water heater

[Doc B.]

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff like that around this house. Hate to disturb it for fear it will disintegrate. I mapped out the old pressure tank removal and its replacement with a whole house filter system last night. Colin gets to help me wrench all the old pipe apart and get that monstrous steel tank out between some studs. I bet he's wishing he didn't have the next few days off from work.

Too many projects. When I get this plumbing stuff finished it's back to sanding the stairway to our bedroom. Spent a few weekends with a scraper and heat gun to get off the battleship gray paint and still have a few hours work with some 60 grit to go. Gonna be worth it, very nice old VG fir treads underneath the paint.

[Chris]

That is the charm (and curse) of a vintage house... An incredible amount of work, but like your Hammond, when you are finished... The house has that incredible vintage character as well as your signature in it.... You just cannot buy something like that new today... As you obviously know... Great job...

[Doc B.]

Yeah, it's got that classic Poulsbo white trash run down farmhouse air about it. We're a bit upscale though, I've always made sure the stalled car in the driveway is an old Mercedes, and the old boat sitting in the yard is a wood one.

In other news on Bainbridge where the beautiful people live our upscale office is finally getting repairs completed from the flood that happened over two months ago. We hope to be open to visitors again by the end of the month.

[Grainger49]

Dan,

You are in "High Cotton" there.  Here in the South you would need a washing machine and old tires painted white in the front yard.  Not to mention several dogs under the front porch.

[ironbut]

Wow, I haven't heard "High Cotton" is a looong time!
Reminds me of a farmer in my home town (Stone Mountain Georgia) that folks kinda hated so they'd dump old appliances and stuff in his fields.
He put up a bunch of signs that said "Danger Mines!" on them. Of course everybody knew there weren't any so they made sure to pile as much as they could right under those signs!

Just wanted to tell Dan to be sure and wear some kind of dust mask when he sands those treads and kicks. Back in the day, they used to use a lot of epoxy paints for floors and stairs. Dust from that crap is nasty stuff (like nerve damage nasty) so you don't wanta be breathing any more than you have to.

[Doc B.]

Dan,

You are in "High Cotton" there.  Here in the South you would need a washing machine and old tires painted white in the front yard.  Not to mention several dogs under the front porch.

The dogs under the porch are me and Col. That's where the water supply line comes in. By 4:00 we have everything done except plumbing in the water filter. My vote for tool of the year goes to the 22" pipe wrench I bought. Few whacks with a hammer on the joints as a prep and that big mutha wrench made child's play of the 70 y.o. crusty connections.

@ironbut - I have an orbital sander with a vacuum cleaner attachment. Makes a huge difference in how much dust flies around. Not really that much paint left, most all of it was heated and scraped off. Man, did that stink, funky old floor paint and foam rubber backing from the scary carpet that had been on there since the 70s. Today under the porch I opened up an old well pump motor control box and an army of those shiny black spiders that look like black widows but without the hourglass poured out. Good thing Shawn isn't here, he woulda fainted. I just stomped the little monsters. But I'm saying this old house stuff can cause nightmares...

[Jim R.]

Dan,

You would have made Tim "the tool man" Taylor very happy -- more power,  bigger wrench, bigger hammer, etc.

Spiders didn't bother me -- when I could see them.  Notw they freak me out, especially since one of my fellow transplant patients died after a brown recluse bite.  And colorado is crawling with black windows.

-- Jim

[Doc B.]

I have one bit of advice to offer after this loooong project to rework our cold water inlet. The old schoolers say to use pipe dope on galvanized pipe. Home Depot says use Teflon tape. So I think, "those old dudes know of whence they speak, to heck with Home Depot", and I buy some high zoot Teflonized pipe dope because they don't seem to make the old gray goo that I knew as a kid. The Teflon dope is utterly useless crap. We spent an extra hour or two taking apart and redoing 8 or 10 leaky, messy Teflon doped joints with Teflon tape, which of course we all know works great. I have a few more to redo tomorrow. So don't buy Teflon pipe dope. Use Teflon tape - unless you're the kind of person who enjoys building one of our kits with plumbing solder and acid flux...

[Paul Joppa]

"Don't force it - get a bigger hammer!" That's what my dad always told me, anyhow. He also said "don't buy a tool until you actually need it - then buy a GOOD one." Words to live by.

[Noskipallwd]

I 2nd your experience with teflon dope, had to retrofit all the plumbing in my house, it was built with that crappy gray poly pipe. After 4 or 5 years of expansion and contraction the gray crap fails, with devastating results. Tried the teflon dope on the new stuff, worthless, I tried to come up with some use for it, besides its intended purpose, couldn't think of anything.

Cheers,
Shawn

[Chris]

 Ahhh, I love the smell of "white trash run down farmhouse air" in the morning!.....Sorry, I borrowed that line from the movie "Apocalypse Cow!"........  "We're a bit upscale though, I've always made sure the stalled car in the driveway is an old Mercedes, and the old boat sitting in the yard is a wood one"  Holy cow!..YOU were my neighbor growing up! and yes, you are correct... if there is a "highly sought after" collectible out there rusting in the yard, YES , that IS a sign of upscale class...hahaha.
"Here in the South you would need a washing machine and old tires painted white in the front yard.  Not to mention several dogs under the front porch."..... uuhhh, He has that also, it is called the Muckleshoot Reservation not too far away.....
"Dust from that crap is nasty stuff (like nerve damage nasty) so you don't wanta be breathing any more than you have to."..... Yes, he is definitely correct, We dont want to be calling you "Doc Bobblehead"...
"But I'm saying this old house stuff can cause nightmares...".... That's why I had to add the word "curse" along with the charm of a vintage house... haha... I would've freaked with the spiders also!!!

[Laudanum]

Wow.  Ive had good luck with the Rectorseal T plus 2 pipe thread sealant. Used it on both copper and pvc.  I havent dont a whole house with it or a long run.  But on the here and theres, no problems.  Has worked great and held up for years.  But I do reach for the teflon tape most often.

[Doc B.]

Another interesting observation - when I tested our water it measured as rather soft. After reading all sorts of horror stories implying that my 70 YO galvanized pipes were going to be corroded to the point of having a pin hole down the center, I checked the old pipe we pulled off when we removed the old pressure tank. Aside from a very light coating of rust slime (damned rust bacteria!) the pipes look very clean inside. I had suspected this because the pipes to the second floor bathroom that had been installed in the 50s or 60s are clear enough that the old faucet up there will blast you if you aren't careful. So you can't really make sweeping generalities about how galvanized pipe will hold up over time. This may have something to do with our 1950s water heater holding up all these years. As far as I can tell it wouldn't be that useful to tear the house apart and replace the existing pipe.

That rotten mud sill under the front porch that I discovered when working on the plumbing is a different story...the fun never ends.

[ironbut]

Unless you've planned (and budgeted) a balls to the wall remodel, I'd stick with the "if it don't stink,.." advice.
Of course, plumbing is one area of construction that I really don't know what I'm talking about but I have had to blend in patches on all types of walls and ceilings and doing a nice job isn't trivial.

[mchurch]

Heres one for a good laugh;

Many years ago I neighbour of mine decided to upgrade his fixtures (taps, shower etc). He was one of those types who knew everything and would never ask for help or advice. So off he went to the hardware store and came back with bags of parts including new pipe and related fixtures. He apparently knew earthing except how to read. He decided that solder paste would work better and be less messy so off he went cutting out pipe and replacing it and the related fixtures. He cleaned all the parts and joints and applied the paste and flux and fit all the joints together just perfectly. The only problem was he thought paste solder was self-curing and did not need to be heated. He thought that it was  like a glue which set up overnight. You can just imagine what happened next - the next morning he turned the water supply back on and proceeded to create a multi-floor indoor pool. It was only then that he accepted our offer for help. That's when we realized he didn't even have a soldering torch! We had him up and dry in the space of the morning.

The only dope he had problems with was the one in the mirror.

Cheers;

Mike