Plumbing Rant

[N80]

I HATE plumbing. And apparently plumbing hates me too. I take care of the basic plumbing problems in my 30 year old suburban home and I even did all of the plumbing in the log cabin I built (one bath, one kitchen I used PEX tubing and love it!)) including the DWV system. Well, for the last two years we've had a plastic wash sink as the kitchen sink and I just got through putting in new cabinets and a counter top that I made myself. Then it came to install the new sink. Basic, inexpensive stainless sink with two basins and simple faucet. What a nightmare.

First, I plan everything out. Start hooking everything up in logical order. Got the supply side all hooked up and now its time to hook the sink to the counter top. OMG, what demon in hades invented those little clamps for holding the sink in place? It took over an hour to get them in place and tightended down. There is no room to work under there!. I taught my son a few words he'd never heard before.

Then, after I got it all hooked up everything finally worked fine. Hot, cold, drained well. A few minutes later....3 leaks. Tightended the hot supply line up, one leak down. Tightended the compression fitting to the drain tailpiece, two leaks down. The third leak? Well, I used the flexible supply lines and the one for the cold side is leaking at the swivel point! A defect. This means I have to remove it and put in a new one. But instead of being able to do it with everything pulled apart and easy to get to, I'll have to do it from underneath because I sure as heck aint pulling that sink out again. That will be its own little nightmare and I suspect my son my learn a few more special words. Of course there is no hardware near by so it will be next week before i get to it.

There has got to be a better way. Plumbing seems firmly fixed in the dark ages! (Outside of that PEX tubing. It was easy and flawless).

Sorry for the rant. Just had to share. I didn't get much sympathy at home.

 

[EddieWalker]

George,

I found that those little clamps to hold the sink in place are almost useless. I put down a bead of clear silicone around the lip first. Then I use a long extension on a socket to tighten them down. Once the silicone startes to ooze, I stop tightening them.

The next day when the silicone is dry, I cut off the excess and have a solid sink.

I like to put the water supply lines on the faucet first, then slide all of it into the holes. The little locking nuts can be a pain, but get tight eventually.

The rest is pretty easy, just uncomfortable. Sorry your having problems but it's one of those things that do get easier the more you do it. Never fun, but that's what saving money doing it yourself is for. hahahha

Eddie

 

[wilkesland]

George

I feel your pain.......

Plumbing is my least favorite task, and is almost certainly guarateed to raise my blood pressure by 20 points. I'd rather paint than do plumbing and I hate painting. But after getting a plumber to come out a couple of years ago to do a simple hookup of a water heater, I got properly calibrated on the cost of plumber's, so I do it and get aggravated.

Barry

 

[CurlyDave]

One of the things I did when I installed my sink was to install a cheap porcelain light fixture, the kind with the pull chain, in the cabinet under the sink. I just put a cord on it and plugged it into one of the diswasher outlets.

You would be amazed at how much easier it is working under there with the right amount of light.

Plus, now my wife uses the light to see what we have stored in there.

 

[randy41]

i find doing drainage plumbing is a challenge because of the size of the pipes and the limited space you sometimes have to work with. but as others have said this is the price you pay for not paying someone else to do it. i think in all projects being patient and not getting in a rush makes for a happy ending.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

one thing I figured out is that with the supply hoses I would put them on too tight, damaging the rubber membrane inside. Now when I install them I put them on just over finger tight. Check for leaks, and if they need any adjustment just a little at a time. once they are too tight the hoses are ruined.

Also for some reason I always teflon taped these joints never thinking about how they were designed. I don't use any tape now, as the rubber is what keeps it from leaking. The tape just gets in the way. Same with compression joints.

 

[N80]

Eddie, I pretty much did it just the way you said, the problem was not having the right tool. I had a long socket extension to tighten the little clamps but the screw on the clamp was so long the socket couldn't tighten the nut all the way. My set of 'bullet' sockets (the long ones) did not have one that small. Having a long socket would have saved me a lot of grief. I tried cutting the screw off to shorten it but then it wouldn't open far enough to clamp the counter!

So, once again I'll blame it one my tools!

Putting the new hose back on is going to be a pain, but I've done it before. Looks like about a ten minute job. I think I'll allow an hour.

 

[kylawyer]

Now that I have found this vent, let me put in my 2 cents. I am building out the basement on our house. Yep, doing most all of it including plumbing the bath and a wet bar.

Here is the thing I hate and will never do again if I can help it, sweating copper pipes. Since the exisiting lines were all copper, I decided to go that way. Boy do I wish I had tried to learn to use PEX. i already knew how to work copper, and was not sure how to connect pex to copper.

Boy sweating is right, what a pain. Worst part is, I just finished the rough supply to the wet bar area and had a 90 degree fitting that was against a floor joist leak. So I had to redo it. Tried to get the fitting loose by heating it up with the torch, instead of cutting it out. Water was still in the line I guess and I could not get it loose. But I had heated up the pipe rally well. Bending around to see where to cut it, I would up putting my left forearm in contact with the pipe I had torched up and ooooouch. Nice five inch long third degree burn!

From now on I pay a guy to sweat pipes.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm gonna get on my soapbox on copper pipes here.

I make the bulk of my living repairing homes, and water leaks are right at the top of the list. I have never been in a house with copper lines that didn't have a leak someplace. They are very, very small leaks, but over 20 years or more, they create problems. The most common leaks are in the valves for the tub and shower, but I've found them behind sinks, in walls and in attics.

My personal theory is that if you do a hundred joints in a house, one will not be perfect. The guys who built these homes do this all day long and are about as good at it as anybody can be, and they still mess up. If they can't get it one hundred percent of the time, who can????

I know most do it yourselfers will take more time with there own homes and do a very good job, so this really doesn't apply to anybody here, it's just my opinion based on observations.

I like PVC. If it's gonna leak, it does so within a day or two. Not something that you won't notice for 20 years. It's cheap, simple and effective.

When I do an addition or remodel, I prefer to sweat on a threaded fitting to the existing copper lines and use PVC.

Eddie

 

[LarryD]

Well, I used the flexible supply lines and the one for the cold side is leaking at the swivel point! A defect. This means I have to remove it and put in a new one.

I just finished installing a dishwasher at the house and found the same problem with the supply line...WHERE IT CONNECTED UNDER THE DISHWASHER. Everything had to be disconnected, dishwasher pulled out, and go back to the store for a replacement.

I tried to do everthing I know about plumbing to prevent any issues, plumbers putty on all joints, tighten all fittings properly, then check again before installing. Sometimes no matter how thourough I try to be, Murphy comes around.