[skoronesa]

How does that built in drain work or what does it look like? I'm having the city shut the curb when I'm there.

I vacuumed mains when I'm swapping a main valve but it only sucks out a couple of inches with the vac directly on the pipe.

Good Idea, I'll have her sign I can't really do anything from the house to the curb.

There is a hole in the side of the ball valve body and a hole in the ball. The hole in the ball is covered by the teflon seal when it's open and of course the hole in the body is only open to the solid sides of the ball with a seal on either end when the valve is open. When the valve is closed the side of the ball with the hole is towards the house and the hole in the valve body is now open to the cross drilled portion of the ball.


It's a little hard to describe but I tried.




It's different than a standard stop and waste valve. A stop and waste valve has no extra hole in the ball.











.

 

[Tango]

I did the job this morning and what a $hit show, well it wasn't so bad. It turned out last winter the neighbor heated the house with little electric heaters because the oil furnace wasn't working. The old woman owed 1500$ to the oil/tech company so they didn't fix it. The neighbor did say she had the money but everything was locked in the bank and he had to buy her bags of chips with his own money when he visits because the money was locked. Strange!

I was about to start the process and realized the electricity to the house was also disconnected, I guess she hadn't paid that bill either. She'd been caught by the police driving without supervision. :vs_OMG::vs_OMG:

I had to go rent a generator to do the job, the place was in shambles. The curator told me horror stories, where in other houses that were abandoned, rotting food in the fridge, it literally blew up. In other houses garbage bags left piled for years, cockroaches, bed bugs. In some of them they had to decontaminate the house first before a plumber would set their foot in.

It ain't no Taj Mahal Mama!



.

 

[Tango]

I won't be on a preferred list either, she said she chose the first plumber that showed up online, good or bad company she didn't check. They have too much work so they don't shop around. Also they have to rotate so only one plumbing company a year.

3/4 of the way in the job she was hoping I could hurry up because she had to go pee, she even unplugged the air hose out side so I could pack up quickly.

 

[ShtRnsdownhill]

I won't be on a preferred list either, she said she chose the first plumber that showed up online, good or bad company she didn't check. They have too much work so they don't shop around. Also they have to rotate so only one plumbing company a year.

3/4 of the way in the job she was hoping I could hurry up because she had to go pee, she even unplugged the air hose out side so I could pack up quickly.

you should have offered your bucket to her and the back of your truck...:devil3:

 

[Tango]

you should have offered your bucket to her and the back of your truck...:devil3:

I knew you'd come with something when I was typing that! :biggrin:

She was also very pleasing to the eyes....:whistling2::whistling2:

 

[ShtRnsdownhill]

I knew you'd come with something when I was typing that! :biggrin:

She was also very pleasing to the eyes....:whistling2::whistling2:

any pictures of her? you got the other plumbing pics...:vs_laugh::vs_laugh:

 

[Tango]

any pictures of her? you got the other plumbing pics...:vs_laugh::vs_laugh:

Nope it's burned into my memory. :devil3: It's the only place where it's safe....

 

[Paulie B]

I do about 200 houses a year. Most have been designed to drain when build with copper water lines pitched to drains. We do have some that are newer built with pex tubing that were never meant to be winterized. In those cases we hook a hose Y to the washing machine valve and pump food grade antifreeze to every fixture. Most of our work is with Wells and to the well lines have unions and drains in the basement. Also the water heaters have two ball valves to isolate during the pumping. After the pumping we open everything up. In the spring we flush the antifreeze out and once it's clear we offer a chlorine flush and a bacteria water sample about a week after startup.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[sparky]

dont put anything in the potable water system!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! even if its non toxic, you may never get the taste of it out of the pipes and then your up $hits creek without a paddle....

You will get the taste out no problem,it is the only sure way to truly winterize a house or blding

 

[sparky]

Odds are the electricity goes out and it freezes faucets that are already empty is very slim.

Yeah I was looking for compressor on sale this morning. I'll have to check my garage to see if I still have my small one.

Good point on the water heater, I can fill it up with air.

If you use the water heater as a air tank(and it works) you will ruin your air compressor if it's a small one,it takes a lot of air to blow out waterlines,your little air compressor will burn up if you let it keep running and running and it will,I use a 25 gallon air tank along with the water heater and it still takes awhile

 

[sparky]

I'm wondering if I should insert a tube in the main water line as far as I can go towards the curb stop and vacuum it?

Unless its a ball valve it's going to be impossible to siphon out so that answers my question halfway.

If pipes are underground you don't have to worry about them freezing just drain as much as possible

 

[sparky]

The old name for curb stops was stop and drain. The valve has a 1/4" port that opens on the house side when the valve is closed. That is supposed to let the water drain back into the gravel, no one ever dumps around the valve. I can remember there used to be a something in the code requiring sanitizing the line after it's use.
:smile:

They are illegal now,we have a few of them around here but not many

 

[Master Mark]

One other thing-

The very first house I winterized by myself I pulled up in the drive and saw what looked like a 1 story small home. I went in, found a bathroom and made my way to the basement. I did my thing and all was good.

Went back in the spring and turned the water on. I heard water running upstairs above the bathroom. I never went and looked but there was a second floor half bath and the toilet tank was busted. So I had to eat a toilet. Luckily everything else was ok.

So now, we go in, open every door, look in every closet, etc for anything plumbing related. (I have found hacked in laundry connections in bedroom closets) I will then turn on a light in each room I’ve got plumbing in so I remember we’re I need to go.

We used to do as many as 300 foreclosed homes every winter...I got pretty good at it and usually had a process ..... I got it down to a fine science and kept the generator and air compressor in the truck....

I took a garden hose carrier and put about 200 feet of air hose on the roller... all I had to do was fire up the gear and drag the hose into every home. First drain down the heater and disconnect the water meter..... Then I would blow 150psi through all the pipes..... throw antifreeze in all the traps and put winterization stickers on all fixtures....

I dont feel it is cost effective to put the pink antifreeze in the lines if you know how to blow them all down properly and you will never get the taste out of the lines...

I was doing about 5 a day for a while and I never had a problem with breaks.. Lots of these homes were in bad neighborhoods and a lot of properties were un-secured so I went in packing a 9mm on me and checking out the whole house for drug addicts before starting the job..
I had a few incidents and close calls happen like being trapped down in a dark basement with a couple of dudes walking in on me.. I was well armed and was basically was left alone....

most of these houses were full of goodies that people left behind and it was more of a treasure hunt for me every day....

my average price for them today is 250 each unless someone is going to throw me a huge volume of them

 

[sparky]

I did the job this morning and what a $hit show, well it wasn't so bad. It turned out last winter the neighbor heated the house with little electric heaters because the oil furnace wasn't working. The old woman owed 1500$ to the oil/tech company so they didn't fix it. The neighbor did say she had the money but everything was locked in the bank and he had to buy her bags of chips with his own money when he visits because the money was locked. Strange!

I was about to start the process and realized the electricity to the house was also disconnected, I guess she hadn't paid that bill either. She'd been caught by the police driving without supervision. :vs_OMG::vs_OMG:

I had to go rent a generator to do the job, the place was in shambles. The curator told me horror stories, where in other houses that were abandoned, rotting food in the fridge, it literally blew up. In other houses garbage bags left piled for years, cockroaches, bed bugs. In some of them they had to decontaminate the house first before a plumber would set their foot in.

It ain't no Taj Mahal Mama!



.

If that bad I wouldn't worry about winterizing pipes,you ain't gonna get paid anyways

 

[sparky]

We used to do as many as 300 foreclosed homes every winter...I got pretty good at it and usually had a process ..... I got it down to a fine science and kept the generator and air compressor in the truck....

I took a garden hose carrier and put about 200 feet of air hose on the roller... all I had to do was fire up the gear and drag the hose into every home. First drain down the heater and disconnect the water meter..... Then I would blow 150psi through all the pipes..... throw antifreeze in all the traps and put winterization stickers on all fixtures....

I dont feel it is cost effective to put the pink antifreeze in the lines if you know how to blow them all down properly and you will never get the taste out of the lines...

I was doing about 5 a day for a while and I never had a problem with breaks.. Lots of these homes were in bad neighborhoods and a lot of properties were un-secured so I went in packing a 9mm on me and checking out the whole house for drug addicts before starting the job..
I had a few incidents and close calls happen like being trapped down in a dark basement with a couple of dudes walking in on me.. I was well armed and was basically was left alone....

most of these houses were full of goodies that people left behind and it was more of a treasure hunt for me every day....

my average price for them today is 250 each unless someone is going to throw me a huge volume of them

It worth more than that really,it time consuming

 

[skoronesa]

If you use the water heater as a air tank(and it works) you will ruin your air compressor if it's a small one,it takes a lot of air to blow out waterlines,your little air compressor will burn up if you let it keep running and running and it will,I use a 25 gallon air tank along with the water heater and it still takes awhile

Don't buy a pos compressor.
















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[Alan]

Does anybody have an engine-driven onboard compressor in their van/truck?

 

[Master Mark]

It worth more than that really,it time consuming

I totally agree,,, but if you dont have anythign esle going on that day it makes for good filler stuff to do,,,

we did this from 2001 through about 2008 during the economic depression times after 911........

I dont really want to get into high gear and do this ever again....

Since about 2008 their have been mexicans in town that were winterizeing HUD homes for HUD for about 60 bucks each... $60 bucks.. They were just throwing antifreeze in the traps and disconnecting the meter at the pit...... doing a terrible job... but HUD dont care.

I told them to go fuc/ themselves and got out of it back in 2009

 

[OpenSights]

Tango, I’m leaving Friday to winterize my neighbor’s cabin in the upper lower. I’ll take a few pics of my setup up there and my process. No signal of any kind, so I’ll post it early next week.

 

[Tango]

If that bad I wouldn't worry about winterizing pipes,you ain't gonna get paid anyways

It worth more than that really,it time consuming

Wow I missed an entire page of replies, what the hell happened!? Anyway it's the government who pays the bill, I doubt they'll skip but you never know. If they do it'll be very easy to go to small claims and hire a what do you call them a bounty hunter.

The compressor in the picture did a wonderful job. The bill, Mark was triple that but it included the rental of the generator and the city fee to shut the curb stop. I spent like 3+ hours for all that house plus renting the thing.