Plumbing

Rebuild System

I was initially planning to replace all of the plumbing under the house with larger PEX pipe rather than copper pipe, new ball valves to replace the existing gate valves, and replace the hose bibs and hoses with a tee, ball valve, and PEX pipe running to the drain.

The existing plumbing is difficult to winterize due to the need to hook hoses up to various hose bibs and the hose bibs and gate valves need to be replaced as many are covered in mineral deposits, one does not close completely (the one directly upstream of the downstairs hot water heater), some spray water when the valves are turned, the copper pipes have a higher risk of breaking from freezing, gate valves take longer to close than ball valves, copper pipes have a higher risk of damage from water hammer, and smaller pipes under the existing system reduces the available water pressure at the tap. There is also a mystery pipe that I'm not sure if it goes anywhere so if we could add a valve and drain to this in case it doesn't drain well.

However advantages of the existing system include the smaller pipes means that less time and water is wasted while waiting for water to get hot and the extra time required to open/close gate valves reduces the risk of damage from water hammer.

I already started buying plumbing materials for this rebuild including pipe, fittings, 100-feet of stranded 4-gage wire, and grounding clamps to keep all of the copper riser pipes grounded. The wire I bought has black insulation which should be green to comply with electrical codes but the black was cheaper so I figured that it could be painted. I also drew out the existing plumbing so we could consider changes to be made.

Water Heaters

However the water heaters seems to be a pressing problem. Hot water heaters typically last about 8 to 10 years but our hot water heaters are from 1984 making them 35 years old in 2019. Online articles suggest replacing at 10 years period. It seems that the tank may be rusting out and contaminating the water inside. As sediment has been introduced into the water when we first turn it on but there are other possible culprits to this. To try to verify the deteriorating condition I suppose I could remove the heating elements and try to get a look at the internal tank however it seems that at least the apartment hot water heater should be replaced since I've noticed that it has a slow leak for the past few years. If we do replace them then Mom and I were thinking that tankless may be the way to go since I believe they last longer and are cheaper to run, wouldn't require wasting 50 gallons of hot water to winterize after every weekend, and would provide endless hot water. I'm not sure if we will need to replace these with 3 hot water heaters or if we could buy less and utilize a network of valves to selectively run the plumbing for each section through fewer hot water heaters. We also need to decide on a model and how it will be mounted or seated. All of the existing hot water heaters are the same with a 52 gallon capacity.

• When I tried to winterize the water softener and iron filter:

  • Water softener

    • water only came out of the inlet side and the media came out with it

    • when the tank was laid down, it slid out from the top of the frame

  • Iron filter

    • Not much water came out when it was laid down

Mark: New Hot Water Heater cost about $1,500 from home depot and purchase and installation

I didn't realize that water heaters have anode rods that sacrificially corrode before the heater's tank that you are supposed to replace about every 5 years. These rods are 3 to 5 feet long which slide in and screw into the top of the tank. If we aren't going to replace the water heaters soon then we need to replace these rods. It looks like the rod is at one of these three slots in the top of the tank. However there isn't much of a gap between top of the bank and ceiling so in order to replace these rods we will need to disconnect the water lines and power cable from the tank to move it.

Another step we can take to extend of the water heater or a replacement water heater tank is to incorporate an expansion tank into the plumbing but I'm not sure if this would be necessary if we go with a tankless system or if we don't need it since we have a pressure tank.

Rusting around the basin of the water heater could indicate a leak in the tank. The base of the apartment water heater appears to be in the worst shape, then the upstairs, and the base of the downstairs water heater is in the best shape.

Mom decided that she didn't want me to replace any of the water heaters so I just replaced the anode rods, added dielectric heat trap fittings, and added drip tubes to the temperature/pressure relief valves. I also created a better surface for the apartment water heater to rest on and relocated it there.

O&M Manual

An O&M manual also needs to be written for the plumbing. We need to decide on required sections for this manual to be operated. Sections that I was thinking include:

• Walk Through and Description of How the Existing System Works

• Procedures

  • Turning On Water To:

    • Upstairs

    • Downstairs

    • Apartment

  • Turning Off Water To:

    • Upstairs

    • Downstairs

    • Apartment

  • Drain Plumbing From:

    • Upstairs

    • Downstairs

    • Apartment

  • Maintenance

    • How to replace a section of pipe

    • How to replace a valve

    • How to replace a spigot

    • Cleaning of screens and replacement of filters

    • Interval of replacing the filter media

  • Troubleshooting

Let me know if there are any additional sections that would be helpful.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15O3iUfyNAlMbkFJ8iOaiBltk3Y0ZbtX-HWUeBpTYIhM