My Most Expensive Mistake, to date; the Smithton house

The grass won't be there for long.  My chickens tore up all the grass in their run in short order.

I doubt you have an "air leak" in the plumbing but I suspect you have a vent pipe that is plugged (or nonexistent where it needs to be).

RevRico said:

An odd possible development in my ongoing water pressure problem.

I see in the downstairs thinking room last night while the demon was in the bath upstairs. I heard the bathtub drain open, and then saw my shower start dripping. I hit the toilet sprayer and water pressure was through the roof.

Could there be something, bad drop angle on the main drain, air leak somewhere, letting air into the system when there's a large amount of water rushing through the drain?

Well, if there is a connection between your water and sewer systems, it is very, very bad.  After living in or owning a few old houses, I have never seen a vent on a fresh water system - not even sure how that would work.

I would bet that the PO ran the water line that feeds the basement through a restriction - a small /crushed line or something similar.  It sounds like the pressure is OK in the upstairs bath, so it seems that the problem is after the run to the bath.... maybe.  What size are the lines coming in from the bath?  If everything is 1/2", there may not be enough volume available to feed the bath and basement at the same time.

When I was a kid, we moved into a 1930s to 1950s house that had all 1/2" galvanized pipe.  The stuff had rusted to the point that there was only about 3/8" open.  Couldn't run the shower and the kitchen sink at the same time.  Everything was replaced with 3/4" copper with 1/2" runs to faucets, etc which worked much better.

In reply to CJ (FS) :

The main comes in at 3/4", then right before the hot water tank, it splits to two 1/2" lines, one for cold one for hot. After the split, it becomes a mix of half inch copper, pvc, and cpvc. 

The water coming in looks fine aside from taking the long way around the basement that didn't require any major holes to be made, which is understandable.

The drains are all kinda berkeleyed up. 2 washer drains that aren't connected to anything anymore live downstairs, the upstairs toilet laundry and kitchen sink are all connected with what I can best describe as the fitting aisle of a plumbing store to a 4 inch drain that goes behind a block wall, then at some point goes under slab to the septic.

In the detached garage out back there's a 3 inch pvc sticking out of the floor that I don't see in the house that isn't capped, and I found under one of the steps out back there's a another 3 inch line with a cap on it. Beside the chimney is another capped 3 inch pipe. It's hard for me to imagine how this stuff is all tied together when it doesn't appear to cross the basement wall at all, which it would need to do to get to the road or the septic.

When I tear the basement apart to try to track down the smell and make the wiring not a bowl of spaghetti, I'm hoping I'll find something, anything, that could point me in the right direction. Already replaced the pressure controller before the meter last year, and it really didn't do a lot of good despite the old one being thoroughly destroyed from age and being installed upside down.

BBut, I'm noticing now that I'm paying attention, the only time we have pressure increases is after a big drain like the bath tub, washer, dishwasher. Washing knives in the sink, flushing the toilet, taking a shower, the pressure stays steady.

I actually bought an air hammer arrester, haven't installed it yet because lazy and easily distracted, but I'm not sure it would even do much good.

I was brainstorming mostly because you mentioned the bathtub drain opening.. and bad venting isn't unusual in an old house. I wasn't sure what "toilet sprayer" meant. 

So you have a 3/4" main coming in from the street goes directly to water heater?  1/2" cold is tapped off of the 3/4" main prior to the water heater and the output from the water heater is 1/2"?  Sounds like your hot and cold distribution lines are inadequate. 

Could the water pressure change when the tub is draining be due to the taps being closed and all the pressure getting to the basement? 

Maybe try checking the pressure in the basement when all of the upstairs stuff is off, and then have the demon turn on the taps in the upstairs bath on and see what happens?

In reply to CJ (FS) :

Downstairs at the main its set at 65. There's a hose bib near the meter that makes checking easy. When the pressure spikes, it hits 172 or thereabouts. 

When we moved in the water heater was spraying water out of the pressure relief valve pretty much all the time. I replaced the valve, and everything was still crazy, that's when we replaced the regulator before the meter, which was totally shot judging by the dissection. When the previous owners left, they shut the main off, but also all the various loops around the house. This has caused all sorts of problems, even after simplifying some loops a bit and replacing old broken valves. 

The plumbing, like the wiring, paint,  drywall patches, etc was patchworked the cheapest way possible for 40 years. It's all going to need dealt with and replaced over the years. But noticing the pressure increase when a big drain occurred instead of just being surprised by high pressure seemed like as good a lead as I'm going to find. 

The pressure goes up throughout the house when this happens until a valve opens anywhere, it normalises almost immediately. I recently saw a hose thread vacuum breaker, I'm thinking about putting one on a spare hose just to see if it makes a difference. 

Just a sweated on union from 3/4 to 1/2, it's the line on the wall.

It goes from that reducer, up to a T, one end up one down, down has another T that goes down to hot water in and out to downstairs bathroom and laundry tub. They split up more than what's pictured, and believe it or not this is cleaner than when we moved in.

OHSCrifle said:

I was brainstorming mostly because you mentioned the bathtub drain opening.. and bad venting isn't unusual in an old house. I wasn't sure what "toilet sprayer" meant. 

I bought a fancy bidet toilet seat right before the great toilet paper shortage of '20.

RevRico said:

 so there's 2 coops. The big one for the 4 that are the same, and the little one for the others.

Well today was moving day

One just didn't want to let go of Dana. Totally scared of the grass. They're getting better now about it though.

These chickens are getting pumped for cicadas this summer!

RevRico said:

OHSCrifle said:

I was brainstorming mostly because you mentioned the bathtub drain opening.. and bad venting isn't unusual in an old house. I wasn't sure what "toilet sprayer" meant. 

I bought a fancy bidet toilet seat right before the great toilet paper shortage of '20.

That makes a lot more sense than the "kitchen sink sprayer next to the toilet" that I was picturing.  LOL. 
 

..I gotta get one of those seats. 

that's much better

may not look like much in the picture, but I can almost fit a car in my two car garage again. 

Still need to rewire it, replace the work bench, more shelves, new Pegg board, new chemicals, but dammit there's some floor space now.

$30 and 30 minutes later

Still have to figure out something for my axe handled tools, but this helps. Way to flimsy to move much on the wheels it came with, but study enough to stay in one place.

Well that as a fun 2.5 hours. I can barely move now, but everything except beets, carrots, and melons are in the dirt now. 45 ish pepper plants, 28 tomatoes, from 60 of each, survived to the dirt. 

new work bench top acquired, just needs cut to width. Heavy bastard. 60x32x5 I'm guessing 200lbs, maybe a little less, since I messed up my shoulder things feel heavier than they are. Still, took 3 to get it in the ranger. 

This table i want to put it in is only 24 5/8 inches wide inside, that grate is 32"at its widest. Good thing I have a plasma cutter, but now I need to decide if this is going in the garage I use all the time or the winter garage. 

The garden is dead, frost came through 5 days after planting. Another frost warning tonight. 

A note for future me.

hey dumbass pay attention to this

may 11th still frosty. Peppers were fine started mid February, tomatoes were overgrown started in early March.  LAST FROST FROST WAS MAY 15

Plant tomatoes and cukes on saint paddies day, expect to keep everything indoors until harleighs party. 

 somebody stole my Fusebox and left a sub panel in its place.

they also ripped out the old bow shaped Pegg board and falling apart particle board work bench. There's 2 pieces of 18x36 galvanized peg board waiting to go up. 

They also took the horrible cursed coil top cook top and put a flat glass one in its place, no pictures yet.

After I get a lot of clean up done, I'll get pictures and better explanations. 

 new cook top. Not quite as nice as the one on the convection oven from the last house I finally had to sell, but IT'S berkeleyING FLAT. 

Turns out, not all 30" cooktops share the same sized counter top hole. 2 good cuts with the circular saw and 3 jig saw blades later, I made it fit. I also learned SWMBO, who works 6a to 2p on Sundays *thinks* "sorry, left a bit of a mess in the kitchen, Mike's here we're electricians now" is a cute and funny text, until she comes home and finds fine sawdust throughout EVERYTHING in the kitchen. Whoops. It's been 7 years, should know by now if I'm warning you I left a mess, there's a berkeleying mess. 

I've acquired a circuit tracker, finally, after years of begging and its owner thinking he'd already given it to me. Rainy day work, but I'll get everything labeled eventually.

When we put the sub panel up in the garage, I changed a few circuit locations and loops. Now, all the lights in the garage come on when you turn on the hallway light switch. The upstairs dryer is in the garage panel now, and it's wire was scavenged to fix the water heater line that was rubbing on the freezer door. Added 220 to the garage with an outlet that matches my extension cord. 

What all that did was leave me 4 open slots on the basement panel, so when we refinish the basement living room, I can run my circuits easier, instead of needing to work in the box that is set in finished drywall on the basement steps. 

shiny

slowly but surely filling things in.

I need to stop to get the grate dropped in the table, and I'm looking for a small metal cabinet or some 2 drawer filling cabinets for storage underneath that won't catch fire.

BBecause I'm a bit over whelmed with child's party this weekend, needing to get the plants in the ground again for tables for child's party, trying to sell the ranger, and supposed to be picking up more tractors, I've been doing 45minutes a day while I wait for child's bus. Just picking one spot and working at it for those 45 minutes.

It's helped get a junk table cleared off and moved out, and with more shelving in the near future, should keep straighten everything else up too without getting further overwhelmed.

Another 2.5 hours down and the garden is planted again.

If it frosts again, my life mission will be to completely obliterate the ozone layer. 

After another disastrous party with my old, used turkey fryer burner, I finally broke down and got one that's been in my Amazon saved for later for 3 years now.

 should definitely help keep the oil warm. 

There's a pile of networking equipment sitting on my kitchen table, with a new router and 500 feet of solid copper cat 6 due in sometime today. I should finally be able to take full advantage of my gigabit connection soon. 

Found the source of humidity and smell in the basement. I get to start digging soon it looks like.

this flower bed needs to come out. The basement wall is leaking below it. Pulled some of the paneling down and yep, rotted and has been exposed to water a long time. 

Gotta finish figuring out what the interior is going to look like I guess. 

50 sheets of drywall, ignoring doors, Windows, and the giant ceiling hole where the stairs go.

Steel studs

6 To 10 outlets on two circuits

Separate Lighting circuit

6 Ethernet loops

At least this happened

so that's a positive

We've been playing stock up lately. The kids got money from the state for food from when they were on virtual school, despite us getting food directly from the school the whole time. State sent it out to every kid with amounts based on the school district and time they were on virtual, from what I understand.

We now have 5 gallon buckets of rice, sugar, flour, and bread flour in dry storage, as well as 20 boxes of pasta, 2 dozen cans of tuna, etc etc. Pretty much anything we use a lot of that's good for 6+ months, we grabbed. 

Now all we need to buy at the store is meat and cheese, and eggs for another month until our chickens start laying.

I would really like to  thank  the previous owner, in a drastic change of course, for building the 3 storage lockers in the basement. They're huge, stay reasonable temps, and have no evidence of rodents or moisture leaks. One has all my fishing stuff, one has the seasonal stuff, and now one can be dry storage and overflow.

I'm still working on a better inventory system than my papers hanging in the cabinets, I think Keep Notes is going to be the simple solution, I just have to copy everything into it.

The fair is back this year, so I suspect I'm getting another pig, but I may also split a lamb or cow with friends. We might need a new freezer if that happens. Even a quarter cow takes up a lot of space when you have to get it all at once.

it has begun.

I thought I heard then yesterday, but just now finally checked. 5/7 have laid eggs. 

 this lightbulb failure mode is awfully annoying.

Every incandescent in the house, when it has died, has been separated from its base, at best, or completely explodes, at worst. 

Cheap lightbulb or power surges?

This is the second bulb from the ceiling fan in the dining room. The first one shattered.