Plumbing

How To Solder Copper Water Pipes

Any goal or project of any size or significance requires a few steps over a period of time to finish. High-magnitude goals and projects almost always need cautious planning along with the time and perseverance to keep it moving to see the project through to the end. Planning out how to solder copper water pipes (or sweating a joint as it’s sometimes called) is nothing different. To solder copper water pipes there isn’t a one step endeavor. But here’s the most chosen way to accomplish that in 5 simple steps. Learning these steps is key in knowing how to repair copper water pipes as well.

Step 1. Be sure to link the pipes together first. This will be useful because it decreases the chance of a headache when you get around to soldering. In the chance that you skip or disregard this, you may have a seepage in your connection which will cause other problems based on the intention of the pipes use.

Using a Snake Without Damaging The Toilet

When a plumber shows up to unclog a toilet, you might notice he brings along a rather odd looking tool called a toilet snake or toilet auger. After a few minutes with this tool, the clog will be gone and he’ll leave with a nice check. Augers only cost around fifty dollars, and using one is relatively simple. An auger should pay for itself the first time you use it.

A toilet auger is a strange-looking piece of equipment. Basically it’s a flexible cable, around three feet long with a wire coil at one end. When the handle is turned, the cable retracts and extends out of a hollow tube. A toilet auger differs from a drain snake in that it has a J-shaped section at the end of the hollow tube.  This should have a protective rubber sleeve so that it does not damage the porcelain toilet bowl.  Drain snakes also have a much longer cable.   A toilet snake only needs to be long enough to pass through the trap way, which is generally 3 feet in most toilets.

Advantages Of PVC Bulkhead Fitting

PVC Fittings

A very essential item for plumbing is the bulkhead fittings. The three parts of bulkhead fittings are the rubber seal, the nut, and the main body. Although it is at the main body where the piped is connected, the rubber seal functions to prevent leakage. The nut is what keeps the whole mechanism together.

Bulkhead fittings are available in different types of materials. Of all these types, PVC fittings are considered to be the best and have the greatest number of advantages. PVC is Polyvinyl Chloride. Basically, it is an eco-friendly plastic that has 57% chlorine.

PVC plumbing fittings offer the following advantages. They are less expensive compared to fittings made of copper, iron, etc. Although, when used in a copper repipe job, in order to be consistent, the fittings of the copper variety will do fine and do not add much to the overall expense of the project. The PVC bulkhead fittings are also easy to install and unlike iron fittings they are rust proof and they do not corrode. They are also environmentally friendly compared to ordinary ones and they are quite light as well.

Residential Plumbing Tips from Atlanta Plumbers

There are myriad of choices when it comes to residential plumbing. Here are few plumbing tips and ideas to make plumbing work easier. Pipes such as Galvanized pipe, PVC, copper, PEX, and CPVC are normally used for water supply. CPVC is the easiest option to install and copper is most popular option. Galvanized pipes are not mostly used as it rusts quickly and becomes useless. Galvanized also needs to be replaced over a period of years. Below are more plumbing tips that may help turn your DIY project into a short project!

For drainage purpose, Schedule 40 is most used in modern homes. Cast iron pipes are used for drainage is old buildings and this is the best option. CPVC pipes are normally glued to join together and there are glues specially made for CPVC and also before gluing, the pipes should be cleaned properly with cleaners. The cleaners and glues used for this piping are very strong and therefore this should be used in a well-ventilated area.

Tips For Repairing Copper Water Pipes

If you own a home with copper water pipes, sooner or later you’re probably going to have a leak that needs fixed. You could call a plumber and whip out your checkbook or credit card and hope you don’t have to dig into your childrens college funds to pay the guy (or gal), or you could do it yourself, which is probably the reason you’re here to begin with!

Repairing copper water lines isn’t that difficult. You’ll need a few specific tools like sandpaper or a pipe cleaning tool, solder, flux, a gas torch, an old rag with a little automatic transmission fluid on it. That’s about all you need to repair copper pipes.

If you’ve never “sweated” a copper pipe, then here is a list of YouTube video’s on “how to solder Copper pipes“. As you’ll see, it’s really very easy. Just make sure you practice as much as you need to in order to feel comfortable soldering your copper water pipes.