Adding whole house filtration, potential routing issue..

[linonihon]

Adding whole house water filtration and softener to my home, I'm the second owner (built in 2003), and there's no water softener loop, ugh. Concrete pad foundation. I was hopng there was a loop at the water heater, but no such luck, it branches before coming out of the pad (one cold comes up, one hot goes down).

See image of plumbing diagram made by the previous owner / builder. The top outside faucet is incorrect as drawn, the digitally added grey line is my own showing the correct placement. The softener, brine tank, and filter housings will be to the left of the hot water heater closet, in the garage, and the softener will drain to the washer drain.

I feel like I have one main question that I need to figure out the answer to before I can continue with the DIY.

Does the water line branch before hitting the hot water heater? Meaning, are the bathrooms / kitchen supplied by the main line before it reaches the hot water heater, or not? It's unclear from the diagram. If it does, which I *really* hope isn't the case, then that means I need to get into the line before it enters the house...and I can't avoid softening the outdoor faucets without further plumbing.

I think I need to map the plumbing somehow, eg via camera? It would be nice to know what the inside of the pipes look like. The downside to this is having to build a camera snake, rent one locally or have someone come do it themselves (Dallas). Either way I need to cut into the pad...****.

Thoughts? :-/

 

[KULTULZ]

Can you post a photo of the WH installation?

 

[linonihon]

No problem. Sorry for the rodent feces... looks like they've been in the attic and climbed down in the walls in the garage where there's no insulation...

First pic is a shot of the left side where the overflow(?) pipe goes outside. Second a little hard to make out, but there's two insulated pipes side by side. It looks like there's a third but that's just extra pipe insulation. Lastly is the top of the hw heater.

Album here.

 

[KULTULZ]

I feel like I have one main question that I need to figure out the answer to before I can continue with the DIY.

Does the water line branch before hitting the hot water heater? Meaning, are the bathrooms / kitchen supplied by the main line before it reaches the hot water heater, or not? It's unclear from the diagram. If it does, which I *really* hope isn't the case, then that means I need to get into the line before it enters the house...and I can't avoid softening the outdoor faucets without further plumbing.

I think I need to map the plumbing somehow, eg via camera? It would be nice to know what the inside of the pipes look like. The downside to this is having to build a camera snake, rent one locally or have someone come do it themselves (Dallas). Either way I need to cut into the pad...****.

Thoughts? :-/

That is the first question, whether the KITCHEN and BATH are supplied cold before the WH. I will let a professional here handle that one.

* Why was the WH put into an elevated closet? Is there a garage there?

* You need (IMO) a couple of mean barn cats to take care of the rodent problem.

* Make sure you clean up that mess before working around it as droppings are harmful if the dust is inhaled (use respirator).

* Is the a proper drain close to the area? It appears they have the WH TPRV discharge line draining to the floor. Is there a catch pan under the WH?

 

[linonihon]

Yes, the WH is in the garage. The relief valve pipe goes out the exterior wall to the front lawn about a foot off the ground. I'm going to re-use the washer's drain, and am hoping to find a product that will accommodate both the washer out and airgap the softener (drain) out.

Definitely going to clean up the feces delicately and with a respirator... don't want that dust settling everywhere in the garage.

 

[frodo]

couple of questions

is the copper looped under the slab ?

or is it run over head ?

have you seen any manifolds at Ground level ?

 

[linonihon]

couple of questions

is the copper looped under the slab ?

or is it run over head ?

have you seen any manifolds at Ground level ?

It's looped under the slab, I believe. I just went looking around the attic and the only visible pipe is a line coming up by the right of the washer, leading to the hvac unit, and its drain pipe.

As for any manifolds, the only pipe I can see so far is that shown in the pictures where I took some wall panels down at the HW closet, where the two lines coming out of / going into the slab are. That and of course interior plumbing connections where the sinks, toilets, etc are attached to the drywall.

 

[frodo]

sounds like your water is looped.

honestly, only way you will acomplish what you want is to find the main line manifold and separate the the main from it

do you know where your main line is ?

 

[frodo]

generic loop...finding out HOW it is looped is the expensive part