Two plumbing tips:
1. When the directions say "finger-tight" or "finger-tight plus 1/4 turn" or something very specific like that, they probably say it for a reason.
2. If you're going through all the trouble of replacing a toilet (or sink for that matter) and supply line(s), replace the old shut-off valve at the same time. It's $3.49 for a new 1/4-turn shut-off valve people, spend the freakin' money.
I bring these items up because I didn't bother listening to my own advice, resulting in a toilet replacement which took twice as long as it should have. I decided to replace the last remaining original toilet in the house because I'm sick of wasting water with the old one. I had the new one sitting here waiting for the past three months, but the bathroom remodel is still a month or two away. Might as well get rid of the old crapper while I have the dumpster! I decided to "save time" and re-use the original shut-off valve, even though it sprays water unless it's fully open or fully closed. Well, with the new toilet in it drips water through the packing. Ten minutes later, the water is off, the new valve is on, and the water is back on. That problem is solved. Now it's dripping water at the braided-stainless supply hose where it connects to the valve. Damn, I just tightened it down with a crescent wrench, well beyond the 1/4 turn recommendation. Off it comes so I can check the rubber washer. It looks OK, so I re-install and tighten the recommended way and it's finally done.
For now.
It'll have to come out soon so I can gut that bathroom for the renovation. At this time, I'm planning on moving the toilet location to help open up some room in there, since it's kind of a small bathroom in it's current configuration. We'll see how that goes.....
Showing posts with label plumbing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plumbing. Show all posts
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Time for Laundry - This Time With Style!
It's a small victory in a large war, but the new laundry sink is finally in and ready for action. As you no doubt recall from an earlier post, I needed to replace the old cement & steel laundry sink. It weighed about 900 pounds and the steel legs were rusting away. Not a good combination. I did some test fitting previous to today and had things ready to go, but needed to make a couple of minor changes. With the old tub, the water lines connected to the top of the faucet (which was trashed). The new tub's faucet connected from underneath, so I ran a couple of braided steel lines with shut-off's. Since the sink needs to be up against the wall for stability (it's plastic, after all) I had to drill a couple of 1" holes in the backboard of the sink. Easy solution, and problem solved. A little quality-time with my Ryobi cordless hammer-drill and the holes are drilled for the concrete screws. It's amazing how much more sturdy the sink is with a couple of anchors in place. The last piece of the puzzle will be to take care of the drain line from the water softener (just to the left of the faucet). I just need to cut out about 12" of the line and splice it back together. It's copper, and I added a short length of plastic tube at the end to better divert the water into the tub. To the right of the tub is one of two drain stacks in the house. The last thing I wanted to do was to break anything connected directly to the stack. So far, so good!
While I was in the basement, I took the opportunity to finally get some boxes out of the way. We had started stacking the still-boxed stuff as we were moving in, but when we had some heavy rain I found a small trickle of water coming in at the same corner of the basement where we were stacking boxes. It appears that the gutters hadn't been cleaned for at least a decade, and plenty of water was flowing out over the gutters. After taking care of that mess, it appears that my basement leak problems are done (for now?). To be safe, I picked up some 2x2 floor panels which are tongue-and-groove, with a plastic egg-carton bottom. They're designed for basement renovations to avoid water problems. I'm spreading them out a bit compared to how they're typically used in an effort to avoid more spending than necessary. At $4.95 each, they're cheap insurance from water damage to our boxes.
While I was in the basement, I took the opportunity to finally get some boxes out of the way. We had started stacking the still-boxed stuff as we were moving in, but when we had some heavy rain I found a small trickle of water coming in at the same corner of the basement where we were stacking boxes. It appears that the gutters hadn't been cleaned for at least a decade, and plenty of water was flowing out over the gutters. After taking care of that mess, it appears that my basement leak problems are done (for now?). To be safe, I picked up some 2x2 floor panels which are tongue-and-groove, with a plastic egg-carton bottom. They're designed for basement renovations to avoid water problems. I'm spreading them out a bit compared to how they're typically used in an effort to avoid more spending than necessary. At $4.95 each, they're cheap insurance from water damage to our boxes.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Renovating the Half Bath
I posted another "before" picture of the half-bath a few days ago, showing the original toilet and nasty old flooring. Those were bad, but the cultured marble vanity, crappy base, pitted and leaking faucet, really complete the picture of an outdated bathroom. There was also an old-style medicine cabinet/mirror and 60's era light not pictured here. Overall, the only thing worth saving in this room was the oak trim around the door and window.
The vanity was easier to tear apart than I could have hoped for. The top wasn't glued down at all - only gravity held it in place. While tearing it apart (and I'll admit that I wasn't careful at all about how I did it) I broke the P-trap where it goes into the wall. This was actually a good thing, as I found that the drain line was about 75% blocked. After tearing it apart, I found out a little about the history of this bathroom. The first color on the walls was that light blue you can see little bits of in the following picture. You can see a lot more of it where the base molding was in the following pics as well. It's a pretty nasty color, in my opinion. After blue came an avocado green and then a layer of off-white. Next was that beautiful wallpaper. After the wallpaper was on the walls, the original pedestal or wall-mounted sink was replaced with the vanity I got the pleasure of destroying. Eventually the wallpaper not covered by the vanity base was removed and more off-white was applied. 20 years later, I get to ridicule it on the internet. Yay for me.
I had to break into the wall to replace part of the drain line. At this point, the wall is ready for drywall to cover my destruction and the hole left by the old medicine cabinet. I've also sanded the walls where the vanity was to try and even out the ridges left by the layers of old paint. New shut-offs were added to the supply lines for the faucet, as there previously were none.
The old linoleum was covered with a 1/4" layer of cement board, held in place with thinset cement and about 100 screws. On top of that was laid travertine tiles in two sizes for some interest in this small room. In this picture, I've got the tiles installed and have just finished pushing grout into the joints. 20 minutes later and the floor would be finished.
A couple of days later and the trim is back in place, the walls are painted, and the new toilet and sink are installed. I went with a somewhat classic style and tried to keep everything with the same look. There are still a few details to take care of, such as cutting the extra material from the toilet bolts, but it's essentially ready for action. We're extremely happy with how the flooring turned out, and plan on using the same tile in the kitchen, full bath, and entry of the house. For the full bath we'll probably use a heat-mat under the tile to take the chill out of it on cold winter mornings.
The vanity was easier to tear apart than I could have hoped for. The top wasn't glued down at all - only gravity held it in place. While tearing it apart (and I'll admit that I wasn't careful at all about how I did it) I broke the P-trap where it goes into the wall. This was actually a good thing, as I found that the drain line was about 75% blocked. After tearing it apart, I found out a little about the history of this bathroom. The first color on the walls was that light blue you can see little bits of in the following picture. You can see a lot more of it where the base molding was in the following pics as well. It's a pretty nasty color, in my opinion. After blue came an avocado green and then a layer of off-white. Next was that beautiful wallpaper. After the wallpaper was on the walls, the original pedestal or wall-mounted sink was replaced with the vanity I got the pleasure of destroying. Eventually the wallpaper not covered by the vanity base was removed and more off-white was applied. 20 years later, I get to ridicule it on the internet. Yay for me.
I had to break into the wall to replace part of the drain line. At this point, the wall is ready for drywall to cover my destruction and the hole left by the old medicine cabinet. I've also sanded the walls where the vanity was to try and even out the ridges left by the layers of old paint. New shut-offs were added to the supply lines for the faucet, as there previously were none.
The old linoleum was covered with a 1/4" layer of cement board, held in place with thinset cement and about 100 screws. On top of that was laid travertine tiles in two sizes for some interest in this small room. In this picture, I've got the tiles installed and have just finished pushing grout into the joints. 20 minutes later and the floor would be finished.
A couple of days later and the trim is back in place, the walls are painted, and the new toilet and sink are installed. I went with a somewhat classic style and tried to keep everything with the same look. There are still a few details to take care of, such as cutting the extra material from the toilet bolts, but it's essentially ready for action. We're extremely happy with how the flooring turned out, and plan on using the same tile in the kitchen, full bath, and entry of the house. For the full bath we'll probably use a heat-mat under the tile to take the chill out of it on cold winter mornings.
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