I am Jack’s aching muscles…
My parents came down this weekend. My dad and I had the project of replacing all of the old galvanized steel plumbing in our house with new PEX (high density polyethylene) tubing. It’s a relatively new product for plumbing, and it’s way cheaper than copper. ($0.25 per foot compared to $2.50 per foot for copper).
We started at about 9:30 on Saturday morning. Things started kind of slow, but after we got moving it went pretty well. The PEX is really easy to install because of its flexibility. You never need to be dead nuts on any lengths, plus or minus a few inches will get you where you need to be.
The biggest pain in the ass for the whole project was ripping out the old pipe. We had to cut and disassemble as we went. After the first day we had the manifolds (see below picture) and 50% of the fixtures hooked up. We put all the old pipe on the curb to be picked up by the trash.
The next day we worked for a few hours, and my mom said that all the old pipe was gone from the curb. I couldn’t believe it. Someone had taken all of it. It was really shitty and old. One man’s trash, I guess… We had everything wrapped up by about 2:00 on Sunday. The pressure is so much better now in the house. Plus with the manifold system, there isn’t as much affect when multiple fixtures are on.
So the grand total for installation was about 12 hours of work (24 man hours) and about $500 in material (manifolds, tools, fittings, and hangers). If I would have had a plumber do it, it probably would have been in the $2500-$3000 range.
At 4:00 I had a hockey game. I was already tired as hell from all the plumbing work. We didn’t even have a full line on the bench to sub so it was a long ass game. We lost per usual, and I was dead tired. Good thing I have a cushy desk job.
Have you bought your Instant Grocery List yet? Your mom or wife would love it.
The cold water manifold
Hot and cold connections to the kitchen
We started at about 9:30 on Saturday morning. Things started kind of slow, but after we got moving it went pretty well. The PEX is really easy to install because of its flexibility. You never need to be dead nuts on any lengths, plus or minus a few inches will get you where you need to be.
The biggest pain in the ass for the whole project was ripping out the old pipe. We had to cut and disassemble as we went. After the first day we had the manifolds (see below picture) and 50% of the fixtures hooked up. We put all the old pipe on the curb to be picked up by the trash.
The next day we worked for a few hours, and my mom said that all the old pipe was gone from the curb. I couldn’t believe it. Someone had taken all of it. It was really shitty and old. One man’s trash, I guess… We had everything wrapped up by about 2:00 on Sunday. The pressure is so much better now in the house. Plus with the manifold system, there isn’t as much affect when multiple fixtures are on.
So the grand total for installation was about 12 hours of work (24 man hours) and about $500 in material (manifolds, tools, fittings, and hangers). If I would have had a plumber do it, it probably would have been in the $2500-$3000 range.
At 4:00 I had a hockey game. I was already tired as hell from all the plumbing work. We didn’t even have a full line on the bench to sub so it was a long ass game. We lost per usual, and I was dead tired. Good thing I have a cushy desk job.
Have you bought your Instant Grocery List yet? Your mom or wife would love it.
The cold water manifold
Hot and cold connections to the kitchen
Labels: Family, Hockey, Home Improvements, Instant Grocery List
posted by lawryde at
11:52 AM
1 Comments:
How sexist of you to say "Your mom or wife will love it." Especially considering you do the shopping and the cooking in our house.
By
Anonymous, at 5:11 PM, August 14, 2006
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