When home projects get stubborn

So, let’s remodel the bathroom, she says...
Let’s put in a Jacuzzi bathtub, she says...
I spent the better part of 11 hours moving the plumbing back an inch and today, I find my drain is directly on top of a supporting joist.
Looks like it’s time to frame up the joist in the basement...

I knew better... nothing is ever square in a 120 year old house but I honestly thought I was close. I’m handy, but no professional by any means.
All of it needs to get tore out and moved back. I was trying to not have the water off for two days which is why I installed the plumbing yesterday after pouring the floor leveler. Floor was 2 inches out of level.... but deep down I knew not to run the plumbing until after the tub was in.
Instead of sweat soldering, I decided to do it all in shark bites. I’m out of time. I should be traveling across the country right now.

I love Youtube ....

stovebolts said:

Floor was 2 inches out of level....

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LOL ... at least my fixer-upper was square.

Aside: I didn't put enough 'shelves' for things like shampoo on tub walls. Don't forget lots of them. Put in 100 and wife will fill them all!

The joys of what we think are easy remodeling jobs

Lots of things to do in our new home whenever we get past closing dates. Was to be on the 9th now moved to the 20th.

stovebolts said:

I spent the better part of 11 hours moving the plumbing back an inch and today, I find my drain is directly on top of a supporting joist

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11 hours physical work??
I couldn't do it. Even in my fiftees.

for_his_glory said:

The joys of what we think are easy remodeling jobs

Lots of things to do in our new home whenever we get past closing dates. Was to be on the 9th now moved to the 20th.

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Ha, nothing is easy in this home..

humble soul said:

11 hours physical work??
I couldn't do it. Even in my fiftees.

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And this, my friend is what an additional13.5 today hours will get you...

Fastfredy0 said:

I love Youtube ....

LOL ... at least my fixer-upper was square.

Aside: I didn't put enough 'shelves' for things like shampoo on tub walls. Don't forget lots of them. Put in 100 and wife will fill them all!

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The joists are a come back item lol! They are stable, but it wasn’t my focus today.

Im heading to Wa tomorrow morning... house has water again so it will have to do till I get back. Wife will finish the drywall and will start running tile on two of the walls.

Im exhausted...

I'm still trying to figure out why all the STOP VALUES. My current theory is that you get to a certain point and decide to stop by putting a STOP VALUE where you leave off.

To do all I've see you doing, you must enjoy the work to some degree. (Sucks if you have to met a tight schedule).

Fastfredy0 said:

I'm still trying to figure out why all the STOP VALUES. My current theory is that you get to a certain point and decide to stop by putting a STOP VALUE where you leave off.

To do all I've see you doing, you must enjoy the work to some degree. (Sucks if you have to met a tight schedule).

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Ha, I don’t mind the work. I just don’t like the schedule on this one.

The first time I went to college I was an ex truck driver building pole barns and cutting down pine trees. I liked being outside and I liked building things, so I got an associates in sheet metal. Somehow that translated into exterior metals (aka roofing) when I moved to Michigan, but I really enjoyed the custom sheet metal fabrication I was doing in Washington state.

The second time I went to college was for client server programming with an emphasis on C and Oracle. I am what you call an ETL Developer. Instead of building material things, I now build virtual datasets. Only thing that sucks is I’m in doors sitting in front of a set of monitors.

My son just started his own company and he’s having a hard time getting help. I helped him roof a house with cedar shake during Christmas break. It really felt good to get outside.

Smart with your hand stove.
I'm envious.

humble soul said:

Smart with your hand stove.
I'm envious.

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Thanks! Our house is about 120 years old. I’ve renovated each room one by one. The kitchen was the hardest. I’m not a professional but I get things done.
The nook used to be a porch. I put a header up and tore out the wall.

stovebolts said:

Thanks! Our house is about 120 years old. I’ve renovated each room one by one. The kitchen was the hardest. I’m not a professional but I get things done.
The nook used to be a porch. I put a header up and tore out the wall.


View attachment 11159

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I think wives love handymen husband's.

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This is some of the work I did. Luckily, my father-in-law is an expert so I could always go to him for advice. I think I must have replaced paneling with 150 sheets of drywall by the time I was finished. New deck was about 38' x 16'.
I had a front living room that was 22'x14' and 23' high that I split by making top 9' into a bedroom. The third pic gives you an idea of the height of the room before creating a bedroom.
When doing the shower the wife made me put in a ledge about 18" off the floor so she could shave her legs. (I never would have thought of it. Might be worth considering. You can't see it on the PIC as the ledge is opposite the shower nozzle.

if I tried that and didn't get a permit ,and have a license ,jail time .

illegal in my state ,no way would I try as to sell my house requires a home inspector and I eventually plan to se'll it and not die in my county if the lord wills .

if its not code I would have to bring it up to code and pay double for that fix ,once for me and twice to bring up to code .

all cuz of the theft after hurricanes back in 2005,its a felony to work outside of your construction license

Ha, jasonc I don’t plan on selling... our kids can take care of that when we pass away if they want lol.

Fastfredy0 , looks good! I see you stay busy as well! It must be nice to have somebody that knows the trades to point you in the right direction. I try to keep up with codes whenever I do a home project, but aside from that I just figure it out. In the case of our new tub, that means doing it twice!

I’ll bet that deck is really nice! What way does it face? We have a front porch that is nice in the heat of the day and a deck that’s great in the morning that faces east.

I’m curios, is that ladder OSHA approved lol! And yeah, that looks like a lot of drywall. I’m not good at drywall finish work and I usually find somebody to mud and tape. I don’t know, it’s a talent I don’t seem to have.

Here is a picture of the east side of our home with the deck. I took it a few weeks ago. I have no idea why I took it. I built it about 20 years ago and it’s holding up ok. If you look to the left, I have a covered pagoda that is super nice in the cool of the evening. It’s not very nice in the heat because of poor air flow.

petrified wood ,fun

humble soul said:

11 hours physical work??
I couldn't do it. Even in my fiftees.

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I can't count how many times that my job was to go into a bathroom remodel that the owner had been working on for 10 to 20 hours already and could not make everything click right. Most times it was one single solder joint that wouldn't hold solder. That happens when there's water in the pipes that wont drain off for some reason.

stovebolts said:

And this, my friend is what an additional13.5 today hours will get you...View attachment 11151

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I don't see any shark bite fittings.

stovebolts said:

I try to keep up with codes whenever I do a home project, but aside from that I just figure it out.

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I'm lucky, we don't have any building codes. I just figure things out. Youtube was helpful when making a shower (how to do the shower pan especially). My relatives are in Canada and they all like doing this sort of thing. Brother-in-law helped me split one 18'x12' bedroom into two bedrooms (to accommodate my son's growing family), daughter-in-law's father helped me make office in garage, father-in-law built stairs, other brother-in-law helped installed sliding doors, etc. I did do 90% of the work. Unfortunately, I've about run out of jobs for them to do ... lol

Looked liked snow in that one pic of yours. I left Toronto to go to Texas 25ish years ago because I disliked the cold. I see you have a 40' tower. I installed one for my dad in the 90s when everyone was getting rid of their towers and were happy to give them away for free.

stovebolts said:

I’ll bet that deck is really nice! What way does it face?

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The deck is on the NNW side of the house. It only gets sun in the evenings from the West which is good as TEXAS is hot. But, we don't use it much. We have a dock we use alot. That was another project. I saved 2K by taking down the old dock.

Paid someone to put up a new one. He did everything except the 12'x12' storage room, plumbing and I also did 80% of electrical (contractor brought wiring to a box and did the boat lift.
View attachment 11177

stovebolts said:

I’m not good at drywall finish work and I usually find somebody to mud and tape. I don’t know, it’s a talent I don’t seem to have.

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Well, I probably take 3 times as long to do it. My first room it took me 10 times as long.

stovebolts said:

Here is a picture of the east side of our home with the deck. I took it a few weeks ago. I have no idea why I took it.

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Looks like you are out in farm country.


Changing subjects... finally, here is a picture of my performing my 1st miracle. I think it takes two miracles to be given saint hood by the pope. (I think a person also must be dead for saint hood, so I may wait awhile before performing my second miracle... )
Where as Peter had difficulty with this, perhaps the pope will be satisfied with only one miracle. (optional: read the small print below)

(A papal inquiry into the validity of this miracle is on going. Many members of the panel are of the opinion that the lake water was 1/4 inch above some yet to be identified support structure; possibly a walkway and not a large fish as first reported.)

Stovebolts...I don't think you should use shark bite fittings. But it's your decision and it seems like a good product. Nevertheless, I'll share my experience and input for you to consider if you might want to use shark bite.

I can plumb from underground to rooftop, just never took the Master's test. I took the Mechanical test instead. But I've done a lot of plumbing and this is how I feel about shark bite fittings... I think Shark Bite fittings are great for use in an emergency. So I can get your water back on now and I'll come back and repair it properly on monday with the correct copper fittings...
And that's all.

Considerations: A residential plumbing system is designed to operate at a max pressure of 50 to 60 Lbs. In some areas the street water pressure can go as high as 150 Lbs or so. In some areas it wont go over 60 Lbs. So some areas with high street pressure will need a whole house water pressure regulator installed. Usually real close to the meter or house inlet.

So what is your areas typical street water pressure?
Do you have A Pressure Regulating Valve (PRV) on your plumbing system? If your street pressure is on the high side (Over 80 Lbs) then you should not use Shark Bite unless you do have a working PRV on your system. If you have no PRV, then be very skeptical of using Shark Bite for permanent piping.

When they say, a plumbing system is designed to operate at 50 or 60 pounds pressure, they mean soldered copper pipe! Ok? So any compression fittings would be ok at those pressures, but not over 70 or 80 pounds! You couldn't trust that for a permanent piping installation. See, with compression fittings, the higher the pressure, the greater chance of a leak. If your street pressure is 125 Lbs say, and you have no PRV, it's almost guaranteed to leak at some point.

I also know all the building codes so if you had a question about it, just call me up on the phone and I'll tell you what I know.