Plumbing Progress

3Steps Forward...2 steps back.

2 weekends ago I helped Anthony install his new 60" Monster TV. I think I am finally over my jealously until he reminds me that his TV is 44% larger than my 50" TV. Things never go quite as well as you want. We hung the TV on Saturday, but were unable to run all of our wiring so we finished on Monday. It is a thing of BEAUTY!!



Since the plumber gave me a good deal on roughing in the bathroom, he needed a 2nd set of hands for running the plumbing from the basement to the 2nd floor. That was accomplished this past weekend. The plan was to get the 2nd floor toilet and sink drain connected to the main drain and vent. Since the new bathroom is on the 2nd floor, we had to tear up the downstairs bathroom. We cut a 16" chase from floor to ceiling. This required removing the toilet and sink in the bathroom. Since this is our only bathroom, Tanya left for the day with the children to visit my brother.

Since we have 1" thick Veneer Plaster walls, I didn't want to just break the plaster with the hammer and then try to figure out how to repair it later. I used the Dremel Multimax to cut through the plaster. Then we were able to break it off in sections that we could re-use. Thus saving a lot of time when I tape and mud the cut seams.




The plumber thought it was a good idea to replace the steel sink drain pipe. He said that overtime the buildup from "stuff" can decrease the inner diameter of the pipe. Boy, was he right!! He said he had never seen it so bad. We were lucky if we could stick our fingers through the hole. The other problem was that the drain from the sink to the main drain was pitched in the wrong direction - so instead of 1/4" drop for every foot of run towards the drain, it was pitched towards the sink, thus causing an uphill battle for drain.

No wonder our sink had a slow drain before!!

He also said he will replace the steel drain for our bathtub as well.



We used his Cast Iron Cutter to cut the vent stack and drain. That stuff is HEAVY!!! Took 2 of us to carry an 8' piece out the door.




Our nice new bathroom drain and main drain and vent stack. He also added an Air Admittance Valve at the sink for extra venting. The first PVC pipe that you see running vertically connects the toilet and sink upstairs to the main drain. The 2nd pipe is the main vent stack.



The upstairs rough-in pics. The venting for this will be an Air Admittance Valve (AAV).

The IRC requires all structures to have one main vent which runs undiminished in size from the building main drain up and out through the roof. Additional auxillary vents may be terminated through the roof, through the wall, in the attic space or an unlimited number of AAV's.

Of course to tear up the floor so the plumber could run his pipes, I had to remove the wall I had installed for the new door. I also had to remove the finished landing area. Tried taking up the hardwood nicely, but it got destroyed in the process.