Doing some serious sweating and not because of the heatwave.

The laundry room project is moving along like molasses in January. It has consumed my life. Not the laundry room specifically but the house renovation in general. I always thought I was handy but this has taken things to a whole different level. I was a "re-placer" I could replace anything that was pre-existing,  Like faucets, receptacles, switches and fixtures. But now I and the "originator" and it requires a pretty big learning curve. So here is my lesson in plumbing.

PLUMBING 101

The first thing I needed to do is get water from the basement up to the first floor. Lucky for me there is the internet. Thanks to YouTube I think I can do anything! So here is my first stab at sweating copper pipes.

1) You go out and but a handy dandy kit like this. It had a propane torch, solder, flux and ................

DIRECTIONS! See? 5 EASY STEPS TO SOLDER A COPPER FITTING! WOW!!!!

(Directions are merely somebody else's opinion on how to do the job)

2) You buy a shut off box like this and you mount it in your frame work. Still easy!

NOTE: GO SHUT THE MAIN OFF NOW BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER!

3) Then you start putting it all together!!!

 4) A view from the basement. Here are the first 4 elbows I soldered. The joist you see is the one I caught momentarily on fire. On the left is the 10" sill joist that I was too lazy to drill through.

A nice long stretch....................................................................................................................

Going around another corner and down the wall.

Connecting in the main lines! I was feeling pretty good at this point!

Here is the drain and the water lines. Nice, huh?

Looky at my wire coat hanger used as a support. Classy.

Everything went pretty well except when I cut the lines they still had water in them. YOU CANNOT SOLDER COPPER WITH WATER IN THEM. So I used an old plumber trick- I got out as much water as I could and then I rolled up some white bread and shoved it down the lines. I am here to tell you that it really works! 

Then you go over to the main shut off.................close your eyes.........................hold your breath...............and turn on the water and pray like hell.

No leaks! Success!