Tuesday, July 10, 2007
More Reno Hell
I've mentioned the never-ending renovations, and make no mistake, they continue still. Joe the handyman has been trying his hand at getting the copper supply lines installed and things haven't been going very well. Honestly, it's all a blur but suffice to say that during the past week I have noticed no more progress than one hole drilled, a cap and a shut-off valve installed. Each of these items required a note on each occasion telling us to keep the watermain shut off because there is a leak.
Now, Joe doesn't charge us a hell of a lot per hour, but what he was paid for the week to make this dismal progress, we could have hired a damned good plumber who would have had everything done in one day. Without leaks.
When The Squeeze discovered a puddle in the basement on Saturday, he came to the realization that plumbing just wasn't Joe's bag. I guess we really knew that a few days earlier, but this was just the tipping point.
Since Weezie was taking the girls to a mass baby shower on Sunday, we decided to take matters into our own hands and use the day to fix the plumbing. We ripped out everything Joe had soldered and discovered why everything leaked. You see, when soldering copper pipe, one needs to clean the fittings to remove oxidization with sandpaper or a pipecleaning tool. Clearly, this was not done. The valve he installed literally pulled off of the copper pipe by hand. Not good.
At the end of the day we installed two new shut-off valves, re-routed a lot of copper for the new ensuite configuration and got things to a point where Joe doesn't need to worry about touching another copper pipe. It's a win-win situation. When The Squeeze pointed out to Joe where he went wrong on Monday morning, he felt pretty bad about the work he had done.
But there's an upside! When he had finished his work on Monday, he had torn down the old stud wall and installed the framework for the pocket door. He's going to have the door installed and drywall up on the bedroom side today. He'll be working on the shower light, vent fan and main light fixture rough-in if time permits. I tell ya, when he's doing something he's comfortable with, he runs with it.
Maybe we can finally get our primary inspection done at the end of the week!
Now, Joe doesn't charge us a hell of a lot per hour, but what he was paid for the week to make this dismal progress, we could have hired a damned good plumber who would have had everything done in one day. Without leaks.
When The Squeeze discovered a puddle in the basement on Saturday, he came to the realization that plumbing just wasn't Joe's bag. I guess we really knew that a few days earlier, but this was just the tipping point.
Since Weezie was taking the girls to a mass baby shower on Sunday, we decided to take matters into our own hands and use the day to fix the plumbing. We ripped out everything Joe had soldered and discovered why everything leaked. You see, when soldering copper pipe, one needs to clean the fittings to remove oxidization with sandpaper or a pipecleaning tool. Clearly, this was not done. The valve he installed literally pulled off of the copper pipe by hand. Not good.
At the end of the day we installed two new shut-off valves, re-routed a lot of copper for the new ensuite configuration and got things to a point where Joe doesn't need to worry about touching another copper pipe. It's a win-win situation. When The Squeeze pointed out to Joe where he went wrong on Monday morning, he felt pretty bad about the work he had done.
But there's an upside! When he had finished his work on Monday, he had torn down the old stud wall and installed the framework for the pocket door. He's going to have the door installed and drywall up on the bedroom side today. He'll be working on the shower light, vent fan and main light fixture rough-in if time permits. I tell ya, when he's doing something he's comfortable with, he runs with it.
Maybe we can finally get our primary inspection done at the end of the week!
# posted by Dave @ 9:32 AM 
