Fresh Water Plumbing for the LittleHouse (Con’t)

 

Fresh Water Plumbing for the LittleHouse (Con’t)

by rdpecken on Mar.18, 2010, under Plumbing

So on Monday, after Sarah & Clan left for the Grand Canyon, we started on the north wall of the kitchen. First we worked on the water heater connections and the shower connections on the bathroom side at the same location. Again, a few 3/4″ x 1/2″ tees were put in use. The crimping tool from Lowes seems to make a pretty good feeling joint with the stainless steel clamps. We’ll see after we pressurize it…

Shower and Water Heater connections

In the next wall space, we attached the tee for the fresh water inlet, and another for the toilet cold water source.

Fresh water inlet and toilet source

We ended up moving the toilet water source over by a few inches, as it seemed too close to the toilet tank after the initial install. Moving it was fairly easy, with the PEX, as we just pulled it out of one hole of the bracket and pushed it into another. No need to change the connection at all.

Finally (for the inside) we ran the line to the bathroom sink in the same manner as we ran the washer source.

Bathroom Sink water connections

That pretty much took up our Monday building time.

On Tuesday we started on the outside. The source pipe for the house drops out a couple feet in front of our supply line in the ground…

Inlet Pipe

I drilled holes in the joists that make up the floor, to run 3/4″ PEX to the hose bib locations. This took up most of the day, as our big drill did not fit between the joists, so I had to use our little battery powered drill. But that was only good for a few holes, then it needed recharged. So there was quite a bit of down time.

Hose Run

I used the 1-1/2″ drill bit until it broke, then had to switch to the 1″ bit. Since there was about 16″ between each joist, this didn’t cause too much trouble in pulling the pipe through. The extra PEX was left coiled under the house until the next trip, when we will connect it to the feed.

 
Hose Line

So for the feed, I need to fashion something that includes a shutoff valve, a pressure pump, and a couple of valves and tees for choosing fresh water or an alternate source where we can provide anti-freeze for winterizing. The anti-freeze can then be pumped throughout the system by the pressure pump, while the tee valves keep it isolated from the fresh water source. I think this will be easier than trying to blow out the system with air, and draining it. There are too many low spots in the runs to safely blow it out, I think.

Fresh Water Source Line

So that’s it for this trip. Hopefully on the next trip, we will install the shower fixture, so that we can then connect the source and pump. Hooking in the hose bibs shouldn’t be too difficult (he says now…)Then we can pressure test the system.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Battery Upgrade for the LittleHouse

November 2022 Visit

New Internet Link