08.26
Well, the night-mare plumbing project from hell was finished. All that was left was to turn the line valve on, and energize the system. Predictably, there was a problem. Water sprayed like a Las Vegas fountain from a soldered fitting which was the down-line interface between the old copper and the new PVC. Also, the shut-off leaked on the upstream side. Crappers. well, get out the saw, and start cutting. The brass ballvalve came out first, and the teflon thread tape pulled out. Then it was a trip to the cabinet for the old can of Mitee joint compound. That teflon tape works well with PVC threads, but there’s nothing like the old stuff for a metal-to-metal make-up.
Now for the next problem. The place where the cut had to go was too short between the shoulders of a tee and an adapter coupling for a standard PVC coupling to fit. Ho-hum. So it’s off the barn, and the engine lathe. Bore out the shoulder in a coupling, and then face it off to fit the gap. Done.
The big problem is still at large. The down-line side of the copper has been dripping steadily for almost four hous. Jeebus, how much water can one run of pipe hold? The short answer: not that much. Long answer: That run must be tapped into the other side of the system some where. In a century-plus old house, it’s impossible to tell where all the pipes run. So the main at the pressure tank was turned off. Now there is now water to anywhere.
That pipe has to be dry to solder. Otherwise all the torch does is make steam, and it never heats up the metal enough to solder properly. At this writing, it’s seven-thirty in the evening, and I’ve been at this crap since ten this morning. Plumbing sucks. Especially in old houses.
UPDATE:
The gambit of tuning off the main valve worked. The pissing jenny quit drizzling like clapped-out dick long enough for a proper soldering job to be effected. WOOOT! It’s done! Meh-heh. High time, too.
