap chinese metals…(dont get me started):mad:
Vents cutoff in the wall …
Toilet feeds connected to the hot water line …
Septic tank installed backwards …
My biggest peeve is slip-joint drain lines under the sinks … very common and they always wind up leaking … worthless crap … I have all mine converted to Sch 40 ABS glue together now … not a single leak yet no matter how hard I bang into them …
This is way off-topic but it’s my thread and it’s answered–what do think of Shark Bite?
Installed properly and they only leak when they rust through.
Why even bother with chromed plastic or chromed pot metal if it’s hidden under a cabinet? Basic plastic P traps are Ogs gift to the DIY . They tighten by hand and are easily torqued down so they don’t leak.
My DIY homeowner guy thinking exactly. Anything glued will have to be cut apart eventually. And what do I do when the pipe stub coming out of the wall gets too short to glue yet another coupler on?
ANYTHING can be fixed by construction types. It may be a matter of tearing down a wall, then rebuilding it. But these things are routinely done.
Of course. But to a DIY type that seems a pretty drastic solution to an easily avoidable problem.
There is actually a tool just for that. Search forPVC Reamers.
The more I think about wash machine water valves I’m convinced they should be installed with an access plate so they can be swapped out like a faucet. It’s crazy that they’re put in as if they will last the life of the house. All the other plumbing installations have some type of access point, why not the washer connection. It’s going to be blocked from view anyway and a nice decorative cover plate is not the end of the world if someone actually sees it. The valves go in with a gasket like a faucet assemble and connect up behind the cover plate. Install them with union couplings and it’s a 5 minute job.
The problem comes if you want to reconfigure the drains. The ABS p-trap becomes a fixed point that you have to work around or cut off.
I just changed out a kitchen sink. Did not need to do any remodeling. I took out all the drains, p trap, and Tees. Reconfigured every thing. The connection at the wall was a slip joint. all the drains were thick plastic traps, pipe, and tees. I did not have to cut the existing pipe to remove it.
The drain pipe coming out of the wall would have a threaded coupler on it … so whatever drain configuration we use can be removed without cutting this pipe … we glue the opposite coupler on one end of a short piece of pipe and the downstream part of our P-trap on the other … we use a screw compression connection on the bottom of the sink with another short piece and the compression connection for the upstream portion of the P-trap … just unscrew the two connections on the P-trap and we can snake out the whole line to the 3" main …
The problem this addresses is accidentally bumping the drain works … hard enough to cause a slip joint connection to start leaking … and not noticing for months … suddenly all our economy is gone … with the Sch 40 ABS we can bump it really hard and it’s not going to leak … and we’re only talking a few dollars more … it’s a good idea to use robust materials where damages can get expensive …
Changing sinks … the ABS all unscrews and just toss it in the garbage … it’s not that expensive …
The difference has to do with the compression washers … for the screw together joint, these washers lay flat and are somewhat fail-safe, as they do well with a lot of torque … the slip joint washers are tapered, and they have to line up perfectly and tend to wear out, and the torque has to be just right, too much and the washer will fail … and when they fail, they leak … safest is to use new every time … and that’s a trip to the hardware store because the shelf life of these washers suck …
While I understand your concern I’ve never experienced it with the exception of an improperly sized trap. There was juuuuust enough plastic to make the connection but was easily pulled apart. But I’ve also come across hard mounted PVC and copper connections that leaked because they weren’t done right. So it’s the “done right” part that matters.
Hey, sorry about the weeks to days thing. That said, I’m glad that the project is coming around.
Just remember, no matter What happens, it could always be worse… 