Day 483: Make Way For The Beam! (Part II: Plumbing)

Having finished with the electrical on the weekend, our attention turned to that other bundle of lines standing between us and a new beam: the galvanized steel pipes sending water upstairs.

Galvanized steel plumbing is right up there next to knob and tube on the list of outdated house systems disliked by insurance companies. The problem is usually rust or corrosion on the inside of the pipe, which means lower water pressure, risk of leaks and... did I mention your tooth brushing, face washing, body bathing water travelling through rusty pipes? Gross. Like the knob and tube, there wasn't pressure from our insurance company but we knew we would be replacing these pipes with new copper or PEX. The priority over the past couple of days, however, has been simply to get these pipes out of the way to make space for the beam.

The first step was to move the toilet to its new home in the basement. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we now have a fully functional three piece bathroom in the basement! (Can you call it fully functional if you're using wood panelling as a door? It's an upgrade from no door at all so I'm going to say yes.)

Temporary is the name of the game...

except when we're talking this toilet, finally in its permanent home.

Once the toilet was moved, we could shut off the water and cut off the lines. Of the four pipes going up the wall we had:

1. A disconnected pipe just hanging out with its pals.
2. A hard water line feeding the toilet.
3. A soft cold water line.
4. A hot water line.

The first one was easy enough to get rid of since it was already disconnected. The others put up more of a fight. The plumbing in the basement had been previously updated so we could split the pipes right at the point where the galvanized tied into the copper. This was all going to happen in our very narrow utility room above the hot water tank. Garrett had the brilliant idea to pull down the duct that sits right above this work space, creating a handy access point in the kitchen floor.

Plumbing and the hot water tank in the utility room as seen through the kitchen floor.

Garrett capped off the hard line (since we can just use the soft cold water to flush the toilet) and added some shiny new valves for the soft lines, including a bit of new copper to replace an old galvanized tee and elbow. It sounds so quick and easy when wrapped up in a little sentence.

New valves on new copper

While Garrett soldiered soldered on downstairs, I attacked the galvanized lines right above the bottom plate with a soon-to-be broken pipe cutter. We actually cut through the first pipe using a hack saw, which worked but proved annoying. The pipe cutter may have actually been even more annoying (mostly because of its bulky knob that prevented it from going a full 360° around the pipe) but my arms got a good workout twisting it around as much as possible. Once I got through most of the pipe, Garrett and his little sledge hammer made quick work of it. On the subject of corrosion in galvanized pipe, it's worth noting that one of the elbows in the basement popped right off while he bashed on the pipe upstairs. Talk about risk of leakage! Once we got the pipes cut off at the bottom, we gave up on cutting them at the top because space was lacking and we figured a professional contractor would have more appropriate tools for the task.

All of the plumbing took us less than six hours over two evenings, during which we also helped a friend move and finished our taxes. This plumbing business isn't nearly as exciting to me as electrical work (sticky flux and wax rings are definitely not my thing) so you are spared from an excruciatingly detailed post that's twice as long. Instead, you can save your reading energy and prepare for a very exciting update coming soon about the drilling and sawing that's going on downstairs right at this very moment! (Holy batman! Is that a beam I see?)