I was going to do a how to section on plumbing. I decided against that, if you need to learn about plumbing I suggest you purchase a book. The Complete Guide to Home Plumbing : Newly Expanded 3rd Edition seems to be fairly conclusive.
This is how I went about adding a bathroom, adding a washer/dryer hookup, moving a kitchen and repairing the plumbing that was already in the house. After we purchased our new dream home and discovered there was some major termite damage, my wife and I had some discussions. We decided that it would be better to fix all the major problems before we moved in, rather than trying do the work while we lived in the house, which was our first plan.
During the repair work, we discovered that the area we had initially planned to be a master bedroom was better suited for a kitchen. We redesigned our floor plan several times until we came up with something that both pleased my wife (very important) and was practical to construct. Now it was time to go to work. I researched on line as much as I could about the plumbing codes and techniques. You simply can’t have too much information. Since this was an older house, almost nothing was to current code, including the venting.
Fortunately, my brother in law is a plumber. He came over one Saturday and began the rough in work in the new bathroom. The first thing he did was cut out the bath tub drain. Then he installed the closet flange for the toilet. We laid out the washer hookups which are in the wall behind the bath tub. Finally, the bathroom sink was laid out. After that, I did most of the work myself. One thing that my brother in law said: Always run you drain lines first, once your drain lines are done you can run your supply lines (hot and cold water). The reason is that the drain or sewer lines are larger and harder to work with. The typical supply lines are half or three quarter inch copper and can be worked around any obstructions much easier than 3 or 4 inch PVC.
New Bathroom Plumbing
When working with PVC, I used a “chop saw” or miter saw. This made the cuts even and quickly. Before gluing, I fitted each joint, but did not push the pieces together too tightly. It is almost impossible to get them apart if you push them all the way in. I also used PVC primer. This cleans off the dirt and other material from the PVC and allows the glue to work better. Most inspectors look for this (it leaves a purple stain). I used a 1 inch to 4 foot pitch were ever possible. Near the kitchen it is more like 1 inch to 8 feet, but it is pitched, which is the important part. I put cleanouts were ever I could. I figured it would make life easier in the future if I ever had to unclog anything.
3 inch FURNCO couplings
I began by installing a 3 inch vent stack up into the attic. This was installed in a 1 foot void behind the bath tub. I connected the vent stack to a wye with a cleanout on the end of it. The tube connects just before the cleanout. The washer drain is connected to the vent stack in the wall. This meets code as long as the connection is at a 45 degree angle. Further down, the closet flange for the new toilet joined the drain line. That then ran down to the old 3 inch copper drain that is used by the old bathroom. To connect to the existing copper drainage pipe, I cut out the old trap for the washer hookup and used a pair of FURNCO couplings. See picture.
I reused some of the one half inch copper pipe for the supply lines. I also moved the hot water heater to directly under the new bathroom. It is close to the center of the house, meaning that the kitchen is about 20 feet in one direction and the old bathroom is about 15 feet in the other. It is also nice to get hot water almost right away when you start the shower. For the hot water heater I purchased a Kenmore “Miser 12″ electric unit, which has good energy ratings and a 12 year warranty on the tank. At some point I plan to install a couple of solar collectors to heat our domestic hot water, this should cut our electric bill by about one third or more.
When soldering or sweating as it is also known, I used non-lead solder only with a MAPP gas torch. I think the MAPP gas (yellow cylinder) makes a hotter flame and therefore makes using lead free solder easier than if you are using a standard propane torch (green cylinder). Once you get the hang of soldering it is really quite easy. You have to clean off the two piece to be joined throughly with some type of abrasive. They make stiff steel brushes or you can use water proof emery cloth. Apply a liberal coating of non-acid soldering flux to both pieces. Flux keeps the copper from oxidizing when the heat is applied. Assemble the two pieces, using a torch, heat up the joint and apply solder. The heat must be applied until the solder flows evenly. You should be able to turn off the touch and still be able to melt solder over the joint for a few seconds. It should look clean and smooth. I always use a wet rag to wipe the excess flux off the joint and to cool it down a little bit. If you do this, be careful of the steam that will form. Take care when soldering near combustible materials that you do not catch them on fire.
Access hatch in back of closet to old bathtub faucet
I also made access hatches to fixtures that are normally buried in walls. The faucets for the bathtubs are a good example. For the new bathroom, the access is through the wall in the back of the pantry. For the old bathroom the access is through the back of my wife’s closet. See picture. She is happy about that.
The old bathroom had a single vent which ended in the attic about two inches from the roof. There was a lot of mold and some rotten wood because of all the moisture coming out of the vent pipe. I ran a two inch PVC pipe over to the three inch vent stack which was extended through the roof. I also connected kitchen to the same vent stack. We ended up having to replace the roof. When we did that work, I replaced the rotten plywood.
So far, everything has worked out well. Next entry I will talk about water treatment and filtering. I may also make an entry about basement drains, sumps and sump pumps.
I bought a home with a hot tub. I never would buy one but it’s there. How high should I set it when not being used? Now it’s 88 but that seems expensive. I know, the colder, the longer to heat it.
Stephen,Heat goes towards cold. The warmer you keep the water in the hot tube, the higher your loss rate is going to be. If you don’t use it a lot, it may make sense to keep it cooler, then give yourself plenty of time to warm it up when needed. Also, if you have some sort of cover, it will cut down heat and evaporation loss.