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"Somebody Call a Plumber!"
By Ralph Moore
We had been married for a couple of years, when my wife
and I decided we needed a place of our own..
Our `new` house, a three bedroom ranch with a full basement,
was a big step up from the tri-level that we had been sharing
with our long-time friends.
I guess we had been there for about a year, or so, when a
shut-off valve in the basement decided to start leaking.
Since I had grown up helping my dad with a variety of
household projects, including plumbing, I decided to tackle
the job myself.
It was Friday night, so I began making a list of the parts
that I would need. I figured I would get up Saturday
morning and get this minor annoyance taken care of in time
for lunch.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed that all of the plumbing
in that area of the house looked like a big jumbled up
plate of spaghetti. This would never do. "Might as well
clean up the whole mess, while I`m at it!", I thought.
So, I made some notes and a "map" so that I would know
"what went where", when it was time to put it all back
together again.
Saturday was a beautiful summer morning. As I drove to
Central Hardware, the birds were singing and the sun was
shining. Even the store clerks seemed to be extra pleasant
this morning. It was a regular "zippidy-doo-dah-day".
In no time at all, I had what I needed and headed back
to the "ranch".
With all of my tools and plumbing supplies nearby, I was
ready to start. First, I had to find the shut-off valve.
It wouldn`t do to have a hundred pounds of water
pressure blasting me in the face. With that out of the
way, I was finally ready to start the actual repairs.
I had a small pipe cutter, which I clamped onto the old
copper pipe, ahead of my repair area. The idea is to
rotate the cutter around the pipe, while continually
tightening it, so as to make a clean, even cut.
(Boy, was I glad I had the foresight to turn off the
water supply line!)
It`s a funny thing about water pressure. Even when you
remember to shut off the "shut-off valve", there is still
a LOT of pressure (and water) in the lines.
Luckily, I remembered to have a two-gallon bucket nearby,
to catch the gallon or so of water, that I wasn`t already
wearing, as it blasted out of the pipe. Somehow, my simple
project was getting out of hand.
Even though I was soaked from the waist up, I forged
ahead, managing to remove all of the pipe that I was
going to replace. By now, it was lunch time, and I opted
for a much-needed break. This was beginning to take a
little longer than I thought it would, but I should still
be able to finish up by early afternoon.
After lunch, I began measuring, cutting and dry-fitting all
of the pieces of copper pipe. I wanted to be sure
everything would go together smoothly, before I actually
began the soldering process.
Being careful to properly clean the inside and outside of
each fitting, I began soldering. (Before you start
soldering, it is always a good idea to make sure
there is no water standing in the pipes.)
If there IS water standing in the pipes, well, it can be
darn near impossible to get the pipes hot enough to melt
butter, let alone solder.
Another interesting bit of information about this whole
soldering business, is that it is something of a "linear"
process. If you have, for instance, carefully soldered
together several pieces, only to eventually find, for
example, water in the pipes, you might have to take
everything apart again to remove all of the water.
By now, it was about three in the afternoon, and I had
finally managed to remove all of the water and get all
of the pieces soldered together again.
Confident that I had attained my goal, I called to my
wife so that she could share in my moment of triumph.
It only remained to turn on the shut-off valve.
Have you ever seen those fountain style sprinklers for
your lawn? This was a lot like that. I think just about
every connection was spraying a stream or two of water.
Talk about a sinking feeling. After all of those hours
of effort and planning, I was once again all wet.
At least my wife didn`t laugh. (I think the poor woman
was terrified that we might never have water again.)
Actually, I was glad that just about every joint leaked,
instead of just one or two, as it helped me to discover
what I had done wrong. I eventually figured out that I
had used the wrong kind of solder for my plumbing work.
Finally, at around eleven p.m., with the right kind of
solder, I managed to finish what I had started... this
time without any leaks.
The point of this story is simply this. You can plan
just about every detail of a project, but if you are
using the wrong tools or methods, you are bound to
fail.
There is an old bit of wisdom that says, "Measure twice,
cut once". When you take that extra bit of time to
double-check your plan and make sure that you have the
right tools and ALL of the information, you will have a
much greater likelihood of success.
Ralph Moore, editor of the FREE Eagle Flyer Newsletter
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