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August 26, 2006

bathroom plumbing rough-in

We spent a day last week roughing-in the plumbing for the bathroom downstairs and learned a lot in the process.

The downstairs bathroom has never been a working asset for us. When we first got the house, the window was open and the clawfoot tub was up on one end. When we eventually demoed the room, it was a rather gross experience.

Having done almost all of the basic carpentry necessary in that room, we arranged for an plumber friend (Emerson, still a plumber while not yet famous for his harmonica and silly faces for Staunton, Virginia's own Hound Dog Hill Boys ) to come help move everything around in preparation for how we'd really like everything to be set up in there. He had some words to say about the work of the previous plumbers that have been through, which seems to be the case with all of the skilled contractors that we end up finding.

Emerson did his thing, deleting spaghetti piping and rebuilding a system that looks intentional, like it grew there. We had to move the sink across the room, move the toilet over a few feet, and set up the supply and drain for the new shower. While we were in the process, we also moved the master shut-off back towards the crawlspace door.

The plumbing that we have is all PVC, whatever was recycleable was stolen out of the house while it sat vacant. Whatever the good/bad of the plastic pipes, it sure is easy to work with. Especially with the supply lines, you can really get away with eyeballing measurements. After measuring and cutting and cursing and cutting again to get the siding up, it was nice to have a forgiving material. And we got to use the sawz-all, which is always a plus...

Enough knowledge was transferred in the process that we now know enough to really take care of our plumbing (or just enough to be dangerous...). When it comes time to rough-in when we get to the upstairs bathroom, we'll probably be able to do it ourselves.

Another new experience was renting a tool from (big box home store). We needed a 3/4" crimper & it was the only tool in the world somehow not in Emerson's Saturn. Renting the crimper was easy and more affordable than they could've gotten away with.

Posted by john m at August 26, 2006 11:49 PM

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