The homeowners revenge!

Got the old joint out, built the new one and put it in. 16 joints to solder. Most of them last night, and the rest after work today. Not exactly pretty, but so far, it's dry. Of course, the valve on the hot water heater was bad, and wouldn't shut. Instead of forcing it, I just emptied the tank and shut off the cold water supply. That's an easy fix, but will have to wait for another day.



A few lessons learned...

• Clean the copper where you are going to solder.
• Make sure everything is dry. Damn near impossible to solder wet copper (although I've hear the MAPP torches will work).
• Before connecting to supply lines, dry fit and then put as much of the joint together as possible. Making a dozen some odd solders while standing on a ladder between floor joists, isn't much fun. The less soldering on a ladder, the better.
• Once you have soldered pieces together, the copper will be very hot and take 10-15 minutes to cool to the touch. Keep this in mind, when you tell your wife the whole thing will take "About an hour."
  

Time to lay some pipe, baby!

OK, more like sweat some pipe. I stumbled across a leak on our basement floor, that was coming from the hot water line that runs to our kitchen. Once again, the half assed work of the merry handy men that flipped our house, throws me a new project. I don't think either of those joints are supposed to be the same color as the Statue of Liberty, so time to cut 'em out and replace, before a tiny drip, floods my basement and burns out my 20 year old hot water heater... Sweating pipe isn't a huge deal. Just make sure surfaces are clean and smooth, dry fit the whole thing first, and then it's off to the races. Oh, and don't burn down your house at the same time. My best friend owns a plumbing supply shop in Mission (free plug: The Plumber's Friend) and he recommends some gizmo called the Shark Bite. I am usually the first to jump on the band wagon when it comes to new gizmos, but they can't be nearly as fun as standing on a step ladder, with a propane torch wondering why in the Hell the solder isn't taking. If the sweating is a bust, I'll break down and try the Shark Bite. Anyway, above is the before pic, and the after pic should be up in a day or two.