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Foler

The_Black_Log Foler

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Khane said:
This doesn't make any sense. It's not like the vast majority of a plumber's customers are asking for cpvc specifically, a plumber could get away with using pex themselves very easily if they wanted to and could still charge whatever it is they want to charge.

A plumber's money comes from labor, not materials upcharges.
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BrutulTM said:
PVC doesn't cost more than pex really. It takes longer to install though, and is easier to fuck up. You can make it look nicer because it goes in straight lines, but in some ways that's bad for the customer (more elbows, longer runs because you can't go places diagonally, so you have to run out more cold water before the hot gets there, etc. Also, nobody looks at plumbing except for plumbers so the straight lines and such don't matter to most customers even if it's a point of pride to the plumber. Where you really hurt the plumber is by not hiring him at all, which is easy to do with pex.
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Ironically everyone wants to charge more for pex. The $6000 quote (for a 2/2 small cabin) wants 10% more to install pex which I found fucking weird. They said it was more work since they needed to secure it in more places so it didn't knock the walls when valve went off.
 
Foler

The_Black_Log Foler

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So with this house being so old I decided to say fuck it and have a home inspector home take a look to help find the gotches.

The place has a GE oven that's prob 50 years old and still works. Pretty cool, will post pics once I'm out there again.
 
Foler

The_Black_Log Foler

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What material would you guys make a large outdoor deck out of? Climate is rainy, humid, hot etc.

Real wood or fake stuff?
 
BrutulTM

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Foler said:
The place has a GE oven that's prob 50 years old and still works. Pretty cool, will post pics once I'm out there again.
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That's pretty cool. I guarantee no GE oven that's made in the last 10 years will still work 50 years from now.

Foler said:
What material would you guys make a large outdoor deck out of? Climate is rainy, humid, hot etc.

Real wood or fake stuff?
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I personally think the fake stuff looks weird, but real wood is a lot of maintenance. My brother did a concrete deck with metal railings which is pretty much zero maintenance but might be very expensive if you didn't do all the work yourself like he did.
 
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Arative

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Foler said:
What material would you guys make a large outdoor deck out of? Climate is rainy, humid, hot etc.

Real wood or fake stuff?
Click to expand...

My parents have a cottage in Maine, so lots of rain and snow. They rebuilt a deck and went with the fake stuff, it's held up for 10 years looks nearly as good as when it went in
 
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Foler

The_Black_Log Foler

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BrutulTM said:
That's pretty cool. I guarantee no GE oven that's made in the last 10 years will still work 50 years from now.



I personally think the fake stuff looks weird, but real wood is a lot of maintenance. My brother did a concrete deck with metal railings which is pretty much zero maintenance but might be very expensive if you didn't do all the work yourself like he did.
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Arative said:
My parents have a cottage in Maine, so lots of rain and snow. They rebuilt a deck and went with the fake stuff, it's held up for 10 years looks nearly as good as when it went in
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I'll take a pic of the oven next time I'm out there. It's super retro...

Yeah.. it's currently made out of wood but it's constantly in need of replaced boards and maintenance. I say constantly but like every few years. Debating whether to just replace current damaged wood, resand the thing and refinish it or say f it and go fake. The cabin is vintage in the woods so maybe real wood would just fit the vibe better...
 
GuardianX

GuardianX

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So...I need to mess-up my bathroom again, I think I posted pictures of the issue last time and other projects worked their way ahead in the line.

The "leak" stopped for whatever reason but the wife is telling me to tear it out and re-do it.

The issue? I don't know which way the water flows in these pipes, I'm assuming it looks something like this:

1590034744896.png


But I have no clue and I don't know how to find out the direction of the flow.

The Green arrow up above makes sense to me because of the general layout of the home:

1590035059053.png


This is a Hot-water line -- POI being this manifold system, rectangles being tubs, circles being sinks, X being Hot Water tank.

The hot water comes in from the south, which would make sense putting it on the right, with a T that has 3/4 - 3/4 - 1/2.

If the incoming hot was on the left in this example the pipes under the slab may sit on one another and I'm BETTING that they didn't do this...or I'm assuming.

Worse case is I cut the water, attach my pipes and turn the water on only to find i attached my lines to a line that has no pressure and now have a geyser in my home.

Anyone have any expertise to add to this?

EDIT --

This is NOT my solder job by the way.
 
Uber Uberest

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Have your wife run the hot water and move your hand up and down the pipe, see where it gets hot first.
 
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Kiroy

Kiroy

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Uber Uberest said:
CPVC is the better product. The fittings for CPVC are similar to copperthe pipe goes in to the socket of the fitting, thus allowing no restriction of flow, you get 1/2” flow through a 1/2” pipe.

Pex on the other hand the fitting goes inside the pipe, immediately choking down your 1/2” nominal diameter. This is why high efficiency tankless water heaters struggle in these newer built homes where pex is used. Same for shower with multiple sprayers.

The internet is full of homeowners using this stuff and raving about how easy it is to use, but they have no idea about demand factors and factor values.

The installation of CPVC looks more professional as well, which in Massachusetts is a requirement in our plumbing code. This is just an aesthetic preference to me. You would prefer to see my installation of CPVC in a house you were building versus another plumbers installation of Pex.

I have never, and will never use pex in my
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not to mention you're drinking water that's ran through and been sitting in plastic, the more I read the more I have problems with even food (water) grade plastics
 
GuardianX

GuardianX

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Kiroy said:
not to mention you're drinking water that's ran through and been sitting in plastic, the more I read the more I have problems with even food (water) grade plastics
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Aren't you gay already? Don't think it'll make you more gay man, that's not how it works.

Jokes aside, trying to out-run the health-impact of plastics is like trying to outrun COVID, you aren't gunna run fast enough. We have an ocean so full of it there is a section of ocean saturated with particles, you know fish and every fucking thing eats that shit, then gets eaten in some manner or another. You basically cannot get away from this shit unless you make all of your meals at home from scratch, growing all ingredients yourself.

Being that said, I thought PVC was a variant of plastics, not a chemist though.
 
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BrutulTM

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If anything PVC is more toxic than Pex, not that either of them are especially toxic. Pex will release some VOCs when it's new, but after that it's one of the better types of plastic. If you're paranoid you can go copper, but some people are actually sensitive to copper. Also, you have to hope your plumber didn't use lead solder. The bottom line is, you are definitely going to die of something. Sorry to have to be the one to break it to you.
 
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Kiroy

Kiroy

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BrutulTM said:
If anything PVC is more toxic than Pex, not that either of them are especially toxic. Pex will release some VOCs when it's new, but after that it's one of the better types of plastic. If you're paranoid you can go copper, but some people are actually sensitive to copper. Also, you have to hope your plumber didn't use lead solder. The bottom line is, you are definitely going to die of something. Sorry to have to be the one to break it to you.
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i'm not worried about myself as an adult i'm worried about my developing child taking in fuckass tons of plastics and it fucking with their development, but I understand it's about impossible to avoid. I'm just going to be aware of it where I can so if my current copper fails, i'll fix it with copper even though it fucking sucks to do.
 
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Uber Uberest

Uber Uberest

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Kiroy Kiroy fixing copper is easy with pro press now. It’s a steep price to buy the tool but worth it for a plumber. Local supply houses in the Boston area actually loan out the tool for a day as long as you buy the material from their supply house.
 
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BrutulTM

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My sister's boyfriend is a plumber and he installed my Mom's water heater with one of those pro press things. It's really cool but insane how much the tool costs.
 
Kiroy

Kiroy

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BrutulTM said:
My sister's boyfriend is a plumber and he installed my Mom's water heater with one of those pro press things. It's really cool but insane how much the tool costs.
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half of what uber said he'd charge you... assuming you want copper seems like a deal

but ya they are pretty spendy lol
 
Foler

The_Black_Log Foler

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Would you guys go with GFCI's to get 3 prong outlets or say fuck it and rewire the entire house to ground? Pretty sure GFCI outlets won't provide the same protection as true ground wire.
 
ver_21

ver_21

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Foler said:
Would you guys go with GFCI's to get 3 prong outlets or say fuck it and rewire the entire house to ground? Pretty sure GFCI outlets won't provide the same protection as true ground wire.
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nm, misread...the issue is that you don't have grounded outlets?
 
Alasliasolonik

Alasliasolonik

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Foler said:
Would you guys go with GFCI's to get 3 prong outlets or say fuck it and rewire the entire house to ground? Pretty sure GFCI outlets won't provide the same protection as true ground wire.
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Your old house/cabin is fucked, rewire the entire thing and do it properly. Dont waste money but dont skimp on shit. Do it right the first time and not worry about it for 40 years.
 
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