September 10, 2006

On the Floor


They had early release at work (The opposite of Overtime). I jumped at the chance to get more Bathroom work done.

First up was the ductwork under the house for the furnace we plan on installing someday. We ran the master bedroom furnace venting when it was open to the sky. This was much easier then this project. First off I have to install a Y for the bathroom and have a vent in the floor. Due to the 8inch floor joist there was only one place that made sense for it to go. I started by carefully measuring the rectangle hole and once I was sure of the geometrics I took out my good ol jigsaw and started cutting.

I noticed the wood was looking damp and while I continued to cut puzzled on this, about one nanosecond before the water started spraying upwards my mind recalled that was at the exact point that the water pipe goes under the floor. I was out the front door and to the cut off valve in under three seconds, Total elapsed time for this paragraph in real life, five seconds. So now I had to mop up the bucket of water under the house, fix the pipe in such a way as to allow the vent to go up in the hole.

As luck would have it, Our plumbing is circa 1949 and has steel running for the water instead of Copper. This is slowly being replaced by this special poly-plastic pipe that uses no glues or welding or soldering. Its very cool and my Pop swears by it, so its the real deal. This section had already been replaced, which is why I should have known better then to cut without looking.

The main thing is you need this special tool that evenly spreads the pipe so you can put in the connectors. I bought one figuring on replacing the plumbing as said above. It paid for itself Saturday. Without my spare pipe, fittings and tool this would have been a saturday housecall for a plumber, or my purchasing the same gear retail. So bad and good...

Next I had to pay homage to the Croc hunter and wrestle the ducting into place. This means crawling under the house, cutting a ten inch flexable duct, taping the inner duct to the Y and the outer insulation to the Y as well as building a fancy two elbow rig up the to floor of the Bathroom.

Tina assisted and made the job sooo much easier. While I would try to plan everything I needed keeping track of that stuff under the floor would have been a pain in the tukus.

Water fixed, tested. no Leaks.

Ductwork, installed and strapped up to the floor.

Next the jigsaw puzzle of boards to replace the water damaged ones. I put down some contruction adhesive and used Stainless steel screws to secure the boards. I'm really happy with how it came out.

The picture up top is Connor looking at the carnage.

1 comment:

ronnwaters said...

Cool!
I love these kinds of projects. No really. Especially with older houses you get to make a silk purse from a sows ear, as they say.
It like a large, very expensive, uncomfortable jigsaw puzzle.
It's cool that you and your pop can do these thngs together. Plus it helps to have an uber-expert in the family.