Plumbing Progress

I told you that I was working with a three-dimensional puzzle involving PVC, copper, and wooden pieces.  I finally started putting some bits together today instead of just trying to solve it in my head.

I have been to the hardware store pretty much every day for two weeks as I tried to decide the pieces I would need.  Today, when I was actually assembling plumbing, I needed THREE MORE trips.  It would have been four, but I decided to do something different when I ran out of PVC cement.

Part of the challenge is that there is more than one way to assemble the plumbing so that it will work and is up to code, but some of those ways are much harder to assemble than others.  The other part of the challenge is that in the interest of not wasting space I gave myself very little working room.  I actually had to delay putting in some parts of the walls until I had the waste stack in place.  I also had to change tactics several times.

This is the new waste stack, as seen looking from the girls' lavatories toward the boys' shower.  The extra verticals are because the new stack was just a little far from the boys' sink and the far girls' sink to vent them properly:

Here is the now-completed wall between the two bathrooms.  Do you like my fancy vent loop?  And yes, those horizontal pipes go through three studs.  Some careful assembly required.

I didn't want to move the roof vent, so I had to make a nice jog over to the old vent.  The line coming in from the right is from our bathroom.

Detail from the boys' shower side.  The bottom fitting you see was the critical one to place.  I had to figure its placement and get it to levitate there so I could build the rest from that point.  I didn't have any leeway with it because of the drains coming in from the sinks.

With the upstairs DWV in place (still have the basement to go) I could finish the wall behind the girls' vanity:

All told I made 45 PVC connections today.  That was 45 places I had to get everything just right so it would go together and have the right slopes.

A few last pictures.  Just past 1 am here.

Copper pieces ready for assembly tomorrow.  I quit cutting them because it was 11:30 pm and I had worn a blister.  Tomorrow I'll wear gloves while cutting copper pipe.  I'm happy because I figured out where I will run all the pipe.  The assembly goes much faster when you have a plan.

Almost ready for the tub.  The stringer is up and the drain hole is cut.  I expect to place the tub tomorrow, after putting together the water lines.