Plumbing Is Never Easy In Old Houses (AKA: WTH Am I Paying You For, Again?)

[roo_ster]

My Grandfather partially rewired it in the 1950s with cloth romex and a new main service. Then there's also some new circuits with plastic sheathed romex. Then there's the low-voltage actuated systems in part of the house. Then there's the real special stuff -- the cloth, tar, and gutta percha wrapped knob and tube that still serves outlets on the exterior walls of the house.

Dayum.

One tip: if you see the "This Old House" folks walking up to your mom's door, start shooting(1).  Every danged project they take on seems to go over budget by $40k or so.  And they talk about it so casually, whereas I'd look for someone to strangle.







(1) Shoot to kill all but Norm.  Just kneecap him.

[CNYCacher]

I'm getting ready to do some plumbing in my Mom's house, which ought to be fun.

1903 Victorian with a healthy mix of galvanized iron, copper, some bronze, PVC, CPVC, and ABS.

I *^$^$%)(*&#$%#(*&^)(&*U^$ love working on her house...

Ahem.

[K Frame]

I'm familiar with it, and no I won't use it.

I've heard too many stories about spontaneous failures of the pipe at the crimp ring over time.

[AmbulanceDriver]

I'm familiar with it, and no I won't use it.

I've heard too many stories about spontaneous failures of the pipe at the crimp ring over time.

tell me moar, plz...

Was seriously considering replumbing our place with PEX and a nice manifold.  Had not heard about failures at the crimp ring....

kthxbye.

[K Frame]

Oh hell, that's pex. Pex is fine. I've beaten the drum for Pex for a long time.

Don't know why I was thinking of another kind... it started out for use in outdoor sprinkler systems, and then was brought inside. It's still available, but it's really fallen out of favor... Not nearly as badly as Qwest did, though.

And yes, I've thought about using Pex before. But normally the sections that I've had to work on have been fairly short, so I'd be paying a tremendous amount of money per linear foot. I normally use PVC or CPVC for bridge piping in those cases.

[AmbulanceDriver]

although you did get me looking, and apparently there are a couple of lawsuits (or more) that are going class action against manufacturers of the fittings for PEX - specifically the fittings are failing anywhere from 18-36 months after installation and causing large amounts of damage.  One in particular that I came across was Zurn. Their brass fittings were losing zinc and therefore losing strength, and would crack from the inside out.  Apparently there are also concerns (or were, back in 2008) about chemicals leaching from the PEX tubing due to chlorine and chloramines used for water purification. 

Gonna do a bit more research before I start tearing into things, that's for sure, but I do love the idea of how PEX works.

[zxcvbob]

Oh hell, that's pex. Pex is fine. I've beaten the drum for Pex for a long time.

Don't know why I was thinking of another kind... it started out for use in outdoor sprinkler systems, and then was brought inside. It's still available, but it's really fallen out of favor... Not nearly as badly as Qwest did, though.

Polybutylene?  (like the gray plastic sink and toilet risers.)

[K Frame]

Qwest was polybutalyne.

It wasn't the pipe so much as the fittings were becoming brittle and essentially shattering.

I could swear that there was another type, a relative of ABS, that was being tried.

[CNYCacher]

although you did get me looking, and apparently there are a couple of lawsuits (or more) that are going class action against manufacturers of the fittings for PEX - specifically the fittings are failing anywhere from 18-36 months after installation and causing large amounts of damage.  One in particular that I came across was Zurn. Their brass fittings were losing zinc and therefore losing strength, and would crack from the inside out.  Apparently there are also concerns (or were, back in 2008) about chemicals leaching from the PEX tubing due to chlorine and chloramines used for water purification. 

Gonna do a bit more research before I start tearing into things, that's for sure, but I do love the idea of how PEX works.

A brass fitting for PEX and a brass fitting for any other type of pipe only differs in the shape of the connection.  Not seeing how this is a PEX issue.  Way of the future, man.  Way of the future.

The only problem I ran into was apparently shower mixers are designed to be hooked up with rigid pipe and don't have any kind of way to fasten them directly to wood.  You are expected to hook up rigid pipe to the mixer and strap the pipe down.  Is this really a "problem" though?  No one would try to say you should do everything in copper since you have to use a coupe feet of copper at the mixer.

Still pissed though.  If they had cast some mounting screw holes into the body of the mixer I could have just screwed it down to a cross piece and not had to spend $50 on copper, fittings, and sweating supplies, not to mention an hour piecing it all together.

x 2

[Tallpine]

The only problem I ran into was apparently shower mixers are designed to be hooked up with rigid pipe and don't have any kind of way to fasten them directly to wood.  You are expected to hook up rigid pipe to the mixer and strap the pipe down.

You could just rig up a couple of in-line valves and Y it into the shower head 

Seriously, I was thinking about something like that for a summer-only shower out on the porch off the kitchen: just use frost-free hose bibs stubbed through the wall with my own patented jury-rigging to the shower head.  Would give the option of hot and cold water faucets outside, too 

[CNYCacher]

You could just rig up a couple of in-line valves and Y it into the shower head 

Seriously, I was thinking about something like that for a summer-only shower out on the porch off the kitchen: just use frost-free hose bibs stubbed through the wall with my own patented jury-rigging to the shower head.  Would give the option of hot and cold water faucets outside, too 

This costs only slightly more than two frost-proof hose bibs combined.

[Tallpine]

This costs only slightly more than two frost-proof hose bibs combined.

Yeah, but it takes all the fun and challenge out of it 


In our old house, we had a claw foot iron tub with a faucet that was probably 60 years old.

The faucet became unrepairable of course, so rather than searching all over for a faucet to fit an antique bathtub, I replaced it with two ~$2.99 hose bibs.

When we sold the house, the plumbing inspector or course dinged it, but, really - I grew up in houses that had two separate faucets in sinks and tubs   

Besides, you could screw on a short length of garden hose and have a Jack-Uzi 

[stevelyn]

I loves PEX. It's the only thing that makes sense to use in cold climates.

[K Frame]

"In our old house, we had a claw foot iron tub with a faucet that was probably 60 years old."

Gotcha beat.

The tub in my Mother's house is original -- 1903.

I'm pretty sure that the faucets are, too.

[Perd Hapley]

Their brass fittings were losing zinc and therefore losing strength, and would crack from the inside out. 

It's always bad when things get out of zinc.

[CNYCacher]

"In our old house, we had a claw foot iron tub with a faucet that was probably 60 years old."

Gotcha beat.

The tub in my Mother's house is original -- 1903.

I'm pretty sure that the faucets are, too.

My house is an 1890 and came with two tubs, both original.  One I sold on craigslist for $500 to make room for the shower I showed pictures of above.

[ssn vet]

I'm always happy for the opportunity to fire up the ol' propane torch (though I wish I had one of those nifty MAP gas ones)....

Hack plumbing is a decent skill to have...

and I can think of worse ways to spend an hour than wondering around the plumbing isle scratching my head.   

[zxcvbob]

I like working on plumbing *supply* lines.  I hate working on drain lines.  The difference is, when you screw up a supply line you know it right away (cuz it's pressurized) and can fix it.  Drain line failures can be sneaky.

[Tallpine]

plumbing isle

If you're on the plumbing isle, maybe there is a really BIG leak