Almost done preping this job. Due to age, moisture and improper craftsmanship, many of the window sills in our house have begun to collapse. A costly and time consuming job that needs to get done right. While we can’t afford the Windows we are going to fix the head, jambs and sills, reinsert the existing window and when we can afford it put brand spanking new windows in that don’t leak…
Category Archives: Construction
Trap arm…
A trap arm is the length of pipe between the trap and the vent. There is a small bay window on the front of our building and it has a small roof. This roof has a drain. From what our recent probes have revealed, we can tell the drain pipe is made of 3/4″ PVC and has a trap arm length of almost 10′-0″ to the vent.
Now that may not seem like such a great distance for water to travel, but in our case the trap arm is far too long for the size of the pipe. Firstly, a 3/4″ PVC is too small of a diameter for a fixture and PVC piping is only allowed in a one or two-family dwelling in NYC. It should be cast iron, the quiet pipe.
The truth is there was one pipe in the building that we didn’t change. In order to save a few dollars i decided to go against my spidey sense and just let sleeping dogs lie. Unfortunately, this is the outcome of that decision which did not work out so well and has now led to a leaky roof…
3/4″ is just too small of a pipe. The trap arm fills with water and becomes plugged. The water backs up and spills into the ceiling cavity. When it leaks it not only causes damage to the wood paneling, but the floor below as well… Ugh.
The truth is we will now have to open some walls that have been finished and we need to install a proper 3″ cast iron drain line for trap arm to function properly. What a mess…
Wood moulding…
Working on a little door trim…
New Pipe
The plumbers loaded in all the black pipe as they have completed most of the piping demolition. We have decided to go with American made Charlotte pipe with no hub fittings. While you can find significant savings using the cheaper Chinese made piping, it is often of inferior quality and will ultimately cost more money in the long run as it generally does not meet the rigorous ASTM standards. It is more prone to cracks and dimensional inconsistency.
Looking forward to seeing the plumbing work get completed.
Old Plumbing
There was a pile of old plumbing in our building much of which could not be seen when we purchased the property. At some point long ago, somebody did some random plumbing renovations and judging by the decay in the cast iron pipe it was some 80 – 100 years ago. In the corner of one of the bedrooms there portion of sewer pipe that was boxed out by drywall. When we opened the drywall to access the pipe to do some demolition we were shocked to realize that the sewer gases had not been venting to the exterior as they should, but because of a large crack they were simply venting into the interior wall cavity.
This is the image below of cracked sewer pipe leaking sewer gases into the interior wall cavity of the building. It is almost as if it collapsed and I am surprised that none of the black water actually leaked into the walls. Totally gross. I love this image because it is a great example of the problems that are often hidden in the walls of old buildings and what to be wary of when making a purchase…
Thankfully we are replacing all the existing plumbing with new cast iron pipe and we should be good for another 100 years…