Oh a plumbing I will go.....

Drew Watson

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Salt Spring Island, BC Canada
Well I am working on the canoe and getting the gunwalls done. Had a little mishap with the router and now have had to re design the plans. Anyways it was a good thing as i was looking through my material pile I pulled out some oak 1/4x 1inch slats from a project years back that never happened and you know as many of us know one day I will find a use for them. Well Today is the day I pulled them out from beside the hotwater tank and then I noticed the ends were wet. Oh no!! had a closer look and it was not the tank but coming from under the wall and running down into the garage. It seems that the contractor that built the house has run the copper piping under the slab for the laundry room and bathroom. I tuirned the hot water on and with the help of a trouble light watched as the bubbles gurgeled up from under the slab. I had known about it and was planning to change it one day. Well today I guess I will be getting started. I had planned to change the location of the hotwater tank anyways and move it into the house from the garage. I have to change the feed line as they ran that under the garage slab too. Canoe is on hold for the time being as is everything else. Oh the joys of it all.
 

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Well there isn't much point in complaining about it as it just has to be done. Yes plumbing makes me crazy too Carol. I at least i can do it myself and this is going to be a big job. I will have to take down drywall and run new lines to the Washer and laundry sink the toilet and bathroom sink all in different locations. So the room is going to look like a war zone for the next while. But on a good note it will be done.
 
Plumbing for me generates more curse words per minute than anyother household home improvement task....

My sympathies Drew...
 
Well I have had another look at it and it is a bigger job than I was expecting as all the water for the second floor is going through these pipes that go under the slab. I have opened up some exploritory holes in the dry wall looking for the location of the pipes I think there is a main wet wall betwreen the rec room and the laundry room but I just don't know. I coulkd just jack hammer up the floor near the leak and fix it there but I think this is just a bandaid approuch to the problem and I need to redesign the entire thing to do it right or this could be happeneing again.
 
Plumbing for me generates more curse words per minute than anyother household home improvement task....

My sympathies Drew...

Well I have had another look at it and it is a bigger job than I was expecting as all the water for the second floor is going through these pipes that go under the slab. I have opened up some exploritory holes in the dry wall looking for the location of the pipes I think there is a main wet wall betwreen the rec room and the laundry room but I just don't know. I coulkd just jack hammer up the floor near the leak and fix it there but I think this is just a bandaid approuch to the problem and I need to redesign the entire thing to do it right or this could be happeneing again.


and... it begins
 
Well I have had another look at it and it is a bigger job than I was expecting as all the water for the second floor is going through these pipes that go under the slab. I have opened up some exploritory holes in the dry wall looking for the location of the pipes I think there is a main wet wall betwreen the rec room and the laundry room but I just don't know. I coulkd just jack hammer up the floor near the leak and fix it there but I think this is just a bandaid approuch to the problem and I need to redesign the entire thing to do it right or this could be happeneing again.

I am not a plumber but I would consider rerouting the water pipes around the poured floor if it it will pass the inspector---where is your sewage pipe ?
 
I am still assesing the situation right now and may be forced to just smash the concrete and fix the problem at the sorce of the leak. That way it will give me more time to asses just how they plumbed the house. I have turned off the flow to the hot water tank and that seems to have stopped the flow. I am on septic and the water supply system ius totally seperate. The funny thing is that they didn't sleeve the copper pipes with bigger plastic sleeves so that any shift in the foundation can crush or break the pipes.
 
Well Vauhgn I have now isolated it to only the hot water line, which explains why the hydro and water costs have not dropped since the kids moved out. I am going to do a small exploritory hole 12x12 in the morning and turn on the water again and see if that is where it is leaking. If not I will be moving the washer and dry and opening up a 1 ft wide strip of drywall across the wall I think it is in. Worse thing is to do some dry wall mudding and taping to fix the wall (which i will have to do anyways).
 
Well after only 6 hrs of drilling through 3 inches of concrete I was able to find the pipes and the leak and replace a 2 ft section. Of course it was one of those sections with the compound bends so I had to really get the thinking cap on to get it to bend just right without crimping it too much. It is now repaired and the big question is did I do it right? Crossed the fingers said a little prayer and turned the water back on. No leaks. :thumb::thumb: Only had to rent one hammer drill and 2 hrs of chipping out concrete and I had the hole in the floor. What do ya figure that would cost on a holiday long weekend to get fixed by a plumber? Oh well now i get to hang up the plumbiing hat till the next time. Here is the before and after pics ( had to keep the pic police happy :rofl:) Now i get to go and look at fish filters as the neighbor just gave me a 90 gal aquarium today. Ok it is not a tool gloat but for me it was a good score. Now just to do some cleaning and build a stand and move my desk up into my new office/den ( my sons old bed room). Anyways thanks for playing along with my plumbing adventure. :wave::wave:
 

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Cool. :thumb: Glad to see you got it sussed out without having to dig too deep.

Nice grab on the aquarium, too. Even has the mobile base. Bonus. :p
 
Yea the wife said the same thing. I am just gald that it is done so I can get back to doing the canoe. The only problem is that now i have a whole lot of patching to do starting with the hole in the concrete then the Lino and the holes I made in the dry wall. The adventure has not ended yet. :rofl:
 
Water at first. :rofl::rofl: We have a 30 gal one right now with some fish that need a bigger home. It depends on how long it takes me to get it set up. It may just house some of our pond fish ( goldfish and koi) for the winter.
 
I've gotten pretty, well, good at the 'texturing' of drywall. Did some of that today.. Not fun, but can't wait to get the walls painted...
 
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