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

How To Cut Out a Toilet Flange Bolt.

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I don’t know for sure where the majority of viewers of this website are located but I can tell you that if you’re in the New York City area and you’ve ever tried to remove a toilet bowl, chances are the flange (toilet) bolts aren’t coming off. That’s just the way it is in the plumbing world, so what do you do when faced with having to remove a toilet and the bolts spin endlessly in either direction. Well the only good choice to is cut them off and I would caution you not to go and grab your super heavy duty electric or battery powered reciprocating saw to do it. A good old traditional hack saw will do the trick or even better a Lenox close quarter mini saw like the one I’m using in the video. If I have the room I’ll always try to saw them off between the brass nut and friction washer, but that’s not always possible because of the tight quarters in most bathrooms here in N.Y. City. Unless I’m replacing the bowl I have to be real careful about damaging the porcelain with my hacksaw.So when I don’t have the room I’ll always make a vertical cut right thru the center of the bolt thru the nut down to the friction washer.

You can use a full size hacksaw to do this, but I gotta tell you I’m partial to my mini hack saw for just about every small cutting cutting task I perform. Now in the real world the bolt won’t be in a vise and in some cases it could proceed to rotate or spin around. When this happens I’ll just grab the nut with my leather-man tool or pliers until I get my saw blade started. Once the blade starts to make it’s way down it will make it’s own path and you can release the bolt. Now that you’ve made it down to the friction washer grab a “chopping” screwdriver, place it in the cut a tap a few times with your hammer and you should be good to go.

Use some caution here, you want to attack it from the side and not hit it like a madman. Keep in mind the bowl is porcelain and it doesn’t take much to crack it. If your cut is all the way down to the friction washer you shouldn’t have any issues at all. If you have questions or didn’t understand something you can always reach me at info@bobsplumbingvideos.com. Thanks for dropping by and I’ll see you in the my video. HAPPY PLUMBING!

Burst Hose Bib? Must be Spring!

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As the fall approaches and the temperatures start to drop, I’ll always offer to shut off the cold water supply line feeding the garden hose for my customers. Depending on how close we are to the extreme cold weather, some will say yes that’s a good idea and thank me while others will tell me they would like to keep the water on a long as possible. Especially those car enthusiasts who like to wash and detail their own vehicles.  Hey I get that, I like to wash and detail my own car so I smile and say No Problem! But don’t forget to shut it off before the temperature drops below 32 degrees.

frozen hose bibDo you know that every year like clockwork those same customers would call me back in the spring in a panic saying they heard running water from somewhere? When I arrive to investigate I ultimately find that the cold water line feeding the front or rear yard hose line burst. Actually the pipe burst and split open during an extreme cold snap. When I get the call it’s usually as the pipe starts to thaw which could be weeks after the damage occurred. Funny thing is that on all of my service calls I make it a habit to tag (bright day-glow orange) every valve with its description so the homeowner will know what its function is. But without fail, the same people call me every spring for the same exact reason. Thinking back, I should have invested the fees charged for those repairs in a good mutual fund. Lord knows I’d be retired!

Retirement FundNow some of you may be saying “Hey Bob why don’t you just install a frost Free Hose Bib”? Problem Solved! In a nutshell, I hate them! So called frost free hose bibs come anywhere from 10” to 12” in length, the theory is that these extremely long stemmed hose bibs which have a traditional washer on them will shut the water off closer to the inside of the home . This is supposed to eliminate any water from reaching the outer walls of the home thereby eliminating the chances of a freeze-up. In reality these valves are more trouble than they’re worth! They leak from the packing nuts when you open them, and the washers and seats generally fail. If you Google “Frost Free Hose Bib” you’ll see exactly what I mean. I’ve worked on them occasionally, but have never installed one for any of my customers. In my opinion a good quality solid brass hose bib that’s pitched to allow the water to drain toward the outside, coupled with a good quality ball type shut-off valve will do the trick. Oh yes one mention, there is a catch! You got to remember and SHUT-OFF the WATER!. Then again you can just call me back year after year to make the necessary repairs so I can fund my RETIREMENT.

Thanks again for stopping by and watching my videos and reading my blog, I’m here to help you in any way I can. If you have an unusual plumbing problem that’s giving you a headache, please send your photos and questions to info@bobsplumbingvideos.com. HAPPY PLUMBING!

 

How To Remove a Steam Radiator Valve – Part 2

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Welcome back to this two part series about How To Remove a Steam Radiator Valve.

If you haven’t checked out part 1 of this two part series I recommend you check it out and then come on back to see the conclusion. Check out How To Remove a Steam Radiator Valve – Part 1

Ok, so let’s continue here where we left off in part 1…

Up until this point everything is pretty systematic and if you follow my instructions as illustrated this is not all that difficult to do. I often see handymen and even plumbers trying like heck to remove these valves with giant wrenches and long pieces of pipe used as leverage to screw them off.

Not only is it not necessary, but as I mention in the video you’ll most likely open yourself up to a huge plumbing repair when the fittings below the floor break off.I would say that the most challenging steps in removing the valves is making sure you don’t cut into the threads of the supply pipe coming up thru the floor or cutting the threads inside the radiator when using your full sized hacksaw or mini hacksaw. You just have to stop just a bit shy of cutting all the way thru and let your chisel do the rest. The brass is soft enough so when you hit it, it will just split apart.

The small beveled chisels I reference in the videos are used to remove that portion of the radiator spud left inside the radiator after I shear off the union nut with my hacksaw. One has a single bevel and one is double beveled, you can use either one to get the job done. They also come in quite handy when trying to remove broken pieces of pipe from all types of fittings. Now as I stated in the video I can change out a radiator valve from start to finish in 20 minutes, but it probably took me years to perfect it. The key in successfully Installing a new valve is to take your time and don’t rush thru it.

Go back to part 1 and watch how I walk you thru the steps to get this job done with the least amount of effort. Work Smart, Not Hard!

I want to thank you as always for stopping by, please leave any comments below and I look forward to seeing you in my next video.

HAPPY PLUMBING!

How To Remove a Steam Radiator Valve – Part 1

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Welcome back friends, especially my east coast followers who have the privilege of heating their homes with good old reliable steam heat.

In this two part video series, you’ll learn how to remove and replace a steam radiator valve.

A majority of the homes along the east coast are still being heated with steam heat whereby a good old fashioned cast iron boiler resides in the basement.The water in the boiler is heated with oil or natural gas as the fuel, it then turns into steam and gets distributed through out the steam piping system and into big cast iron radiators.

The steam enters the radiators thru shut off valves located either on the left or right side, and to this day people still try to control the amount of heat that enters the radiator by throttling the valves on or off. News bulletin my friends! These are service valves meant to shut-off or service the radiator in the event of a problem. Some of these valves have been in service for as much as 60 years and eventually they will leak.

In part 1 of this two part series I walk you through process of how I go about removing and replacing them.To the novice handy-person the tendency is to get a large wrench with some leverage on it and then try (unsuccessfully) to screw them off. A word of caution “DON’T DO IT”! I can almost guarantee that you will break off the steam fittings below the floor which will lead to an expensive plumbing repair and that means you’ll to have call someone like me which you probably don’t want to do. Pay attention to how I systematically go about removing them, I can guarantee you that once you get the hang of it you’ll never try to screw one off again!

Check out this video (part 1) which includes my recommended tools for the job and then jump on over to the conclusion of “How to Remove a Steam Radiator Valve – part two“.

HAPPY PLUMBING!

How To Remove a Damaged Air Removal Radiator Valve (a.k.a. Steam Vent Valve)

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I did video on “How To Remove a Steam Valve” part 1 and part 2 where I illustrate the steps in removing a steam valve that’s been in service for as much as sixty years. In this short video I walk you thru the steps in removing the male end of a steam air vent valve that often breaks off inside the radiator. You innocently go to install a new air valve on your steam radiator and the next thing you know is the valve breaks off inside the radiator. Now what do you do?

Well you basically have two choices, get yourself a 1/8″ nipple extractor a.k.a. easy out and proceed in removing the broken piece as I illustrate in the video. The problem is that unlike a broken piece of pipe, the piece in the radiator is a very thin wall brass and it doesn’t have enough thickness for the extractor to grab. The result is that the extractor will start to bind and distort the inside of the radiator. When this happens I jump to plan b. which is to get an 11/32″ high speed drill bit and drill out the broken piece. Now it’s time to get a 1/8″ n.p.t. pipe tap and cut new female threads into the radiator. Start slow and straight using either an adjustable or open end wrench a little WD-40 or cutting oil and work the pipe tap back and forth until you’ve cut in the new threads.

You’re now ready to install the new air valve and in general I just use my pipe joint compound (Mega-Lock) which is a Teflon fortified pipe joint compound. I very rarely use Teflon tape on air valves (doesn’t look good), but you most certainly can. One last mention is that I referenced “international pipe threads” when mentioning the pipe tap, I stand corrected and the proper designation is “national pipe thread”. Well I hope I solved the mystery of how to remove that broken air valve and if I wasn’t clear, please drop me an e-mail at info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

Thanks for dropping by, HAPPY PLUMBING!