Home plumbing

[Imakeholesinu]

Did my own home plumbing tonight and have to say I'm pretty proud of myself. My sink in my bathroom was getting progressively worse to drain since I have moved in to the point today where I would turn the faucet on and the drain would immediately fill up causing water to backup into the basin.

I went out to home depot today and picked up a cup plunger and a 15' auger (retain cost was $18.00 for both). First I tried the plunger, but I realized I needed some duct tape to cover the overflow in the sink. I also covered the tub drain and overflow since I didn't know if they had a common path to the stack or not.

Anyway, I fill the sink basin half full with hot water from the tap, which didn't take too long and start plunging. Immediately I'm met with grey water and a stench beyond belief from the drain. I have a small house so it made the entire place kind of smell a bit funky. Plunging seemed to make it worse but I was able to collect a bunch of smaller debris that was brought up from the drain with some paper towel.

Next up I thought I'd give the auger a try. I got through the basin trap relatively easily but water still wouldn't flow down so I pressed on. I guess the main clog was somewhere in the wall because I have to say I must have been at least 8-9 feet down on the auger before the drain finally began to clear. After I brought the auger back up I ran some hot water down the drain for a couple minutes to make sure it hadn't clogged further down which thankfully it hadn't and now I have a clear sink basin. Also I checked the basement to make sure I didn't poke a whole through the pipe with the auger even though I was going really slow and I didn't know if they had PVC in the wall I wanted to make sure I didn't just poke a hole somewhere and have all the water seep into the wall or underneath the floor or leak into the basement.

I'm not sure what drain-o does but I keep reading bad shit about it so I didn't even try that. My advice is to definitely give this a try first before you call a plumber who will definitely charge you more. This whole process took maybe 20 minutes. Also, be careful using a auger or rooter that is powered by a drill. If you go too fast you could seriously damage your pipes, especially if they are pvc since the auger is basically coiled up galvanised steel and has a sharp tip to it.

[SineSwiper]

I'm going to try to tackle a sump pump reservoir this year. Really sick of the lake in my yard and the plastic pipes freezing during the winter.

[Imakeholesinu]

I'm going to try to tackle a sump pump reservoir this year. Really sick of the lake in my yard and the plastic pipes freezing during the winter.

Don't skimp when it comes time to buy the actual pumping mechanism. A buddy of mine bought a new house with a 'contractor' pump that failed 8 months into them owning the home. Also, I would recommend buying one with an alarm on it that way if it does have a problem you know before it is too late and your basement floods.

[SineSwiper]

Yeah, I've already replaced the pump, so I'm covered for now. I have a LeakFrog or two for detection. Those things work better than the damn rusty PoS at Lowes. I've bought two of those things, and both times, the leads get rusty and fail.

[Mully]

I'm going to try to tackle a sump pump reservoir this year. Really sick of the lake in my yard and the plastic pipes freezing during the winter.

MSD will install these for free! I can't find the link right now, but it's absolutely free. I think it's called Basement Backflow Prevention Program.

[Shellie]

MSD will install these for free! I can't find the link right now, but it's absolutely free. I think it's called Basement Backflow Prevention Program.

I looked on msd's site. Its for backflow, they install a ball valve. We dont have backflow problems, we have backyard lake problems because we have nowhere for the sump pump to drain except the yard. A drywell will give the water a place to collect and dissipate over time. In the winter the pipe that comes out of the wall freezes and the water cant pump out. Now that its warmer we are going to redo the pipe from the sump and insulate what is exposed outside. As far as the drywell, I'm not sure how we're going to dig that big of a hole in the yard. It has to be huge.

[Mully]

MSD will install these for free! I can't find the link right now, but it's absolutely free. I think it's called Basement Backflow Prevention Program.

I looked on msd's site. Its for backflow, they install a ball valve. We dont have backflow problems, we have backyard lake problems because we have nowhere for the sump pump to drain except the yard. A drywell will give the water a place to collect and dissipate over time. In the winter the pipe that comes out of the wall freezes and the water cant pump out. Now that its warmer we are going to redo the pipe from the sump and insulate what is exposed outside. As far as the drywell, I'm not sure how we're going to dig that big of a hole in the yard. It has to be huge.

They do those too. It's all included.

[M'k'n'zy]

MSD will install these for free! I can't find the link right now, but it's absolutely free. I think it's called Basement Backflow Prevention Program.

I looked on msd's site. Its for backflow, they install a ball valve. We dont have backflow problems, we have backyard lake problems because we have nowhere for the sump pump to drain except the yard. A drywell will give the water a place to collect and dissipate over time. In the winter the pipe that comes out of the wall freezes and the water cant pump out. Now that its warmer we are going to redo the pipe from the sump and insulate what is exposed outside. As far as the drywell, I'm not sure how we're going to dig that big of a hole in the yard. It has to be huge.

Mabye this is me being technical, but dont you mean a check valve? A ball valve is used for actual shut down of a line as your basic quarter turn valve, where a check valve is designed to be your one way backflow prevention valve. Putting a ball valve into a drain line for a sump pump wouldn't do you much good because you would have to manually turn it on an off.

I work for Lowe's and I used to be the plumbing specialist so I know plumbing decently well, I am almost done completly remodeling my bathroom, put in a new tub, new shower valve and head, new tub surround, vanity, drain line, faucet, and toilet, as well as replacing the floor and most of the drywall.

[Shellie]

Mabye this is me being technical, but dont you mean a check valve? A ball valve is used for actual shut down of a line as your basic quarter turn valve, where a check valve is designed to be your one way backflow prevention valve. Putting a ball valve into a drain line for a sump pump wouldn't do you much good because you would have to manually turn it on an off.

I work for Lowe's and I used to be the plumbing specialist so I know plumbing decently well, I am almost done completly remodeling my bathroom, put in a new tub, new shower valve and head, new tub surround, vanity, drain line, faucet, and toilet, as well as replacing the floor and most of the drywall.

Youre right

Can you please come and remodel our bathroom? We bought our house really cheap because the previous owners were about to foreclose. However, it's needed a ton of work.

[M'k'n'zy]

Unfortunatly I work somewhat far away from you to do it, but the only thing I can recommend is dont let price dictate your decision when you buy stuff for the bathroom, it really is a case of you get what you pay for.

When it comes to the vanity most of what you will find in stock at stores are mostly made out of particle board. This is all well and good, and they are sturdy, but particle board's enemy is water. Always made me nervous in the bathroom. Kraftmaid, the same company that does kitchen cabinets, does vanity cabinets as well. They have a couple of in stock model's at Lowe's and they are mostly wood, with some small parts that are particle board. Also they have the drawer tracks mounted on the bottom to hide them which is a feature I always liked.

For the vanity top, solid surface is a good way to go, its very durable, and you dont have to constantly worry about re-sealing it like you do natural stone. Just make sure when you are looking at it, you ask how thick the actual color is, some solid surface tops the color is only about 1/8th of a inch thick, and if you get a scratch its a diffrent color under the surface. Lowe's has the ability to work with a lot of local companys, and at least around here those are the better way to go.

As far as the tub or shower goes, the only recomendation that I can make is dont go with a cast iron tub, any hard impact will cause the paint to chip and then the tub is basicly useless. Also I would recommend against doing a tile wall. Its a lot of extra hassle, as you will continually have to watch the grout and make sure it stays sealed, or you will have mold behind your walls quickly.

If you dont know how to sweat copper, dont mess with your current shower valve, but depending on who made it, you may be able to buy new trim that will fit the existing valve, this holds espically true with Kohler, and to a lesser extent with Moen and Delta.

For the toilet and the faucets I DEFIDNETLY recomend you go with Kohler products. Kohler toilets have what the rep once told me as "the longest one year warrenty in the buisness." As long as they make the model still, and as long as you dont say that you got it like 5 years ago, they are going to take care of you. And as far as their faucets go, all faucets have a lifetime warrenty these days, but Kohler always won me over with how exceptional the quality of their products are and how exceptional their customer service is. Whenever I had a customer with a problem (very rarely but it can always happen) I never had any problems working with the reps at Kohler to get replacement parts or even entirely new units shiped to the customer at no cost. I cant recommend Kohler enough. I really cant.

As far as laying the drain for the faucet, honestly drain line under the sink is about the easiest plumbing you can do. Its litterally a matter of slide the nut over, slide the washer over, and then tighten it up on the threads on the next piece. There is no pressure running through the line so that is enough.

Now depending on how old your home is, you may have Pex in the walls behind your shower or you may have copper lines. If you have plastic pex pipe your job is much easier if you do decide you want to put in a new valve for the shower. Pex line is about the easiest to work with and you can get fittings that literally make plumbing just snap together. They have ones that work with copper as well, but as copper isnt a flexible line its a little harder to work with, but still doable.

Anyway I hope that might answer some questions for you, I was able to do what I am doing with our bathroom for less than 1500 dollars. That's pretty much everything new. Its nothing fancy, I will try to throw up some pictures when I put the finishing touches up.