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In all likely-hood this blog will migrate back to JenBob.net and entries will be discontinued here. You can probably just leave your bookmarks where they are for historical sake.

- b

Bob the Plumber Cont.

Water line to fridge is replaced and working.

What'd that take? Two weeks?

Job itself took 15 minutes. Should have done plastic line to begin with. As long as the mice don't chew through it, should last forever.

- b

Bob the Plumber

First the toilet leaked from underneath. I fixed that with a new wax ring, then it leaked from two places on the tank - tank to bowl bolt and the ballcock valve.

Apparently all the rubber seals dried out when I emptied it of all the water and left it lying on its side for a day. It's amazing all the little parts and seals you can buy individually to repair all this stuff for like a $1 each or entire kits for just $10. I opted for the entire ballcock kit and tank bolt kit. Turned out to be a really good move as the ballcock kit included pieces I was apparently missing.

The install was easy though I had to go through the pain of draining the tank again, which gets water everywhere.

The new stuff screwed right in, sealed itself and I was done.

It's like a new toilet.

Now onto the fridge water line.

- b

Backed Up

Got the flange fixed on the toilet.

They have these nifty metal rings you install over top your old flange and you're on your way. The toilet doesn't even rock.

But it's not fixed.

I guess while it was sitting on it's side, the weight of itself stretched the seals around the bolts between the tank and the bowl.

Now the tank leaks, but only enough for a towel and bucket to keep it from becoming a complete mess. Not sure when I'll get around to completing this one.

Next I took a little time to at least figure out why the water line to the fridge was leaking. My first suspicion was the coupling between the new line I put in a little while ago and the line from the fridge. I had some problem with it the first time. I figured it finally gave up. Turns out that wasn't the case.

The copper line itself gave up. I realize we have hard water (at least going through this line), but I'd expect the line to last a little more then a year or so. So it's off to Home Depot to find something stronger and replace all this.

- b

Toilet Flange

Our toilet rocks.

Literally, it rocks, which means it now leaks.

Well, it did till I took it apart.

A little wobble overtime will cause the wax seal to fail and the toilet to leak. That's why it leaks. The next question is why does it wobble or why does ours wobble?

Could it be that the flange is somehow installed incorrectly? Could it be that somehow the closet flange bolts aren't in their normal slots (which are broken, the slots, not the bolts), but have been drilled through the flange which causes irregularities in the flange surface (the bolt slots are recessed for the bolt heads. The manually drilled holes for the bolts are not recessed), thus causing the toilet to rock?
Though you can't see where the flange rises above the height of the floor at the bolts, you can see where the bolts have been manually drilled and pushed through the flange. How this was done, I have no idea. The flange doesn't just pop off the pipe and pop back on.

The correct fix for this is to cut the pipe, remove the flange, and put a whole new assembly back in its place. The problem is I have two layers of vinyl flooring in this bathroom I'd like to replace with tile, which could change the level of the floor. If I replace the flange now, which has to be flush with the floor, it could be off once the tile floor goes in. Better to wait for the heavy work until the floor is right.

For now, I'll return the "extra thick" wax replacement ring I bought (which has longer screws that I can't replace because of how the above screws were installed), get a regular ring, then use caulk around the base of the toilet to stop the wobble. Of course if it ever leaks again I'll never know as the caulk will keep the water under the toilet and rotting through the floor. One day I'll go to sit down and fall right through to the basement as the weight of me and the toilet crashes through the rotted floor.

Joy.

Is it too late to rent?

- b

One Guy and a PBR

Got the new dresser moved up to Abigail's room.

It's a behemoth, and I couldn't figure out how to get the drawers out of it.

The easiest route was out through the garage, around the back yard, up the deck and in through the sliding glass doors. The dog leg into the room made me a little nervous, but we made it without a scratch.

If ever it needs to come out of that room, I'll be sure to pay someone.

- b

Tree Damage

Spent most of yesterday afternoon cleaning up some tree damage at Jen's mother's house.

I swear White Pines aren't indigenous to this area considering how poorly they do in wind and heavy snow.

Her township has a chipping program. The plan was to make a pile of what could be chipped and make a pile of what couldn't (8" diameter limitation). The chipping pile is supposed to be at the street, but considering the chipping appointment (chipping is free, but you need an appointment) might not be for another month, I kept it back behind the house.

For now the pile that can't be chipped is under the deck. Some point soon, I'll need to go back and haul that off myself.

Should make for nice bonfire wood.

- b

Township Easement

Came home Wednesday night to find the township had plowed around the opening of my driveway.

Well that's nice of them. Typically your driveway just gets plowed in.

A closer inspection revealed things weren't so nice. In plowing around the entrance of our driveway they completely plowed over our street number and a shrub that was planted near the road.

Well that sucks.

I took some pictures and headed over to the township office the next morning.

Turns out the township has an easement that runs sixteen and a half feet from the middle of the road out into everyone's property. This gives them the right to plow back huge piles of snow that might otherwise cause safety issues with "line of sight".

My driveway is such a case. There's a dip and a rise just before you get to it. If a car rolling down the road is in that dip, they can't see me coming out of my driveway when there's four feet of snow piled up around it.

In the end, all I could do was thank the township for making my driveway safer and easier to enter and exit.

The landscaping and street number were put there by the previous owner

I tried salvaging the shrub.

I'll deal with the street number later.

- b

Fios Battery

Did you know the battery in a Fios system would need replacing?

I should have known. It's not like batteries last forever.

Turns out the backup battery is only used to keep the phone working in the event of a power outage. The phone I don't care about. If the stupid thing didn't beep every so often to let me know the battery was dead, I would have just left it.

A little research on the interweb and I found I could get a replacement from Verizon for $100 or one from Radio Shack (that probably won't work) for $35.

I opted for the $35.

It fit. The beeping stopped and all the lights are green again.

We'll see how long it lasts.

- b

Water in the Basement

The tenant came home one night to find water in her basement.

The first thing you do whenever there's water in your basement is look for the source (duh). In this case it appeared to be coming from the furnace or the condensation pump.

I took the furnace inspection panels off and looked all inside. No water there, so we focused more on the pump. We poured more water into the pump to see if it was working and it was.

Hmmm.

The best guess was with the exhaust pipe.

Notice where the pipe exits the foundation? It appears to be only a couple of inches above the ground. There's a standard distance the pipe should be above the ground for clearance of things like snow. Not meeting that standard, they put in a 90°, ran a vertical piece the standard, then added another 90°.

The nights previous to the water in the basement had been really cold (single digit cold). Our theory was the steam passing through the vertical piece during the cold quickly condensed and froze. When the temps warmed up, all that ice melted and ran back down to the pump overwhelming it.

Ok, so how do you fix that?

It turns out the "ground" beneath where the pipe exits isn't really the ground. It's a raised flower bed that robs the pipe of the clearance it should have. In the spring the plan is to dig out that part of the flower bed so the pipe can horizontally run out of the foundation at the proper height. That should cure the condensation problem of the vertical pipe on really cold nights and remove two 90°s, thus increasing flow.

At least that's the theory.

- b