Friday’s the big day.
Friday is the day I’ve set aside to finish the never-ending basement plumbing project(tm). My goal is to finish this before the baby comes, and before the yard/pool work starts. The trick is picking the day to do it. Ideally I need a day when I can have the house to myself for several hours starting at around 8-8:30am. The job really shouldn’t take too long, but with plumbing projects, you always have to allow for unexpected complications. Anyhow, most Fridays fit the bill, so I just had to pick a Friday, take off work, and go for it.
With these types of projects, it’s always good to have a plan, so here’s the plan.
Before Friday:
- Order and receive remaining supplies necessary to complete project (expecting these today).
- Clear space in boiler room for access to pipes.
- Make sure we’ve got some bread on hand that I can use when sweating pipes.
- Disassemble a 3/4″ stop & waste valve for sweating.
- Check side-by-side play in branches to make sure I won’t have any problems getting couplings on them.
On Friday: For phase 1, disassemble the old pipes and sweat a new stop & waste valve onto the 3/4″ supply line. This will give me a positive shutoff for the branch (the main shutoff is a gate valve which doesn’t seem to shut the water off 100%)
- Take shower and fill up drinking water pitcher, water bottles etc.
- Shut water off. Open faucets (including outside sillcock) to drain plumbing.
- Disassemble the old branch starting with the compression fittings and working back to the 3/4″ supply in the boiler room. Have buckets and rags handy to catch drips and plug pipes.
- Put new 3/4″ supply line in place. Clean and flux new supply line and disassembled valve.
- Stuff bread in existing supply line. Clean and flux. Put joint together and sweat.
- Reassemble stop & waste valve. Make sure valve is shut OFF. Turn water on at main. Check for leaks.
- Turn valve on to eject bread (can I do this without a helper? Not sure..)
For phase 2… hook up the rest of the branch, with the main turned on and the branch shut off via the new valve.
- Trim, deburr and dry-fit the new branch together.
- Open all faucets on the branch to allow steam to escape.
- Clean, flux and fit the “tee” fitting, and two of the three branches. Wrap wet rags around existing soldered joints. Sweat together and allow to cool.
- Clean, flux and sweat the remaining branch. Allow to cool.
- Remove aerators from all fixtures on branch. Shut all faucets off.
- Turn branch on and check for leaks.
- Turn each faucet on in succession and run till water comes out clean.
That’s about it. Wish me luck!
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