Holding Pressure (Day 286)

Bob Brown, Dr. of Drips (aka our plumber), came over with his son Josh to check out my plumbing, fix a few things, build out the copper part of the system, and install the incoming water main. The water main will have to wait a bit, at least until KP Water installs our meter and Richard Gifford digs the service trench for the water and electricity (next week, hopefully).

The verdict was Michael got a B on the ABS (drains) and an A on the Pex water supply piping. For the ABS, I had forgot to glue 3 fittings and put a screw through a 4th. Conversely, they installed the washer control box and screwed up the drain line by not letting the glue dry long enough before testing. To test the ABS drain line, you put cookies (temporary plugs, not Oreos) in the open pipes and fill the entire piping with water. If nothing leaks, you're good to go (to the crapper). So we found a few leaks, drained and fixed them; refilled, found the last leak, drained fixed, and filled; and refilled for the final time. The inspector will come and check it out on Thursday. Takes about 50 gallons to fill all the drain pipes in the house, so we should be good to have some really big parties there.

For the Pex water supply lines, I only had one bad fitting. That was on the manifold that distributes hot water to the master bath room. It divides a 3/4 inch line into four 1/2 lines (shower, two sinks, and toilet). Didn't get the fittings up snug, so off it came and they rebuilt in in about 5 minutes (vs the 30 minutes for my original effort). To test the water supply, they attached my neighbor's (Jan and Carol Orme) hose to the washer supply line and filled it all up. Then they topped it off with 60 psi of air pressure. This morning it still had 60 psi, so the inspector will check this part out along with the ABS drains.

What I've come to realize is that professional plumbers (and others) operate at light speed compared to me and other home owner/builders. They know the codes (so don't have to redo mistakes), have a bag of tricks for making things easier, and they don't sweat the small stuff. Also, having all the tools and supplies on hand (usually in vans or trucks) means no trips back to the shop or plumbing stores.

This last go around with Dr. Brown cost me about 20 hours of time (2 guys at 10 hours). Going rate is about $70/hr, or $1400 and another $600 in supplies and tax (on labor too). So for $2000, they moved our stalled out plumbing project to completion (rough in) and removed another hurdle for getting to the last big inspection and drywall. After drywall, we are in the final stages of finish work. After this, we'll have about 60 days to get the house ready for our occupancy permit and move in.