John Schutt

Sometime over the last year or so, my kitchen drain started to leak. Well, it actually was the pipe inside the wall that started to leak. It was made of copper. Now I remember going to my Grandparent Schutt’s house as a young kid. They had copper drain plumbing in their house. I remember thinking that they were so rich. Everytime that I visited their house, I’d be amazed at that copper drain pipe. (Yea… I didn’t live much of a life…) So now I live in a house with copper pipe, and i want to tear it out. Copper is a metal. (Yea. I know. I get that smart by being a college professor.) Metals, it turns out, are eaten by acids. (That’s why the city water works keeps the pH of our water about 7 — so that the water doesn’t eat metal pipes. My last house had lead pipes, but that’s another story.) So, the copper pipes in the kitchen drain were shot. It’s time to replace them.

I need to add an electric outlet to the left of my kitchen window. The drain vent has to go… So, cut out all the old copper pipes, cut new pvc pipe, prime the new joints, and glue them together.

Old: New:

Old: New: 

Thanks, Aaron (age 11) for the help!   =]

O.K. So Monday and most of Tuesday weren’t the best days for working on the kitchen. Family takes priority. I did get a little bit of work done.

So far on the vents, I have made one vent smaller, I have torn out two return vents, and I have torn out one supply vent to move it to a different location. Let’s get this puppy done.

Open up the floor so that I have access to the main supply trunk. Head to the basement to try to fit a round peg (5 foot of ductwork) into a square hole (the space between the floor joists.) Fuss and fume because it won’t fit. Do some serious bending to the pipe to persuade it to fit. Hope that it snaps together when the time comes. Go back upstaris to turn the air conditioning off. Bore holes in the main supply so that I can use my Sawzall. (As with any of the pictures on my blog, click on the thumbnail to see the larger picture.)

Cut out the hole. Insert the starter piece. Bend all those tabs “under” to fasten it to the main supply trunk. Hmmm… If only there was a product to seal ducts… some type of tape… hmmm… someone ought to make something like this… they could call it “duct tape.” Oh, yea! They do make such a beast. Call my son, the duct tape professional (he actally has a t-shirt that says this) to seal the opening. Add the damper vent. (It’s recycled, so it’s dirty.)

Head to the basement to snap the vent together into a pipe. Fuss and fume again because this doesn’t go so well. Finally get the job done. Connect the 90 angle to the end of run, beneath where the new cabinet will be placed.

Ta-dah! One more task done.

Here is what the kitchen looks like now:

Images (L -> R):

• S wall
• W wall
• N wall

It sometimes seems that half of my remodeling time is spent shopping. This was that week. Here’s a summary:

7/3 Order a replacement window from Brueggemann Lumber Do-it-Best. Our old window was a three section casement window. The new window will be a bit smaller at 48″ x 42″. We ordered an Anderson casement double window with prairie grille. Aden had just put in a window order yesterday. Our order will not be put in for a while. It will arrive at the end of July.

7/4 Buy new “granite” sink , unfinished flooring , and wiring material from The Home Depot. Man! Copper sure has increased in price since the last time that I bought wire.

7/5 Look at lighting at All-Phase Electric. Buy another electric box from The Home Depot.

7/7 Buy plumbing parts from Menard.

Oh yea, I put hoses, calipers, rotors, and brake pads on my friend’s other car.