Took apart the wet wall in the half bath this week due to a leak near the floor. Turns out the person who installed the half bath was lazy and rather then use some copper they used a SharkBite hose to cover a four inch gap in piping that would have required a 60 degree bend in the pipe.
The hose had popped off when I turned the water back on in the house and was shot. I bought a new hose (no room to swet copper without tearing up tile floor) and replaced it. Turned water on and found faucet leaking.
Picked up the replacement part for the faucet to fix that leak. Turned water back on and everything looked good. However after the toilet reserve tank filled I could still hear water flowing...
When I went to close the water valve in the basement I saw a ton of water leaking in through a crack in the basement wall!
Near as I can figure I busted the elbow joint below that feeds the toilet in such a way that lots of water pours out while simultaneously providing enough of a connection to fill the toilet.
On the bright side this half bath used to be part of the porch so I can go under it from outside and gain access to the pipes instead of having to cut up the stone floor.
After reading some of these stories here, I feel incredibly lucky to NOT have had to deal with anything ridiculous like that.
The biggest repair I've had to do in my home is filling a bunch of holes in the garage with before painting the wall, and caulking my baseboards & outlets in the house.
It's for this reason that I ignore the more involved work my home needs and pray that my budget plan will bear fruit before the whole thing falls down. :-)
We took the plywood off from below the half bath and it looks like when it was built the new joists went straight across the old deck floor. Which means I have another floor to cut through...
Got lucky on the sink end of things. Previous owners had a bowl sink in the bathroom and used a long table with a hole cut in it as a stand. The sink turned out to be a pedestal sink but I could not find out who manufactured it.
We went to Home Depot and checked out their pedestals. While the bottom of my sink has a strange 3/4 circle slot for a pedestal almost all of the ones at the store are U shaped except for one that looks like a greek column. That one had a sort of U shape but it was also concave and was large enough for my round sink to fit on top.
Now I have a working half bath and sink and I saved a ton of money fixing it all myself rather than hire someone. I still spent lots of money on tools and such but those have reuse value.
This is from my house inspection. There was clearly an area dug out of the crawl space the previous tenants used to grow pot. There was still some of the wiring for lights. It always cracked me up the inspector put it in the report.
It was inspected while winterized. Water was turned on in parts of the house when the new furnace was installed (after inspection).
According to the Realtor EVERYTHING was turned on for the VA inspector and all sinks/toilets were functional. In that case a bad winterizing after inspection could have led to the pipe problems in the half bath.
I still got the house for a steal so... If I had paid top dollar I would be more pissed off.
It may save on the power bill but your furnace will kick on every time you want hot water.
What? I don't see how those two things are related. The on demand water is heated with a unit close to the point of use. I don't why the furnace would turn on if I need a shower.
The initial investment isn't worth is for how long I plan to stay in the house. Unless I'm looking at adding the cost to my resale value...
Is it really worth it to retro fit a house for on demand hot water?
I know it saves on the power bill but is it really worth the initial cost?
Depends on what the retrofitting would cost. If it's simply a case of replacing the hot water tank with an on-demand system, I'd consider it only when it's time to replace my hot water tank anyway. If it requires more extensive modifications to the house, then it's a more difficult proposition to justify.
It may save on the power bill but your furnace will kick on every time you want hot water.
Some hot water tanks already do this though. My mom's hot water tank uses her existing furnace (boiler, technically) to heat the water and then just stores it for later use.
A natural gas one may be cheaper to run up here. Just need to run an NG line to the unit. Has a self-contained burner and everything.
You could also try running one on propane, but propane is pretty costly.
I've been thinking about incorporating on-demand hot water into a brewhouse design. If I can find one that outputs up to 180 F, I could use it for dough-in and sanitation. Would eliminate an entire insulated tank from my setup.
I have been doing tons of work on the house this month.
a. Spare bedroom floor was cleaned of several layers of white paint. Ended up hand scraping the entire floor due to a hidden layer of glue. Floor was then hit with three coats of poly. Looks good but some of the black staining would not come out no matter how hard I tried.
b. Have begun tearing the roof off of the garage. Lots of holes in the roof and rotted boards. Also found three layers of shingles. Guess previous owners just covered the problem? I have an order of lumber due to arrive on Friday to rebuild the roof with.
c. Started work on fixing the split treads on the stairs. I think the original builders of the house built the stairs from below to try and hide nails. My god I have head to tear apart the walls to remove the treads and it is just lots of work. I have accumulated a large collection of square nails.
The stairs also lack a center riser and side risers as well. Instead Their are 2x6's along both sides with triangle shaped pieces of wood attached to the risers that sit on the 2x6's. I guess this was the way it was done in the 1800's?
Comments
This one was in my bathroom.
This one was on a tree in my back yard.
...
Took apart the wet wall in the half bath this week due to a leak near the floor. Turns out the person who installed the half bath was lazy and rather then use some copper they used a SharkBite hose to cover a four inch gap in piping that would have required a 60 degree bend in the pipe.
The hose had popped off when I turned the water back on in the house and was shot. I bought a new hose (no room to swet copper without tearing up tile floor) and replaced it. Turned water on and found faucet leaking.
Picked up the replacement part for the faucet to fix that leak. Turned water back on and everything looked good. However after the toilet reserve tank filled I could still hear water flowing...
When I went to close the water valve in the basement I saw a ton of water leaking in through a crack in the basement wall!
Near as I can figure I busted the elbow joint below that feeds the toilet in such a way that lots of water pours out while simultaneously providing enough of a connection to fill the toilet.
On the bright side this half bath used to be part of the porch so I can go under it from outside and gain access to the pipes instead of having to cut up the stone floor.
The biggest repair I've had to do in my home is filling a bunch of holes in the garage with before painting the wall, and caulking my baseboards & outlets in the house.
Replaced it and everything now works. In the morning I'll insulate and close everything up.
We went to Home Depot and checked out their pedestals. While the bottom of my sink has a strange 3/4 circle slot for a pedestal almost all of the ones at the store are U shaped except for one that looks like a greek column. That one had a sort of U shape but it was also concave and was large enough for my round sink to fit on top.
Now I have a working half bath and sink and I saved a ton of money fixing it all myself rather than hire someone. I still spent lots of money on tools and such but those have reuse value.
Also found out why one of the hall lights was not working. It was not wired, just stuck on the wall.
Note that when you do your final walk through make sure you flush every toilet, run every sink and shower and turn every light on and off.
According to the Realtor EVERYTHING was turned on for the VA inspector and all sinks/toilets were functional. In that case a bad winterizing after inspection could have led to the pipe problems in the half bath.
I still got the house for a steal so... If I had paid top dollar I would be more pissed off.
I know it saves on the power bill but is it really worth the initial cost?
The initial investment isn't worth is for how long I plan to stay in the house. Unless I'm looking at adding the cost to my resale value...
You could also try running one on propane, but propane is pretty costly.
I've been thinking about incorporating on-demand hot water into a brewhouse design. If I can find one that outputs up to 180 F, I could use it for dough-in and sanitation. Would eliminate an entire insulated tank from my setup.
a. Spare bedroom floor was cleaned of several layers of white paint. Ended up hand scraping the entire floor due to a hidden layer of glue. Floor was then hit with three coats of poly. Looks good but some of the black staining would not come out no matter how hard I tried.
b. Have begun tearing the roof off of the garage. Lots of holes in the roof and rotted boards. Also found three layers of shingles. Guess previous owners just covered the problem? I have an order of lumber due to arrive on Friday to rebuild the roof with.
c. Started work on fixing the split treads on the stairs. I think the original builders of the house built the stairs from below to try and hide nails. My god I have head to tear apart the walls to remove the treads and it is just lots of work. I have accumulated a large collection of square nails.
The stairs also lack a center riser and side risers as well. Instead Their are 2x6's along both sides with triangle shaped pieces of wood attached to the risers that sit on the 2x6's. I guess this was the way it was done in the 1800's?