So ..... we're closing in on the new kitchen in the rowhouse we're renovating and ...... BANG!

[Stinky The Clown]

Sparkly and I were working in the kitchen on Saturday. The base cabinets were in place and I was doing the final plumbing from the rough-ins to the shut-offs. CPVC to brass shut-offs. I install it all. Two issues struck me as worrisome, but I (STUPIDLY) chose to ignore them.

The CPVC glue was a bit jellied (a sign it is past its useful life)

The nipple onto which I needed to put a third shut-off that feeds the hose bibb outdoors seems a bit too short.

But I press on. All is installed.

I go down to the water shut-off in the basement and turn it on. I then go around and turn off all the open faucets I had opened elsewhere to drain down the system.

I get back to the kitchen and open the shut-off to the outdoors. We have water again out there.

All seems well.

We move on to other work.

Thirty seconds later (less than three minutes from installing the fittings and turning on the house water) .....

*B*A*N*G*

The short nipple joint with the shitty glue lets loose.

Water is everywhere.

On the new laminate floors.

On the new maple cabinets.

On the freshly painted walls.

On the freshly painted ceiling.

On some of my tools.

On me.

Sparkly was spared (she had juuuuust stepped into the next room).

I race for the shut off.

Off, again!

We spend the next two hours sopping up water. Getting it up with the wet/dray shop vac. Using grout sponges. My shirt. A dust pan.





I spent the afternoon today redoing the repair. The floors were remarkably unaffected. The cabinets are fine. The ceiling and walls show no sign of water ever having hit them.

I was there for an hour after turning the water back on.

Not a drop.

But now I'm worried. I am imagining the water line blowing again. And running for days. And finding the basement a swimming pool.

This is the first real fuckup we've had. I guess we're lucky.





I sure hope the pipe joint doesn';t fail again.

It won't will it?

I mean, it held for a full hour after I turned the water back on. That's a long enough test.

Isn't it?

Tell me it is.

Okay?

[NMDemDist2]

1. an hour should be fine as a test

and if you hadn't had a major screw up at some point, you did something wrong. Murphy has to have his say somewhere, right?

be grateful it was just water and a few hours clean up. truly.

:hug:

But I'd still drive by this morning to check :hide:

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

2. I had a valve pop on a dishwasher install

commercial installation in a commercial building. It happened when I pressurized the line. There was a phone call somewhere in between points. Below the office kitchen second level there was this brand new copy machine that I had to run the power for,required a 220 line. The machine is a five thousand dollar item. This is their copy room. By the time I got back upstairs the kitchen was flooded ,So I ran downstairs to the shut off. Drop ceilings both floors. Same clean up thing.

I had to replace ceiling panels on the first floor and was very lucky that there was no damage to the brand new equipment.



Shit happens ,it just does. Use it as a learning experience and move along with confidence. The glue, I find I have to make several trips to the hardware a day sometimes. But the pain in the ass trip to the store far out weighs that shit factor.

I don't except phone calls when I am doing plumbing or electrical work anymore ,same if using power tools!



Just a thought, what does it say on the directions on the can of glue? ! And leaving the top off for extended periods of time does that.

[Kolesar]

3. My buddy had water pressure so high, he could use the spray to strip rust

So he had a pressure reducer installed. Pressure is high in his neighborhood so "everybody" has a reducer. I wonder what it your system's pressure.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. The system's pressure is quite within the normal range

This catastrophe was **entirely** of my own making. I knowingly used questionable glue and a questionably short pipe nipple. No one to blame but my own damned self.