Home Improvement

Lanx

Lanx

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had one frozen faucet, all others work, turned out to be the hot water line, google says hot water line usually freezes faster than colder water cuz hot water forces out air bubbles so it's easier to freeze and fucking water is mystical. They said to put a hair dryer on the pipe, don't ask me why but i have a heat gun, it musta been on sale at harbor freight years ago, i also used this to kill the fucking giant monstrosety outside my backyard. Anyway there are all these 90degree bends from the floor to the control knob thing, it wasn't heating up, had to get in there and just heat up the pipe from the floor, 5minutes i hear water dribbling, so it works.

Now i gotta sherlock why only this faucet froze, it's the master bedroom, but i'm right on top of my water heater, so it's not distance... it's probably not insulated somewhere, but the basement is all finished and theres barely 2ft of exposed pipe to explore, really, ideas?
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Picasso3 said:
If your shit is old and small id pay someone and swap it all out for a 40 slot and have a clean install and upgrade to arc fault breakers etc. Depending on space left there put a sub panel in the garage and as long as you don't weld in your hot tub you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

This is probably the best option but it won't be cheap.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Lanx said:
had one frozen faucet, all others work, turned out to be the hot water line, google says hot water line usually freezes faster than colder water cuz hot water forces out air bubbles so it's easier to freeze and fucking water is mystical. They said to put a hair dryer on the pipe, don't ask me why but i have a heat gun, it musta been on sale at harbor freight years ago, i also used this to kill the fucking giant monstrosety outside my backyard. Anyway there are all these 90degree bends from the floor to the control knob thing, it wasn't heating up, had to get in there and just heat up the pipe from the floor, 5minutes i hear water dribbling, so it works.

Now i gotta sherlock why only this faucet froze, it's the master bedroom, but i'm right on top of my water heater, so it's not distance... it's probably not insulated somewhere, but the basement is all finished and theres barely 2ft of exposed pipe to explore, really, ideas?
Click to expand...

I assume the pipe is running in an exterior wall? It must be up against the sheeting or maybe there's no insulation in that bay. It wouldn't be the first time a plumber just yanked all the insulation out of a bay because he didn't want to mess with it when he was running water pipes. You can get super cheap bore scope gizmos that hook up to your smartphone now if you want to take a look inside the wall.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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BrutulTM said:
I assume the pipe is running in an exterior wall? It must be up against the sheeting or maybe there's no insulation in that bay. It wouldn't be the first time a plumber just yanked all the insulation out of a bay because he didn't want to mess with it when he was running water pipes. You can get super cheap bore scope gizmos that hook up to your smartphone now if you want to take a look inside the wall.
Click to expand...

Floor actually
PHOTO_20180102_195024.jpg


It's a double vanity, and the other one has its own pipes too, and not frozen, just this one.
 
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Picasso3

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With floor or wall penetrations there's a potential to get a chimney effect through the hole around pipe and chill it more than you would expect, in my expert opinion.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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BrutulTM said:
This is probably the best option but it won't be cheap.
Click to expand...

I can make it look pretty and up to code. I have to research exactly what that is, and if I can pull 60 amps out it's simple. If I need more, we'll have to see.

Thanks for all the advice, fellas!
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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So we have trouble in the winter with our hot water sucking ass. It takes 20 minutes to heat up for a kids bath, showers are hit or miss.

My brother in law does HVAC so I usually trust him but just confirming here. In our basement we have the boiler and then a small tank attached. I don't know the size but it's extremely small. His thought is the pipes are so cold and the tank is so small that basically it's taking the boiler forever to heat up the water enough to pass through as hot.

I wanted an on demand water heater (whatever you call those) but he cautioned me on that and instead said we should buy a big tank (I think). Somewhere in the $800-1000 range (at cost). He talks fast and I don't always understand him but does that seem right? I just want to make sure I get the best options. My basement is really cold.

I know nothing about boilers and water heaters or anything
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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How is a boiler related to your hot water for a bath/shower? Boilers heat radiators, not tubs.

It seems ridiculous it takes that long for your hot water to get to your tub. Get him to explain that, first. Thoroughly. If it takes more than about 90 seconds for your tub water to be hot, something is amiss. Either you have roughly 2 miles of pipe before your tub, or your water heater isn't cutting the mustard.

I've been considering options for this very thing myself. We have a large, awesome, soaking tub with jets. The trouble is that it is way more gallons than my current water heater can handle. I've considered doing hot water on demand in each bathroom and in the kitchen, while leaving a standard hot water tank for bathroom faucets. I've also considered a whole house on demand water heater. I'm leaning toward the latter, as it's less appliances to go bad, less wiring/plumbing, and will essentially produce the same good result.
 
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Picasso3

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Noodleface said:
So we have trouble in the winter with our hot water sucking ass. It takes 20 minutes to heat up for a kids bath, showers are hit or miss.

My brother in law does HVAC so I usually trust him but just confirming here. In our basement we have the boiler and then a small tank attached. I don't know the size but it's extremely small. His thought is the pipes are so cold and the tank is so small that basically it's taking the boiler forever to heat up the water enough to pass through as hot.

I wanted an on demand water heater (whatever you call those) but he cautioned me on that and instead said we should buy a big tank (I think). Somewhere in the $800-1000 range (at cost). He talks fast and I don't always understand him but does that seem right? I just want to make sure I get the best options. My basement is really cold.

I know nothing about boilers and water heaters or anything
Click to expand...

The first Cheap and easy step is Get some foam pipe wrap from lowes and cover them wherever exposed in the basement, its cheap and easy to work with. Your water heater also has a thermostat you can turn up the temp on the tank.

If you still need a new water heater: With kids id go tankless So i don't have to murder them in 10 years for using all the hot water every morning jacking in the shower.

The tanked water heaters if drained do not have the capacity to heat water as it flows through (called recovery time or factor or something) and the water coming from the city supply is presumably colder so that'll add to it.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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lurkingdirk said:
How is a boiler related to your hot water for a bath/shower? Boilers heat radiators, not tubs.

It seems ridiculous it takes that long for your hot water to get to your tub. Get him to explain that, first. Thoroughly. If it takes more than about 90 seconds for your tub water to be hot, something is amiss. Either you have roughly 2 miles of pipe before your tub, or your water heater isn't cutting the mustard.

I've been considering options for this very thing myself. We have a large, awesome, soaking tub with jets. The trouble is that it is way more gallons than my current water heater can handle. I've considered doing hot water on demand in each bathroom and in the kitchen, while leaving a standard hot water tank for bathroom faucets. I've also considered a whole house on demand water heater. I'm leaning toward the latter, as it's less appliances to go bad, less wiring/plumbing, and will essentially produce the same good result.
Click to expand...
Like I said ive got no idea about any of this. As far as our current water heater the tank looks to be about 2 gallons
 
Lanx

Lanx

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Noodleface said:
Like I said ive got no idea about any of this. As far as our current water heater the tank looks to be about 2 gallons
Click to expand...
when i was house shopping i saw a few dual 40g water heaters, realtor said this happens alot with growing families, they buy a house with a 40, they start having kids and soon not enough hot water, so you just add on another 40, instead of upgrading b/c the old 40 is still good.
 
Kaige

Kaige

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Noodleface said:
So we have trouble in the winter with our hot water sucking ass. It takes 20 minutes to heat up for a kids bath, showers are hit or miss.

My brother in law does HVAC so I usually trust him but just confirming here. In our basement we have the boiler and then a small tank attached. I don't know the size but it's extremely small. His thought is the pipes are so cold and the tank is so small that basically it's taking the boiler forever to heat up the water enough to pass through as hot.

I wanted an on demand water heater (whatever you call those) but he cautioned me on that and instead said we should buy a big tank (I think). Somewhere in the $800-1000 range (at cost). He talks fast and I don't always understand him but does that seem right? I just want to make sure I get the best options. My basement is really cold.

I know nothing about boilers and water heaters or anything
Click to expand...

If you have any of the pipes exposed in the basement, I would insulate them if they're not. It goes a long damn way, that's for sure. He's likely right about the boiler stuff too.

On demand hot water is a big problem if you have a wife and kids. They won't get the fuck out of the shower and your bills will be ridiculous. Every plumber I've asked about it says if you're a family man you'll regret it and the family men I've known who did it DO regret it. Most have switched back to a tank, just a larger size. A buddy of mine waited until his kids all went off to college before doing it. He knew the consequences before he installed it lol.
 
Vinen

Vinen

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1 Frozen pipe. Spoke with the prior owner and hasn't been an issue up until this year. Fucking pipe runs parallel to the foundation with no insulation on one side. Someone fucked up 20 years ago :eyes:
Going to take down some drywall and insulate the pipe properly this weekend.

Counting my blessings given the amount of fucking piping in this house and how cold its been. Not a big issue. Only a 4-5 foot strip of pipe that I need to deal with. Runs to a wetbar. For now I've drained the pipes and shutoff the flow of water.

Found a few drafts in an unfinished area of the basement and have an insulation guy coming by early next week to seal it up. Also getting the doors and windows in the kitchen weather stripping redone. Looks like the prior owners cats had its way with the weather stripping and there is a nasty ass draft. Was one of the issues we called out in our inspection report (we asked for a discount rather then fixing. Prior owner was old and not really in a good position to handle getting stuff fixed).

Fuck cats.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Kaige said:
If you have any of the pipes exposed in the basement, I would insulate them if they're not. It goes a long damn way, that's for sure. He's likely right about the boiler stuff too.

On demand hot water is a big problem if you have a wife and kids. They won't get the fuck out of the shower and your bills will be ridiculous. Every plumber I've asked about it says if you're a family man you'll regret it and the family men I've known who did it DO regret it. Most have switched back to a tank, just a larger size. A buddy of mine waited until his kids all went off to college before doing it. He knew the consequences before he installed it lol.
Click to expand...
Yeah everything is exposed I'm pretty sure - I'll try to insulate them this week. It's been single digits here this week so it's more noticable.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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Vinen said:
1 Frozen pipe. Spoke with the prior owner and hasn't been an issue up until this year. Fucking pipe runs parallel to the foundation with no insulation on one side. Someone fucked up 20 years ago :eyes:
Going to take down some drywall and insulate the pipe properly this weekend.

Counting my blessings given the amount of fucking piping in this house and how cold its been. Not a big issue. Only a 4-5 foot strip of pipe that I need to deal with. Runs to a wetbar. For now I've drained the pipes and shutoff the flow of water.

Found a few drafts in an unfinished area of the basement and have an insulation guy coming by early next week to seal it up. Also getting the doors and windows in the kitchen weather stripping redone. Looks like the prior owners cats had its way with the weather stripping and there is a nasty ass draft. Was one of the issues we called out in our inspection report (we asked for a discount rather then fixing. Prior owner was old and not really in a good position to handle getting stuff fixed).

Fuck cats.
Click to expand...
i find great usage for my Black & Decker TLD100 Thermal Leak Detector
 
alavaz

alavaz

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Noodleface said:
Like I said ive got no idea about any of this. As far as our current water heater the tank looks to be about 2 gallons
Click to expand...

Do you use the boiler for heating too? It's either a northeast thing or an old house cause I hardly ever see boilers used anymore and that's pretty odd that the boiler also heats up the water too. I mean I guess it makes sense since it will be doing it anyway, but if it's not your primary heat source then I'd look into pulling it completely and just get a regular old electric (or gas if you have it) 40-50 gallon hot water heater. For now, I'd bet insulation will help a lot though. You'd have to do some research to make sure it's not a fire hazard in your case, but the tanks are usually insulated as well.
 
Vinen

Vinen

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Lanx said:
i find great usage for my Black & Decker TLD100 Thermal Leak Detector
Click to expand...

Ordered! Thanks for the suggestion.

New windows can't come soon enough. Prior owner loved the character (he had the money to replace them...)

I'm getting expensive windows (Wooden interior, aluminum exterior) to keep the character while having something modern. Matching Trim is still sold at Home Depot lol. Guess styling hasn't really changed much in a hundred years.

Old arse Victorian money-sink. I knew what I was getting into thought :) Have a few hundred thousand budged to modernize areas of the house he didn't touch. Noting the most expensive single-thing I have to do is windows (22 normal + 2 bay windows). Rest is just gutting a few rooms. Will be moving out of the house for a month or so so this work can be performed.

Plumbling, Electrical, HVAC (noting that Boiler is getting old) has all been modernized. I need to take a picture of the crazyass boiler room. Blows my mind every-time I walk into it.
 
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Tenks

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Yeah I need to replace my windows with double panes. I know the midwest crowd will jump down my throat but when the lows are in the high 40's at night my house gets pretty cold and I can feel the windows radiating cold. My neighbor owns a window manufacturing plant so he's promised me the friends and family discount. He's getting me a quote. Luckily his place is the same model as mine so he already has all the measurements. Biggest cost would be the 3 sliding doors 2 of which are oversized.
 
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Tenks

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Also a question for anyone who knows about fire places:

I originally thought that I had a gas fireplace. Turns out I was wrong. There appears to be a gas starter for a wood burning fireplace. It is this Blue Flame Log Lighter deal that I never heard of until I tried to figure out how to operate my fireplace. Stupid move on my part but when I had my home inspection he just turned on the fireplace and didn't indicate any of this to me and I just assumed it was a gas burning. Does anyone know how difficult/costly it would be to convert a wood burning fireplace w/ a gas line already ran to it with a gas burning fireplace?
 
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