Yo-Ho Yo-Ho, A Plumber's Life for Me

Time keeps on flying and we are way behind on our updates. Jake has been the champ with the tasks happening lately so here is his rundown of the recent up until Christmas:

Thursday Dec. 17
Sue stayed home today to help out. Although we could also begin furring the bathroom, plumbing the copper supply supply lines is the main job for today.

I used to do a good bit of sweat soldering in grad school, but it has been about 15 years, and I don't have fond memories of the efficacy of my technique. Also, the architect suggested using soft copper on a roll to avoid having to cut and solder small pieces of tubes to fit between the joints--that sounds really smart. Also, our friend Mike likes Sharkbite connectors over soldering; they are connectors that push-fit on to the tubes and make crimp-like connections--that sounds really smart, too.

I begin the day by going to the local plumbing supply, suitably named Nutley Supply. Imagine the bar from Cheers, and you get a pretty good idea of the peanut gallery seated at the shop counter--kind of like a bar, but no booze. I don't know why there are seats at the counter, but there are. I ask if they have the rolled copper tubing. Nope. The gallery says "use PEX" (PEX is a plastic tube that is flexible).

I return home to search the interwebs for PEX procedures. It turns out that the Sharkbite connectors work with both PEX and Copper tubes. I call the plumber buddies who are doing our drain, waste, vent work (DWV) and inquire about using both PEX and Copper with Sharkbite fittings. Apparently, that would pass inspection but good old copper is the "preferred method." I return to Nutley Supply and buy PEX. Then realized run to Home Depot to get Sharkbite connectors. Unfortunately, their stock was, lets say, depleted. I rent a right-angle drill for the joists and head home. Sue heads to Lowes to see if they have these Sharkbite connectors there.

By about 3pm, we are ready to begin, and we have Copper along with a plan to use PEX and Sharkbite for whatever contingency we may run into. I ponder the concept of Analysis Paralysis.

Sue is still at Lowes. They don't have enough connectors at this location but they have some in stock in Patterson. Sue heads to Patterson.

I drill holes in the joists for the copper tubes. While I begin soldering, Sue is roaming the lovely streets of Patterson (no, wait it is not lovely at all, it is very very un-lovely) as she gets totally lost and is driving around some industrial slum. She finally finds her way back to the highway and gets home with sharkbites/gatorbites/whatever.

We have dinner and then back to work. We realize though that we have the wrong elbow joints. Sue returns the drill to Home Depot and then goes on a quest back to Lowes for more correct elbows (that makes a total of 3 Lowes visits, 2 Home Depot stops, and 3 Nutley Supply Visits in one day, phew).

By the end of the day, we have a bunch of short lengths of cut copper tubes in the garage and enough random plumbing parts to open a plumbing supply shop.



Friday Dec 18
Copper pipes again. Just a lot of cutting and soldering. It isn't as bad as I feared; simply cutting and dry-fitting is arguably more work than the actual soldering.


Saturday Dec 19
More copper tube work. Sue nails in some 2x4s to fix up the framing, and discovers the virtues of the palm nailer. It's a small gadget that's powered by the air compressor we recently bought, and it drives nails kind of like a woodpecker drills holes. Once you buy a compressor, pneumatic tools seem to multiply.

Sue is unsure about doing the furring by herself, but wants to be productive. "What can I do?" she says. "Go whip me up some beef stew" is my facetious response. Sue gives me a look that I will not soon forget and stomps off to the kitchen.

By the end of the day we have a few pieces of the sink supply assembled and a very tasty beef stew.

Sunday Dec 20
A new task gets added to the calendar by way of a lovely snow storm and Sue heads out to shovel snow. More copper tube work.

Monday Dec 21
More copper tubes. On paper, this job looked like a cinch. In reality, I'm now a full-time newbie plumber.

Tuesday Dec 22
Rough-in inspection is scheduled for tomorrow, so today is "get ducks in a row day." The end of the copper tubes work is in sight--ten joints to go. I run out of solder with two copper elbows to go. Fortunately, the plumbers stop by to a give a pre-inspection check and spot me a couple of feet of solder. Copper is done.

Now to turn the water on, and see if my sweat soldering is sweet or fail. Fingers crossed... no leaks! Copper done!!!! (Now what am I going to do with all this unused PEX and Sharkbite connectors?)

The last remaining task is to frame a door for the closet. This shouldn't take too long. There is some contention about how deep into the closet to frame the door. So, I cut the framing for the door so we can play with it after Sue returns.

Wednesday Dec 23
6:50 am Ow, I am sore, tired and cold. We decided where we want that closet door, so I put it in there, and we're roughed-in.

9:00 am Plumbing and electric rough inspection passed. Yay!

Time to write blog. I'm pondering how it took me five days to get the copper supply tubes in... Maybe that's why the plumbers wanted mega bucks to do that part...