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Real Life Plumbing Advice for People Who Don't Want To Call A Plumber

Clogged Drain / D.I.Y.

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So you have a clogged drain, what do you do now? Do you attempt to clear it yourself or do you call in a professional? That could be expensive, so you watch a couple of YouTube videos and decide to give it a go! At the very least you could try the good old baking soda and vinegar trick or take a chance with some of the over counter drain cleaning products. Oh and don’t forget the old reliable plunger!

You keep working on it and after and hour or two you still have a clogged drain. Now what? I bet the clog is in the “P” trap under the sink so I’ll bail out the water, take the trap apart and clear the clog. You remove the trap only to find nothing, you reassemble the drain pipes turn the water on and guess what! Your drain is still clogged. It decision time, should I call the plumber or should try to snake out the drain myself?

This is where people get into trouble, they figure I’ll go out to the home center get an inexpensive drain snake and cable the line myself. You look under the sink at the drain pipe exiting the wall and start cabling away but soon come to realize you’re having trouble getting the snake to go down. What seemed like a simple task has now turned into hours, not the mention the mess and stink from pulling the cable in and out.

Your wife or significant other is begging you to call in a professional and stop the insanity, but you press on only to find out no matter what you do, you can’t clear this clogged drain. You’re not alone, fact is behind the wall there could be any number of piping arrangements that is preventing your snake from going down. In a perfect world there should be a basic “TY” connection facing forward and you should be able to direct your cable straight down the drain. But not being able to see behind the wall, you’re totally stumped!

In the following video I lay out the pitfalls of drain cleaning and point out some reasons you may want to call in a professional to take on a task like this. Speaking for myself, I very rarely dismantle the drain pipes to clear a stoppage. I do it from the top with a professional handheld drain cleaning machine which allows me to run the water and flush the line out once I clear the stoppage. I suggest you watch the video first before you get in over your head!

HAPPY PlUMBING!
Bob

Bathtub Drain Stopper / Trip Waste Assembly

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The Bathtub Drain Stopper / Trip Waste Assembly is found in countless bathrooms across the country and it’s basically a fool proof way of filling your bathtub when taking a bath. Right? Well maybe…

Prior to this modern method of keeping your bath water in the tub, many homes use to have “Standing Waste & Overflow” a tall cylindrical barrel standing next to the tub with an interior plunger which allowed you to stop the water so you could bathe. Drop  the plunger down and it stopped the water, lift it up and the water would drain.

They were eventually phased out (although thousands are still in service today) because they simply are no longer code compliant in most municipalities across the country. Enter the modern Trip Waste Assembly a simple device which can easily be operated by a flick of a lever located in the bathtubs overflow. Flick it up and the water stops, flick it down and the water drains.

Generally trouble free but as time goes by hair, soap scum and variety of mysterious childrens toys make their way into the drain and interfere with plunger causing it to hang up or not operate at all. In addition the linkage that connects the plunger to the trip lever up top gets loose or completely disconnected.

When this happens some minor (or major) adjustments will be required by removing the overflow plate / trip lever assembly and exploring exactly what the issue could be. The overflow is also the access through which you would run an electric snake in the event of a complete tub blockage.

Care must be taken when performing either of these procedures because not all overflows are secured to the tub thru use of a backup plate which is screwed directly  into the overflow tube. If buy chance that overflow tube becomes dislodged from the waste tee inside the wall, you’ll be placing a call into your local friendly plumber (ouch). This is especially true  when trying to clear a stoppage with an electric snake.

An occasional lubrication of the plunger and linkage is always recommended, but care must be taken whenever you remove the overflow plate / trip lever. Check out the video below to have a better understanding of how the bathtub drain stopper / trip waste assembly works. If you get stuck, you can always reach me at info@bobsplumbing videos.com. I hope you’re getting some useful tips from these videos and if so, please subscribe to my youtube channel, give me a thumbs-up  and leave your comments.

Regards & Happy Plumbing,

Bob

 

Pipes Under Kitchen Sink Keep Coming Apart

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Do the pipes under your kitchen sink keep coming apart? You’re not alone and in my experience it always ends up being an auxiliary or secondary sink farthest from the “P” trap. I’ll generally use a 24″ watse bend that is connected to a dual inlet “P” trap that is commonly found here in the big apple.

When I’m called in to make repairs under kitchen sinks I’m amazed at what some people keep under their. Just trying to get to the leak is a job in itself not mention the customer never empties out the cabinet before I arrive. I find electrical tape, duct tape, wooded supports trying to hold everything together and it all eventually fails.

When I work with thin gauge tubular waste pipes I like to use either the supplied rubber or beveled nylon washers. I’ll apply some mega lock pipe joint compound the to male end threads, and after I make the up the nuts with my channel lock pliers or pipe wrench. they’re pretty darn secure. I test for leaks by filling and draining the sink a few times and all is good to go. Right? Not so fast!

It doesn’t happen often but on some jobs I ultimately end up getting a callback because the pipe came loose or fell which frankly could not have happened unless stuff was getting thrown around. The kitchen base cabinet seems to be the place where all the misc. junk seems to find a home. You open the door throw everything in and close the door and eventually it all piles up in, around and on the drain pipes.

So I return re-set the job and I’m on my way. Weeks or a month or two later I get the same callback for the same problem and realize soon the this is not a workmanship problem but a people problem! Plan B – I don’t generally like using wood supports that I’ll notch out so the pipe can rest in because it just looks horrible and if they’re throwing stuff under the cabinets without looking, chances are they’ll knock the support out as well.

I make my final trip (fingers crossed) looking into the cabinet saying to myself there’s no way I’m coming back here again and it dawns on me that one simple technique could end this insanity once and for all. Why I didn’t think of it sooner is beyond me but this is how I connect all my auxiliary sinks that run close to 24″ from the primary sink. It’s worked out quite well for me and if you can get the technique down, I know it will work for you. Check out the video below to see exactly how I make this work and as always if you have questions you can email me at info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

Regards & Happy Plumbing

Bob

Gas Water Heater Pilot Light Video

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You hop into the shower ready for the day ahead and realize you have no hot water. Now What? Well if you own a gas water heater chances are that A. your heater could be leaking or B. your Gas Water Heater Pilot Light is out.

The pilot light in a gas water heater is made possible by either of two devices. In older water heaters it’s called a thermocouple which is a heat sensing bulb attached to a copper capillary which connects to the fuel control valve. It produces a small electrical signal (millivolts) which allows the pilot to stay lit.

In newer style water heaters the manufacturers will provide either the traditional thermocouple or a pilot generator which is a larger sized sensing bulb and instead if a copper capillary tube, they actually use shielded light gauged wires which connect to the fuel control valve and again allow the pilot to stay lit.

 

In older water heaters thermocouples have a tendency to burn out which is not unusual, but in some cases, it may have moved out of position keeping it from sensing the heat generated by the pilot light. I’ve actually seen new water heaters having pilot outage issues because the thermocouple moved out of position while in transit.

 

In nine out of ten cases in my experience, the Gas Water Heater Pilot Light went out because the thermocouple lost it ability to generate enough voltage to keep the pilot going. A common repair in the world of gas water heaters. I have not had the opportunity to replace a pilot generator with the shielded wire leads on a gas water heater to date. Although I did have to replace one on my own gas fireplace.

In the video below I illustrate an older water heater followed by a more modern version and take through some steps needed should you decide to attempt this repair yourself. WARNING: I do not recommend the D.I.Y. person take on a repair like this but I know that many in fact do and with that in mind hopefully I can help you avoid some pitfalls in the process. If you having any doubt at all about attempting this type of repair, STOP and contact a qualified professional technician.

I hope you enjoy the video, and if so I’d appreciate a thumbs up and please subscribe to my youtube channel www.bobsplumbingvideos.com. I look forward to seeing you in my next video, stay well and as always HAPPY PLUMBING!

Bob

 

 

How To Solder Copper Tubing & Avoid Burning Down Your House!

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So I had a wonderful YouTube viewer moan to me about how to solder copper tubing videos were a dime a dozen and rather than show my soldering techniques, I should show how to avoid burning down your house when soldering in close quarters. It is a great idea for a video and I guess I should thank him for the idea, but man people are just miserable!

Anyway, when soldering copper tubing it’s not always out in the open away from flammable materials and that presents a problem. At the very least you should always have a fire extinguisher at the ready god forbid thing’s get out of hand. It happened to me one time in my career and it scared the living hell out of me.

I was replacing two copper emergency water shut-off valves under a pedestal basin. There was approximately 2″ of copper sticking past the wall and I started with the hot water on the left side. The old valve came off without incident and I quickly soldered the new one on. Lunch time!

As I was cleaning up the area for my return I started to hear what sounded like a “crackling noise” and could not pinpoint what was happening. Well, my instincts took over, I put my ear up against the sheetrock wall above the sink and knew instantly that the fiberglass insulation was starting to burn.

How To Aviod A Home Fire

Without hesitation, I called down to the homeowner and told her to call the fire department and immediately grabbed my hammer to the wall above the sink. I reached in and pulled out the batt of insulation that was starting to take off and tossed it into the bathtub where I dowsed it with water.

The fire dept arrived in record time and they came in gangbusters ready to destroy the place, but I begged them to hold off I’m pretty sure I solved the problem. They proceeded to look into the wall cavity with some infra-red heat detecting equipment and were satisfied that there was no need to open up walls. Needless to say, I was a basket case and it must have shown.

As they were leaving one of the firefighters came over to me and said: “you saved this ladies house”. Kind words indeed, but I was visibly shaken as nothing like that had never happened to me before. This is one of the times when you thank god your liability insurance is paid up and in good standing. Although this was six attached condominiums and my limits at that time would never have covered a complete loss!

I took a long lunch break came back and finished soldering on the cold water valve, followed by a thorough cleaning of the bathroom. The following day I sent my tile man to the house to re-insulate and patch the wallboard, followed by painting the entire bathroom. An experience I will never forget nor take for granted when using an open flame inside or outside of a wall. All it takes is one stray spark to get away and your life could change forever.

How To Solder Copper Tubing & Avoid a Disaster!

I tell this story so those of you who are considering doing some D.I.Y. soldering are aware that there are some products available on the market that will greatly reduce (not eliminate) the chances of something like the above from happening to you. One is La-Co Heat Gel Cool Barrier Spray which you can spray on all the surrounding areas to avoid heat transfer to most surfaces.

The next item is the Oatey 31400 Bagged 9″ X 12″ Flame Protector which you can use to cover any flammable materials you want to avoid burning or scorching. I wet mine and ring it out before using it, but you can use it dry as well. Finally, the Kidda Multi Purpose Fire Extinguisher god forbid things get out of hand. Folks, it happened to me and it can happen to you!

Check out the video below where I demonstrate both the La-Co Heat Gel and the Oatey Flame Protector. And to the moaning You-Tube viewer who wasn’t impressed with my How To Solder Copper Tubing videos, thanks for the tip! I think it made a great blog post and even better video! Until next time, proceed with CAUTION!

HAPPY PLUMBING,
Bob