February's Project

Wanting to accomplish something before the month's end, I decided that Sunday, February 26th would be the day that we would work on the plumbing in the basement's laundry area. We went to Home Depot on Sunday afternoon and picked up a bunch of plumbing supplies (some of it we already had), amounting to almost $100.


The leaky old faucet was soldered to the water supply pipes. So we had to cut them to install the new faucet, which meant we'd have to do something to reconnect the faucet. BUT, we couldn't find the compression valves we wanted, which meant we'd have to solder most of our connections. We thought, "Yeah, sure, no problem! We can do it!" In retrospect, we were a little ambitious. However, without that blind ambition, we would not have had this enriching experience! ;-)


Here's Georges, after cutting the pipes. He installed the new faucet first so we could figure out what to do with the rest of the stuff hanging above. There was no going back at this point! So, we hacked away at the pipes, and tried to replace a bunch of stuff. After about 5 hours of working, we ended up completing the cold water connections and putting a cap on the hot water side because we couldn't properly solder the T-connection on that side, and we didn't buy any extra Ts. It was already late on a Sunday night, we were feeling a bit despondent about the whole project, and the hardware store was already closed, so we shut off the hot water (because the cap was leaky too!), and gave up for the night.


The next morning, we discovered that our cold water connections had sprung a leak (yay!), but by the size of the puddle, we knew it had only started leaking (thank goodness!). Since we had to go to work, we each took turns showering while the other stood guard of the leaky pipes to make sure nothing burst, then shut off the water and went to work.

During the day, Georges consulted his co-workers who told him the leaky cold water joint could be resoldered. There was some hope after all!

At the end of the work day, we went straight to the hardware store and bought a bunch of extra plumbing supplies, and a couple of expensive compression valves, just in case (dropping another $80 in the process). We tried to solder a connector to the hot water pipes to extend the length (after cutting off the cap), but it kept leaking. We tried at least three times with three different connectors, but had no success. After yet another 4 or so hours, we finally gave up and installed one of the expensive compression valves, which worked pretty much right away. That's why our hot water supply has TWO shut off valves. It looks non-sensical, but it works!


Finally, we connected the flexible hose to the faucet, and the laundry hoses to the laundry valves. Everything worked and didn't leak. It has been two days now and everything is still dry where it's supposed to be dry. Yippee!

Here are the lessons we learned:

1. Don't start a plumbing project on a Sunday afternoon. Start on a Saturday morning, so you have the whole weekend to rescue the mess you'll make.

2. Do the dishes before you start, in case you have to keep the water shut off for longer than you expected. Our sink was full of dirty dishes by the end of the second day.

3. Do the laundry and take a shower if you need to, BEFORE you start your plumbing project.

4. Plan out what you're going to do before you start. Make all the measurements and make sure you can find the parts you need. Draw it on paper.

5. Buy lots of extra joints, connectors, and caps! And extra copper pipe, solder, flux, propane tank, etc...

6. Be prepared to redo things, unless you're a master solderer.

7. Your initial estimate for the length of the project will be wrong. Multiply that number by about 3 or 4!

8. You can fix a leaky joint by reapplying flux around the leaky joint, reheating the area with a torch, and adding more solder.

9. We are not very good plumbers, just mediocre plumbers, but we are learning!