Rough Plumbing Done

Looking back

Before getting into this weekends activities, I’d like to take a minute and recap where we are with the project.  This house and yard have come a long way.  The entire yard including in front of the lake was overgrown with either Brazilian pepper trees or the massive banyan tree.  Those are gone, grass has been planted and is growing nicely, and shrubs, hedges, and fruit trees have been planted. 

New porch and bedroom

We rebuilt much of the front porch, which had severe rot in the walls.  Our next inside project was the front bedroom which transformed from an open air sleeping porch into a proper insulated bedroom with a pecky cypress ceiling and a sliding door to the screened in front porch. 

New bathroom

Our current project is adding a third bathroom to the house which previously only had 2 bathrooms.  Of those two original bathrooms, the master is non-functional and the other is functional but on it’s last leg.  It’s the bathroom that we use while we’re up here.  As part of adding the new bathroom and then remodeling the other two, we’re replacing all of the drain and water lines throughout the house. 

Future plans

Once the new bathroom is done, we’ll tear out the bathroom that we’re currently using and begin the remodel on it as well as begin the remodel on the bedroom it’s attached to.  After that bedroom and bathroom are remodeled, we’re looking to remodel the master bedroom and master bathroom.  Last up will be the remodel of the living room, dining room, and kitchen.  As part of this work, we’ll be getting into removing the shingles on the siding outside.  I’d like it all taken back down to the original wood siding.  Once all of that is done, we can look to remodel the shop.  There’s still much to be done but now that we’re focusing on the interior, it should go quickly.

Roughing in the plumbing

This weekend was all about plumbing in the new bathroom.  Well, the rough plumbing anyway.  Last week we tied into the main sewer line and prepped for running the drain lines.  This week, we were able to get it all roughed in.  Roughing in is the term used for running all of the piping in the wall/floor/slab for the drains, vents, and water lines before the walls get covered up. 

Siding removal first

Sunday morning started with removing the siding from the wall to expose the framing.  Yes, siding.  Because at one point in time this was an exterior wall of the house.  With the siding removed, I started drilling holes down from above and then up from below.  This allowed the plumbing pipes to make it from the crawl space up into the wall cavity.  I ran what I could and then made a parts list so that we could make a Lowe’s run.  Tom was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions I had as well as bring us some fresh baked muffins from Kay.  Thanks guys!

Quality time in the crawl space

After the Lowe’s run, I spent the rest of the day down in the crawl space making the connections and getting the lines plumbed up into the wall.  Oceana was in the bathroom above handing me fittings through the hole cut out in the floor for the toilet drain.  She also helped hold the pipes in the wall cavity while I made the glue connections down below.  Teamwork!

Pex

While I was down below, I ran and tied in all of the new water lines for the bathroom.  We’ve opted to use Pex versus copper or CPVC.  CPVC becomes brittle over time, especially the hot water lines, and the lines tend to break super easy if they’re bumped.  They’re the cause of many insurance claims in Florida.  Copper, even the thicker copper piping, tends to fail from the inside out and will spring pinhole leaks all over.  What do many plumbers use to repipe a house?  Pex. 

I like Pex

This is my first time running Pex and I like it.  The lines are flexible and the connections are quick and secure.  Each connection is crimped in place with a special crimping tool and then there’s a gauge to verify that the crimp is good.  Simple.  Oceana fed all of the lines down from above and then I tied them into what will be the new hot and cold water lines feeding the entire house. 

Tibouchina

I finished up and came out of the crawl space and it was nearly dark out.  Before calling it a day we planted the tibouchina granulosa down by gardenia and loropetalums at the end of the driveway.  The tibouchina will have purple flowers for much of the year.  It should look real nice as it matures.

Monday morning plumbing

Monday morning I finished tying the plumbing together in the bathroom walls. I ran the main vent line as far as I could before running out of pipe and I ran the drain and vent for the sink.  I also set the shower valve and connected the water lines to it.  We had to take off early Monday to receive delivery of the new mini-split A/C unit that will heat and cool both bedrooms on the north side of the house.  Pretty exciting to finally have permanent A/C on the way!

My folks will be staying at the house for the next week and a half so feel free to stop in and say hi.  That’s all for this week.  Thanks for following along.