posted March 17, 2004 09:06 AMMarch 17, 2004 09:06 AM

Hi, Everyone:

Been a long time since I posted...don't much anymore. ExW and my 'friend' have long since 'vamoosed' and there can be no reconciling.

Pipe burst last night. At worst possible place; right where the 90 degree fitting meets a concrete wall. I get out my plumbing tools ( I have worked with a plumber in the past) and I begin to work. Just as I am about to sweat (solder) one connection, water, somehow left in the pipe, flows and ruins the sweat. Please keep in mind that I am under the house in a 10 inch crawl space holding a light in one hand, the torch in the other, and the solder in my other hand. After much swearing I finally get the sweat done. I go to the other side of the wall and create the connection, which required a lot of cutting and fitting and such. Just as I am sweating that joint, more water flows, from where I do not care anymore, and ruins the sweat.
I get the water problem solved and just as I am making the sweat, my torch decides to stop working. I let go with some expletives that I have not said since 10 minutes before that!

I am on my way to the plumbing shop to get some compression couplings to avoid sweating at all.

I am tired.


Thanks,
A

<small>[ March 17, 2004, 08:43 PM: Message edited by: Not My Will, But Thy Will Be Done ]</small>

Be thankful that you can make these repairs yourself. It's hard to get a plumber to come to your house, and extremely expensive.
And forget about getting an electrician to come.

Are you moving on in life? Finding good friends and enjoying yourself?

Bread.... Stick a piece of bread in the pipe to plug it off while you sweat the joint. The bread will disolve and come through the faucet. Also, shake the pipe to get as much water out first. Heat makes the water come to the joint. Bin der, dun dat.

Hi Newly and Hired Help:

Well, I am about to get into the shower! That is a very god feeling.

I got the right stuff...though that was an adventure in itself.

You're right, Newly, I am glad that I can do all my own plumbing and electrical...it would be a fortune otherwise.

The shame of the bread idea is that I do not ever keep any in the house! It sounds like a good idea, though.

I have moved on. I could have a relationship with two different women right now, if I wanted, but neither one is right, so I have not.
I am the Chairman and CEO of jmj Software Corp. and will be starting a joint venture with a friend doing software consultation. Things are looking up.


Thanks and God Bless,
A

Good job, that you are able to do all the repairs yourself. I am learning, being a single mother now. I have two sons, that help me, but they are learning as I am, 18 and 20 year old boys. Their father doesn't really help much here.

I am thinking of painting the house myself, on the outside, to get it looking nicer. It should of been painted about 6 or 7 years ago. This deadbeat guy that my X hired, did a lousy job, and was slow as molasses. This guy weighed probably close to 300#s and took forever to get up and down the ladder. And when he bent over the neighbors said, you could see the butt crack. They watched him, and shook their head. Anyways, he left and didn't finish the job, and didn't do the trim. So I am going to ask my kids to help me, and that way we can get the trim done, and the front done. Will cost me money on what little I get from X.

But at least I can do this. I don't know how to do plumbing, but am going to sign up at Home Depot classes. They cost some money, but I thought this would be a good time to get ideas on how to fix things myself.

Glad to hear you are able to shower, and feel whole again after your shower. Sometimes saying words of intense meaning helps to VENT. Glad to hear you are squeaky clean, and moving ahead. Sounds like your business is doing well. Take care and God Bless you.

Dude! I know that feeling for sure - I hate it when water keeps leaking out of the joint. Sucks.
What I found worked for me was to take about 10 minutes with a few dry paper towels and keep blotting the pipe - twist the end of the paper towel and stick it into the pipe as far as you can and keep doing it till it comes out dry. Then... solder as FAST as you can before it starts leaking more water on you!
It worked for me.
TDL

I once took a toilet up, reseated it, ran a new flexible hose from the floor to the tank, put the thing back together - nobody told me I HAD to replumb the tank when I did this. And it was fine. Only thing my brother-in-law had to do for me was tighten, just a bit, the nuts that held the tank to the base. I have nerve damage and more wrong with my right arm and couldn't tighten them quite enough.

Fixed the leak that doofus couldn't fix in the 15 years he lived here.

I swear by the Reader's Digest book New Fix-It-Yourself Manual

You did well, congrats.

As for electrical, if it is more than replace a switch or outlet or lightbulb or fuse, it's out of my league.

Hi Faith, Sauron, and Cinderelli,

Thanks for your thoughts....Faith, sorry to hear about how lazy your ex was and about the 300 # guy, but I resemble that remark! However, I get up and down ladders real fast and walk between 5 and 8 miles per day and no one sees my butt cr*ck!

Sauron, there was just too much water for paper towels and the pipe configuration prevented me from even flexing it downward to drain it. I could not be too fast as I was in a confined space; a 10 inch high crawl space under a 50 year old house....what I finally did was to install a compression coupling ball valve further up stream, then turn off the valve and I had no further problems and could finish off all of my sweats.

Cinderella, you did well with your toilet. It is VERY easy to OVERtighten a toilet tank and CRACK it. They are more delicate than eggs. So, it is good that you had BIL to do it, because if he screwed it up, he buys a new tank and not you!


UPDATE:
The plumbing in my house is 50 years old and 50 year old plumbing don't owe nobody nothin'. When I got into the shower after my last update, the plumbing that feeds the shower gave way and I ended up having to replace that, too! Boy, was I angry for a few hours! But, not all of the plumbing in my house is 50 years old, anymore. Some of it is less than a week old! This Summer, I am going to rip out the rest of the old stuff and replace it with new and then I will be sure that I can leave it alone for another 50 years. My grandsons can replace the next set of pipes. I just hope that they never need to go to Marriage Builders.


Thanks, All and God Bless you,
A

<small>[ March 20, 2004, 08:29 PM: Message edited by: Not My Will, But Thy Will Be Done ]</small>