The older you get the better it is to rent!
Random plumbing pics
- Thread starter Twowaxhack
- Start date
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It would be hard to sell the house I built ... every piece of wood has passed my hands or I have created. (No store bought moldings or cabinets) all furniture, electrical and plumbing. Now, I did not do the brick... I suck at brickwork. I can lay block..but brickwork looks like I was on something. I'll be here till I die.
Correction: Better for “some” of us. Is your house “magnetic” or did you go all out for 316 stainless?
Outinthewoods
Member
Well I will say that having a steel frame house with a steel roof saves me a lot of money on tinfoil. Instead of having to make a tinfoil new hat every few days, I'm living in one.
The hangar is also all steel. What's interesting is that when I need to hang up a tool, a hose, or a sign, I can use some of those super-strong Neodymium magnets from Harbor Freight and just stick them to the wall. No holes, no penetrations, no drilling, and I can move them around later if I need or want to.
When I was younger, I rented, simply because I had no choice. As soon as I could, I bought something (1968, I think) and have been a homeowner ever since. I just feel more comfortable OWNING where I live even though I am responsible for the maintenance. If I rented, I'd STILL be paying maintenance as part of the rent, and often that maintenance will be of dubious quality and sometimes excessively delayed. (I can screw it up by myself and put it off myself for much less money.)
But back to plumbing . . . If I wanted slightly flexible connections between the pump and the well head and the pump and pressure tank, what could I use? The idea is to be able to compensate for slight misalignments, settlement of the base, and not transmit vibration from the pump so as not to strain or break the PVC (again). I did find some 2" diameter high pressure flex hose at something like $12 a foot, so I thought I'd need two feet, but the ferrules (threaded connectors) sell for $50 each! They'll assemble the hoses (for $224, I'd hope so) but there HAS to be a better, more cost effective way to do that.
Neighbor has some plastic tubing with white fiberglass (?) strands reinforcement plus screw type hose clamps on his well pump, he says it lasts five or six years. I think that's kind of crude, but with better materials, is that a viable solution?
So right now, the PVC is doing the following things: 1) moving the water, 2) keeping the pump in place and in alignment, 3) damping the pump vibration and starting torque reaction, 4) compensating for and resisting the slow settling of the paving stone the pump sits on.
All I want the PVC pipe to do is item 1. The PVC should not be responsible for anything else.
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida
The hangar is also all steel. What's interesting is that when I need to hang up a tool, a hose, or a sign, I can use some of those super-strong Neodymium magnets from Harbor Freight and just stick them to the wall. No holes, no penetrations, no drilling, and I can move them around later if I need or want to.
When I was younger, I rented, simply because I had no choice. As soon as I could, I bought something (1968, I think) and have been a homeowner ever since. I just feel more comfortable OWNING where I live even though I am responsible for the maintenance. If I rented, I'd STILL be paying maintenance as part of the rent, and often that maintenance will be of dubious quality and sometimes excessively delayed. (I can screw it up by myself and put it off myself for much less money.)
But back to plumbing . . . If I wanted slightly flexible connections between the pump and the well head and the pump and pressure tank, what could I use? The idea is to be able to compensate for slight misalignments, settlement of the base, and not transmit vibration from the pump so as not to strain or break the PVC (again). I did find some 2" diameter high pressure flex hose at something like $12 a foot, so I thought I'd need two feet, but the ferrules (threaded connectors) sell for $50 each! They'll assemble the hoses (for $224, I'd hope so) but there HAS to be a better, more cost effective way to do that.
Neighbor has some plastic tubing with white fiberglass (?) strands reinforcement plus screw type hose clamps on his well pump, he says it lasts five or six years. I think that's kind of crude, but with better materials, is that a viable solution?
So right now, the PVC is doing the following things: 1) moving the water, 2) keeping the pump in place and in alignment, 3) damping the pump vibration and starting torque reaction, 4) compensating for and resisting the slow settling of the paving stone the pump sits on.
All I want the PVC pipe to do is item 1. The PVC should not be responsible for anything else.
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida
Is it code to use pvc for your incomming water ? Or maybe that's only for hot water that it's not.
What size pipe are we dealing with that you want to be flexible ?
PEX would be ideal but cannot be exposed to sunlight or UV, could be protected by paint, foam insulation, or an enclosure. I personally would just use HDPE with barb fittings and 2 hose clamps.
Outinthewoods
Member
PVC is approved here, cpvc for hot water. Health department is happy, building inspector ditto. We don't have a separate plumbing inspector (small town) so building inspector does it.
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida
Outinthewoods
Member
1.5" or 2" (got to go measure). It doesn't need to be superflexible, just flexible enough for minor misalignments. I'm going to redo the thing anyway, it is tired and I don't trust it. Dear Bride (tm) will execute me if the water supply fails.
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida
Pvc is your best solution for the money. Pex would be much better and much more expensive.
I’d use pvc and decouple the pvc from the concrete.
Outinthewoods
Member
Gonna be PVC. While I can buy a few feet of 2" Pex for a couple of bucks, the fittings are $35+ each.
Best regards,
Mike/Florida
Best regards,
Mike/Florida
Most of the problems with pvc is the installer…..
I need (2) 2" pvc Jandy valves, for my pool. Damn things are $100 a piece, but rebuildable. My neighbor just moved his pool equipment to the other side of his yard, in preparation for a room addition, so he is giving me his old Jandy valves.
Outinthewoods
Member
Yes, I had noticed that . . . Pvc isn't that hard to work with, I find that if I take my time and get the fit, segment lengths and angles really right, it lasts. I've seen pvc stuff just slapped together and it isn't any good.
Went to a builder's show in Orlando, I was given a sample can of pvc cement which has its own primer in it, single can, just swab it on and assemble, no primer needed. Color is green. Vendor advised me that some building inspectors won't pass it because they don't see the expected blue color. I might try it . . .
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida
Charlotte pipe has an installation guide available that gives detailed install instructions.
Tips
1. Use the same brand fittings and pipe
2. Cut pipe with a chop saw with abrasive blade.
3. Bevel the cut edge of the pipe slightly. Not much.
4. Scrub the dauber of solvent into the pipe and fitting giving the solvent time to soften the surfaces. Don’t let the cement puddle.
5. Mark your insertion depth
6. Leave room between fittings for future repairs.
7. Wipe off excess cement on the outside of the joint
8. Do not use any threaded connections with pvc. Use metalhead fittings by Sioux chief.
9. Give it a full cure, depending on environmental conditions and size of the pipe it can be days or it can be hours.
10. Never let it freeze. If it freezes it’s toast.
This isn’t a complete guide or list but just some tips off the top of my head for a beginner.
Tips
1. Use the same brand fittings and pipe
2. Cut pipe with a chop saw with abrasive blade.
3. Bevel the cut edge of the pipe slightly. Not much.
4. Scrub the dauber of solvent into the pipe and fitting giving the solvent time to soften the surfaces. Don’t let the cement puddle.
5. Mark your insertion depth
6. Leave room between fittings for future repairs.
7. Wipe off excess cement on the outside of the joint
8. Do not use any threaded connections with pvc. Use metalhead fittings by Sioux chief.
9. Give it a full cure, depending on environmental conditions and size of the pipe it can be days or it can be hours.
10. Never let it freeze. If it freezes it’s toast.
This isn’t a complete guide or list but just some tips off the top of my head for a beginner.
Outinthewoods
Member
I am ALWAYS willing to learn . . . and I thank you for the above. The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of ignorance. I'm a youngster of 78, my wife says I know a lot (she's a lawyer so I guess that constitutes legal advice and I should expect a bill) but there is NO WAY that I would ever presume to know "everything".
So (at the moment) the well plumbing rework looks like this: Remount well pump on a more stable base, Sioux fitting from well head into pump, Sioux fitting from pump outlet to pvc to pressure tank (another Sioux fitting there), two more into/out of centrifugal sand filter, then pvc ball valve after all this to cut off water to house if needed. PVC is already underground to house, so no further attention needed to that.
Paint all exposed pvc with white latex paint to prevent eventual UV deterioration, leave existing thermostatically controlled heat tape on pump body, consider a small pump house (I have IMPs - insulated metal panels - available), put a thermostatically controlled heat lamp inside - say 100 watts - to keep it warm on the increasingly few really colds days we may get.
Once that's all done (and I've recovered) visit the water softener connections and inline filter with more Sioux fittings - and remount the filter cannister more securely. Again, paint the pvc.
I also have a standpipe with a faucet behind the hangar, that needs attention as well (Sioux plus paint).
Maybe I should buy stock in Sioux?
I also went and looked at Charlotte Pipe's information, I have to go back and look at it again.
Again, thank you for the pointers, it helps me fix things *right* and not kludge them together and have them break when I turn my back. (Optimum failure time - I'm in the shower, all soaped up, running late for some important meeting or something . . . and the water stops. Murphy is alive and quite well, and he always takes the opportunity to make himself known.)
Best regards,
Mike/Florida
