Down the Drain DIY

By Billy Aldridge

Being a plumber means getting to thrill vicariously at all the DIY shows on TV.  Sure, watching guys like Norm Abram go through the paces of rebuilding this or that old home is always an inspiration.  While the DIY show genre was almost single-handedly inspired by Norm’s predecessor and mentor, Bob Villa, every single DIY spinoff is hosted by a dyed-in-the-wool professional with years of on the job experience.  So if I was going to throw my hat into the ring to create a DIY plumbing show that showed it like it is, I wouldn’t spin it as a “Fix this Plumbing” concept at all. No, I think a more informative and vastly more entertaining angle would be to create a series that showcases the unfortunate results of people who thought they could save some money by doing it themselves.  I call the concept “Down the Drain DIY.” Here is an episode that I have cobbled together from doing a little research online.

Episode 1: The Hosed Housewife (Or, how to turn a $10 DIY into a $360 emergency plumbing repair.) 

Our upstairs hall toilet sprung a leak recently, emitting a steady hiss punctuated by frequent whooshes of the pump refilling the tank -- a bit like having Darth Vader lurking in the hall. We don't use it much, so I just turned off the water to the toilet and silenced the evil Jedi. But with visitors arriving shortly from the UK, it occurred to me that access to a loo that didn't involve traipsing through our bedroom might be preferred by all parties.

I was ready to call a plumber, but my dad scoffed on the phone. "An easy fix. Just needs a new fill valve," he assured me. So off I went to Home Depot where yes indeed, Mr. Orange Apron fixed me up with a replacement fill valve for about $10. (something my dad continues to call a 'ball cock' even though they no longer have balls and don't cock. It's been replaced by something that's more like a 'shank donut' but honestly, that doesn't sound any less dirty.) The Force was strong in me. I imagined my light saber emerging from the end of the fill valve and beheading a plumber. Take that!

Once back from her trip to the big box store, our heroine realized that the instructions that came with the parts were less than adequate.  Undaunted, she pressed on and completed the repair to the best of her ability.  Then she opened the shutoff valve.

I turned on the water... and a steady stream cascaded onto the floor.  I turned off the water. I could still hear a little hiss, like it wasn't all the way off, but it looked like it was off. I turned the handle a little harder. No change. Harder. The water started coming out of the hose faster. I turned it the other way. No change. Turned it back. The stream became a torrent.

Suddenly, a fill valve was the least of my problems. I had no idea where the main water cutoff for the house was. I emptied the linen closet onto the floor, ran to the phone and called the first plumber in the yellow pages that said 24×7 emergency service, grabbed a couple of bowls and raced back upstairs. Where I sat for over an hour, bailing water into the tub at the rate of one bowl every 30 seconds or so. I believe that counts as a workout.

The moral of the story is you need to know how and where to shut off the water to your home if you don’t want to wind up getting hosed. (Below is a video that shows you step-by-step how to locate and turn off the water main.)

While do-it-yourself is all the rage, the bottom line for many homeowners is that unless you know your limits, you need to have a fallback plan in place and you absolutely need to have your friendly neighborhood plumber’s phone number on speed dial the next time you get the urge to DIY.

Billy Aldridge is one of the Doctors of Plumbology at Aldridge and sons Plumbing in Jacksonville, Florida.  For more helpful plumbing tips and step-by-step DIY videos, go to http://plumbers-jacksonville-fl.com

Fall Back on Plumbing Basics

By Billy Aldridge

With Fall only a week away, this week I thought I’d fall back on some plumbing basics.  When most people think about plumbing, they normally associate it with the household fixtures that let water into and out of the house, such as sinks, tubs and showers, toilets, water heaters, washing machine and dishwasher.  What they don’t consider is the unseen world of pipes and vents that are out of sight and mind behind the walls and under their feet that make all those fixtures do their thing.  In fact the only time that the average homeowner has any interest in their home’s plumbing is when something either backs up or springs a leak.  In point of fact, there are actually two plumbing systems contained in your house, one designed to bring water in and the other designed to let wastewater out. 

In With the Good Water

Everyone talks about water entering their home.  But it doesn’t enter so much as fly.  (If you’ve ever seen water spewing from an open hydrant you get my point.) This is due to the fact that city water is under pressure.  This allows it to travel across town around corners and uphill.  It also permits your neighbors to open a tap or flush a toilet without noticeably affecting your home’s water pressure.   But it’s also more pressure than your home appliances and fixtures can accommodate.  I mean when you turn on the shower you don’t want to have the water come out of the shower head with enough force to start peeling the tiles off the backsplash, do you?

The municipal water company typically sets the pressure at 100 psi or higher.   This is necessary to deliver water at pressure to fire hydrants, multi-story office buildings and for other high demand customers.  However, when it comes to your home needs, the maximum recommended pressure is 80 psi or less.  Therefore a pressure regulator is installed that is designed to protect both the house’s supply line and the fixtures and appliances inside your home.  If your home is experiencing either an excess of pressure or a lack of water pressure, this is one of the first places to look, since this one device controls the inflow of water to your entire house.

The other place is the cutoff valve, which is usually located near the curb.  The cutoff valve is one part of the plumbing that I advise every homeowner to become familiar since it can save you thousands of dollars in water damage should a pipe burst in your home.  (See the video below for more information.)

Once the water makes its way from the street to your home it flows through a meter which measures how much water you and your family use.  All water that enters your home comes in cold and is supplied to every sink, toilet, tap, irrigation system, dishwasher, washing machine bathtub and shower.  There are also water cutoffs located on or adjacent to every plumbing fixture in your home.  You need to not only familiarize yourself with their location and use, but you also need to exercise these cutoff valves so that they will be operational should you ever have a leak.  Otherwise you will be forced to shut off water to the entire house.

The cold water is also sent to your water heater, which then heats the water before sending it to every hot water tap in the house.  The hot water heater is also tasked with the responsibility of setting the water temperature.  Normally the water temperature is kept between 120 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.  

Appliances such as the dishwasher that requires higher water temps usually have an internal water heating system that boost the water temperature to the proper level.

Out With the Bad

Whether your home plumbing is sewer or septic-based, all drainage is gravity fed.  This means that all pipes lead down which tends to pull waste along.  These pipes in turn lead to the sewer and ultimately to the municipal treatment system.  Sounds simple doesn’t it.  It is in principle.  But you have to factor in the fact that if your home’s plumbing was that straightforward, not only would you have waste flowing out of your home, but you would also have waste gases flowing into it. (And nobody wants that.)

That’s why your house comes equipped with a sophisticated system of vents, traps and clean outs that are designed to direct the flow of wastewater and gas such that it all heads out of your home.  In the first place if air wasn’t provided by the vents, no water would flow through the pipes.  Did you ever stick your thumb over a straw and pull the straw out of your soda?  That’s what would happen if air were not allowed to flow into your home’s pipes.  It would create a vacuum that would force you to siphon the water away. 

Traps are also vital to proper drainage.  Traps are designed to allow water to flow yet retain enough to prevent sewer gas from entering your home.  There is a trap associated with every fixture in your home, including every sink, tub and toilet.  One of the most conspicuous is located under any sink in your home. It’s the S-shaped section of pipe just below the basin. The other reason these traps are there are to collect hair, dirt and grease in order to prevent clogged drains. (See video below.)

Even if you aren’t the do-it-yourself type, having a basic knowledge of your home’s plumbing system can save you a lot of money should any part of your house’s plumbing system fail.  After all, when it comes to fallback plans, not having one is plumb crazy.

Billy Aldridge is one of the Doctors of Plumbology at Aldridge and Sons Plumbing in Jacksonville, Florida. For more helpful plumbing tips and how-to videos, go to 

http://plumbers-jacksonville-fl.com

Does Your Home Harbor a Critter Gitter?

By Billy Aldridge

It first may come to your attention when your pipes start grumbling and growling or it may make its presence known by a foul odor that clearly emanates from the drain.  Either of these symptoms may indicate that something is impeding the smooth flow of air through your home’s vent stack.  While the blockage might be caused by leaf litter, it is also a real possibility that a squirrel or some other small mammal has become trapped in there and died.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is to clear the clog all you need is a ladder, a flashlight, gardening gloves, a garden hose, and drain tape. (The latter item can be found at any hardware store.)

Vent stacks consist of a series of pipes that are designed to release sewer gases outside of your home.  These vents also admit and regulate the amount of air flowing to the pipes that are needed to equalize pressure thereby allowing the proper flow of water.  Every fixture in your bathroom and kitchen is required to have an internal or external trap and an attached vent, the top of which is vented through the roof in what is referred to as a  vent stack.  So when the stack gets clogged, this will affect the ability of the wastewater and gasses from being able to exit the building.

Santa Claus isn’t the only thing that likes to climb down chimneys.

The vent stack is the diminutive plastic or metal chimney sticking out of your roof. Aside from being a necessity to the smooth functioning of your plumbing it is also a magnet to critters, some of which climb into it never to be heard from again.  To reach it you will need a ladder since it resides on your roof.  To start the process put a flashlight and pair of gloves into your pockets, securely position the ladder against the side of the house and tote a garden hose and drain tape up to the roof. (Always exercise caution when climbing up and down any ladder.)  Locate the plumbing stack and use the flashlight to peer into it for obvious signs of blockages, such as leaves or a nest.  If you see any that you can reach, put on your gloves and clear as much of the stack as you can by hand.  It is possible that whatever is gumming up the works could be but a few inches from the top, in which case clearing the clog could be over and done within a matter of seconds.

However if whatever or whoever managed to worm its way deeper down the stack, you will need to deploy the drain tape to get at the clog.  Inserting the augur end of the tape, thread it down the stack in order to break up the clog or latch onto any debris that may have lodged down there.  Pull the tape back up the stack from time to time in order to remove as much of the offending material as you can fish out. 

Once you removed as much of the debris as possible and/or broken through the clog then you need to feed the hose down the stack as far as it will go and turn on the flow.  You will know you have succeeded if the water runs down the drain.  If it shoots skyward, then this indicates that the stack is still blocked.  Repeat the process until the water runs down the stack with a whoosh.

One way to deter the stack from becoming blocked is to install a vent cap.  These devices are simple to install and will substantially reduce or even eliminate the accumulation of leaf litter and unwanted pests that like to call your vent stack home.  Just make sure that the cap you choose isn’t constructed from lead, since squirrels seem to like the taste of the metal and will gnaw holes in the cap.  Vent caps can be found online or at many hardware stores and big box home remodeling centers.

While you’re up on the roof it wouldn't hurt to also check to make sure that the flashing around

 the stack isn’t cracked or damaged, since this will cause water to leak into your home the next time it rains, potentially causing even damage than a simple clog.  You can buy replacements at the hardware store as well.  With a little foresight and an occasional trip to the roof, you can keep these critter gitters from becoming an unpleasant but necessary DIY project.

Billy Aldridge is one of the Doctors of Plumbology at Aldridge and Sons Plumbing in Jacksonville, Florida.  For more helpful hints and handy DIY videos go to http://plumbers-jacksonville-fl.com

Pardon Me, But There's a Drone In My Drain

By Billy Aldridge

During the past few months I have told all of you about the hi-tech revolution coming soon to a kitchen and/or bathroom near you.  I have regaled you with everything from the latest in singing shower heads and computerized commodes, to refrigerators and washing machines that are wifi equipped.  So I guess it should come as no surprise that technological wizardry is on the horizon that could well change the way in which plumbers perform repairs.

English: Man using a ground penetrating radar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hi-tech plumbing tools are nothing new.  Plumbers, including yours truly, have been using everything from flexible fiberoptic viewing systems and electromagnetic line locators, to bionic ears and ground penetrating 

radar for a number of years.  While most of these devices are useful in locating hidden pipes and leaks, they still need a human being to work the controls.  The next generation of tech tools will not only be able to go where no plumber has gone before, but there is a high probability that they will not only be autonomously controlled, but they will be able to perform the repair without any assistance from the operator.

What I am referring to are roboplumbers, or more precisely robots that can worm their way down the drain in order to locate and repair plumbing.  Any of you who watch the evening news has seen Unmanned Aerial Vehicles such as the Air Force’s Predator Drone.  Tasked with surveillance in far off places as Afghanistan, UAV’s such as the Predator fly the unfriendly skies of the middle east while their operators are located in places such as Las Vegas.  What many people do not know is the fact that the military has a number of other UAV’s that are autonomously piloted, meaning that they are programmed to fulfill their mission without human input of any kind. 

Rethink Robotics — Brooks and Baxter (Photo credit: jurvetson)

Another item that most of the populace is unaware is the fact that there are hundreds of drone manufacturers  out there, some of whom are busy creating autonomous robots for the masses that clean, assemble and perform specialized tasks.  Also, these robots are not limited to flying.  Some roll, others walk and several swim or slink.  One such robot manufactured by Rethink Robotics named Baxter, is designed to perform all kinds of repetitive production tasks.  Another is an articulated robot named Pipe Snake.

“A team of U.S. Air Force Academy graduates has designed the Pipe Snake, a telescoping robot that can climb vertical plumbing shafts and even navigate curved pipes to locate victims of natural disasters. The Pipe Snake can carry medical supplies or other payloads, giving victims in inaccessible places a shot at immediate attention while first responders figure out what to do next.” 

Sooner or later the same minds that designed Baxter and the Pipe Snake are bound to put their heads together in order to come up with a device that can not only snake its way down the drain but perform repetitive tasks once it arrives.  Whether this means that plumbers will have another tech tool to work in hard to reach places, or whether the robots will try to muscle us out of the business is anybody’s guess.  All I know is I dread the day I pick up the phone only to hear the homeowner on the other end of the line tell me, “I’ve got a drone stuck in my drain.”

Billy Aldridge is one of the Doctors of Plumbology at Aldridge and Sons Plumbing in Jacksonville, Florida.  For more helpful plumbing tips and how-to videos, go to 

http://plumbers-jacksonville-fl.com