House in Progress Diary

Of joists and pipes

Argh.

I know for a fact a lot of the funds we had saved up for the house are going to things that no one will ever see...because they are behind the walls and under the floors. Many days that is frustrating.

Without this work, though, it would be like slapping cosmetics on a face with no bone structure. We want the house to work well, stand straight, be strong. We don't want to have to go back into the walls for a very, very long time.

So, the joists above the first floor bathroom have been reinforced ("sistered") to help support the bathroom above. (You can see how it used to look here.)

When we could get into the walls and inspect the pipes (plumbing and vents), we found a few lengths of pipe and vent stack that needed to be replaced.

Hidden behind the wall and the toilet on the first floor was this vent stack...which has a pretty large hole in it around the back. (Click on the image to get a closer look.)

So, the sewer gas smell in the house wasn't entirely from the basement drains :) Looks like it's been coming into the first floor as well. We already knew about the problems with the vent stack on the second floor. Oh well. You expect the unexpected before you launch into restoring old houses.

There are differences between how lead pipes for water and vents for sewer gas "weather" time. Water pipes and drains tend to accumulate deposits from hard water sediment and "stuff" that goes down the drain. So, they end up looking like an artery or vein when it develops plaque on the inside. (This is actually one of the better ones....yuck, right?)

Sewer gas corrodes lead vent stacks from the inside OUT...so the walls of the pipe end up thinning. Like this...

Posted by jeanne on February 1, 2004 at 9:35 AM