Saturday, January 23, 2010

This Old Cabin Plumbing #1

I have been busy at the cabin tearing out all the plumbing. I got tired of fixing leaking and busted pipes and crawling around in the attic with a torch soldering pipes. This is the first in a series of the adventures of de-plumbing and then re-plumbing the cabin with PEX pipe. So in this episode of This Old Cabin, we look at tearing out the plumbing.

The water pump, please excuse the sheet, we had torn out the cabinet.

The upper cabinet had to be removed for the PEX manifold to go in. We will replace both cabinets with a floor to ceiling cabinet.

The main galvinazied water line coming into the utility room attic.


The maze of pipes over the utility room.


Starting to cut the pipes and watching out for the wires.

This is where the pipes and electrical go through to the attic over the main cabin. There were wood plugs in some of these holes to help seal them off.

So when you are crawling on your belly through an attic always make sure the you watch out for hazards. This is a pic of the 220 line that goes to the stove with exposed wires. Thankfully I saw this before I crawled across it. Had to crawl out of the attic and shut the breaker off. I put electrical tape on it and will replace the wire when we put the new stove in.

Water lines cut to main cabin attic.
Had to remove the door moldings in order to get to the hot water line going to the kitchen sink.


Also had to pull the crown molding down to access the cold water line and old hot water pipes, much to Dee's dismay.

I pulled the molding down but not completely off the wall. There was the use of the reciprocating saw.

Had to cut an access hole in the kitchen cabinet to get to the the pipes.

Here are all the pipes ready to go the scrap yard.
Stayed tuned to the next episode when I install the PEX tubing and make a complete mess of Dee's kitchen.

6 comments:

Cedar ... said...

I'm so glad that you discovered that bare wire. This will be a tough job but well worth it.

Jen said...

Good thing you are a handy man!
Looks like a lot of work--but imagine if that were all dry wall you had to replace. That would be a nightmare to me. Good luck and hello Denise.

Bill said...

Cedar Believe me I'm glad I found that wire. I was at the cabin by myself. Could have been a big problem.

Jen yes thank goodness there is no dry wall. I am going to have to pull down the ceiling tiles in our bedroom though. The have gotten wet to many times. Eventually I will replace them with tounge and groove cedar like the rest of the cabin.

Thanks for stopping in.
Bill

gunn said...

My two cents...... Don't do any short cutting with the PEX . The product is a God send for projects like yours but do obtain all the correct tools and various fittings for your install. You will not regret the extra expense.
Good luck.

Bill said...

Thanks for stopping by Gunn. Definately not taking any shortcuts. Always easier to do it right the first time.

Debbie said...

Thanks Bill for documenting your plumbing job. It is so helpful to see your process and troubleshooting along the way, may help our guys when they get to the plumbing process, right now it's wiring and a scary change over from the new box to the meter but the snow is holding everything up. Any way it's great for morale to see others sharing their cabin adventures too.