How to Plumb Piping in a Tight Spot Without Destroying Your Wife's Bathroom Floor
71Pam couldn't fathom how I was going to run the plumbing pipes under the floor in her bathroom without tearing up something. In fact, she was stressing over it.
Now, those of you who are married men are most likely aware of the old adage: Happy wife, happy life.
My original idea had been to begin with the installation of our new clawfoot bathtub (which goes in my bathroom) by first assembling the shiny chrome drainpipe assembly that came in the box. Which made sense, because the silicone used in the assembly has to dry for a full day before being tested, and that waiting time could be used to run the under-floor pipes that have to be capped off before the bathtub is filled with water.
Stressed sweethearts, however, transcend logic. Which is why the two-inch black drainpipe, at least, got top billing. No need to worry about the smaller water supply lines just yet, since those are much thinner, more flexible, and obviously "doable" if the ABS line worked out okay.
Why didn't I run all those lines before I put that big, single-piece board floor down in the first place?
Hey, that's another Hub entirely. Stick to the topic, willya?
Okay, time for a few photos to illustrate the challenge.
Not much to it, really. Since a 50-inch piece of pipe wasn't about to bend politely to slip into the floor opening and through the passage way, it was cut into a pair of 25-inch pieces, which would slip "down and in".
One piece was run northward (away from it's future "final resting place") and the other southward, leaving a gap between the two for just as long as it took to go find a coupling and the ABS cleaner and glue cans.
Note to self: Do not tell Pam about proximity of nose to pipe cleaner fumes being a bit too enjoyable. She was at Woodstock. Sang onstage with Janis Joplin, even.
Once the two pieces are glue-coupled together, voila'! One complete 50-inch piece of pipe installed under floor!
From there, it was simply a matter of sliding the "assembled" pipe stick southward to the desired position...and finishing up the "end work". That first required connecting the open north end of the under-floor stick to the pipe jutting through the wall into the bathroom.
I wasn't nuts enough not to run that part of the piping before adding the flooring!
The "turn and lift" to the in-wall pipe required the precise alighnment of a 22 degree elbow close-coupled to a 90 degree elbow. Why the lift is necessary makes for a long and tedious explanation--for this page, let's avoid discussing that. Yes, it will mean that the 50-inch pipe will act almost like a lo-ong pipe trap and will always have some water sitting in the bottom of it. Not perfect, but workable.
To get the precise alignment that was essential required the following steps:
1. Glue the 22 degree elbow to the under-floor stick.
2. Glue a one-inch-long connecting pipe link into the 90 degree elbow.
3. Dry-assemble the two elbows, twisting delicately to acquire perfect alignment.
4. Use a white crayon to mark the aligment.
5. Then glue-couple the two elbows together.
All the hard stuff (for this room, for the moment)...done!
The assembled pipe-plus-elbows combo was then glue-coupled to the in-wall pipe--which, by the way, simply runs around under my bathroom floor, collecting drain water from both bathrooms, and then hippety-hops on out to dump its liquid load into the three-inch toilet drainpipe leading to the septic tank.
Since it may be some months before the shower (and sink) will be installed in Pam's bathroom, however, it was necessary to finish today's process by slapping an elbow onto the south end of the under-floor run, adding a bit of standpipe (never mind the angle) and topping it all off with a cap.
And...Pam should be destressed a little when she sees this all squared away.
So, when Pam saw what I'd done, she understood immediately and chuckled at her own former silly plumbing worries, right?
Uh...not so much. No matter how I showed her the finished project or explained things, she still didn't get it. Not a clue. Nunh-uh.
Until I got lucky. Told her, "I just built a ship in a bottle."
"Oh! Why didn't you say so? Now I get it!"
Weird. But hey, whatever works.
Happy wife, happy life.
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Great do it yourself project I too leave such things in my hub's capable hands. Your title made me laugh out loud. Great job Pam!!
Robie & Lynn: Glad you enjoyed this. I had to think a while to craft the title...but knew I had it right at the end.
Just read these comments aloud to Pam. She says THANKS for the "great job" remark. :)
Glad you have a tub now. I wonder why it is in your bathroom and not in Pam's but I know you have some reason. Usually it is the wife who wants to soak and the men don't want to sit in their own dirt. I know Pam is going to enjoy a good soak and if I lived closer, I would give her a big bottle of smelly bath salts. Tell her the thought is there anyway.
I just love a guy who's handy. They are just so.... handy to have around : )
Lets see what it looks like when your done.
Exceptional Hub -- particularly to those of us who are always trying do-it-yourself projects unsuccessfully. I now see why yours works and mine doesn't -- you know what you're doing! By the way, met Janis Joplin a million years ago in Austin when she was still signing at Kenneth Threadgill's -- interesting gal! Loved the Hub - voted up. Best, Sis
Becky: The tub is in my bathroom and not Pam's because:
1. With Pam's level of disability, climbing over the edge of a tub presents a serious slip-and-fall hazard. She could not safely bathe without me (or someone) present. On a good day, no problem, but they aren't all good days.
2. She's always been a shower girl, while I grew up in an age that predates the shower--in "my day", only school gymnasium locker rooms had showers. Until I went to college; they did have showers in the dorms. Point being, I got used to tub-soaking from a VERY young age and never lost the craving. Besides which, you can read in the bathtub; a shower gets the pages all wet.
3. I'll tell Pam--she does love big bottles of smelly bath salts, especially lavender-based.
Suzeca: Pam appreciates me being handy, too. Her (most recent) ex is a highly skilled auto mechanic but never had the touch for other stuff (such as carpentry).
You bet there'll be a Hub showing the process and how it looks when it's done. I may not get back to working on it till the weekend. Long story; this week is nuts.
Sis: I'll be sure to tell Pam you met Janis. Pam loved her to the hilt. I've only one of her albums--well, it was really wife #2 who owned it--but still sometimes ask, "Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz...."
Thanks for the vote up!
I thought it might be something like that. I love the lavender also but my favorite is Sweet Pea and Lilac mix. Virtual bath salts in Lavender sent. They make the water so soft, it feels like bathing in silk. And the water is hard down there. At least, everywhere I lived out there. Soaking might help her aches and pains too.
Soaking does help, yes. We had a whirlpool tub installed in our Anaconda, MT, house, in early 2003--but lost all that when the money ran out and I had to go back to work in late 2006. Besides which, Montana was literally not agreeing with Pam; she needed to get back down this way. The difference between the times she's in close contact with her son and times she is not...are impressive.
I love the do it your self stuff... I have many of my own projects to do and I appreciate seeing others showing HOW things can be done. I would rather do things myself , especially this kind of stuff than pay and be unhappy with the result and the wasted money.
Pam you are one lucky woman to have a man as capable as yours is.
Mary, Pam says to let you know she had that figured out long ago--and she's not letting go of me, either.
Her exact words. :)
Yes, that's the thing about doing it for oneself. It's a bugger, paying out good cash for a bad job by someone else.
Becky... that bath salts sounds nice. And it makes the water soft and everything. I just might try to find some of that on the internet.
@ Pam I don't blame you... I , too would hang on to a good man. They don't make 'em like they used to. I am glad that they still exist, mayhap I will find my own someday. I wonder if I met the 2 of you when I lived in Silt, funny we were all in the same area in the same time frame.
Even if I do things slow , they at least will get done in a way I can live with. I am not afraid to try, try try again...I have done things and ripped them out, repeat until I liked what the result was... But I like to work with my hands.
Heh! You were in Silt? I ran through there a LOT, at least on certain jobs.
Pam is sitting here with me at the moment and reminded me that we even ate there once (really good food), and it was in Silt that I found the lanscaping cloth we installed under our red-rock yard (not plants till the rock decomposed and weeds flourished--in Parachute).
suzeka, you can get them at any store. They are also known as Calgon brand, to give you a starting place to look. I usually get generic. Costs less and does just as good.
I lived at the campground right on the colorado river and worked for my aunt in town, she had me pretty spoiled, I never really quit working for her, but if I found another job I wanted to try I could with out jeapordizing my job with her.. but after the oil field shut down there were problems and I had to leave as I couldn't make enough money to stay in the area. since there were only 2 places to eat I wonder which you chose, I used to eat at both places.. I usually ordered on the phone and locked up when it was done and ran and got it. I keep hearing that even 3 years later people still ask about me at the store... maybe we did run across each other ,I will talk to any one.... kinda funny its a small world
I certainly talked to everyone in the store when I went looking for ground cloth; I remember that much. It was fairly expensive stuff, had 36 tons of red rock dumped on top of it (which I then spread with shovel, rake, and wheelbarrow).
Our former neighbor in Parachute tells us that the new owners of the house (which we lost to foreclosure) ripped all that up and planted grass. It was pretty while it lasted, though.
Seems to me it took something like 6 rolls of the ground fabric, from out in the store's yard.
We left Colorado the same way. I was driving water trucks for PT (Production Transport), pulling in right at $80,000 per, till Obama got elected and the bottom dropped out. In early Feb., the company had to pull their horns in, go to survival mode. Those of us who were solid hands didn't get laid off, but had to go to 4-day weeks (12 hr. shifts) instead of 5--which meant losing at least 12 hours of pure overtime every week.
With a boomtown mortgage payment and a disabled wife's medical care coming totally out of our own pockets (no insurance), that put us under water. Tightened the belts as far as they'd go, crunched the numbers, and decided, "Either we get out now or in six months we won't have enough to rent a U-Haul."
The rest, as they say, is history.
And yes, it is definitely a small world.
Can't recall which eating place it was. Pam might have a clue--I'll try to remember to ask her in the a.m. (she's down for the night).
I think rock would look more natural and be easier to take care of than grass. OOOH I have spead literally tons of sand and dirt that way, lots of hard work! I worked the horse racing circuit and farms for 20+ years.
Yeah, I had no insurance and plenty of $400 pay it now!! Dr. bills myself, I experimented with adding some herbs and spices to my diet and for me that was enough to get rid of the pills and the DR bills, so far anyhow. So I understand the no insurance thing real well.
I'm at zero right now and trying to figure out how to get stuff sold with no camera, and no cash or gas to get at the stuff I need to sell. I need to get rid of stuff so I can get at least $2500 minimun to go to North Dakota. I need to go there I know some one wants a workaholic.!
I'm a little frustrated with my situation right now. It has to change sooner or later.
The places to eat are so different, from menu to decor and price. But the food was good at both.
The rock WAS easy to take care of...except we found out that after a hard-freezing winter, enough of it had become "soil" that various weeds loved it to bits. So you had to kind of wander around pulling stuff up every day or three. Which wasn't a big problem, especially because the roots were mostly still above the cloth and the plants pulled easily.
But when it sold, it's most likely nobody had touched the place and it had become massively overgrown.
Good luck on the "figuring things out" part of your present situation. Been there, done that...repeatedly. North Dakota should do the trick once you can get there, for sure. Obviously, you and I think alike--I've been telling folks (on my ND job hunting Hub) for MONTHS that they need "between $2 and $3 thousand in-pocket" before they head to the Bakken.
Pam can't remember the town there very well. She was only there the one time. (While I, on the other hand, at least drove through dozens of times with a water tanker.) Seems to me the place we ate was (a) reasonable in price, (b) situated on the north side of the street, and "plain down-home Ameican" for decor. But the memory's a touch rusty; don't hold me to that.
The weeds do that anywhere in the country if you have that kind of landscaping, I have made extra money pulling lots of them, tedious, but easy money.
Yeah, this isn't my first rodeo either, I usually have a plan and 2 back up plans to that. Being the adventurous sort I could go up there (ND) with less and just live in my p/u that would be @1200 for a month or so and I can do that even in the cold. MN born and bred, done it before as a youngster -30 sleeping in the car is no fun. Point is I have done it in extreme weather and I know what to do, I will only do so if desperate, and it may come to that who knows. I hope not.
Things will get figured out, they always do. I think the reason we think alike is repeatedly having to figure things out. I stumbled upon your ND hub while looking for info on the situation up there. My last remaining relative in that area is in her 90's, lives in Mandan and I will go visit but not impose upon her. She deserves the visits. No other family up there any more.
I have posted on the ND job Hub, too. I then saw other stuff you did and said, wow!! someone that thinks like me!!! I called the chamber of commerce in some of the little towns to find more info and I have read just about anything I can get my hands on. ND is where Dad was from so a little extra info from childhood visits and Voila; I know what to do! More research, especially after the national attention things got messed up. I knew the oil patch workers were going there, they were when I left the western slope. It just doesn't make sense to me not to research and make a plan. I can do the horse racing thing without much of a plan, done it for too long. New things need research and planning.
Pam had the important part right, good food. ok, thats the one I expected the 2 of you to have visited. Just according to the personality coming through the Hubs you write. I thought you would eat at the down home place, not the kind of snobby expensive place. Your memory of the place is correct.
Hey, glad I remembered the place correctly.
My Dad was born in Bismarck, saw his family's home go up in flames outside of Dickinson when he was twelve, and survived all that to hold the bunch together (as the eldest of 8 kids) till WWII came along. His Dad's 2nd wife, my stepgrandmother Sarah, was fullblood Mandan; they ran the little store in Mandaree for most of their latter years.
MN born and bred, eh? Been in the state many times, but never for more than a week or so at a time. On the other hand, ex #6 grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. THAT is an interesting place....
My Dad was born in Harvey,ND and raised in Bismark. I lived in California, near his sister for a few years. I sold cars and really freaked out when an old man that I was showing a car to asked if I had relatives in Bismark, his insurance man had been my Grandfather!
Yes Mom is from northern Mn and we spent too much time up on the iron range. The water is red is some of the lakes and it doesn't get warm enough to swim in the lakes until july. It might now, as warm as it has gotten in Minneapolis during the summer, when I was a kid I wondered how 100 felt. I remember wearing a jacket most of the summer too.
Can't say that I've been in Michigan's U.P. I know people that love it though. I've been to most of the states, I missed Oregon, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. I havn't seen Hawaii or Alaska either.
I guess I get around some.
I've had any number of It's A Small World connections like your California/Bismarck incident. Probably the most dramatic (and one of the first I couldn't ignore) occurred when I got to my permanent duty station in Germany on behalf of Uncle Sam's Army, circa 1964. Walked into the mess hall--and came face to face with Sgt. Gene Kyle. Last time I'd seen Gene, 3 years earlier, we'd been high school rodeo buddies in Montana.
My ex didn't exactly love the UP. She was raised on a dairy farm, and--as I found out the hard way--didn'tlike cows, either.
Have been to Hawaii a couple of times. Not Alaska.
Been around a bit myself. Born in Florida, raised in Montana,and have lived all over 8 of the 11 western states. Refuse to live east of the Dakotas, though.
Life can really throw ya for a loop. I am not fond of cows either. I just go where the wind blows me ususally.
I have just traded a series of e-mails with a friend of mine who doesn't understand that 800/week in ND is ok money but not great when you get done adding up the expenses, I told her get paper and pen and read your oil boom hub, I hope she does, as she told me that I could not afford to take my camper or my truck up there to look for work.
Just one more example of people not stopping and checking things out or thinking them through.
This one at least will start checking the stuff I told her for herself and is smart so she will see whats going on if she calls her ND friendsand reads the hub stuff.
I though I would love California, turned out I hated it there, never thought I would like the east coast better, turns out I do. I am just trying to get work away from Mpls this is the one place I never want to be.
I just got info on work in Iowa, who knows, funny thing is the woman I spoke with in Iowa said she'd mail me an app, they keep a file of apps and when they need help they go to the file, they do not hire people that apply on line in her department. Now I just have to wonder how many other companies may have a department or two who do the same thing? I think she offered to mail me an application because I have experience in the area they deal with and I could be easily trained in a different position, than the one I have had, if they need help and they may.
I mostly get along with livestock in general, though one nasty rooster did sink his 2" spur all the way into my calf one fine day in 1999. But I was a pro rodeo rider for a while; it would have been a bummer to "hate bulls" in that situation.
Lived in California from late 1984 to mid-1989, but driving truck there in 2002 earned me a subpoena: I was being sued for half a mil. Very dumb lawsuit, not hard to counter, but still irritating at the time.
I'm not much on coasts, period.
When I lived in Ca, I went to the pound and got myself a cat, she was the best travelled cat people ever heard of, and oh did she complain about every move we made. I had her for 20+ years. I moved 2-6 times a year with the track.
I bet that "spur" hurt. Some of the horse racing people also did rodeo. I was asked one time to help teach the calves to fall for bulldogging, not a good idea, I know nothing about it. Thats as close to rodeo as I ever went, other than poles and barrels as a kid.
I can just imagine the shock of a silly lawsuit. I would have been mad over the waste of time to stop it.
Yeah, the rooster did get my attention. Pam's reaction was quicker than my own. She kicked the bird clear across the corral. Twice. After which he kept clear of us to some degree.
As for the lawsuit, I can't say I was even surprised. But I didn't get mad. Gave that up decades ago as a waste of time. Just did what I had to do to deal with it.
Robie Benve Level 4 Commenter 4 months ago
Cool!