[RR] Plumbing

[dperich]

Ok, now for the rest of the story….   Last spring, we tore out the downstairs bathroom concrete floor.  It seemed to be extra thick where the shower floor was recessed 6” below the regular floor surface.  Moved the toilet; widened the shower; put the sink on the other wall.  A buddy put in the new ducting I was telling about along with a new furnace and A/C unit in the basement.  The floor is now all ceramic tile.  I covered what was left of the exposed joists in the ceiling with diagonal T&G knotty pine with three coats of urethane spar varnish.  There are five small low-voltage, high-brightness lights recessed into the ceiling: two in the shower and three over the sink.  Wiring them was difficult.  I had to remove drywall and use a long drill bit to go up through a stud wall top plate.  Had to toss a snare over the wide flat furnace ducting to catch a “fish” line and pull it to where I could attach some romex wire and pull it through.    It all worked great for three months.   One day, the toilet in that upstairs bathroom wouldn’t quit running.  My son jiggled the handle and it quit.  Then, I noticed a puddle of water on the new ceramic tile downstairs.  Cleaned it up. A week or so later, same thing happened again.  The stopper in the upstairs toilet was becoming less reliable.  That didn’t bother me.  The puddles did.  What was only leaking when the toilet was running non-stop.  …No puddles with regular flushes.  I remembered hearing that when toilets run constantly, the water in the tank doesn’t get to room temperature.  The tank gets as cold as well water and sweats as it dehumidifies the bathroom air.  You can get a puddle on the floor under a toilet that keeps running even if it doesn’t leak.  I pulled the toilet off and replaced the seal and remounted the toilet and ran a new bead of caulk around the base.  The problem didn’t go away.  Where was the leak from and why would it start up 8 years after the installation?  A chill ran down my spine.  What if I had plugged the drain pipes together and forgot to put cement in one of the joints.  Maybe it just fit so tight that I didn’t notice that it wasn’t glued.  Maybe now it has just wrestled loose.  It probably leaks a couple of drops every time the toilet is flushed and drys out on top of the ducting.  I didn’t think that was the problem, but couldn’t imagine what else.   Tuesday evening, the day before I started writing about plumbing, I took as many screws as I could get to out of the heating duct.  I pulled off the duct edge connectors. There were still some hanger screws that were inaccessible.  Then I got my sawsall and a new 9” metal cutting blade and cut through one of the screws.  Then I was able to tilt two pieces of duct down at an angle and look above them.   Up there, above the stud wall, I could see with a flashlight the romex wire coming up out of the drilled hole in the stud wall top plate.  Just above the wire hole was another hole in the toilet drain pipe that I had drilled when I installed my wiring.  It was a little hole, but a hole none the less.  And though I could see it, It was not very accessible.   To get better access, I would have to remove more ducting.   I got the sawsall again and started looking for hidden screws sandwiched in the crack between the pieces of ducting.  I found two more.  I cut through one and as I was cutting through the other, there was a sudden noise of a WOSHHHHHHHH of water.  It started spraying all over the place.  I had sawed part way through a screw and, at the same time, part way through a hot water pipe just above it.   Do other people have these problems?   I had a half hour to race to the builders supply store before they closed. I got the stuff and fixed the two pipes.  I think I’m going to have to call my buddy the furnace guy to put the ducting back up.   Tomorrow morning, I’m going to replace all the brakes and rotors on my car.  It’s possible I can do it without creating more damage than I have to start with….I’m sure it is.  I think maybe I should spend some time in the book of Job and also in Psalms to keep my attitude right.  Can’t afford to have my attitude in a fragile state.  I’ve got Adventure Rangers keeping a keen eye on my attitude and my integrity.  I’m pretty sure they have almost a sixth sense about that, and the state of my heart counts far more than the content of what I say or read to them.   --Cdr.  Dave Perich.