The Plumbing is finished! Whew! That was a job. We might have bitten off more than we could chew, but we got it done. The brother did offer to come and help us fix the joints that leaked. We were so grateful! We weren't going to say no to that! After working on the plumbing for three weeks, Mandy and I were ready to be finished!
(Since plumbing isn't the prettiest to look at, I thought I would add a shot of the newel post. I have never seen one like it. Don't you think it has a story?)
Mandy and I were excited to try our hand at using pex. It does have it's own special advantages, but it is hard to wrangle around corners and through holes!
The waters lines that feed that bathroom, come up on the same wall as the bath tub and toilet. But the sink is across the room. The pex tubing had to be threaded through holes in the floor joints all the way across. Good thing it is a small bathroom!
One of the problems with pex, is it takes a lot of muscle. These are the crimpers that clamp the rings on the fittings. It took both Mandy and I to get them closed! Also, not too good for tight places, like behind the bath tub....
The access to the bath tub plumbing is about 6" wide. Just wide enough for one arm! We spent days trying to figure out how to connect the pex. There was no room to get the crimpers opened wide enough and maneuvered at the right angle to crimp. We finally found a fitting that looked like the top of a garden hose so we could crimp it outside the wall then screw it on without twisting the pex line.
A lot of plumbing goes into a bathroom!
With pex you run more water lines, so it looks a bit like spaghetti. This is where the lines come down to the basement and branch off from the water heater.
So excited to have the lath back on the holes! It just needs a little plaster and it will be as good as new.