Home Improvement Today?

True.

I wish I loved it. I hate this interior brick wall. I’m actually going to take the whole wall down and open the kitchen up to the living room.


StepDad for the win. We came over and cut out the bad section and inserted some pex.

 

Galvanized pipe is horrible. Pex or whatever the pro grade stuff is the way to go.

 

Installing "luxury" vinyl flooring in the laundry room , I still get a kick out of saying luxury vinyl flooring . Getting a new W&D , might as well do the floor. Hopefully grouting tomorrow

 

I finally feel like I am making progress! When I started this I thought I could have it knocked out in a few weeks. How wrong I was. This is really hard work, much harder than my real job. My hat is off to all you professionals that do this for a living!

 

I have the Kreg Rip Cut and its ok. I don't find it flimsy but I do find it annoying to start a cut with. The edge guide portion needs to be 4" long IMO. My saw blade is already at the edge while the edge guide is barely there.

I dont have the Bora version but do have the harbor Freight version and like it. Works well for what it is.


If I were to do it again (and will do in the future) I would just make my own guides of different lengths

 

Im needing some space and I have some next to my shop but its sloped off/unfinished. So my plan is a retaining wall on the back side to hold the fill/rock/dirt in and give me extra space. What would be best long term concrete blocks or pressure treated wood? approximately 10ft at the lowest point to shop level.

 

Speaking of bathroom plumbing...

I have had a slow tub drain from day 1 of owning this home. The drum trap is free and clear from the tub to the trap, but there is something odd about all the plumbing in this area. I don't have a picture today but a diagram instead. Any plumbers have insight?

 

Do you have a tub drain that catches hair?.....if so lift it completely out and check it. It would look like a pop up....but it pulls straight up and has claws that grab hair.

 

It is not hair in the tub trap.
I think the problem is after the drum trap but I don't know how to get it out. Snakes don't make the turn from the drum horizontal into the down pipe, and the end cap of the 1 1/2" horizontal doesn't budge with a 30" pipe wrench.

 

I would heat the clean out with torch and use a large monkey/adjustable wrench to get it off. ( i just did that on my bathroom i am redoing. Cast iron would not budge heated for like 2 minutes and it cracked loose) I assume the sink is draining just fine that is connected to the 2nd Y ? Can you snake it from the drum trap? I never actually seen one in person as we don't use them in NY

 

Never even have saw a drum trap.....seems unneeded and could be what is slowing your drain down. I also agree with heating the clean out cap with heat....doesn’t take much to get stuff to move.

 

Third thing I tried after the snakes.

Yes well, it drains as fast as the water comes out of the faucet.

The snakes I have cant make the bend or are too short.

The research I am doing, I've found that they are not used anymore. YET home depot still has them... https://www.homedepot.com/p/LDR-Ind...2-in-Cast-Iron-Drum-Trap-610-SPA4-1/302327501 the interesting thing is that mine appears to be installed upside down or at least not like I've seen on any youtube video?
I'm debating on just replacing the parts as shown below.

 

Not a plumber here but I like the second pic better....

 

Yup....the art award and efficiency reward go to picture two!

 

I have a drum trap for the tub drain. Mine was installed with the cap up and flush with the floor. On the occasion that it started to drain slow we used plungers, one on the drain one on the overflow. After several tries of giving it all we had it would clear and drain free.

 

If you can, replace the drum trap, our house 120 years old and no matter what we did we could never get the old drum trap to flow well. When we had the chance we replaced them and have no issues. What I found was that the cast pipes had rusted from the inside and had caught anything and everything that wasn't water and was always almost blocked around the exit of the drum trap. The downside to rep[lacing the cast iron is that now you may hear the water flowing in the pipes when you drain.

 

Insulate the drain pipe.

 

I would do a block retaining wall system since pressure treated does eventually rot long term. But depending if you use mostly stone fill instead of dirt it might not matter