Laundry Room Part 2 - Plumbing

Once all the electrical was in and done it was time to turn my efforts to plumbing. Of the two, electrical versus plumbing, I hate plumbing the most. It tends to be dirty, wet and sometimes nasty. Depending on whether trips under the house are indicated or not. In this case, thankfully, no subterranean work was necessary. In the future for certain but I'll take what I can get.

Let me do a little stage setting here. This is a picture of the plumbing juncture I had to work with. Click to enlarge if you're interested.

Here's the important stuff. In the center of the floor space you can see two 3/4 inch galvanized pipes, one of which has a copper pipe running off it to the right. That pipe is the main house supply line. The pipe just to it's right is the supply line from the street. There are three pipes against the wall, running left in the picture. The top one is a drain line from the water softener, the middle is the street supply that runs to the softener and the bottom is the house supply that comes from the softener. The softener, for some reason that I will probably never understand is located outside. In an area where, while not exactly arctic, does in fact get below freezing in the winter. Here's what it looks like.

It's placed in a large wooden box just outside the old Mud Room. The pipes run through the wall to the plumbing juncture.

The old water softener is...well, old. Really, really old.

 All this needs to go and there was no way I was going to reinstall that old softener.

For anyone who regularly does plumbing Pex and Shark Bites (also called Gator Bites) are nothing new. For those who don't let me talk just a little about alternate means of plumbing. Pex is a little like a more durable and flexible version of PVC. It's really easy to work with and connects to other Pex, copper or PVC type materials with push in connectors called Shark Bites or Gator bites. Car Guy turned me on to the stuff and I love it. I will never sweat copper again. Here's a comparison.

On the left is copper and common screw in connectors (we'll leave sweating aside for the moment). On the right is a short length of white 1/2 inch Pex with some Shark Bites and a removal tool. That little orange crescent. 

Here's a look inside a 3/4 inch Shark bite.

It's really simple to make a connection. When you've got the run all laid out and cut to length simply push one end of the Pex into the Shark Bite and you're connected. There are in line connectors, elbows and threaded fittings so you can screw the line into a device or attach something. Like Water Softeners and valves as we will see.

You can also remove the fittings easily with the removal tool. Just slide it on, compress the black gasket you can just see in this photo and pull on the pipe.

 Et viola!

Shark Bites and Gator Bites. And yes, I paid for them all. No, I'm not getting anything in return from anybody to talk about them. Yes, I am easily and cheaply bribe-able for anyone with motivation and even shallow pockets. Take that FCC. When properly installed they're as permanent as sweated copper or screw in fittings and are code pretty much everywhere I know about and simplify plumbing projects by a factor of about a million. It's literally plug and play. Let's see how that transfers to an actual project shall we?

First step. Shut off the water at the meter. Important in that when you cut water pipes without that step things will get messy fast. Not that I'd know. I'm just guessing. Once done I cut all the pipes running to and from the old water softener. and then disconnected any excessive piping to the supply lines. I used Shark Bite connectors (threaded at one end to screw into the galvanized pipes) at the two 3/4 inch supply lines (from the street and to the house). Those pipes will go to the new water softener. I took the cold water washing machine supply from a T at the top of the softener output and found a very convenient hot water supply that ran to the kitchen sink. You can just see it over at the top right of the picture. We are cooking with gas now baby.

Here's a closer shot. Top pipe is the street supply. The bottom is from the softener to the house with a separate line to the washer. A nice, clean installation if I do say so myself and massively easy to do with a little planning and the right materials.

Ok. The water supply goes like this. A 3/4 inch pipe supplies the house from the street. It runs into the water softener and from there, via another 3/4 inch pipe, to the rest of the house. Here's the connections on the back of the water softener. On the left is the street supply to the softener and on the right is the output to the house.

A closer view. At the top is the plastic screw in connector on the softener attached to a copper adapter that necks from 1 inch (softener) to 3/4 inch for the supply pipes. Attached to them is another Shark Bite with a screw in on one end and a push in connector on the other. A short length of Pex to an elbow that connects to the Pex that runs to those supply connectors I showed above.

 Here's a side view. Simple no?

You can see the water softener attached to the house supply lines with the washing machine supply lines running along the wall. A simple connection and one I will have immediate access to in case of emergencies. Knock wood. The softener is a GE ( I know but I was stuck) that flows 9.5 gallons per minute and has a hard water bypass during regeneration which means I have water while it cleans the resin beads. It only recharges on demand, not on a set schedule but always starts at 0200 unless I manually over ride it. It's a modern device that will last us for a very long time. YMMV but this is what we needed and it should supply all our conceivable needs. Hi Angus!

And we're almost done. All that's left is hose connections for the washer and then moving it into the laundry room for hook up and testing. Oh, and maybe some drains. Here's the hose hook ups. Horribly simple. Shark Bites again with a threaded end, attached to a quarter turn valve and hose hook up. One for cold and one for hot. When I finally get around to dry wall I'll mount these a little better but for now all I care about is that they work and don't leak.

And just like that it's done. I tied the drain for both the washer and softener into the drain line that the old softener used (with a little fudging, trial and error and cursing). I managed to wrestle the washer into the room, hooked it up and admired my handiwork while I waited for Lu to come home and try it out. Yep, that's her machine and I am not allowed to touch it except for moving it as necessary. Everything turns on, fills, drains, exhausts and generally works like it's supposed to. I am so happy!

 I even put in a little temporary shelf so she had some place to put laundry stuff. Does it look like a laundry room now? I still have a lot of work to do in here but for now it's as done as we need it.

Remember that mess on the porch where the old softener was? Yep, all gone now. We removed an eyesore, opened up the porch and ensured that our water supply will not freeze up and maybe burst the pipes some day. That small dark square on the wall is the dryer vent.

Lu loves the new laundry room. It's just a few steps from the master bedroom. No more walks through the rain and sun and general nasty weather. Really, I'm embarrassed it took me this long. Sorry sweetheart. You've been doing my laundry for more than 30 years so shame on me for taking so long to do this.

What's next for this area? I'm glad you asked. This photo is dark but it should do. It's taken from the doorway in approximately the center of the house. It looks out to the porch. To the left is the master bedroom and to the right is the pantry. The center door leads to the new laundry room. I'm going to take that doorway and the wall on the left out and stubbing in a wall that will create a new hallway all the way from this doorway to the porch door, along the line shown. That will open up and enlarge the master bedroom and allow me to put in a new master bathroom. Oh yeah, I'll be doing more plumbing. A lot more. But I don't anticipate that until next summer. I still have a new roof on both the main house and the storage building to do before the weather turns.

All in all I am not unhappy with my work (and more importantly Lu is not unhappy with my work!). I managed to take what was an essentially unused room and turn it into a functional and useful part of the house with reasonable cost and reasonable effort. Total outlay, including all materials and the softener is well under a grand and the softener was 600 bucks. Don't let this kind of stuff put you off. Car Guy taught me a lot but the rest I got through makee learnee. The hardware guy and I are on a first name basis. Just plan as well as you can, don't be afraid to ask questions and understand that you'll be back and forth to the hardware store buying and returning stuff you got wrong the first time. It is not rocket science and it can be learned and mastered by us do it yourselfers. Hey, if I can do it anyone can do it!


Six

Laundry Room Part 1 - Tear Out And Electrical

When we bought this house I was acutely aware that the laundry room was in the storage building, behind the main house. That means that for the last two years Lu has had to trudge back and forth from the house to the laundry and back in hot, cold, rain, snow. You name it. All with nary a single complaint mind you. Lu's a good soldier. She also knew that there were other things that took priority and that I'd get to a new laundry room just as soon as I could. Well, that time is now. Sorry it took me so long honey.

This is the room we've taken to calling the Mud Room. It's where both Chrisi and Angus spent a good deal of time. The dog door is there and we used it as 'temporary' storage as well. Time to strip it down to bare walls.

Everything had to go including all this wood paneling.

Behind that door is access to the main water lines to the house. The lines run behind the walls stage left in this picture, outside to the old water softener and then back to the main house feeder line. There's some 110 outlets but no 220.

Nice ceiling huh?

Getting started stripping the walls. Note the storage area on the left. We tend to accumulate stuff and temporary becomes semi permanent pretty quick.

This is a shot of the end grain of the paneling. Kaibab, straight from the Kaibab forest just north of us. This is probably circa 1950 or so.You can't find stuff like this anymore, at affordable prices anyway, so I'll hang on to it and try to find a good use for it later. No idea where but I am a pack rat.

Down to bare walls but we're still not done with deconstruction. All that needs to come out as well, right down to naked studs. Heh heh. Naked studs.

The wood on the walls is firring strips that the wood panels were nailed to. With about half a million nails.

Getting down to the stud walls. That is most emphatically not dry wall. It's a type of cheap wall board that is both flimsy and difficult to remove. I hate it with a red hot hatred of hatiness.

After a couple of days of pulling and hammering and prying and toting and lifting we're down to bare walls at last. Oh happy day! You can see the plumbing hookups over in the corner which is going to simplify the plumbing something fierce. That piece of white wall board behind the vent pipe? That's the old window opening in the original building. Just on the other side of that block wall is the kitchen.

Ok, time for some new wiring. I've complained for a long time that every 110 outlet in this house is ungrounded. That is simple two prong outlets. In time I will completely rewire the entire house, starting with this room. The yellow line is Romex, 12/2 with ground. One outlet on this wall for the washer (with GFCI) and one on the wall to the left for general use. The orange is 8 gauge with neutral and ground. That's the 220 line for the dryer. It also gets a GCFI breaker.

This is the north wall where the new water softener is going. It gets a 110 line for the softener and a wall switch for the overhead light.

And the overhead light. I always used to get confused when wiring up light fixtures to wall switches until my buddy clued me in. Here's how I remember how to wire a single fixture/switch. Remember that with Romex the white wire is neutral, the black is power and the bare copper is ground. At the service box you connect the cable normally to the breaker with the bare copper going to a common ground. From the breaker you run a line to the light fixture box then another separate line from the fixture box to the switch box. Ok. At the light fixture box you wire nut the two ground wires together. You're left with two white and two black wires at the fixture, one set from the breaker and the other from the switch. The black (power) wire from the breaker gets wire nutted to the white (neutral) wire to the switch. You're then left with the black (power) wire from the switch and the white (neutral) from the breaker. You then just hook up both the light fixture and the wall switch. It sounds confusing trying to describe it but in use it works great. When done correctly you've got power going to the switch from the breaker (through the fixture box) and then to the light from the switch and a neutral from the light back to the breaker which completes the circuit plus a common ground for the entire circuit. All you have to remember is at the light box you want white from the breaker, black from the switch. Hook everything else together with bare copper going to bare copper and black going to white. Hook up the switch (including the bare copper ground) and wire in the light fixture and you're golden. Easy Peasy.

All wired up and the dryer in place. Everything works just fine. I've covered the outlets and switches but left the walls bare for the time being. I have plumbing to run and walls to move so no drywall for a while yet.

Tomorrow plumbing. Here's a sneak peak.

 
Pex and Shark Bytes aka Plumbing for Dummies. Oh yeah.

Six