renovationism

The water main in my house enters in the basement roughly underneath the front door. Below is a picture I took of it in 2002. There’s a hose bib near the front door that, in 2002, had been leaking for a some time. Coincidentally, that’s exactly how long I’d been ignoring it. My thought process was something like, what trouble could a slow drip cause? Well, let me tell you.

One morning in 2002, I woke up and walked into my home office (the front bedroom) to find the room full of what appeared to be ants with wings. After freaking out for a few minutes, I put a few in a plastic container for further research and attacked them with the shop•vac. I then examined my captives, checked the web, and discovered that they were termite swarmers. It turns out the slow drip had created a yard-deep bog in the front planting bed, which was a perfect habitat for termites. They entered through the foundation, made their way into the office, and… well… swarmed.

The old hose bib was soldered in place, so I had to replace it and the pipe leading to it. The shiny copper on the left in the following photo is the new run that I grafted into the main. Up top, you can see the capped-off T joint where the old hose bib off-ramp used to be. The black wire attached to the pipe is the house’s electrical ground coming from the breaker box about 25 feet away. It wasn’t exposed like that originally – I had to remove it as part of the plumbing work, so I ran a temporary ground that I knew I would replace… someday.

You can also tell from the way I ripped into the wall that, even way back in 2002, I was planning on tearing out the basement and doing something different with it.

Water main (c. 2002)

Anyway, the water main travels up the wall and across the ceiling to the “wet area” at the back of the house. The wet area is where all the water sources and drains in the house are grouped: in the basement, the washer, tub, and bathroom; upstairs, the master and hall bathrooms and the kitchen sink. In the following photo, which was taken during the basement renovation, you can see the same water main climbing the wall, then, after rightward and upward jogs, running parallel to the joists towards the back of the house. You can also see a couple of blocks of new wood attached to the joist and to which the main is clamped. Originally, the main was just hanging loose against the old drop ceiling. Once I started on the basement renovation, I cut it out, adjusted the pipes at both ends, then re-installed it.

Water main headed back toward the wet area

Originally, the furnace and the hot water were located at one end of the house. There’s a fireplace upstairs, and the flue extends to the basement. The furnace and hot water heater were both gas, and they vented into the flue. Also, the gas main is in the corner right next to them, so the interior gas distribution didn’t have far to go.

The original furnace and hot water heater (c. 1999)

All of this is the long way of saying that where the water was heated wasn’t near where it was needed. There was about 45 feet of pipe run between them, which meant a long time waiting for hot water, a lot of water wasted, and a lot of pipe clutter overhead.

Pipe clutter.

Let’s see, what else? Well, the water heater was almost 20 years old, so it needed replacing anyway. Also, and this is fodder for another post, the low ceiling and even lower HVAC duct work meant I wanted a new HVAC solution, and if I was going to move that, I might as well move the water heater and free up that floor space for some other purpose.

And, the positioning of the washer/dryer/tub and bathroom in the old basement didn’t fit my new plan. So, the plumbing to-do list looked like this:

• While moving the HVAC, move the hot water heater also. Get it closer to the wet area.
• Reduce pipe clutter across the ceiling in the utility room
• Since gas work has to be done for the HVAC and water heater moves, run a line up under the kitchen in case, if I ever renovate the kitchen, I want a gas oven/stove
• Chop out all the current bathroom and utility room drainwork under the slab and re-run for a relocated bathroom, relocated washer/tub, and wet bar.
• Run copper and drains for the new utility room, bathroom, and wet bar. While I’m at it:
  • Re-do the runs for the 2 hose bibs in the back of the house.
  • Run a line up into the kitchen behind the refrigerator in case, if I ever renovate the kitchen, I get a refrigerator that dispenses ice and water

Oh, and do all of this in such a way that, at the end of each day, you still have hot water (any water) in the kitchen and at least one bathroom upstairs.

Without any actual plumbing skills.

Sounds like fun.

This entry was posted Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 4:54 am and is filed under plumbing. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.