Like most of the other things in this house, the water lines for the hoses were done in a minimalist style. And by minimalist, I really mean “the bare minimum to get the job done with delusions of adequacy.”
Across the 30′ width of the house, the pipes were attached to the hose spigots, then one support on each side of the center wall, and there was a tee to the water line for the kitchen. Looks a little something like this.
Not only do I plan to put lights between some of the beams, I also don’t want to worry about trying to frame and sheetrock around a pipe in the middle of a wall. Plus, it just offends my sense of how things should be done.
I relocated the pipe back to one of the beams, and put clips up roughly every four feet to hold it in place. Of course, there were a few complications. Like the fact that this spigot isn’t actually attached to anything except the pipe.
Out came the drill, and some masonry screws, and the spigot was permanently attached to the wall.
I rerouted the pipe, added some connections, and voila:
OK, not quite.
You see, there’s an art to plumbing. As in, melting metal and using it to fill in the gaps where two pipes meet so that the water stays on the correct side of the pipe.
I take up a torch about once every five years, and relearn that art in the most painful manner possible.
When I turned the water back on, two leaks. OK, water off, drain lines again, replace the leaky bits. Turn the water back on.
Great, just one leak. Notes to self:
- Once a pipe is in place, don’t turn it
- Wait for the solder to solidify before putting pressure on a joint – that cracking noise is a bad thing
It took three tries to get the pipe to convey water from point A to point B without spraying it all over the basement. But it’s done.
At Least the Roof Leaks 