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Rich Engelhardt
10-05-2015, 9:46 AM
p-l-u-m-b-i-n-g ?

Nothing in the world is as bad as plumbing.
I'd rather gargle ground glass that do plumbing.
Matter of fact, water itself is just plain miserable. It costs a fortune to keep it out of a house, and it costs a fortune to let it in the house.
Getting it out of parts of the house where it doesn't belong is the most costly of all & the most futile!

My wife pointed out to me yesterday, after I'd flushed the toilet int he bathroom just above where she was working in the basement that - - "we have a leak"..

Nice....

Oh well, @ least it wasn't MY head that was under the leak ;)....<<<Please dear sweet God don't let my wife read that!!! :D
(I knew/know far better than to point that out to her!)

What's so discouraging about this is that the toilet/bathroom is one part of this rehab that we'd already checked off as complete. Now we have to repull the toilet and probably put in a new flange.

I so hate plumbing.......

Eduard Nemirovsky
10-05-2015, 10:24 AM
I am with you on it.

Ed.

Mel Fulks
10-05-2015, 10:43 AM
I'm just winding up a similar deal and had no previous experience ...fortunately. Flange was ok but in googling to get through all this I noticed that these days the bolts seldom go through the floor and so stress is on flange itself. Bought extra long bolts so they now go through the floor. Using the new seal gasket made of plastic,hearing they work well. Good luck to all involved in such a project!

glenn bradley
10-05-2015, 10:50 AM
I just mentally prepare myself that I will go to the store at least 4 times for ANY plumbing project. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

Mike Hollingsworth
10-05-2015, 12:41 PM
Craigslist man, Craigslist

Bruce Wrenn
10-05-2015, 8:59 PM
Plumbing is EASY! Hot on the left, cold on the right, sewer flows downhill, boss man is a Sweet Old Babe, pay day is Friday, and most important, don't bite your finger nails after working in the sewer. It may smell like poop to you, but it smells like bread and butter to me. The look on a helpers face when he lifts WC and puts his hand into old wax ring-PRICELESS! Usually says what he thinks he has put his hand into.

Kent A Bathurst
10-05-2015, 9:03 PM
Rich - that is why God invented plumbers. There are some tasks where DIY is the expensive route.

Rich Engelhardt
10-05-2015, 9:22 PM
Ha ha! This one has a happy ending! I didn't even l have to lift my dialing finger ;).
My wife called the plumber and he and his helper came right over - she caught him just winding up a job about a mile away.
They came, pulled the toilet, told us we needed one of those new fangled plastic - not wax - rings, which the plumber's helper and my wife ran out and picked up, then they put it in and flushed, flushed, flushed and flushed.

Meanwhile, I stayed int he kitchen and worked on the cabinets!

Best plumbing job I've done in years! :D :D.

Kent A Bathurst
10-05-2015, 9:37 PM
A man's got to know his limitations.............

Your wife has it covered. Good news - delegate all plumbing sh... uhh... stuff to her in the future.

Shawn Pixley
10-05-2015, 9:57 PM
LOML gave me a get out of plumbing free card.

Did I mention that I love my wife?

Rick Potter
10-06-2015, 1:53 AM
As I have aged, I am fortunate to be able to pick some tasks that are heretofore labeled "Point and Pay". The first two were plumbing and drywall. Always hated them both.

George Werner
10-06-2015, 3:49 AM
I wish I could get me one of those "Get out of plumbing" cards but I made the mistake of replacing every bit of plumbing in our house 18 years ago all on my own. Not a chance that I can call in a professional now.

Drywall on the other hand, the wife doesn't consider me the least bit competent in that arena :p

Rich Riddle
10-06-2015, 7:24 AM
Rich,

1. What is a new-fangled plastic seal?
2. Do you need to fix the ceiling?
3. Hope your wife doesn't visit the Creek.

Rich Engelhardt
10-06-2015, 8:11 AM
Rich,
Sani Seal is the new fangled plastic gasket.
My plumber swears by them. He won't use anything else anymore.
They run about $12 - but - according to him they are worth ten times that.

Mel Fulks
10-06-2015, 10:26 AM
That seal is the one I referred to. Most plumbers who will try them like them. One definate advantage is they are reusable ,so a non Olympic quality toilet lift and set can still win seal of approval .

Wade Lippman
10-06-2015, 11:34 AM
This year I hired a plumber, the first time in 35 years of home ownership. The work was nothing I haven't done before, but I also hate plumbing and just didn't feel like it.

Odd that drywalling should be mentioned. Three years ago I did it for the first, and last, time.

Garth Almgren
10-09-2015, 6:54 PM
I don't mind working with the sheets of drywall, it's the mudding and taping that I despise.

I spent one summer over a decade ago at a Holden Village, a former mining village turned Lutheran retreat camp where I worked on remodeling one of the buildings and learning how to do just about everything from demo to trim work and refinishing hardwood floors. Only two parts I didn't enjoy was mudding and taping, and feeding the machine that was blowing insulation into the attic (it kept jamming).

Plumbing new work is fun when it's all open and easy to get to. I enjoy fitting all the fittings together just right.

Fixing old plumbing is a pain in the you-know-what (says the guy that had to dig at few holes in the yard this summer to fix broken water lines and valves).

Chris Padilla
10-09-2015, 7:13 PM
Rich,
Sani Seal is the new fangled plastic gasket.

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^

Btw, I don't mind plumbing at all. I just redid my pool's plumbing...redid the whole pool equipment pad. I watched a real pro hook up the hard gas line (for my pool's heater) to the hard gas line meter with a union and learned how he just barely got it to fit. He said he could have done it faster had the guy who put the line in bothered to plumb it but he enjoyed the challenge nonetheless. I plumbed the gas line at the heater end and that was fun and easy...probably fun because it was easy. I've been under my house PLENTY of times to work on the plumbing...that ain't fun but if a fat plumber shows up, he isn't going to fit under my house.

Sharkbite fitting make plumbing a TON easier. They are pricey fittings but worth every penny. They seem like they would leak all over the place but they never do. Good stuff.

Tom M King
10-09-2015, 9:35 PM
I never saw a leaking toilet that was a problem of the seal, and not the bolts. I used 5/16 stainless bolts fastened under the floor (big head welded on so it couldn't turn in the future) coming up through the flange, but not dependent on the flange to hold them. This was from 1974 through 2007 when I was building new houses. I never had one call about a leaking toilet. As far as I know, all the same toilets are still in use. Almost all are within a few miles from where I live, and I'm sure I would have heard about it.

Brian Elfert
10-11-2015, 11:25 AM
I used a Fernco rubber type seal on a toilet ONCE. No more after the toilet bolts came loose and the Fernco seal broke loose from the toilet. The leak wasn't bad enough to cause a stain on the ceiling below, but it was annoying. As far as the bolts go I now install a metal ring designed to replace the flange bolt holes when a toilet flange breaks. It screws to the floor and is basically is impossible for the bolts to pull through the metal. It goes all the way around in a circle instead of a half piece of metal like some repair options.

I won't do drain plumbing because of all the codes around proper slope and the right ways to position tees and all the rules on what fittings are allowed where. You are also supposed to air test drain plumbing for leaks. I have to break up my concrete basement floor to replace all the cast iron under there. I will dig up the plumbing, but I expect a bill of $1000 to install the new pipe. I will I had the knowledge and skill to do the work for $50 to $100 worth of parts.

Tom M King
10-11-2015, 4:55 PM
I have used those metal flanges too, on repairs of plastic flanges that had the bolts pull through (not installed by me), and I like them fine. Back in the '70s and '80s you either chose plastic or cast iron for the whole system around here. That was before the internet and big box stores here. I stuck with the way I had always done it. Now I might use the combination metal flange to plastic hub, but I'd still through bolt the flange with stainless bolts if I could get to the underside. I can't think of any job much worse than working on old plumbing, so I have always tried to do it trouble free.

I never used Polybutylene pipe even years before it was banned, but do use PEX. The PEX goes in home runs through glued plastic conduit so it not only directs leaks to where they can do no harm, but the PEX can be pulled all the way out for fairly easy replacement. Plastic conduit is cheap and small PEX can be pulled through the sweeping bends.