While the appliance repair guy was fixing our water dispenser on Monday, he said something about the supply lines under the kitchen sink: I don’t like seeing these T-fittings, and the valves are looking old....
He was totally right. Our house is approaching its 50th birthday.
So the plumber is here today replacing valves and, under the sink, we can now isolate the fridge and the dishwasher from the sink. New braided supply lines, too.
As a homeowner and father, there is nothing that will get me up and out of my chair faster than the realization of "hmm, I've been hearing that water running for a while now..."
In reply to wae :
Totally hear that.
Downstairs bathroom now has new supply valves. (They’re so shiny.)
Coming up: upstairs bath and the laundry room.
My superpower in life is being able to hear/feel our well pump anywhere in the vicinity of the house. Usually it's one of the kids leaving a faucet cracked, but after cleaning up my sister's destroyed house after a frozen tee in an outside wall upstairs, I'm hyper-vigilant. The mess and damage one small pipe made was DEVASTATING.
In reply to golfduke :
A good power to have.
wae said:As a homeowner and father, there is nothing that will get me up and out of my chair faster than the realization of "hmm, I've been hearing that water running for a while now..."
We got quite the suprise one night when we didn't notice the drain line for the washing had frozen. The washer is already kind of load when it starts dumping water, but then I thought, "You know, that seems louder than normal."
Yep, water running down the wall and covering the laundry/dog room.
Several years ago, my mother-in-law's husband, who was an hazmat OTR driver, got a whole crapload of quarter-turn ball valves "off the back of a truck". He brought them home, turned off the water to the house, went into the basement, and put a shutoff valve on every single supply line. He was just tickled that he'd have a shutoff for every individual water line in the house. When he turned the water back on he discovered that every single one of those valves leaked. Apparently they were so cheap because they were all defective.
In reply to wae :
Doh!
In reply to golfduke :
I'm the same. We have a well and a cistern, so two pumps, and I can tell which one is running on the second floor by the feel.
I don't mind plumbing, it's a part of my trade, though you rarely use it in industry, but knowing it has saved me a lot of hassle and expense Over the years.
golfduke said:My superpower in life is being able to hear/feel our well pump anywhere in the vicinity of the house. Usually it's one of the kids leaving a faucet cracked, but after cleaning up my sister's destroyed house after a frozen tee in an outside wall upstairs, I'm hyper-vigilant. The mess and damage one small pipe made was DEVASTATING.
I'm the same way. We are also on a well so when it's late at night and everyone else in the house has gone to sleep and no faucet has been touched for hours, then I hear the well pump kick on... it's full investigation time. knock on wood, it's never been anything damaging.
minor-plumbing-side-note-rant: why is it that we'd lived in our house for 6 years before our hot water side valve for our bath tube started leaking, no big deal, like $8 at Menards. but now in the last 6 months I'm on my 3rd valve, the tiny rubber seal always ends up with tiny splits on the face of it where it seals, what the hell is that about? The last one I put in I put just a touch of grease on the face of the seal and it's lasted longer than the other 2 replacements so fingers crossed.
This was my Dad but with a twist.
My downfall in life is being able to hear/feel our SUMP PUMP anywhere in the vicinity of the house.
This thread warms my heart knowing that I'm not the only borderline OCD 'always on the lookout for berk-ery' homeowner on earth...
I need to take a pic, but our plumber drives the nicest Ford van on the planet: slate gray with some Tire Rack-looking mags. Plus he both calls and texts.
Free plug for him: Jim Stroh at 386-673-1118.
Nice review on Nextdoor, too.
edizzle89 said:golfduke said:My superpower in life is being able to hear/feel our well pump anywhere in the vicinity of the house. Usually it's one of the kids leaving a faucet cracked, but after cleaning up my sister's destroyed house after a frozen tee in an outside wall upstairs, I'm hyper-vigilant. The mess and damage one small pipe made was DEVASTATING.
I'm the same way. We are also on a well so when it's late at night and everyone else in the house has gone to sleep and no faucet has been touched for hours, then I hear the well pump kick on... it's full investigation time. knock on wood, it's never been anything damaging.
minor-plumbing-side-note-rant: why is it that we'd lived in our house for 6 years before our hot water side valve for our bath tube started leaking, no big deal, like $8 at Menards. but now in the last 6 months I'm on my 3rd valve, the tiny rubber seal always ends up with tiny splits on the face of it where it seals, what the hell is that about? The last one I put in I put just a touch of grease on the face of the seal and it's lasted longer than the other 2 replacements so fingers crossed.
Crappy Chinese rubber.
Finance.Yahoo.com: China changes compound rubber recipe; move to hurt top producers
Edit: I bought a plastic wagon with air tires to pull my grandkids around the block 10 years ago. The Chinese rubber tires stunk like some toxic chemical back when they were new and still smell just as bad to this day.
And we’re finished–well, for now.
New valves throughout the house aside from the toilet valves as those had been recently replaced.
New braided supply lines, too.
He couldn’t even shut the old valves in the laundry room–both sink and washer machine–as they were frozen. All of them seemed original to the house.
I told him I’ll call him back in 25 or 50 years to go through everything again. He laughed.
What’s left? We’re going to replace the upstairs faucet and toilet, so a little more work to do next week.
Interesting plumbing story.
My Son works for the region in water distribution, the guys who look after water getting to your house, the hydrants, etc. They got a call recently from one of the towns, we can't fill our water tower, we can't figure out why.
It took them a few days to find it, but a small, empty factory had a main supply line freeze and let go inside and water was blasting out at full pressure from the 4" line, filling the plant, and lowering system pressure. He said it was a E36 M3show inside as water was spewing out every possible crack and crevice in the building.
That's a plumbing problem.
Peabody said:Interesting plumbing story.
My Son works for the region in water distribution, the guys who look after water getting to your house, the hydrants, etc. They got a call recently from one of the towns, we can't fill our water tower, we can't figure out why.
It took them a few days to find it, but a small, empty factory had a main supply line freeze and let go inside and water was blasting out at full pressure from the 4" line, filling the plant, and lowering system pressure. He said it was a E36 M3show inside as water was spewing out every possible crack and crevice in the building.
That's a plumbing problem.
I 100% believe this. I work in a brewery, and we have a 3" main feed at 120psi about 200' from a pumphouse substation. One day during construction, an overzealous boiler technician pierced the main with a forklift positioning the boiler. In the <3 minutes it took to locate the building main shutoff, it had already sent 2-3" of water into the (thankfully empty and unfurnished) main dining area. It was legit like a firehose. VERY impressive and destructive stuff.
In reply to Peabody :
That does sound like a plumbing problem.
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