[chonkie]

This is my 5th service call for this guy and he bought the house only 2 years ago. I had to replace the no name shower faucet, fix a broken C/O and today a burnt out element/thermostat and wire. I took a few winner pics of this jungle gym.




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Damn that's some extreme hub to almost no hub going on there. Phuck lowering the wye's that's too damn difficult!

 

[Tango]

thats called job security.....for you...

He's a good paying customer too! The first time he wasn't too happy I didn't have 4" fitting in my truck to fix his C/O but he called again and again... Big house, both have very good paying jobs...

I told him a few things that weren't correct but he leaves em be until it becomes a problem like his shower faucet. He didn't want to replace it so I took the cartridge out so he could try to find one, he paid me several days later to put it back in after soaking it in a solution. Then months later he finally had me replace the no name faucet. :biggrin:

 

[skoronesa]

He's a good paying customer too! The first time he wasn't too happy I didn't have 4" fitting in my truck to fix his C/O but he called again and again... Big house, both have very good paying jobs...

I told him a few things that weren't correct but he leaves em be until it becomes a problem like his shower faucet. He didn't want to replace it so I took the cartridge out so he could try to find one, he paid me several days later to put it back in after soaking it in a solution. Then months later he finally had me replace the no name faucet. :biggrin:

I use 35% HCl to clean stuff real quick. I bet H2SO4 would work well too for lime/rust. I keep at least a half gallon of HCl on the van all the time.





Works well on those galv urinal lines you can't get the snake through too. Then since it's draining kinda good you can tell them I got it this time but next time I am opening the wall. Gives them some time to come to terms with it so you don't have much if any push back when they call again and you want to open the wall.




We have this one factory, three urinals in a row and none of the s.o.b.s working there will flush the phucking urinals. I have snaked/mini-jetted them several times. We are there usual service plumber. They recently hired some cheap hack to replace some fixtures and then they had a guy epoxy coat the floors and up the walls. The hack couldn't set the toilets correctly and replaced the high flush toilets with some flushmates. Guess who has lots of clogs now? The epoxy guy left a plug of epoxy in the womens room floor drain almost and 1-1/2" thick, I had to drill it out with a hole saw. Luckily the trap had water in it when he did it. I had told them a while back we need to open the wall and add a c.o. so I can properly clean the line in the slab and to replace some pipe in the wall. I can not wait for the next time they clog so I can hammer open that wall on the backside. I told those phuckers what needed to be done BEFORE they renovated and they cheaped out and made my life more difficult and their future more expensive.



I told them not to replace the good toilets. Now their only option is a 1" line and some sloan valves. Buku bucks.









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[OpenSights]

I’ve seen intentionally bent galvanized water lines a few times over the years, not common, but I do see them. Was this a common/accepted thing to do, or was this done by a penny pinching plumber back in the day?

 

[MACPLUMB777]

I’ve seen intentionally bent galvanized water lines a few times over the years, not common, but I do see them. Was this a common/accepted thing to do, or was this done by a penny pinching plumber back in the day?

I have seen this many times over the years from SO. CA. to W. WASH. STATE
and SLC, UT :biggrin:
I think it is the way old time plumbers saved fittings and got the job done, :biggrin:

 

[skoronesa]

I’ve seen intentionally bent galvanized water lines a few times over the years, not common, but I do see them. Was this a common/accepted thing to do, or was this done by a penny pinching plumber back in the day?

It was the common thing to do. I don't think it was penny pinching either. We have hydraulic benders at the shop. My oldest boss bought them at the tail end of his field tenure. We have no less than 5 conduit benders because our guys would use them for waterlines. Would you consider an hvac guy penny pinching if he bent his acr? It used to be the same with waterlines. Less joints means less leaks and less labour.



Remember, electricians used to bend, thread, and screw almost as much pipe as plumbers. All conduit was the same as water piping. Thus galvanized pipe was made with softer alloys. It also used to be commonly available as seamless instead of welded because it was expected that tradesmen would bend it.


The same has been happening with sticks of copper though most of you don't bend waterlines and wouldn't notice. Just a year and a half ago mueller stopped tempering their L 1/2" and 3/4" copper enough to bend without it breaking. Now if I want to bend it I have to temper it first which totally wipes out the time saving of not having to sweat a couple joints. Or I have to buy acr sticks which are expensive. Used to be that L and acr was the same but some pieces went for extra cleaning after the tempering process. Now the lines diverge before the extra tempering. Saves them the added cost of heating the L pipe more. I would also guess that they sell more prefab linesets and less straight acr with the advent of mini splits.




There are still a couple plumbers in my area that bend all their 1/2" and most of their 3/4" copper, especially when piping new houses or new boilers. Looks so much nicer and is as good as having permanent branding all over the basement. No one forgets the name of the guy in our town who bends all his copper. He's been doing it for 40 years. He doesn't use stickers










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[skoronesa]

In the following pictures you'll note that even though ACR and L have the same wall thickness they have different pressure ratings. This is because while they are both labeled as "Hard" copper the ACR has a softer temper so it can be bent. Hard copper isn't always hard.


You can also see the effect that using more energy to temper the pipe has on cost.





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[Tango]

It was the common thing to do



There are still a couple plumbers in my area that bend all their 1/2" and most of their 3/4" copper, especially when piping new houses or new boilers. Looks so much nicer and is as good as having permanent branding all over the basement. No one forgets the name of the guy in our town who bends all his copper. He's been doing it for 40 years. He doesn't use stickers










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Wow bending copper was last done in the 60's or something. And copper in houses ended in 1990. I still repair copper or when it's not worth getting the pex out.

 

[skoronesa]

Wow bending copper was last done in the 60's or something. And copper in houses ended in 1990. I still repair copper or when it's not worth getting the pex out.

Every plumber or heating mechanic at our company has sweat fittings on their van. Most have a propress tool. Some have more propress than sweat. I have more sweat than pex and propress fittings combined. I use my pex crimpers like three times a year where as I sweat fittings like three or four times a month. The install guys have B tanks because on some newcon/renos we do that much copper.


You can sweat fittings in a much smaller space than you can crimp or press. I have replaced shower elbows through the 2-1/4" hole the ecutcheon can cover twice in the past two years. Use a long bit to unscrew the ears. Wet the area behind/around it with spray bottle. Heat and pop off with beater. Flux the pretinned nipple by dipping your solder in the jar. Use new shower arm to get new elbow on. Put screws in a bit to hold and then solder. Works great as long as the pipe in the wall is properly restrained. On the first one I screwed on a clip below the joint first. It's amazing what you can do through a small hole when your bit is long enough :vs_laugh:



Water heaters must have metallic tubing for the first 18" inches I believe. Do you use galvanized? Or do you use those flexi tubes?


I replaced a frost-free hosebibb today and used all sweat stuff. I bent some copper and fixed a couple breaks on a spigot line last friday.




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[skoronesa]

I swear that burn mark in the first pic was from the last guy who put a coupling there...:whistling2:


:biggrin:




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[Tango]

Water heaters must have metallic tubing for the first 18" inches I believe. Do you use galvanized? Or do you use those flexi tubes?





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Pex directly to the heater is perfectly fine in our code. Galvanised, what for nowadays? Only seen galvy in 3-4 very old houses and only used for drains and a water main column for government buildings. That's it.

 

[skoronesa]

Pex directly to the heater is perfectly fine in our code. Galvanised, what for nowadays? Only seen galvy in 3-4 very old houses and only used for drains and a water main column for government buildings. That's it.

They were rhetorical questions. I was giving you a ribbing :smile:


I have seen the sheath on fosta pex slide over the crimp ring from too much heat. I don't like the idea of pex right on a water heater. Should be after the tempering valve. If someone cranks the temp up on their indirect the pex could get pulled out of a fitting if it's not supported correctly.



The only time I use galv is for rough nipples or if they have threaded stops and the house is garbage. I am not wasting seamless chromed brass nipples on a garbage house in a pos mdf vanity where you'll never see them.




I did use a 2"x1-1/2" galv bushing at a school the other day. They had removed a sink in the kitchen years ago and the 2" galv tee in the wall was plugged and then cemented over so my manager only ordered me an 1-1/2" trap adapter. I happen to have the bushing because I used it to test something years ago.


That 2" plug was like Excalibur. Three foot cheater on my 18". Two foot wrench was slipping off because the jaws were too wide. I heated it up first with my torch and lit something in the wall on fire so I ran to fill a bucket. Turned out to just be some paper towel they stuffed in to hold the wet concrete.







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[skoronesa]

And some guys said I would never use that trimo!! lolz





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[OpenSights]

That LL that freaked out because both my master and I coughed. Well he’s been group texting both of us. We looked at it yesterday to get sizes and what we need.

He does admit he knows nothing about plumbing, sometimes I think that’s a bad thing...

He called saying his maintenance guy couldn’t shut the water down to make other repairs. Tuesday we waited for 45 minutes and gave up and left to finish installing a tub for him at a different property. 10:30 he calls and asks where we are. I told him we waited for him and gave up. “Oh, I thought we were meeting at 10.”

Anyway the group text started going off again today. I’m sure y’all will be to follow with the names blacked out.

Second is me texting my Master during the blitz...

 

[chonkie]

:vs_laugh: What a doofus. He deserves the idiot tax.

 

[OpenSights]

:vs_laugh: What a doofus. He deserves the idiot tax.

Now he only wants us to replace the valve on the house side of the meter.

Here are the pictures he sent us last week....

 

[skoronesa]

Now he only wants us to replace the valve on the house side of the meter.

Here are the pictures he sent us last week....

I say replace everything, those meters look ancient.





I would do a nipple in 3/4" or 1" on the right one and then switch back to 1/2". This way if they upsize later you have a piece there to connect to. Also, depending on the pressure may want a prv.









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[OpenSights]

I say replace everything, those meters look ancient.





I would do a nipple in 3/4" or 1" on the right one and then switch back to 1/2". This way if they upsize later you have a piece there to connect to. Also, depending on the pressure may want a prv.









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1” brass on the city side, 1 1/4” copper on the building side. The meter on the right seems to feed one hose bib which has no guts.

I agree, replace it all, but he is cheap.

 

[skoronesa]

1” brass on the city side, 1 1/4” copper on the building side. The meter on the right seems to feed one hose bib which has no guts.

I agree, replace it all, but he is cheap.

That is an irrigation meter. That's common on large properties. Water for irrigation doesn't count towards the sewer bill......because it isn't going down the sewer.


My point was that it's a whole separate meter and only a 1/2" nipple. I would upsize that for a foot or two and then switch to 1/2". I know it's only a small difference but if they choose to add to that line it gives you easier options, especially if you propress it now or later.


Although if there's almost no grass than I guess it probably won't get any additions later.








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[OpenSights]

That is an irrigation meter. That's common on large properties. Water for irrigation doesn't count towards the sewer bill......because it isn't going down the sewer.


My point was that it's a whole separate meter and only a 1/2" nipple. I would upsize that for a foot or two and then switch to 1/2". I know it's only a small difference but if they choose to add to that line it gives you easier options, especially if you propress it now or later.


Although if there's almost no grass than I guess it probably won't get any additions later.








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Trust me, I’m far more familiar with irrigation than I’d like!