Plumbing and a few other things

The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind of long days and of my getting stuck in thinking that I have a deadline to finish and I have to get it done. Going back to work, winter on it's way - both are things that add some feelings of pressure to getting done. However, I'm also finding that this thinking is not terribly helpful as I've been getting up-tight and losing the kind of "Quaker" approach to just loving what I'm doing that I was cultivating before. So, I've let go of the deadlines and gone back to a "it'll be finished when it's finished" attitude. It feels a lot better, and it makes the work so much more enjoyable.

I haven't posted for a while either, so have a lot to catch up on. Plumbing was a big piece of the puzzle, and most likely would still be undone if not for my father. So - thank you very much Dad!

The plumbing layout is pretty simple - all of the pipes are basically in a line on one side of the house. However, the compactness of things adds many challenges of its own.  Here is the picture story:

Some of the parts and pieces. Thanks to the very patient help of the crew at the Vanderhoof Home Hardware store, we were able to get lots of extra parts and pieces and then take back what wasn't needed. They were also great with advice, suggestions, help and encouragement along the way.

We used Pex flex pipe for all of the fresh water. It's great to work with and the compression band connections are surely a lot faster and easier than the soldering I used to do when I used copper pipe many years ago!

My fresh water tank, looking kind of large.

The hot water heater. This is an on-demand gas heater that I got from a place called Precision Temp, located in the US. I haven't been able to use it yet, so can't give a report on it's operation. However, I bought it because it is small, it's exhaust port can go out through the floor, it doesn't require a large hatch in the wall and isn't open to the outside like most small gas hot water heaters, and it is supposed to manage changes in water pressure better than most hot water heaters so that there is less temperature fluctuation. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works!

The bathroom sink cabinet is an important place as it is where water will come into the building and is the central link location for all of the water pipes. As you can see, it's not a very big place to do all of this.

The only water line that crosses the house is one pipe coming from the fresh water tank. This line is not needed if I'm connected to a continuous water supply. Here you can see it placed inside the tub enclosure. I also put some extra water and ice roofing material and tar paper under the tub as an extra precaution to protect the floor from water. Hopefully none will get down there anyway though. The hole is also drilled for the drain here.

Pipes starting to come together around the hot water heater. This is also a tricky corner as it has to contain pipes for the washer/dryer and a drain coming down the corner and the clearances are rather small. A supply line for a toilet is also plumbed in here, as a precaution if my compost toilet doesn't work as well as I'm hoping.

First steps of figuring out how to organize pipes in the sink cabinet.

I used some more of the shale to make a top for the bathroom sink to sit on. It's quite thin and cut relatively easily with an angle grinder and masonry wheel. I used clear silicone to glue it to the counter top and to fill in the spaces between pieces. The small pieces in the back are the water guard and edging, and will continue around the sides. Making the small hole in the back for the faucet was a bit time consuming. I didn't want to break or chip the thin rock, so I used a very small drill bit and drilled lots of small holes in a circle. I used the angle grinder for the larger hole.

The faucet is installed.

and the sink is in place.

I framed in around the hot water heater using 2 x 2's. There will be a drawer in the top part of the frame, but I left quite a bit of space around the heater so that I can access pipes and/or the heater for servicing if necessary. The washer/dryer sits on top of this frame.

Pipes in the sink cabinet all set and organized, drain installed, sink connected and shower lines heading up to the shower faucet on the left. The water comes in through the floor where the blue handled valve is. We were careful to put lots of valves in so each part of the plumbing can be isolated if necessary.

The drain from the kitchen sink is in place now. I wanted to run pipes inside as much as possible. I'll build a box and make a little shelf to cover the transit between the washer/dryer area and the sink cabinet. There is a PVC standpipe for the washer/dryer drain that goes up in the corner, but isn't in this picture. You can see the white fitting where it attaches though.

I learned a lot about gluing pipes in this process. The black pipe is ABS and has it's own glue. White pipe is PVC and has a cleaner and glue that have to be used together. Places where black pipe and white pipe come together require the cleaner and a different transition glue.

Parts of the drain do have to be underneath the house, unfortunately. This is the main drain pipe. It links from the toilet (hopefully an unused portion) and connects the kitchen/bathroom sink and washer/dryer drains that come down from the bathroom sink cabinet (foreground) and the tub drain that comes straight down from the tub (background)

Pipe coming from the toilet.

This is the most problematical part of the pipe system. I had to have a trap under the tub drain to prevent sewer gasses from backing up when I'm connected to a septic system. However, there isn't any way to have the trap on the inside. Most of the sewer pipe will not be a problem for freezing as the water carries enough of it's own heat to make it through before freezing. However, water will sit in the trap and freeze easily. I will have to insulate around this trap very well, and provide some heat for it when it gets really cold.

We hooked the system up to the garden hose, and everything works - so far at least!  :-)