The thoughts that were thunk and the goings on of my life.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Call me Luigi

Up to this point all I've done on my new house is destroy things. Rip out walls, cut out floors, sledgehammer a tub, etc. That all ended today. Today I got under my house, I took a reciprocating saw to the fresh-water pipes and entered the point of no return. I then got really worried though because the 50 year old pipes would not unscrew themselves. I pried, twisted, squeezed, pulled and did everything I could to get the old galvanized piping to budge.

Then with one last ditch effort I put everything I had into it and it moved! I couldn't believe it!

I then managed to unscrew the old pipes and see the 50 years of buildup within them. I then cleaned it all up, put on some plumbers tape, screwed on one half of the connector, went out and sweated some copper pipes for the other half, joined the two halves with a dielectric union, hooked up an entire manifold system that I built for the cold water, turned the water back on and...it worked! Everything stayed together, not a single thing leaked, it was beautiful. And I felt like such a man..

Now all I have to do is start cutting out some more of the old pipes and replacing them with good copper piping, then connect everything to my manifold and to the brand new tankless water heater and then I'll have all new, non-corroded, no more rust in the pipes, can turn everything off in the bath or kitchen independently, piping. I can't wait! Plus, all of this is currently costing less than having a real plumber come and simply raise my shower head. Go DIY!