BobsPlumbingVideos.com

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

I Need Your Help!

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It’s March 31, 2017, and the last video I posted to my youtube channel was on Feb 25th. I’m sitting here in my office with a totally blank slate. So rather than racking my brains out trying to decide what content to create, I’m going to ask my subscribers. I need your HELP! What Videos would you like me to post?

After 40 years in the service business, I lose sight of the fact that my daily adventures don’t seem all that important to me. But I’m probably missing the fact that what comes second nature to me, may be of great interest and really valuable to you. So again I ask, what Plumbing Videos / Basic Plumbing Repairs do you want me to create?

Help!

Do you really want to see major plumbing alterations and repairs? Are you more interested in the materials, tools or the techniques to get a job done? Plumbing repair covers a very wide range of tasks ranging from very simple fixes to very elaborate and beyond.

Below I’ve created a simple survey and would appreciate your participation! Simply check off the content you would like me to create more of !

The fact is if you’re a homeowner you’ll most likely be faced with having to call in a plumber at some point. My goal here at BobsPlumbingVideos.Com is to educate homeowners like yourself about the art of residential plumbing repair and in the process help you save your hard earned dollars for basic plumbing repairs.

My equipment is set up and ready to start filming my next video so, please send me your ideas, your thoughts, and suggestions on how I can help keep the plumber out of your life! Regards, and HAPPY PLUMBING!

Bob

How to Cut Off A Toilet Tank Handle

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This post on “How To Cut Off A Toilet Tank Handle” is going to be a short one, as I agree with that old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”. In this case, it’s the video below which will unlock my trade secrets. Moving on, we all should know by now that when tightening pipe, fittings, nuts, bolts etc, it’s clockwise to tighten and counter clockwise to loosen or remove. The simplest way to remember this is that popular phrase “righty tighty / lefty loosey”.

But “stop the clock”, when we’re talking about toilet tank levers, that old phrase goes out the window! You see manufacturers figured out a long time ago that by constantly flushing your toilet, the handle would eventually become loose. So enter the reverse thread in which you would tighten to the left and loosen or remove to the right, thus keeping the tank lever from eventually flopping around.

Many older vintage toilet tank levers were made of a cheap white metal composite which would eventually fuse to the threads of the handle making it impossible to remove. Keep tightening in the wrong direction and you’re guaranteed to crack the toilet tank! When that happens the only solution is to cut it off or run the risk of replacing your toilet, especially if you’re not aware of the reverse threads.

Most homeowners aren’t aware and that’s exactly why I made this video “How To Cut Off A Toilet Tank Handle”. So why not check out the video and leave your comments, I would love to know what you think. Remember “righty tighty / lefty loosey” does not apply! As always, you can e-mail your questions to me at info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

Best Regards & Happy Plumbing!

Bob

Removing a Frozen Fill Valve Nut !

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So you probably won’t run across this problem to often in today’s world of plastic plumbing parts, so when a you-tube subscriber mentioned he couldn’t remove a plastic coupling nut from his fill valve aka “ballcock” I thought it’s time for a video!

Before we get into removing a frozen fill valve nut here’s a quick history lesson.

Back in the 70’s plastic components were not as popular as they were in today’s plumbing world and the material of choice was good old American made brass. Most of the better companies supplied a brass lock-nut and a brass coupling nut to connect the water supply tube. Eventually and in an effort to save money, some of the companies started shipping these ballcocks with a white metal nickel composite lock-nut and coupling nut.

The problem is that when you connect to dissimilar metals on water carrying components, a process called electrolysis takes place. It would literately fuse the two metals together and make it virtually impossible to break apart. When this happened which by the way was quite often, the only way to separate them would be to cut them off. So whether you were replacing the fill valve or just replacing the water supply tube, you more often than not ended up grabbing the hacksaw and proceeded with the task at hand.

To be honest before I grabbed the hack saw I would always set up a straight 6″ pipe wrench inside the toilet tank and position it at the base of the fill valve with the handle up against the toilet tank. I then would proceed counter clockwise with a second offset 6″ pipe wrench and try to loosen the nut. Bottom line is sometimes I got lucky and sometimes not. The thing is you can’t really put gorilla force on it because you always ran the risk of cracking the tank.

Anyway check out the video and hopefully if you ever find yourself in this position, these tips will help you get the job done with minimal pain.

As always you can send any questions to info@bobsplimbingvideos.com, I’ll be happy to answer them. Until next time,
HAPPY PLUMBING!

Choosing The Right P.V.C. Floor Flange – Toilet Repairs

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In this video I help you choose the right PVC floor flanges for your toilet. I focus on two popular floor flanges that are available if you’re using PVC pipe.

The sizes of these flanges are 4″x3″ and would be used with 3″ diameter waste lines.

There are many variations of PVC floor flanges which are available in both 3″ and 4″ diameters.

The one in the video with the blue adjustable flange ring is a no brainer because you can glue the flange onto the pipe and then adjust the ring for the flange bolt location.

The solid PVC flange is quite different in that you must pre-locate where the flange bolts will be located before you glue it into place.

If you miss this step you’ll have to start all over, so be aware and mark the bolt locations before you glue. The adjustable version is available in stainless steel, PVC as well as the painted steel version in the video. They’re also available for ABS pipe as well.

I personally like the flange that you can glue into the drain pipe. You just bring your drain pipe flush with the finished floor, set the flange and you’re finished.

With other versions you have to do some pre planning before you glue because with PVC you get one opportunity to get it right.

There are many other cool PVC floor flange choices available which I’ll cover in detail in a future video but for now I hope you have a better understanding of the two featured in this video.

Fact is, in the New York City area the two most popular waste line materials are extra heavy and no-hub cast iron pipe.

Cast iron toilet bends and lead toilet bends are still the most commonly found in this area.

If you’re unsure about anything covered in this video, please send an e-mail to info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

I look forward to your questions.

HAPPY PLUMBING!

How To Install a Toilet Re-fill Valve

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Well folks, this is a pretty straight forward lesson on how to install a toilet re-fill valve. In fact we’re going to cover a modern style plastic flush valve with a self-contained float.

These valves are readily available from any big box store as well as plumbing supply houses.

FYI the one in the video is from a company called Wolverine Brass who only sells to professional plumbers.

A couple of things to keep in mind are:

1. Always shut the water supply off before you attempt to do this.
2. Before you install the new valve, you want to adjust the height of the valve to the proper height.

I like to keep the top of the valve at about 1 inch below the toilet tank and I can always fine tune things from the float adjustment screw.

I try to keep the water level at about 1 inch below the overflow tube as a general rule of thumb.

Don’t forget to set the locknut on the valve body before you set it in place.

Trust me, it’s not going to be pretty if you miss this step, I’ve learned the hard way.

That valve will shoot right out of the tank and hit the ceiling, cool to look at but you better have plenty of towels and a mop handy.

Check out the video and send any comments to info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.

HAPPY PLUMBING!